Going from MES to OK Joe Longhorn....from vertical to horizontal

[tddeangelo]

When I've done bologna and the like in my MES, I've hung the casings one way or another.

While I'm thinking up ways to mod a system for the OK Joe Longhorn combo I just got, if I wanted to do a batch to give smoking on the new unit a go, I'd have to lay the rolls on the cooking grate. So, instead of hanging, they'd be laying down.

So....first....is there a reason I SHOULDN'T do this?

And if not, are there any issues I need to think about that weren't issues when they were hanging? Sort of a "I don't know what I don't know" kind of question.

Part of me thinks laying them on the grate may actually cook more evenly than the MES, where the heat was below them, so the tops of the roles were necessarily much farther from the heat element than the bottoms. I never noticed much difference in quality/taste/texture from top to bottom, but just wondering if the OKJ will do a better job.

Of course, I'll have to hover over the thing like a hawk, since I don't know it well enough to leave it go for any length of time, just yet.

 

[SmokinAl]

There won't be a problem with laying them down on a rack.
I think the problem you will encounter will be regulating the temp.
It needs to be pretty precise for bologna, as you probably know.
It's going to be a long day cause the last bologna I did went for 12 hours.

Al

 

[tddeangelo]

Yep, I know I'm in for a project. I do need to just run the thing and work on temp regulation without meat in it and see what I can get. A water pan/fire brick wouldn't be a bad thing, I'm thinking. Maybe several in the cook chamber to help even out temps and stabilize them?

I've generally experienced similar with the MES...it's about a 12-ish hour process. If I get to a point where I'm just tired of it, I can finish in the oven (my kitchen stove will go down to 170, I think). Not really the intended outcome, but it's a "bail out" option if I just sick of it all, lol.

With the MES I was still "that guy" who would go look at the therms every 30-60 minutes anyway, even if all was well. Just cuz. The only exception is that if the MES was holding what I wanted for temps, I'd be able to put stuff in over night and actually get some sleep, lol.

From my reading around on here and on the web in general, the sense I get is with some mods (sealing the unit better, eventually adding a BBQ Guru), and with learning how my smoker wants to run, I'll get to a point with practice where I don't have to be on top of it minute by minute. Gotta do smokes to learn it, though!

 

[tddeangelo]

The good news is with some mods for using bakers' racks as elevated cook racks, I think even with my Longhorn combo (much smaller smoker chamber due to the propane side), I think I can get a lot more stuff like bologna or snack sticks into this than I could get into the MES. That's a plus once I get the temp regs figured out a little better.

 

[Bearcarver]

No problem---I do all of my Bear Sticks, Bear Logs, and Bear Loaves laying flat on my MES Smoker Racks.

All goes Well.

Bear

 

[tddeangelo]

Looks like (as you know) my MES control unit may have issues. I liked the info on replacing with a PID. Not sure I'm ready to make that jump. I'm sure it sounds scarier than it really is, but I'm leaning toward replacing the control unit with one from Masterbuilt just for simplicity's sake. Would also give me the MES as a backup on this project, too.

I did snack sticks laying down in my MES and thought "I can get more in if I hang them." WRONG! Boy was I wrong.

I didn't think of it till just now, but I could keep my sweet bologna rolls short and lay them down, too, probably make life a lot simpler than how I currently hang them.

 

[Bearcarver]

Looks like (as you know) my MES control unit may have issues. I liked the info on replacing with a PID. Not sure I'm ready to make that jump. I'm sure it sounds scarier than it really is, but I'm leaning toward replacing the control unit with one from Masterbuilt just for simplicity's sake. Would also give me the MES as a backup on this project, too.

I did snack sticks laying down in my MES and thought "I can get more in if I hang them." WRONG! Boy was I wrong.

I didn't think of it till just now, but I could keep my sweet bologna rolls short and lay them down, too, probably make life a lot simpler than how I currently hang them.

#1 I know what you mean---I'm not good at that electrical stuff either, but if anybody could get me through a change like that, "tallbm" would be my best chance. I don't think he'd let me fail.

#2 And I think, in the MES, laying flat on the racks is the best way to get the most sausage type things in without them touching each other during the Smoking. And if needed for evening things out, you can always rotate the top & bottom racks.

Bear