New to this forum but not new to smoking. Been smoking meats for 15-18 or so years. Started out with one of those trash can / R2D2 style smokers to give it a try and smoked some briskets and pork butt and shoulder roasts. I was hooked. Upgraded to a much bigger Brinkmann horizontal barrel with offset firebox and smoked in that for 13 years. Tried charcoal and wood chunks, just wood logs, Charcoal and wood chunks soaked in water, and had pretty good success with pork, fish, ribs and turkeys. Not so good with briskets or much of anything beef in the Brinkmann. don't know why beef didn't do too well in the Brinkmann. Brinkmann was starting to fall apart, Bottom of firebox was getting some rust holes through it and effecting temperatures and burning to fast or hot with too much air flow. Wednesday night when i was rolling out the smoker onto the patio one of the legs broke off the body and it fell over. Lucky i hadn't lit a fire in it yet or put the turkeys in it yet. Quick patch job to bolt leg back on and was in business again. Smoked two 12lbs turkeys and they turned out great as always. Biggest bird I can fit in it about 18 lbs but with my large family 18 lbs. doesn't last so I have to do 2 smaller birds for 24 lbs total. But I also have to get $18 worth of charcoal and another $25 or so worth of wood chunks plus the cost of the bird, Brine ingredients, stuffing the bird with chopped up apples and oranges to keep it from drying out and keeps it moist. It costs a small fortune to smoke meat these days. Plus the baby sitting it and monitoring temps and feeding it charcoal and wood every 3 hours or less. Big bags of apple or cherry wood chunks are sometimes hard to find this time of year. Its just what I like to smoke turkeys with. But I can find Wood chips and wood pellets ALL OVER and in plenty stock AND any wood type. So I jumped on Sportmans Warehouse black Friday deal of the Masterbuilt 40 inch electric smoker with remote for $179. Its on its way. Already been reading these forums and have some accessories for it on my list to get. Like the A-MAZE-N Pellet tube or 5"x8" tray. Seems many have switched to the A-MAZE-N wood pellet tube in lieu of using the wood chips in the side loader. Some may think going from a traditional barrel smoker to an electric smoker is a down grade but i'm tired of constantly baby sitting the old smoker, feeding it charcoal and wood every 2-3 hours. (used to be 4-5 hours before it developed rust holes in the firebox and allowed more air flow through making it burn faster and hotter) and the cost of consumables. A friend of mine has a masterbuilt electric smoker and his meats come out amazing, juicy and tasty. he doesn't have to babysit it anywhere near the time i have to on my Brinkmann. His consumables cost is a fraction of what i spend. And the whole set it and forget it tempurature is really nice and then remote control I can monitor it from inside and see the meat temperature on the remote also. Supposedly I can program this smoker to shut off or keep warm once the meat reaches desired temp. Cant wait till it arrives and start smoking on it. Any other tips , links for tips on these forums to help me get going with this new smoker I would really appreciate.
Thank guys,
Brad.
Thank guys,
Brad.
