Cabalas Pro-100

[bobjsa]

Anyone have one of these Cabalas Pro-100. I had to get one of these to replace my other smoekrs for health department reasons. I am trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. I cold smoked some duck breasts and then we pan fried them quickly later and they were awesome. I did a couple brisket the other day and I got no smoke ring at all and the consensus from a group of chef friends was no smoke flavor. I used some wood chunks and a couple of briquettes and could see lots of smoke from the stack and when I opened the door to refill lots of smoke in the chamber. The temp guage read 225 to 250 for the entire 6 hours. All my other smokers have never had this problem.

 

[crankybuzzard]

Were the other smokers electric as this one is?  It's hard to get a smoke ring on electric cabinet type smokers, and the smoke flavor on some can be iffy as well.

 

[bobjsa]

No, this is my first electric smoker. It was kind of forced on me by money, health department, fire suppression and amount of space.  The other smokers are a couple of wood and charcoal smokers and a FEC100.  

That is not good news, but thanks....

 

[crankybuzzard]

 
No, this is my first electric smoker. It was kind of forced on me by money, health department, fire suppression and amount of space.  The other smokers are a couple of wood and charcoal smokers and a FEC100.  

That is not good news, but thanks....

If you have to have a smoke ring for "sales" purposes, this will be a challenge.  Getting good smoke flavor will not be an issue though.  The AMAZEN trays and tubes work with pellets and produce good smoke flavor and penetration.

Electric smokers just don't generate enough CO and CO2 to make the chemical reaction on the meat surface turn into a smoke ring.

I'm sure someone on here has the same smoker as you and will chime in soon.  Have you done a search for your smoker on this forum?

I typed in Pro-100 and got this...  Check some of these out.  http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/newsearch?search=Pro-100

 

[bobjsa]

 
If you have to have a smoke ring for "sales" purposes, this will be a challenge.  Getting good smoke flavor will not be an issue though.  The AMAZEN trays and tubes work with pellets and produce good smoke flavor and penetration.

Unfortunately one of the "carterers" that I have been selling briskets to quite a bit lives for the smoke ring so when they don't see that they think something is wrong.  If I could get the "smoke" flavor into the brisket then I think I can get around the ring.

I will look into the AMAZEN trays and tubes. Do you have to a link to them.

I had done a search but didnt' see an exact answer. I am still looking all over for possible solutions so I will keep searching

 

[crankybuzzard]

http://www.amazenproducts.com/Default.asp

Call Todd or Rhonda and tell them which smoker you have, they'll be able to tell you exactly which tube/tray you need 

 

[bobjsa]

I got a call back from a tech support person that said they make the Cabela's PRO-100 and he stated that it was becuase I was smoking hot that the smoke will no penetrate the water and grease. He stated that I should start cold for a few hours first and than change to hot.  He also suggested that I not use anything but sawdust in the pan.

Not sure why the smoke would have a problem in the electric with water and grease and yet the wood/pellet cooker is fine unless it is just a difference that I need to learn to deal with.  

I guess I need more testing....