How much smoke @225? masterbuilt MES 130B

[FishInTheDesert]

Cooking my first chicken right now!

How much smoke are you supposed to get at 225? I swear im getting no smoke at 225....and i heated it up to 275 to get it started like the manual suggested. It smoked...but eventually tapered down to looking like no smoke.

Just opened the smoker about 2 hours in to check the water level and the wood chips. Wood chips are still there....but theyre black, not ashy or burnt....just black. Havent mixed them up and maybe the bottom ones are ashed...but what I see does not look burnt. Making me worry wether 225 isnt gonna be a temp I can use while producing smoke.

Let me know. Thanks NEW amigos!

 

[kruizer]

You don't say what kind of smoker you have.

 

[johnmeyer]

Your Masterbuilt should produce plenty of smoke at 225. I wonder if you have the chip tray inserted the wrong way? On my MES, it is possible to put the chip tray on top or below the heating element.

 

[airmec]

Don't know how hot it is where you are but my back deck gets 120+ and my electric smoker cycles off so much at lower temps the chips never burn or smoke for that matter

 

[KrisUpInSmoke]

I've heard people complain that they can't get enough smoke at lower temps on an MES, but I'm not sure if the heating element goes off because the box holds the temp very well which allows the chips to go out or if something else is going on there. I have a different model and I have no problem with the chip tray at 225℉. The chips are ash every hour. Other people sometimes buy pellet trays instead of using chips.

Your smoke is not supposed to be white or entirely visible the whole time.

Your wood chips might have moisture in them.

 

[daveomak]

If you have the water pan in, with water in it, the humidity "may" be extinguishing the chips as they are trying to burn... Steam will displace all the oxygen in the smoker....

 

[zachd]

Time for an a-maze-n pellet smoker
I like my MES but it is so touchy when it comes to chips it doesn't give you a constant thin blue smoke hardly ever.

It seems when it cycles it just burns the chips up almost immediately

I was getting a much better product when I went to the AMPS

 

[FishInTheDesert]

Don't know how hot it is where you are but my back deck gets 120+ and my electric smoker cycles off so much at lower temps the chips never burn or smoke for that matter

You know what.....this might be it! I live in the desert (West Texas). I put it out on my back patio hoping to keep it out of the sun....but it still had the sun shining on it most of the time it was cooking. It might be a pain...but im gonna try again on my front patio where it should be able to stay in shade the whole time.

I did put water in the pan, maybe ill try less. I think I got it in the right way...looked at the manual. Its sitting just above the heater....hope thats right?! lol

Ill try that other tray if I cant figure this out. Ive seen it recommended a ton across forums, so that many people cant be wrong! lol

 

[tallbm]

Hi there and welcome!

There may be 3 things going on here:

1. Water pan is steaming and that is ruining your chip burn. I would toss the water out all together as it is a common understanding that the MES needs no water due to its superior insulation and ability in the moisture/humidity department
   
   
2. The MES is NOROTRIOUS for having temperature readings that are just plain off and often by quite a bit. This causes basically every MES owner to buy a good dual probe (or more probes) wireless thermometer to rely upon. Use 1 probe to measure the smoker temp at meat/rack level and the other probe stabbed into the meat for the meat's Internal Temp (IT). There are a number of good wireless thermometers out there but I always recommend the ThermoPro TP-20 dual probe thermometer. I personally like having at least 4 probes so pick one that is right for you and get it ASAP so you can know what temps your smoker and meat are really cooking at!
   
   
3. The AMNPS is the way to go and is basically the 2nd purchase made by all of us MES owners. We get the thermometer and then the AMNPS because the AMNPS is just plan awesome! It produces perfect Thin Blue Smoke (TBS) EVERYTIME with no fuss and it will burn up to 9-12+ hours if you fill it. Perfect, hassle free smoke generation for hours!
   Also again, with uncertain smoker temps your smoker may not be getting hot enough at a 225F setting to smoke the chips up. It may only be hitting a hi temp of like 200F and the MES does not do well for smoke at 200F. You just can't trust the what the MES is saying for your smoker temp so crank up the heat :)
   
   
4. Finally, word to the wise... Chicken skin is leathery if not cooked at higher temps. You probably want to crank that thing up to 275F for the whole cook and pray your chicken skin is edible. I have the best luck at 325F but your MES will only get to 275F if you are lucky (again the temp issue of the MES probes). Bearcarver seems to get good skin at 275F on his MES but a number of others are not so lucky. Your mileage may vary :)
   Oh another option is to remove the skin before cooking and you can avoid the skin issue and you still get great chicken with some bark on the meat :)

Anyhow, best of luck and continue practicing and learning and you will be making awesome bbq in no time! :)

 

[TomKnollRFV]

You should be getting smoke at 225f with out issue. My MES 40 model will do it at 200f even. You also should..yah..never really put water in that pan for a MES as I learned from Mr. Bear.

 

[zachd]

Ya what he said whenever I do chicken in the mes I always take it out and hit it on the propane grill at high heat to crisp the skin up

 

[johnmeyer]

There may be 3 things going on here:

1. Water pan is steaming and that is ruining your chip burn. I would toss the water out all together as it is a common understanding that the MES needs no water due to its superior insulation and ability in the moisture/humidity department
   
   
2. The MES is NOROTRIOUS for having temperature readings that are just plain off and often by quite a bit. This causes basically every MES owner to buy a good dual probe (or more probes) wireless thermometer to rely upon. Use 1 probe to measure the smoker temp at meat/rack level and the other probe stabbed into the meat for the meat's Internal Temp (IT). There are a number of good wireless thermometers out there but I always recommend the ThermoPro TP-20 dual probe thermometer. I personally like having at least 4 probes so pick one that is right for you and get it ASAP so you can know what temps your smoker and meat are really cooking at!
   
   
3. The AMNPS is the way to go and is basically the 2nd purchase made by all of us MES owners. We get the thermometer and then the AMNPS because the AMNPS is just plan awesome! It produces perfect Thin Blue Smoke (TBS) EVERYTIME with no fuss and it will burn up to 9-12+ hours if you fill it. Perfect, hassle free smoke generation for hours!
   Also again, with uncertain smoker temps your smoker may not be getting hot enough at a 225F setting to smoke the chips up. It may only be hitting a hi temp of like 200F and the MES does not do well for smoke at 200F. You just can't trust the what the MES is saying for your smoker temp so crank up the heat :)
   
   
4. Finally, word to the wise... Chicken skin is leathery if not cooked at higher temps. You probably want to crank that thing up to 275F for the whole cook and pray your chicken skin is edible. I have the best luck at 325F but your MES will only get to 275F if you are lucky (again the temp issue of the MES probes). Bearcarver seems to get good skin at 275F on his MES but a number of others are not so lucky. Your mileage may vary :)
   Oh another option is to remove the skin before cooking and you can avoid the skin issue and you still get great chicken with some bark on the meat :)

+1 to all four points above.

 

[FishInTheDesert]

Hi there and welcome!

There may be 3 things going on here:

1. Water pan is steaming and that is ruining your chip burn. I would toss the water out all together as it is a common understanding that the MES needs no water due to its superior insulation and ability in the moisture/humidity department
   
   
2. The MES is NOROTRIOUS for having temperature readings that are just plain off and often by quite a bit. This causes basically every MES owner to buy a good dual probe (or more probes) wireless thermometer to rely upon. Use 1 probe to measure the smoker temp at meat/rack level and the other probe stabbed into the meat for the meat's Internal Temp (IT). There are a number of good wireless thermometers out there but I always recommend the ThermoPro TP-20 dual probe thermometer. I personally like having at least 4 probes so pick one that is right for you and get it ASAP so you can know what temps your smoker and meat are really cooking at!
   
   
3. The AMNPS is the way to go and is basically the 2nd purchase made by all of us MES owners. We get the thermometer and then the AMNPS because the AMNPS is just plan awesome! It produces perfect Thin Blue Smoke (TBS) EVERYTIME with no fuss and it will burn up to 9-12+ hours if you fill it. Perfect, hassle free smoke generation for hours!
   Also again, with uncertain smoker temps your smoker may not be getting hot enough at a 225F setting to smoke the chips up. It may only be hitting a hi temp of like 200F and the MES does not do well for smoke at 200F. You just can't trust the what the MES is saying for your smoker temp so crank up the heat :)
   
   
4. Finally, word to the wise... Chicken skin is leathery if not cooked at higher temps. You probably want to crank that thing up to 275F for the whole cook and pray your chicken skin is edible. I have the best luck at 325F but your MES will only get to 275F if you are lucky (again the temp issue of the MES probes). Bearcarver seems to get good skin at 275F on his MES but a number of others are not so lucky. Your mileage may vary :)
   Oh another option is to remove the skin before cooking and you can avoid the skin issue and you still get great chicken with some bark on the meat :)

Anyhow, best of luck and continue practicing and learning and you will be making awesome bbq in no time! :)

Running another chicken tomorrow morning with Great American Land & Cattle Seasoning instead of salt and pepper for a neighbor. My last chicken wasnt perfect....but it was definitely edible and had a good taste with 2 loaders full of wood chips. Not too smokey...and I feel OK giving it to others to eat! lol

1. Gonna go no water for sure tomorrow.

2. How do you measure smoker temp with the 1 probe like you mention...let it touch the metal rack? float it above the rack...or can you clarify? So...I did go to bed bath and beyond to get a meat probe/thermometer, and removed at 162...do I need a probe that I can leave inside/connected to the meat while cooking, or is cooking by time and checking accordingly with meat thermometer/probe like I did enough?

3. Already bought a meat thermometer so I might be halfway there. Ill buy it since it sounds good. Dumb question but how do you use it? Place it on the bottom rack and fire up a few of the pellets....put it where the current wood chip tray is above the heating unit....or hows it work. I just saw it on amazon so havent done the most homework on it yet.

4. Surprisingly....my skin wasnt bad....prolly between leathery and nice and crispy! I was kinda surprised about them since I was worried about soggy skin after reading a few forum posts. THERE IS HOPE! lol

 

[johnmeyer]

Put a remote read thermometer anywhere in the middle of the smoker. You can simply lay it on a rack, away from the food (you want to measure the enclosure temp, not the food temp). My probe came with a spring clip that lets you clip it onto the rack, so it doesn't move around when you pull the racks out, and also keeps the probe up in the air, so it doesn't have its temperature changed by dripping juices or by food that shifts and then touches it.

Placement is not critical, although you also want to make sure that it isn't too close to the heat source, so it is not affected by radiant heat.

 

[tallbm]

Running another chicken tomorrow morning with Great American Land & Cattle Seasoning instead of salt and pepper for a neighbor. My last chicken wasnt perfect....but it was definitely edible and had a good taste with 2 loaders full of wood chips. Not too smokey...and I feel OK giving it to others to eat! lol

1. Gonna go no water for sure tomorrow.

2. How do you measure smoker temp with the 1 probe like you mention...let it touch the metal rack? float it above the rack...or can you clarify? So...I did go to bed bath and beyond to get a meat probe/thermometer, and removed at 162...do I need a probe that I can leave inside/connected to the meat while cooking, or is cooking by time and checking accordingly with meat thermometer/probe like I did enough?

3. Already bought a meat thermometer so I might be halfway there. Ill buy it since it sounds good. Dumb question but how do you use it? Place it on the bottom rack and fire up a few of the pellets....put it where the current wood chip tray is above the heating unit....or hows it work. I just saw it on amazon so havent done the most homework on it yet.

4. Surprisingly....my skin wasnt bad....prolly between leathery and nice and crispy! I was kinda surprised about them since I was worried about soggy skin after reading a few forum posts. THERE IS HOPE! lol

1. That should probably help some with the smoke generation, less water in the air the better wood can smoke

2. There are clips that are to fit on the smoker rack bars. The clips allow you insert your probe into the clip. Then the clip with the probe is placed securely on the smoker rack.
Also there are Alligator clips that can also fit on the end of a probe and the clip is then attached to a rack, see the following image:

3. Having a probe you can leave inside the meat is ideal and very likely what you will want. Wireless thermometers are made to where you can leave the probes inside the meat and inside the smoker. They have features like alarms that will notify you when a certain temperature is set. So for instance for chicken the target is 165F IT (Internal Temp). So you set the alarm for the Meat probe, which you stick in the breast of the chicken, to alert you when it hits 165F. You then keep the hand held portion of the thermometer nearby you and when the temp is hit the alarm goes off and you go pull the chicken out!
Having a dual probe (or more probes) Thermometer means you can use 1 probe for the meat and the other probe for the smoker. You can then also set alarms on the 2nd probe you clip to the rack of the smoker so if the heat gets too low or too high for any reason it will also alert you. This is helpful in case a flame situation breaks out or the wife decides to run the microwave, toaster oven, and hair dryer on the same circuit as your electric smoker :P

You CAN cook by time and periodically check for temp by going and stabbing with an "instant" thermometer but you will find that will be a hassle when one of the major goals of smoking is consistency which you often can get with precision temp measuring tools. People have been smoking meat without thermometers forever BUT nailing consistency doesn't have to be a guessing game or a 10 year experience building exercise :)

If you get a leave in probe/thermometer you will want some kind of clip for the smoker probe and then I suggest you put it at meat level near the meat where you can fit it. This will give you better temp measurements than what the MES will give you. Use the rack that gets the most consistent/reliable heat. In my MES40 it is the bottom most rack. In a friend of mine's MES30 it seems to be the rack that is 2nd from the top. Every smoker can be different :)

4. The poultry skin battle is one you will be dealing with unless you can consistently get high enough temps. Many guys cook their chicken to a lower IT of like 140F and then finish the chicken on a screaming hot grill to get the skin edible and bring the IT of the chicken up to 165F. This seems to work well.
It seems quite a few of the other bunch of guys here that can get their smokers (stick burners, propane, etc.) to 325F generally just smoke at higher temps for the great chicken skin issue.

I hope all this info helps :)

 

[johnmeyer]

The alligator clip idea is brilliant. I have dozens of those lying around.

 

[gmc2003]

For the grate probe you can always stick your probe thru a potato wedge to hold it in place. As for rubbery skin I believe it was @foamheart who swears if you let the bird form a good pellicle on the skin before smoking then you'll get crispy skin at lower temps.

Chirs

 

[FishInTheDesert]

I hope all this info helps :)

Yea it does! Just one question...and its a $15 question...

Im ordering the probes (prolly after you reply)....only need the 2 since its a small smoker and ill always be cooking just 1 meat 99% of the time. But...my frugal side is kicking in. Whats the difference between the TP-20 and TP-08? Is it just the presets and alerts....thats what ive got from reading the descriptions.

Is it worth the extra $15 bucks for those alerts? I love slow cookers...so im good with the set it and forget it mentality, and even tho I dont think ill need it...if I happen to be drinking beers while smoking....maybe that $15 is worth it! lol

For the grate probe you can always stick your probe thru a potato wedge to hold it in place. As for rubbery skin I believe it was @foamheart who swears if you let the bird form a good pellicle on the skin before smoking then you'll get crispy skin at lower temps.

Chirs

So....my chicken came out drier than id like. But...my skin was edible! I live in a desert climate...so im not sure if thats helping the cause. Got chicken #2 and going no water in the tray, but also higher temp (265)....gonna see how this one goes. I like low and slow....but read everywhere chicken is better at higher temps, so tried to strike a balance and see how it goes.

Im gonna cook a chicken every day or every other day to try and fine tune. Giving them away to neighbors! lol...and theyre around $10 in 2 packs at my walmart....so makes the learning process relatively cheap!

I wanna do "3-2-1" ribs this weekend...lets see if I trust myself by that time. hate wasting food

 

[tallbm]

The alligator clip idea is brilliant. I have dozens of those lying around.

I bought a 10 pack on ebay or amazon once for a few bucks. I use it on a couple of my 6 total probes and it works well :)

 

[FishInTheDesert]

so there was more smoke today....but I raised temp, and also took out the water. Here is the chicken. 265 for 3 hours 20 minutes