Well, I finally got a chance to do my first smoke, and rather than have a dry run, I figured why not put some stuff in the smoker at the same time. I had a small piece of salmon my dad had brine cured and I bought a bunch of cheese.
I loaded up the A-Maze-N with what I thought might be about 5 - 6 hours worth of apple dust, about three rows). As you can see, the rows were not over-filled, maybe a little under, and I only moderately tamped down the dust.
I lit it with a propane torch I had lying around from the last time I sweated pipe, which was quite a while ago. Ambient temp was about 68*. I monitored the temp in the box and saw it gradually climb into the upper 70s. After 3 hours, the smolder had only progressed about 2/3 of the way up the first row. It was definitely still smoking, but very slowly. At about the 4 1/2 hour mark, I saw it was getting into the upper 80s, so I put some ice cubes in the drip pan that was over the smoker and the temp dropped about 10*.
This is how much had burned after 5 hours. The A-Amze-N is sitting on a burner element that was not connected to power. It should have had plenty of air flow.
At 5 hours I pulled the cheese and fish and vacuum sealed them. The cheese is in the fridge fr a couple of weeks. The fish is in the freezer. The problem is, I don't know how successful the whole thing was, and won't until the cheese has aged. I expected more color, but I also expected more of the dust to be consumed. The smoker box was always filled with smoke, but based on consumption, I'm concerned that the results won't be as smokey as I had hoped. I appreciate any wisdom from the forum on this.
I loaded up the A-Maze-N with what I thought might be about 5 - 6 hours worth of apple dust, about three rows). As you can see, the rows were not over-filled, maybe a little under, and I only moderately tamped down the dust.
I lit it with a propane torch I had lying around from the last time I sweated pipe, which was quite a while ago. Ambient temp was about 68*. I monitored the temp in the box and saw it gradually climb into the upper 70s. After 3 hours, the smolder had only progressed about 2/3 of the way up the first row. It was definitely still smoking, but very slowly. At about the 4 1/2 hour mark, I saw it was getting into the upper 80s, so I put some ice cubes in the drip pan that was over the smoker and the temp dropped about 10*.
This is how much had burned after 5 hours. The A-Amze-N is sitting on a burner element that was not connected to power. It should have had plenty of air flow.
At 5 hours I pulled the cheese and fish and vacuum sealed them. The cheese is in the fridge fr a couple of weeks. The fish is in the freezer. The problem is, I don't know how successful the whole thing was, and won't until the cheese has aged. I expected more color, but I also expected more of the dust to be consumed. The smoker box was always filled with smoke, but based on consumption, I'm concerned that the results won't be as smokey as I had hoped. I appreciate any wisdom from the forum on this.