New to Smoking-from Pearland

[AP514]

Hey I am AP...Looking forward to Learning and trying ways of smoking on my MES..
I am new to Smoking so I look forward to all the help and suggestions I can get from the find folks here.......

AP514

 

[gmc2003]

Welcome to the site. There are plenty of MES users here that can help you out with any issues.

Chris

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I'd dare say the most popular smoker on the forums is the MES, so you'll definitely enjoy the information and knowledge here. Just be sure to get the AMNPS ASAP.

 

[tallbm]

Hey I am AP...Looking forward to Learning and trying ways of smoking on my MES..
I am new to Smoking so I look forward to all the help and suggestions I can get from the find folks here.......

AP514

Hi there and welcome!

I am a fellow MES40 (40 inch) smoker here.
Let me give you a few of the most common things for you to address so you don't have to learn the hard way with your MES :)

1. The meat and smoker temp probes with the MES are NOTORIOUS for being off. The solution is to get a good dual probe (or more probes) wireless thermometer. I always recommend the ThermoPro TP-20 as a good dual probe thermometer but there are many that will work. This is basically a MUST for every MES owner because making good smoked food is largely an exercise in using the Internal Temperature (IT) of the meat and managing the temp of the smoker. You will use 1 probe inside the meat for the IT and the other probe at meat/rack level of what you are cooking to get the real temp at meat/rack level. You can then adjust temps from there to hit the real desired temp. This is a real thing and well worth the money to buy the slightly expensive thermometers rather than lose the same amount of money ruining meat.
2. Don't use any water in the water pan of the MES. The MES is built so well you won't need to add any additional humidity or moisture than what comes from the meat. Most just foil over the water pan to make it easy to clean and leave it empty in the MES. Others like to fill the water pan with sand, bricks, etc. and foil over as well.
3. Leave the top vent fully open all the time when smoking. The one exception is if you want to recover heat in the smoker more quickly. In this case you can close it down and then open when the heat recovers.
4. Pretty much every MES owner uses the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray or tube to produce smoke with wood pellets or wood dust. The reason is that the AMNPS tray will provide up to 12 hours of perfect Thin Blue Smoke (TBS) with little to no effort once you get it sorted out in your setup. The AMNPS eliminates the need to add wood chips periodically. Some people put the AMNPS directly in their MES, others build what is called a Mailbox Mod and put the AMNPS there and hook the mailbox mod up to the MES so that the smoke is produced from outside the MES rather than inside the MES. This will be up to your preferences and what you desire to cook/smoke. I'm a mailbox mod guy but know of a number of others on here that use the AMNPS in the MES. As long as it works that is what matters :)
5. The MES will not hold a steady temp but rather swings over and below your set temp. So if you set to 225F it may swing up to 235F and drop down to 218F and will continue that cycle and basically give you an average of 225F. Just be aware of this if you plan something like a bacon or sausage smoke. Some MES units do this well others do it poorly you just have to see what yours does. Mine had 35F degree swings and wouldn't basically ever get near 275F so I did some things to change that. Others have reported less drastic problems. Your mileage may vary :)
6. Oh chicken/turkey skin. Chicken skin comes out tough and leathery unless you can smoke near 325F or you are luck your MES can give you 275F or slightly temps. Many of us have had no luck with edible chicken skin in the MES so if you run into this issue it's not you doing anything wrong it is a matter of temperature limits since the MES has a max temp of 275F. There are a number of solutions out there for this but an easy one is to cook the chicken to an IT of about 140F and then finish it skin side down on a very hot grill and you will get edible or even crispy chicken skin. A propane/gas grill is good for this.
7. I recommend you start with very simple smokes until you learn your system. Boneless skinless chicken thighs are the easiest in the world since you just season and toss them in. Chicken breast or whole chickens do well when you brine them for 12 - 24 hours. I recommend you try a pork butt/shoulder before trying beef briskets or chucks since the pork butt is a billion times more forgiving and will give you good experience with your setup in doing a large chunk of meat. From there you can get as simple or crazy as you like!

I think that is it, best of luck!

 

[SmokinLogs]

Welcome to SMF from Indiana, looking forward to seeing some of your cooking off the new smoker!