New in Atlanta - MES

[hamwalk]

Hello – New to the site from Atlanta. First smoking experience was working at a “Swine and Dine” fundraiser at SIU-C, 20 some years ago. After that most of my smoking has been on a Weber kettle using indirect heat adding chips throughout the day. Found a Masterbuilt Electric floor model on clearance and couldn’t help myself. We seasoned it according to the manual Saturday. Spare ribs smoked with hickory Sunday. Not bad for a trial run but the ribs still had some “new smoker” taste. Any advice on breaking in the unit would be appreciated.

 

[meateater]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks here and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.

 

[chef jeff tx]

Howdy, welcome to the SMF!!

 

[bassman]

Welcome to the forum. As far as breaking in the smoker, just put in a brisket. By the time it's done, you smoker will be pretty well seasoned.

 

[illini]

Welcome to SMF
If you seasoned the smoker according to the manual then the following could be your problem.

New users of the MES will tend to add too much wood each time they load the wood tray and dump it. Since you used hickory as the smoking wood it would be easy to do.
Each time you add wood (30 to 45 minutes) try using just 5 to 7 chips or 2 small chuncks (about the size of a marshmallow).
You only want just a faint amount of smoke coming out the top vent which should be all the way open. Try using apple as it is much milder...
If your smoked meat tends to "bite" your tongue the above is probably true.

Marvin

 

[chainsaw]

Welcome aboard friend!
After a while of smoking regardless your unit will be "broken in." However, it is wise to run the unit empty as the instructions mention to cook off the oily residue.
Happy smoking!

 

[etcher1]

Welcome to the SMF forum, You came to the right place. Good people and good info.

 

[deltadude]

Illini's advice is to be remembered! The MES delivers big smoke flavor with very little wood.

As for seasoning. I completely wiped the insides out with a warm damp rag. Left open to dry or dry out with another towel. I then sprayed the insides with a good coating of PAM. Follow the manual's directions about preheat from there, add wood about 1/3 cup for seasoning, and do that several times for the next 1.5 hours, or longer.

But you have already cooked. You can still wipe the inside out, spray pam, but it really is not necessary. I would heat the unit to 270-275º once at that temp add wood, and season for another hour or two, about 15 chips every 30 min.

Rem. Illini's amount of chips that is all you need for actual meat smoking! If you add a 20 chips you will get lots of white smoke instead of TBS.

 

[beer-b-q]

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[mballi3011]

First off welcome Ham Walk to SMF. It sounds like you are well on your way to be an outstanding new member of this fine site. You'll like it here cause there are abunch of good folks here that would just love to help you out with just about anything to do with smoking. We really like to have newbies here because they can bring in a new propective to how things are done. There's nothing like a new set of eyes to give and new way to make things that little differant to make things alittle better. So I hope you know about the Qview here.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=58920
Here's a link to photobucket it's free and easy to download pictures. Then if your really new to smoking Look up the E-course.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...play.php?f=127
It's also free and it will give you the basics of smoking. So after all of that you just need to go grab something to smoke and if you have any question just post them here and we will answer it quickly so you don't have any mishaps with your smoke.
Welcome To Your New Addiction

 

[olewarthog]

Welcome. Always good to see more Georgia folks join in.

 

[smoke itif ya got it]

Welcome all kinds of info here

 

[hamwalk]

I'm feeling the warmth already. I think Illini might have nailed the issue. We are used to filling an iron smoker box with chips and smoking over charcoal. We were pretty heavy handed with the hickory. The Pam idea makes sense and who could object to a brisket?

Thanks Again

 

[richoso1]

Welcome to the SMF, plenty of MES owners here who can offer you some great suggestions. it's all good my friend.

 

[treegje]

Welcome to the SMF, We are glad to have you onboard