New MES 40 owner and first time electric smoker operator questio s

[redrum]

I am a long time lurker first time poster.  I have been reading and researching this forums for a bit and finally took the plunge and replaced my home made oil barrel smoker with a MES 40 from Sams club...THANK YOU FREE MEMBERSHIP WEEKEND!

I love to smoke and usually smoke whole chicken, and ribs.  I wanted to expand what so i got a easier to use smoker(MES).  I am going to be smoking  4 chickens, 8 racks of ribs and 2 boston butts for our fantasy draft in a few weeks and i wanted to get some feed back about why i should get the A-MAZE-N products over being cheep and using wood chips(defacto set up).  I constantly use the BRITU rub but would be open to other rbs approaches.  I am a northerner (born in the USA but grew up in Canada and all my family is Canadian) but lived in Texas, and KC a bit but my southern wife and in laws turned me on to what i think is the greatest BBQ....southern BBQ(vinnegar sauce).  So please keep that in mind when offering up advice.

Outside of the A-MAZE-N products and verifying if my smoker runs hot or cold compared to the read out what else do i need or should consider.  I have read about different thermometers on here are they needed?  Should i use the old fashion thermometer(non fancy digital read out)...i prefer to be frugal but i will bend for great smoked food!

Thanks,

Liam

 

[tromaron]

The AMNPS rocks.  Lets you smoke for up to 10hrs without adding chips every little bit.  Best thing about it is that it consistently puts out thin blue smoke, & none of the nasty thick white stuff.  The Pitmaster Blend pellets are my favorite. 

Remote thermometers are good because you can keep track of the temps without opening up the door.  The Maverick 732 is great because of the duel probes.  I love my MES 40, but the cabinet thermometer is notoriously inaccurate.  The duel probes on the Maverick let you monitor your food as well as the cabinet temp. 

As far as rubs go, I use Wild Willie's No.1, & Famous Dave's Rib Rub.  I found the recipe for Willie's on this site.  It's incredible on pork butts!

 

[redrum]

Appreciate the response Troma.

I have read a lot of posts about calibrating my MES.  Would i just heat up the unit take my thermometer stick it in a potato and see what my read out says?  Sorry if this is a stupid question, as i think that is correct.  I currently have a digital "weekend warrior" thermometer, can i get by with that and get the A-MAZE-N pellet system first or should i go the other route?  I personally am not a peeker, as i am a drinker i often forget to check my smoker rather then always messing with it.

If i get the pellet system, what if any changes or mods should i make to my MES?

 

[red dog]

Good luck with your new MES. I seasoned my new MES 40 Friday and kept track of temps with my Mav. My therm on my smoker and my Mav were never off by more than six degrees, so it is possible to get one with a fairly accurate therm. I wish the one in our oven in the kitchen was that accurate. That being said, I love having the Mav for confirmation and would never want to be without one. I also have the AMNPS but haven't used it yet.

 

[rabbithutch]

Howdy, redrum!

Been using the MES40 for 7 or 8 months now. When I first got it, I made some rookie mistakes which I'll share just in case.

First, be very careful with the remote. If you bump the ON/OFF button accidentally after you've started, it will turn the unit OFF. At the very least, this is annoying; but it can be expensive. With poultry especially, I would never restart the unit unless it happened within a few minutes of starting time because it can be deadly to let meat stay in the danger zone (40-140°) for very long. When in doubt, throw it out.

Second, be sure that you set the timer for a much longer time than you think it will take to cook your meat. It is not precision work. Sometimes things just take a lot longer. Cook to IT not to time.

Third, because you already mentioned the AMNPS, I suggest you go to Lowes and get one of those 3" flue elbows. I don't understand exactly why, but this does a much better job of keeping the TBS going IMO. You just jam it into the space around the vents at the top (assuming you've got a 2011 or earlier).

Fourth, foil your water pan to make clean up easier.

Fifth, get a ceramic floor tile, foil it and place it on top of the heating element. This will help manage hot spots.

DaveOmak has some great recommendations. Search for posts he's made using Advanced Search.

HTH

 

[nozzleman]

Using the amazen product over the basic setup allows you the freedom of not adding chips every hour or so, since it will provide long term smoke with one load. The other thing that it is good for is doing cold smokes, if you want to smoke cheese for instance you can get smoke without adding much heat to the box. You can't do that with the basic set up.

 

[tromaron]

The only mods I've found necessary are the ones Rabbit mentioned, ceramic tile to fix the hot spot, & 3" elbow to help with the draft.  Couldn't agree more about being careful with the mes remote.  It's way easy to turn it off & not notice til it's too late.  I'd recommend something forgiving like a pork butt for your first smoke with it, just til you get a feel for how the temp is & how it reacts to food. My temp gets a little wonky after I add meat, but it's easy to deal with now that I know what to expect.  Have fun with it.  It'll make some great food!

 

[redrum]

Thanks for the reply rabbit. I will be trying the ceramic tile on my second smoke this weekend of two chickens. I did not find the temperature to be off more then 6 degree when no meat was in the smoker, but then again i could be doing it wrong.

 

[redrum]

So after i add meat how should i go about checking for temperature variance. I am yet to take the plunge on the maverick. I will be ordering the amnps and the maverick tonight for my next smoke. Once i get my maverick thermo what are the steps then to test for heat variance and to ensure my temp is good when smoking. I have my draft in two weeks and want to get this process nailed before then.Thanks all!