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My vote is going to be the MES, that unit coupled with the AMNPS makes great Q possible for anyone! In fact these 2 things paired up makes cold smoking and just about anything you want to do possible. Yes, I had to fix my wiring once but it was no big deal following a guide that I found posted...
This made me remember the first cheese smoke I tried, man that was a disaster. I smoked/melted it so bad it was all down through the grates. Then I had not read about mellowing it out so I pulled at some of the blobs and trie it out and it was the most bitter nastiest stuff I ever tasted. Now...
Well now that you conquered bacon what would you change or alter for the next time?
Your end product looks amazing and your attention to details through out the project were great, nice job.
Using the amazen product over the basic setup allows you the freedom of not adding chips every hour or so, since it will provide long term smoke with one load. The other thing that it is good for is doing cold smokes, if you want to smoke cheese for instance you can get smoke without adding much...
With the electrics like the MES that don't produce high temps you have to put the chicken on a really hot grill or under a broiler for a few minutes to crisp up the skin.
Pellets work good in the amazen pellet smoker I have, I would very much prefer that over pucks. Ideally I would use chips but I understand the necessity of uniformity that the other provides. Large enough do to full size turkey, briskets, and ribs with no cutting. Minimum 3 shelves, 4 preferred.
Elevation above sea level. 500ft
Water in the pan or not. No, and according to Todd you are not supposed to use water in the pan or it will cause it to have issues staying lit.
Type of pellets used. I have used oak and hickory.
How far open was the vent? 2/3
How far open was the pellet tray...