Thanks Bear!You don't have to do that. My reason for doing that has evolved:
Before I had the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER, I did that to get more smoke out of my MES. If you run it up to 150Ëš or 160Ëš all at once, you get good smoke on the way up, but after it levels out there the element doesn't stay on long enough to make it smoke, because the MES is so well insulated.
Since I got the AMNS, I actually take it up systematically to keep it from spiking. When I bump it to 120Ëš and leave it there for awhile, each time it goes from 118Ëš to 120Ëš, it coasts to about 125Ëš or 126Ëš---that's when I change it to 130Ëš. That keeps it from coasting much farther after it shuts off. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone other than serious MES owners. It's just something that works good for me. You can take it up any way you want, but make it take long enough to get them well smoked.
Bear
BTW: A couple other guys have tried these, and loved them. "JustPassingThru" is on his 2nd or third batch. He shoots them with his Jerky gun (no casings). I want to try my LEM stuffer as soon as I get it (No casings). We can get them smoked much better without skins!
I'll definitely give it a try.
One more question though, If I was to keep my smoker at around 175-180 (or possibly less) throughout the whole smoke would that work? Or is it important to do the incremental thing even if I dont have an MES.