First run with Masterbuilt XL Smoker! (Assembly and mini Qview)

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housemusik

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 6, 2011
11
10
Portland, OR
I got my Masterbuilt XL propane smoker delivered today, and I set it up right away.  First thing I did was unbox it and check the parts.  Everything was well packed and looked great:

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Here is a close up of the packaged parts:

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Here is the assembled smoker.  Overall everything is in good shape- minor scuffs on the front, and the door handle side is a bit warped- it is about 1/8 inch open either on the top or the bottom.  The hinge side is flush.  I sprayed it out with Pam and cranked it up to High- it hit 360 degrees on my digital thermometer and 330 degrees on the door thermometer.  Looks like I'll be calibrating soon. 

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Next I threw in a cast iron pan on top of the wood chip pan that comes with the unit.  I heated it up, lowered the temp to 220, and threw in some chips.  It took a long time to get any sort of smoke, and even now, I am barely getting TBS- it is more aroma of smoke right now.  I am not looking for foggy white smoke, but even some visible smoke would be nice.  The chips (hickory and apple) are going really, really slow despite the internal temp of the smoker.  I am thinking I need a better solution than the cast iron on top of the wood chip box- maybe a stove grate to get the cast iron closer to the flame. 

As I did this, I prepared some rainbow trout I got at Safeway with EVOO, Sea salt, black pepper and fresh rosemary:

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Then I threw the trout in the smoker.  It is sitting at about 215 degrees.  I am anxiously awaiting the results!

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Well, it came out OK.  I think it would have done better with a brine overnight.  Overall it wasn't bad!  I need to learn this smoker, and this was a good first step to get there.  Here is what it looked like after a couple hours:

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and here is what it looked like after 4 hours when I took it out of the smoker:

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We took the trout and put it on a salad with arugula, apples, and sliced radishes with a seedy mustard vinegarette- the trout was not as flaky as I would have wanted it, but it was pretty good on short notice.  Overall I am please with my first smoke on this new smoker! 

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I am going to try smoking something I am more familiar with this weekend. 
 
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