Yesterday I sprung for my brand new MES 30. Hallelujah!
Assembled, placed it to the right of my pipe burner plumbed to natural gas, raised on some bricks until a stand is decided on, and did the break-in run. :D
Everything worked great, except for 6 thermometers arguing as to who was accurate. In the end an old reliable Weston Industrial, and the MES were decided to be worthy of belief. They ran tightly together. *
In the afternoon I got out 4 salmon chunks Caught in the Freezers of Costco, for the Maiden Voyage. Later, I made up some dry brine, buried the Salmon, snapped on the lid, and into the refrigerator.
I couldn't stand it, so I went out and tried out the MES at 200 degrees with some chips. As it stands, it calls for 1/4 cup of chips per loader. Pasha, I could throw some to the wolves...
I just wanted to see some smoke, and to play with the new toy.
So after coffee about mid morning, I got out the cured Salmon, rinsed it, and set it aside to dry a bit. Of course, the wife had to mention I'd left my 'fish' setting out.
I explained it was a part of the process, it had to form a pellicle. No doubt that was confusing and met with silence. It needs to dry, I said. That she understood.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I started up the MES so it could get warm and stabilize. Ah, the game was afoot!
Into hot box went the rack of Salmon chunks. TBS, thin blue smoke and oven-like heat flashed at me as the door swung wide. I've never known TBS before. Interesting stuff, hard to guage.
I quickly removed two unused racks, leaving the bottom and putting the payload in the second rack holder. Buttoned it up and checked the timer of the MES. Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!
At 200 degrees, there didn't seem to be much 'On' time. But then, my MES only has a 2 degree differential. At 275 during the break in, I noted the element came on at 273, and when the temperature rose it cycled off at 275.
The coast was down to 269-270 lowering, where it turned and headed back up gently. As the temperature hit 275, the control turned off but coasted upwards to 287-290, which is not any problem. Think of it as massaging the smokey goodness into the meat in the smoker. :rolleyes:
Electric heat is like that, even when the power stops, there is heat rising from the elements center in an encased element. The impressive part to me is the tight control of 2 degrees. I hope all continues as it is.
But I don't smoke Salmon at oven temperatures...
I want a nice steady flow of smoke at a lot lower temperatures.
I found a good reason why I was planning adding a 'Mailbox Mod' of some sort. In order to do really controlled smoking, both the box and it's temperature needs controlled, as well as the smoke generation. Duh! I get it now. :eek::D Even a steady drip of water can penetrate rock.:confused:
But which one? Well, to my way of thinking, the Smoker Box is controlled. It maintains a set temperature. Great! the meat end product is cooking away.
Now, I need a way to control the woods smoke rate. (Gasification) Beyond just lighting it off in a separate container. I need the Sous Vide of smoke production.
Over thinking it it? Probably. I tend to do that anyway. It's just my nature.
But imagine... precision smoke generation and induction into your smoker full of meat. You set the cooking temperature like usual.
Then you set your smoke generator to your desired smoke rate. TBS? No problem! More smoke? No problem, just turn it up a smidgen. Because you can.
It's independent of the heating element cycling. Which is the Achilles heal of my MES. That element maintaining the internal temperature is doing next to nothing for the actual level of smoke generation.
But move the smoke production to a separate control, now it's cookin with smoke. Anybody know of any Gasification chambers around here? Or working on a tight smoke generator that can make smoke in finely controlled amounts? :confused:
Anyway, back to the Salmon of my day....
Uhh, I, um, tasted, half of the middle one away. :oops:
But it sure is good!:)
Can anybody tell me why it has freckles?
Assembled, placed it to the right of my pipe burner plumbed to natural gas, raised on some bricks until a stand is decided on, and did the break-in run. :D
Everything worked great, except for 6 thermometers arguing as to who was accurate. In the end an old reliable Weston Industrial, and the MES were decided to be worthy of belief. They ran tightly together. *
In the afternoon I got out 4 salmon chunks Caught in the Freezers of Costco, for the Maiden Voyage. Later, I made up some dry brine, buried the Salmon, snapped on the lid, and into the refrigerator.
I couldn't stand it, so I went out and tried out the MES at 200 degrees with some chips. As it stands, it calls for 1/4 cup of chips per loader. Pasha, I could throw some to the wolves...
I just wanted to see some smoke, and to play with the new toy.
So after coffee about mid morning, I got out the cured Salmon, rinsed it, and set it aside to dry a bit. Of course, the wife had to mention I'd left my 'fish' setting out.
I explained it was a part of the process, it had to form a pellicle. No doubt that was confusing and met with silence. It needs to dry, I said. That she understood.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I started up the MES so it could get warm and stabilize. Ah, the game was afoot!
Into hot box went the rack of Salmon chunks. TBS, thin blue smoke and oven-like heat flashed at me as the door swung wide. I've never known TBS before. Interesting stuff, hard to guage.
I quickly removed two unused racks, leaving the bottom and putting the payload in the second rack holder. Buttoned it up and checked the timer of the MES. Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!
At 200 degrees, there didn't seem to be much 'On' time. But then, my MES only has a 2 degree differential. At 275 during the break in, I noted the element came on at 273, and when the temperature rose it cycled off at 275.
The coast was down to 269-270 lowering, where it turned and headed back up gently. As the temperature hit 275, the control turned off but coasted upwards to 287-290, which is not any problem. Think of it as massaging the smokey goodness into the meat in the smoker. :rolleyes:
Electric heat is like that, even when the power stops, there is heat rising from the elements center in an encased element. The impressive part to me is the tight control of 2 degrees. I hope all continues as it is.
But I don't smoke Salmon at oven temperatures...
I want a nice steady flow of smoke at a lot lower temperatures.
I found a good reason why I was planning adding a 'Mailbox Mod' of some sort. In order to do really controlled smoking, both the box and it's temperature needs controlled, as well as the smoke generation. Duh! I get it now. :eek::D Even a steady drip of water can penetrate rock.:confused:
But which one? Well, to my way of thinking, the Smoker Box is controlled. It maintains a set temperature. Great! the meat end product is cooking away.
Now, I need a way to control the woods smoke rate. (Gasification) Beyond just lighting it off in a separate container. I need the Sous Vide of smoke production.
Over thinking it it? Probably. I tend to do that anyway. It's just my nature.
But imagine... precision smoke generation and induction into your smoker full of meat. You set the cooking temperature like usual.
Then you set your smoke generator to your desired smoke rate. TBS? No problem! More smoke? No problem, just turn it up a smidgen. Because you can.
It's independent of the heating element cycling. Which is the Achilles heal of my MES. That element maintaining the internal temperature is doing next to nothing for the actual level of smoke generation.
But move the smoke production to a separate control, now it's cookin with smoke. Anybody know of any Gasification chambers around here? Or working on a tight smoke generator that can make smoke in finely controlled amounts? :confused:
Anyway, back to the Salmon of my day....
Uhh, I, um, tasted, half of the middle one away. :oops:
But it sure is good!:)
Can anybody tell me why it has freckles?
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