I have always been a stick burner when it comes to smoking and to me nothing will ever replace my reverse flow that I sweated over for months building. It is big and works very well for cooks for our large extended family but proves a little impractical for the single meal for me and the wife. For that reason I first ventured off into the world of Sous Vide and now have added a MES to the arsenal. I have to say that I was well pleases with its inaugural run. Mrs. Weedeater picked up a pre-seasoned pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon from our local Sam’s. Smoked it @225 degrees using hickory chips to an internal of 140 degrees. Pulled it and ran it in a 450 degree oven for a few minutes to crisp up the bacon some.
The results were very good for the first run at the new MES. Food was moist and flavorful. Seasoning was a little overpowering for my taste but that’s what you get when you buy something pre-seasoned. Not the fault of the MES. It performed flawlessly. After the usual swings that people complain about at start up she settled down to consistently staying plus or minus 5 degrees or less. Also unlike many of the units that are way off temp wise, I appear to be one of the lucky ones, mine appears to be dead on accurate as compared to my Maverick. After initial warm up it seldom differed by plus/minus 2 degrees. For me that is good enough!
Enough of my rambling review. Let’s get to a couple of pics.
Thanks for taking a look and enduring the lengthy text. The MES performed well in what I hope will be the first of many smokes. It will not replace my reverse flow stick burner. There is just something about tending the fire, sitting around the smoker, smelling the logs, etc... but it sure was nice to watch from my iPad sitting in my den watching TV. A bit more practical for the smaller smokes.
Weedeater
The results were very good for the first run at the new MES. Food was moist and flavorful. Seasoning was a little overpowering for my taste but that’s what you get when you buy something pre-seasoned. Not the fault of the MES. It performed flawlessly. After the usual swings that people complain about at start up she settled down to consistently staying plus or minus 5 degrees or less. Also unlike many of the units that are way off temp wise, I appear to be one of the lucky ones, mine appears to be dead on accurate as compared to my Maverick. After initial warm up it seldom differed by plus/minus 2 degrees. For me that is good enough!
Enough of my rambling review. Let’s get to a couple of pics.
Thanks for taking a look and enduring the lengthy text. The MES performed well in what I hope will be the first of many smokes. It will not replace my reverse flow stick burner. There is just something about tending the fire, sitting around the smoker, smelling the logs, etc... but it sure was nice to watch from my iPad sitting in my den watching TV. A bit more practical for the smaller smokes.
Weedeater
