Back in the game!

[tzukowski]

Hello smokers,

I am in Massachusetts, USA.

I just received a commercial-grade electric smoker used.

It is a Cookshack SM075 (made in 2005) with electronic keypad programmable control.

This is not the all stainless unit. It is painted black on all sides and has a stainless top.

While I am not completely new to smoking, it has probably been almost 20 years.

I used to have a Brinkmann charcoal "bullet" smoker.

When I had the luxury of free weekends, I had smoked turkey breast, chicken and baby back ribs.

Fast forward to now...

I got this Cookshack SM075 and I am really excited to put it into action in the next week!

Electric may not be for the purists, but for someone with little free time... this is the safest (and probably the only way) for me to get back into smoking again.

Being able to "set it and forget it" and have the temperatures hold steady automatically will make smoking so much easier.

This unit is pre-programmed with a chicken/ribs button and a "brisket" button. The SM075 also has smoke time, smoke temp, cook time, cook temp (up to 300 deg. F), hold time and hold temp (as low as 140 deg. F).

It was saved from the dumpster after a recent restaurant closing. I have not tried it yet, but I know it was working recently.

I can't wait! Looks like I can do a lot with this.

Glad to have found this forum.

I am sure I will be able to get all kinds of inside tips and ideas!

20170521_181008.jpg

• tzukowski
• May 23, 2017

 

[noboundaries]

Tzukowski, welcome to SMF!  And for the smokin' garbage find!  Enjoy putting it to good use.

Have fun!

Ray

 

[submariner]

Welcome and a very interesting smoker.  Never seen one like that!!! 

 

[lamar]

Welcome back to smoking. Coming out of a restaurant, is it possibly 3 phase power? The label should tell.
Good luck with it.
Lamar

 

[shyzabrau]

Welcome!

Plenty of us here with electric smokers. We'll not judge you!

 

[HalfSmoked]

to SMF and good luck with your find. Looking forward to seeing some photos of your smokes.

Warren

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Heyyyyyyyy

You know me i think

 

[tzukowski]

Thank you!

 

[tzukowski]

Thanks! Everything I see on these indicate expected lifespan of up to 30 years. It is stainless inside and pretty heavy. Can't wait to put it into service!

 

[tzukowski]

Thanks for the welcome!

I believe the heating element is the same as the newer SM160 at 1500W.

This unit is wired with a standard 120V plug.

 

[tzukowski]

Thanks for the welcome! Looking forward to all the help on this forum.

 

[tzukowski]

Thanks!

I don't think I will do anything too ambitious to start, but I'll post a pic of the results.

 

[tzukowski]

As I had suspected, the Cookshack075 I got from the scrap dumpster was in perfect working order!

I knew it was a special find.

I plugged it into the wall and the screen came to life with a test message and was prompting to have cook temp and cook time entered.

Then I began some minor clean-up to get some restaurant grease off the outside near around the base.

The casters had so much hard grease packed on, I scraped and tried to use a hot hair drier to melt it off.

Progress was very slow and I was not convinced I could get it all off.

I pictured the first hot summer day and puddles of grease on my deck!

Off came the casters so I can put them into a hot parts washer. That should clean them up real good.

I did have to scrape some crust off the heat deflector and the bottom inside.

It looked like it was used some without lining those parts with foil like the manufacturer suggests for easy clean-up.

Other than a quick scrape to get some crusty spots off the sidewalls, I did touch the seasoned surfaces inside.

I wheeled the unit around back onto the deck.

I put a brick under each corner to make sure I could get a drain pan underneath.

Brushed the racks to get a little rust off and wiped with vegetable oil.

Plugged it in and let it burn-off the oily racks and warm up approximately 20 minutes.

Ready for the first venture into smoking in over 20 years!

Prepped a pork tenderloin with some Pork Barrel BBQ "All American Rub" from Costco and some garlic powder.

Cook time set to 3 hours.

Cook temp set to 225 F.

In it went on the top rack.

I was nervous seeing the smoker oven temp reaching 250, sometimes 260 degrees, and ended up opening the oven a few more times than I should.

With only one small piece of meat on the top rack, I believe the temperature fluctuation is normal and would even out if more meat was loaded in there.

That; and a dial meat thermometer I am not sure I trust to be accurate, delayed total cook time to about 3.5 hours.

The quick read thermometer said it was only 140 inside temperature on the meat, then said it was only 120 when I just got it in the house.

I gave the meat the old BBQ squish test and it sure seemed done enough!

Here are the results...

20170528_011022.jpg

• tzukowski
• May 28, 2017

Now that I am more comfortable knowing the unit is functioning as it should, I will trust it a little more and leave the door shut.

I am looking forward putting this rescued smoker to VERY good use this summer!!!!

Thanks for the great welcome to forum, the interest and the encouragement to get back into the smoking game again!