OK, so I am new to the Forum and new to Smoking. A few weeks ago I bought a MES 40 and got in here reading LOTS of GREAT info. Overwhelming actually, so much info that I was having a hard time remembering what was what. These past couple of weeks have been killing me, because I wanted to get out there and fire it up and start really loving my new smoker. Well between work and regular life stuff I just did not have time, but I am off work this weekend so here we go.
I did not reinvent the wheel or anything here, just smoked two very basic dishes. A Fatty and some Chicken. I have lots of pics of preparing the fatty mainly to show other friends and family who had never heard of one before (just like me until I started reading the forum). So I am going to post them all and maybe it will help someone else out who is going to do this for the first time to understand that it is not tough at all and makes a very tasty treat. So on with the pics.
Started with the bacon weave. I bought thick bacon from my grocery store butcher. I actually really like this bacon and it worked well for this. I really thought that this was going to be tough to do, but it only took me a few min to finish and I thought that it turned out great.
Went with Jimmy Dean HOT
Rolled it out in a ziplock bag.
Then fried up a few pieces for the middle of the fatty. I did not want to use a lot for my first one, I thought that it would be rich enough.
Then sliced up some pepperjack and layed it in the middle of the sausage.
Then the fried bacon.
Rolled it up.
Grabbed the bacon weave and sprinkled a bit of a rub on it.
Then rolled it up.
Wrapped it up to put in the fridge for the night.
The next afternoon fired up the smoker and in she goes. I also did a whole chicken, that I split in half. Nothing to fancy, I just melted some butter and mixed it with some rub, then injected it under the skin. Then rubbed some of that on top of the skin.
After about 2 hours at 275 here she is.
Chicken was done about 30 min later.
All in all, I AM IN LOVE with this new machine. It was in the low 30's and quite windy yesterday while I was doing this and I thought that the smoker did a good job keeping up. Today I am trying some baby backs, so I hope that those turn out as nice as the Chicken and Fatty yesterday.
Thanks again for all the help from everyone on this forum. Made my first experience much less stressful.
Phil
I did not reinvent the wheel or anything here, just smoked two very basic dishes. A Fatty and some Chicken. I have lots of pics of preparing the fatty mainly to show other friends and family who had never heard of one before (just like me until I started reading the forum). So I am going to post them all and maybe it will help someone else out who is going to do this for the first time to understand that it is not tough at all and makes a very tasty treat. So on with the pics.
Started with the bacon weave. I bought thick bacon from my grocery store butcher. I actually really like this bacon and it worked well for this. I really thought that this was going to be tough to do, but it only took me a few min to finish and I thought that it turned out great.
Went with Jimmy Dean HOT
Rolled it out in a ziplock bag.
Then fried up a few pieces for the middle of the fatty. I did not want to use a lot for my first one, I thought that it would be rich enough.
Then sliced up some pepperjack and layed it in the middle of the sausage.
Then the fried bacon.
Rolled it up.
Grabbed the bacon weave and sprinkled a bit of a rub on it.
Then rolled it up.
Wrapped it up to put in the fridge for the night.
The next afternoon fired up the smoker and in she goes. I also did a whole chicken, that I split in half. Nothing to fancy, I just melted some butter and mixed it with some rub, then injected it under the skin. Then rubbed some of that on top of the skin.
After about 2 hours at 275 here she is.
Chicken was done about 30 min later.
All in all, I AM IN LOVE with this new machine. It was in the low 30's and quite windy yesterday while I was doing this and I thought that the smoker did a good job keeping up. Today I am trying some baby backs, so I hope that those turn out as nice as the Chicken and Fatty yesterday.
Thanks again for all the help from everyone on this forum. Made my first experience much less stressful.
Phil
Last edited:
