So... this should be the last update to this thread. I've been toying around more and more and I'm finally satisfied enough to try a serious cook, that thread after this. So the last batch of cheese still tasted bad and I finally figured out my problems. I elevated the pellet/dust maze off the bottom of my smoke box using a small cooling rack with folding legs. Voila! game changer. I added holes for airflow, but now they're unnecessary for hot smoking and I put magnets over them. I open three holes to start after putting the maze, and once we're up and running I leave two ever so slightly cracked with the third wide open. Not much time left in the year to get any cold smoking done, but I'm confident with the changes made it'll work just fine. I've done a few test cooks with basic brats and some moink balls just to gauge the smoke flavor and it's working like a champ. I've played with more homemade dust with great results. I made two batches, one Kingsford 100% Cherry and the other Pit Boss Fruit Blend. Both work very well and no problems with flavor. I've also ran straight cherry pellets with no failures to stay lit.
Here's the simple fix cooling rack.
Here's the before shot of some storebought meatballs wrapped in some of my home made bacon. I stuffed each with a small cube of mozzarella, then hit them with a touch of KIller Hogs rub. Smoked with straight cherry.
Man were these good. One had a cheese blowout, but other than that they were quite tasty. Reheating some at work caused quite a stir...."Hey, what are you eating? That smells incredible!"
So that's that. Last thing, somewhere back in this thread I mentioned that I put some foil covered fire bricks in there to keep the heat, but I chunked those. They just made the smoker work harder to come up to temp. More of a heat sink than anything.
Thanks for looking.
Here's the simple fix cooling rack.
Here's the before shot of some storebought meatballs wrapped in some of my home made bacon. I stuffed each with a small cube of mozzarella, then hit them with a touch of KIller Hogs rub. Smoked with straight cherry.
Man were these good. One had a cheese blowout, but other than that they were quite tasty. Reheating some at work caused quite a stir...."Hey, what are you eating? That smells incredible!"
So that's that. Last thing, somewhere back in this thread I mentioned that I put some foil covered fire bricks in there to keep the heat, but I chunked those. They just made the smoker work harder to come up to temp. More of a heat sink than anything.
Thanks for looking.
