After thinking lots and going back and forth over all the options, my wife and I decided to get the Masterbuilt side smoker box for my MES 30" digital. If I had to pick reason in a nutshell, it just seemed like the closest thing to the no-brainer option. It's a product Masterbuilt made for the Masterbuilt smoker, they should work together.
We picked up one at Amazon before Christmas but just ran chips for an hour or two to season it. Today was my day to try it out. My plan was to try a couple of pounds of cheese and then hot smoke some salmon. I picked up everything Thursday at the grocery store. I made a basic brine for the salmon like I used to use for smoking the local saltwater fish (no salmon around here): 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup sugar in a quart of water, with some soy sauce, garlic and onion powders. Left the salmon to brine overnight 10 hours or so, then rinsed it this morning and let it dry in the kitchen to form a pellicle.
Right before the cheese went into the MES.
My one-year old MES digital 30 on my cart with the side smoker getting started. Since I'm in Florida. even though it was cooler today than the last few weeks, 68 for the high instead of 80+, I figured I'd need ice in there, so I emptied out the ice maker into a big pot.
Once I got the chamber temp to stay around 65, I started the side box and put the cheese in the MES.
Just two pounds of cheese: two half pound blocks of Cabot extra sharp cheddar and one pound of muenster. Two hours later, the smoker was around 70 degrees, and I pulled the cheese out and put it in the kitchen, then put the salmon in the smoker. I set it to 100 for the first hour, then set it to 150 until the IT reached 145. All smoke courtesy of the side box, nothing in the MES 30 itself.
This is just out of the smoker and still warm. It turned out very good, and my wife and I already knocked down two of those chunks, but it was only one pound of salmon.
I had one surprise with the side box that I was wondering if other folks have seen. I had just dumped in a generous handful or two of chips when I started the cheese, so I wasn't that surprised when the smoke was vanishing by the two hour mark. I opened the box to add more chips and the bottom of the little tower went from glowing chips to open flames when I pulled the little square cap off. I added chips carefully, but when the salmon was done and everything had been off long enough to take apart, I found that there was a clog of chips in the middle of the chip chute (column?). I probably could have hit it with a poker (long screwdriver or something), and got the smoke going again if I had thought to look for a clog, but it would not have given me the desired six hours of smoke without doing that. The longer smoke generation time is one of the main reasons I went for this one.
FWIW, I used the apple wood chips that Bass Pro sells.
Anyway, I read here far more than I post, and I've gathered information from lots of folks, so thanks to everyone for helping me learn all the time.
Bob
We picked up one at Amazon before Christmas but just ran chips for an hour or two to season it. Today was my day to try it out. My plan was to try a couple of pounds of cheese and then hot smoke some salmon. I picked up everything Thursday at the grocery store. I made a basic brine for the salmon like I used to use for smoking the local saltwater fish (no salmon around here): 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup sugar in a quart of water, with some soy sauce, garlic and onion powders. Left the salmon to brine overnight 10 hours or so, then rinsed it this morning and let it dry in the kitchen to form a pellicle.
Right before the cheese went into the MES.
My one-year old MES digital 30 on my cart with the side smoker getting started. Since I'm in Florida. even though it was cooler today than the last few weeks, 68 for the high instead of 80+, I figured I'd need ice in there, so I emptied out the ice maker into a big pot.
Once I got the chamber temp to stay around 65, I started the side box and put the cheese in the MES.
Just two pounds of cheese: two half pound blocks of Cabot extra sharp cheddar and one pound of muenster. Two hours later, the smoker was around 70 degrees, and I pulled the cheese out and put it in the kitchen, then put the salmon in the smoker. I set it to 100 for the first hour, then set it to 150 until the IT reached 145. All smoke courtesy of the side box, nothing in the MES 30 itself.
This is just out of the smoker and still warm. It turned out very good, and my wife and I already knocked down two of those chunks, but it was only one pound of salmon.
I had one surprise with the side box that I was wondering if other folks have seen. I had just dumped in a generous handful or two of chips when I started the cheese, so I wasn't that surprised when the smoke was vanishing by the two hour mark. I opened the box to add more chips and the bottom of the little tower went from glowing chips to open flames when I pulled the little square cap off. I added chips carefully, but when the salmon was done and everything had been off long enough to take apart, I found that there was a clog of chips in the middle of the chip chute (column?). I probably could have hit it with a poker (long screwdriver or something), and got the smoke going again if I had thought to look for a clog, but it would not have given me the desired six hours of smoke without doing that. The longer smoke generation time is one of the main reasons I went for this one.
FWIW, I used the apple wood chips that Bass Pro sells.
Anyway, I read here far more than I post, and I've gathered information from lots of folks, so thanks to everyone for helping me learn all the time.
Bob
