- Mar 2, 2014
- 21
- 13
Cook Shack Amerique
My first electric smoker arrived today and after seasoning it 4 hours as per the instructions I tried a quick cook of some boneless chicken breasts
I seasoned the breasts and started the smoker at 200F- added a chunk of Mesquite that had soaked in water for about an hour. Because I had to go get the kids from school 20 miles away and make a few stops I set the timer on the cooker to 1 hour. When I returned home It was an an hour and 22 minutes later. I know this because the smokers controls made it easy to see. When the hour had ended the smoker went into hold mode @ 140 degrees to keep the food warm- and surprisingly to me the timer displayed 22 minutes which turns out to be the amount of time it had been in hold mode. Pretty cool I thought
I pulled the breasts and they were a pretty golden color-actually the light color made me think their was no way they could be done- but when I cut into each of them they were perfectly done-white and juicy. I think the 1 chunk of Mesquite was a little strong-I usually cook with a wood fire of Mesquite or Pecan or both- the electric smoke is definitely a stronger smoke than wood fired ( at least the wood fired way I always do it) but it was still REALLY good ( Next time I will opt for Pecan)
I bought an 18 lb Choice Rib-eye loin earlier today. I cut it in half (Saved 1 half for lake this weekend) and left other half on the counter a few hours in seasoning- I just added it to the Amerique smoker a few minutes ago and set the internal probe to 140 F and the cooking temp at 225 F and using the milder Hickory chunk that came with the smoker. I will let you know how it comes out.
I wanted to tell you my first impressions of the Cook Shack Amerique ( as I sit and eat my second smoked chicken breast on a salad)
Its a good machine- you can tell right off a great deal of pride went into designing it and its awesome quality top to bottom- I am not disappointed at all with the build in design and quality.
With that said I also have to say I will be making a few modifications to it this summer to suit my personal needs.
I will tell you what my preferences are-
For my use the caster wheels are too small. My first use was in my shop on a concrete floor and they work great- they are heavy high quality casters- but I cannot leave my shop open all night so to smoke this Rib eye loin I needed to move it across the yard to my porch at the house. The small casters do not roll well across the wet yard- in fact they just wanted to dig in. I believe much larger castors would roll easily across the yard and would even help to raise the unit up a little higher.
The unit is well built and heavy- so I had my wife help me carry it across the grass- this was difficult because it has no handles on the sides. I will be adding a couple heavy duty stainless steel handles this summer because I will be lifting the unit in the back of my pick up and taking it to the lake during the summer. If you plan to use it where ever you unload it- then its great as is.
The last thing to change is small- I wish the fire box had some sort of small handle on the front to grab. It only goes in one way but hard to tell right off which way is correct- I think a small handle might be a good idea and would easily identify the front.
These are just a few small things I noticed this afternoon- but I am really happy with my purchase and with the Cook Shack Amerique cooker-it will no doubt last several generations and the electronic heat-timer and probe controls are a really sweet feature.
Anyway I wanted to report back on the unit and thank those of you who answered questions for me!
Now I need to go smell the smoke
Thanks!
Curtis
My first electric smoker arrived today and after seasoning it 4 hours as per the instructions I tried a quick cook of some boneless chicken breasts
I seasoned the breasts and started the smoker at 200F- added a chunk of Mesquite that had soaked in water for about an hour. Because I had to go get the kids from school 20 miles away and make a few stops I set the timer on the cooker to 1 hour. When I returned home It was an an hour and 22 minutes later. I know this because the smokers controls made it easy to see. When the hour had ended the smoker went into hold mode @ 140 degrees to keep the food warm- and surprisingly to me the timer displayed 22 minutes which turns out to be the amount of time it had been in hold mode. Pretty cool I thought
I pulled the breasts and they were a pretty golden color-actually the light color made me think their was no way they could be done- but when I cut into each of them they were perfectly done-white and juicy. I think the 1 chunk of Mesquite was a little strong-I usually cook with a wood fire of Mesquite or Pecan or both- the electric smoke is definitely a stronger smoke than wood fired ( at least the wood fired way I always do it) but it was still REALLY good ( Next time I will opt for Pecan)
I bought an 18 lb Choice Rib-eye loin earlier today. I cut it in half (Saved 1 half for lake this weekend) and left other half on the counter a few hours in seasoning- I just added it to the Amerique smoker a few minutes ago and set the internal probe to 140 F and the cooking temp at 225 F and using the milder Hickory chunk that came with the smoker. I will let you know how it comes out.
I wanted to tell you my first impressions of the Cook Shack Amerique ( as I sit and eat my second smoked chicken breast on a salad)
Its a good machine- you can tell right off a great deal of pride went into designing it and its awesome quality top to bottom- I am not disappointed at all with the build in design and quality.
With that said I also have to say I will be making a few modifications to it this summer to suit my personal needs.
I will tell you what my preferences are-
For my use the caster wheels are too small. My first use was in my shop on a concrete floor and they work great- they are heavy high quality casters- but I cannot leave my shop open all night so to smoke this Rib eye loin I needed to move it across the yard to my porch at the house. The small casters do not roll well across the wet yard- in fact they just wanted to dig in. I believe much larger castors would roll easily across the yard and would even help to raise the unit up a little higher.
The unit is well built and heavy- so I had my wife help me carry it across the grass- this was difficult because it has no handles on the sides. I will be adding a couple heavy duty stainless steel handles this summer because I will be lifting the unit in the back of my pick up and taking it to the lake during the summer. If you plan to use it where ever you unload it- then its great as is.
The last thing to change is small- I wish the fire box had some sort of small handle on the front to grab. It only goes in one way but hard to tell right off which way is correct- I think a small handle might be a good idea and would easily identify the front.
These are just a few small things I noticed this afternoon- but I am really happy with my purchase and with the Cook Shack Amerique cooker-it will no doubt last several generations and the electronic heat-timer and probe controls are a really sweet feature.
Anyway I wanted to report back on the unit and thank those of you who answered questions for me!
Now I need to go smell the smoke
Thanks!
Curtis
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