Hi y'all, I am new to this forum and generally to smoking. I still have to stop in the new member area and add my information. But until then my mother in-law has offered to buy me a smoker for Christmas. I knew I wanted electric so i could set and forget since I am new to smoking. After a lot of research it is pretty much down to either the Bradley's, the Masterbuilts or build my own. After some reading on hear I know I have the skills to build one, but not the knowledge yet. The Bradley's are nice but I have a lot of access to a lot of nice woods for smoking for free and I just don't want to get into the bisquits. So that brings it down to the MES. But I don't know which size to get.
I do a lot of hunting and fishing and want to start processing more of my own meats. Right now it is just simple butchering, but I want to do my own jerky and sausages and other stick type meats. WIth pheasants and other small animals I plan to do some smoking of smaller sizes of meat. But I am a sucker for great barbeque, so in the future briskets and ribs and pork shoulders will be added to the menu. My main work though I think will be jerky and sausages and such.
My questions are, will the MES 30 be big enough to do what I want or should I go with the 40". If I would go with the 40" would I have problems getting up to temperature for smaller portions due to the larger area to heat? Also, I would like to try my hand at cheese and I also have smoked fish in a small charcoal smoker before, will the MES be good for these or would I have to add a cold smoke generator?
I do a lot of hunting and fishing and want to start processing more of my own meats. Right now it is just simple butchering, but I want to do my own jerky and sausages and other stick type meats. WIth pheasants and other small animals I plan to do some smoking of smaller sizes of meat. But I am a sucker for great barbeque, so in the future briskets and ribs and pork shoulders will be added to the menu. My main work though I think will be jerky and sausages and such.
My questions are, will the MES 30 be big enough to do what I want or should I go with the 40". If I would go with the 40" would I have problems getting up to temperature for smaller portions due to the larger area to heat? Also, I would like to try my hand at cheese and I also have smoked fish in a small charcoal smoker before, will the MES be good for these or would I have to add a cold smoke generator?
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