First MES Smoke

air force dad · Jun 20, 2014

I have some Scarbelly style wings marinating in the fridge that I plan to smoke tomorrow. I have a GEN1 MES 30" with window. My plan is to preheat unit to 275, place AMNPS with pellets in smoker to help draw any moisture out. I nuked some this afternoon and poured them inside a ziplock bag. The humidity is tough hear! After smoker has preheated, I will put the wings on, take the AMNPS out an get her burning good until I have a Cherry glow, put her back in and set time for 2 hours. Water pan removed, exhaust open full, chip tray open about 1 1/2 inches, loader tube pulled out about 2", AMNPS tented and set on bottom cooking rack instead of next to chip tray. I am smoking about 14 whole wings and hope I can fit 7 wings on two middle racks above AMNPS. I need all the help I can get. If any of you have suggestions, my eyes and ears are open. This is my first time to actually smoke food in the new smoker. I ran a couple of mock smokes to try and figure out what worked best to get a good draft and keep pellets burning to complete ash. Thank you Todd for your input and tips. Fantastic products! Wish me luck guys.

daveomak · Jun 20, 2014

Sounds like you have studied up and are familiar with all the nitty-gritty details.... You are good to go as far as I can tell.......

Dave

chestnutbloom · Jun 20, 2014

Howdy! If you do set your amnps on the bottom rack keep it as far left as you can so the heating element doesn't burn up the whole rows of pellets. I would also put a disposable aluminum pan with water directly above the amnps to protect it and hydrate the wings. For me this is way better than tenting. The upper levels will hold your wings and smoke to perfection IMHO. I also remove the chip pan completely and open the loader an inch.

Masterbuilts are notorious for having unreliable temp readings so if you can please use an alternate method (such as a wireless temp probe) so you can see the temp of the smoker and the food.

air force dad · Jun 22, 2014

Thanks guys. It was actually closer to almost 3 hours in the smoker. It took a long time for it to reach the set temp. It hovered at 240 or so for the longest. I contributed it to the stiff breeze. I pulled up a couple of big garbage cans to block the wind and it almost immediately began to show a temp rise. My friends liked them and I was pleasantly surprised with the end results. A couple of the smaller wings were a little dry but the bulk were juicy and full of flavor. Thank you guys for this forum and all the suggestions. Ya'll are great! I will be venturing further into this new found love of smoking!

bgosnell151 · Jun 22, 2014

In my gen 1, I don't have to pull the chip tray at all. Not sure if you do as each responds differently. I think that keeping it in, allows less heat/smoke to escape.
I have a big ole chicken in right now. 8.9 lbs.

air force dad · Jun 24, 2014

DaveOmak said:
Sounds like you have studied up and are familiar with all the nitty-gritty details.... You are good to go as far as I can tell.......

Dave

Well most of them at least Dave. I did discover that even with the AMNPS tented the grease found its way to the pellets and snuffed them out. I need to work on this obviously my dimensions on wire support and foil were a little off. It dripped onto top of foil and ran to underside of foil and dripped down onto pellets. I also will cover the bottom of the MES, the chip tray and surrounding cover with foil on my next smoke. Back to the R&D department. Thanks for the replies gentlemen!

air force dad · Jun 24, 2014

bgosnell151 said:
In my gen 1, I don't have to pull the chip tray at all. Not sure if you do as each responds differently. I think that keeping it in, allows less heat/smoke to escape.
I have a big ole chicken in right now. 8.9 lbs.

I was having issues with getting it to draw well. This was a recommendation from Todd and it solved the draw problem. It was pretty windy that day 15+ mph winds. I will figure it out in time. Thanks for the input.

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First MES Smoke

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