- May 15, 2017
- 14
- 10
My first post here was a thread about how awful I was at smoking. I had a Camp Chef 24", and nothing I made was turning out well.
So a quick update: I hated the Camp Chef. The temperature control was insanely finicky, with temps swinging 10 degrees after a micrometer turn of the knob. The temps would also fluctuate wildly. I get that this'll happen, but we're talking about 40 degrees here. Or, if I turned the knob .0005 degrees to turn the temp down, later I'd see the temps spiral downward with no signs of stopping, then I'd turn the knob .0010 degrees the other way to compensate, and the opposite would happen.
I was sick of babying this thing.
So my beautiful wife let me sell the Camp Chef and I picked up the MES 40 2.5 (with remote). Life is better now.
I was starting to get better at smoking despite my Camp Chef problems, but now I don't have to baby the temperature knob anymore, and I'm thrilled! Sure, the temps still fluctuate, but now it's only ±10 degrees and I don't have to do a thing for it to keep the temp under control. Fantastic!
The one thing I'm still not pleased with is how long everything seems to be taking. For example, I was under the impression that a pork butt for pulled pork took 1.5-1.6 hours per pound. I also understood that it's foolish to try to estimate the actual cooking time. And yet, I still feel like I'm doing something wrong when it takes a 5.5lb butt 14 hours to get to 203. Doesn't that seem like too long? Or am I crazy? And this is at 250.
The end results though...yes! I'm getting the hang of it! Today was pulled pork and no-boil mac n cheese. The bark from the pulled pork was delicious - smokey and sugary. I sprayed with apple juice every few hours, so maybe that stretched out my smoke time...
I combined an MnC recipe I found here with some others and then eventually tweaked it to my liking.
Anyway, thanks to everyone here for all the assistance. I couldn't have gotten better without the amazing folks here. I'm sure I'll be leaning on you in the future.
So a quick update: I hated the Camp Chef. The temperature control was insanely finicky, with temps swinging 10 degrees after a micrometer turn of the knob. The temps would also fluctuate wildly. I get that this'll happen, but we're talking about 40 degrees here. Or, if I turned the knob .0005 degrees to turn the temp down, later I'd see the temps spiral downward with no signs of stopping, then I'd turn the knob .0010 degrees the other way to compensate, and the opposite would happen.
I was sick of babying this thing.
So my beautiful wife let me sell the Camp Chef and I picked up the MES 40 2.5 (with remote). Life is better now.
I was starting to get better at smoking despite my Camp Chef problems, but now I don't have to baby the temperature knob anymore, and I'm thrilled! Sure, the temps still fluctuate, but now it's only ±10 degrees and I don't have to do a thing for it to keep the temp under control. Fantastic!
The one thing I'm still not pleased with is how long everything seems to be taking. For example, I was under the impression that a pork butt for pulled pork took 1.5-1.6 hours per pound. I also understood that it's foolish to try to estimate the actual cooking time. And yet, I still feel like I'm doing something wrong when it takes a 5.5lb butt 14 hours to get to 203. Doesn't that seem like too long? Or am I crazy? And this is at 250.
The end results though...yes! I'm getting the hang of it! Today was pulled pork and no-boil mac n cheese. The bark from the pulled pork was delicious - smokey and sugary. I sprayed with apple juice every few hours, so maybe that stretched out my smoke time...
I combined an MnC recipe I found here with some others and then eventually tweaked it to my liking.
Anyway, thanks to everyone here for all the assistance. I couldn't have gotten better without the amazing folks here. I'm sure I'll be leaning on you in the future.
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