- Oct 3, 2008
- 37
- 32
Hello everyone. After a lot of time spent reading reviews on the MES40 I pulled the trigger back in mid August. I figured that I'd give it 90 days and several uses before I posted anything either negative or positive. So, here's my review for what it's worth. Bought the MES 40 at Sam's Club for $300 and got the MES cold smoker attachment for around $75 from Bass Pro Shops. So far I have Smoked baby back ribs, chickens, spare ribs, briskets, smoked 62# of Jalapeno/Cheese sausage, 40# sausage using Leggs Old Plantation #10 seasoning. I'm sure there's a thing or two that I'm missing but it's a good sampling of the machine's capability. Of the things above mentioned, the only one that wasn't superb was the brisket. It was quite edible but just not the quality that I can produce in my big stick burner. This was something I expected and briskets were not my reason for buying an electric smoker. The most pleasing thing has been it's ability to smoke sausage. Using 7/8" dowels, I can hang & smoke about 20# batches. It does and outstanding job, some of the prettiest sausage I have ever produced. I now have a turkey in the fridge that's destined to be brined and smoked and a shank portion ham that's gonna get Bear's twice smoked treatment. Equipment wise, everything works flawlessly. The temps on the next to top rack run within 5 degrees of my Polder oven temp gauge. The meat probe is within 2 degrees of my Maverick probe. The cold smoker attachment has worked nicely also. I don't use the little J-hook rod to secure it. I simply slide them together and it works with no smoke leakage whatsoever. As I had read on this forum and others, the chips will get stuck in the tube of the cold smoker but I'll just whack it with a piece of 1" X 2" if I see it not smoking and all is well. Not really an issue. For the money spent I can't really imagine a better product.
