TBS and smoke ring with MES cold smoking kit?

[husker3in4]

Disclaimer: I will likely never cold smoke with this, I only hot smoke beef/pork with it.

I bought one of these about a month ago to go with my MES 30" first gen smoker. The smoker worked well enough, but adding chips/pellets every 45 mins was getting old. I thought I read somewhere that you could get the smoke ring with it?

Any thoughts on chips vs pellets with this cold smoking it? I have mainly used pellets with it, and have a hard time getting the TBS. I also leaves it with a sticky, clumpy residue inside the chip chute and leaves the cold smoking unit smelling like an ashtray instead of that sweet smell of hickory like I am used to before I used this smoke generator.

How do you clean it? Ive soaked mine in warm soapy water and tried to scrape off the sticky funk on the inside.

I want this thing to workout, the concept is so convenient. Im going to smoke a pork butt and a chuck roast today and want the best smoke flavor. Help?

 

[fivetricks]

Add a mailbox mod with the pellet tray. Perfect for cold smoking and you only have to change pellets every 10 hours or so.

Edit, I don't ever really "clean" mine. Maybe scrape the big chunks off with a small paint scraper or use a small butane torch to clean up the rack holder now and again.

I foil wrap all my pans though. Makes for a better time

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

You will not get a smoke ring with an electric smoker with or without a mailbox mod... period. Electric smokers lack the necessary combustion ingredients to produce nitric oxide and carbon monoxide. I've read where folks have added a briquette to the smoker's chip tray with mixed results. With that said, a smoke ring is not really necassary for for good Q.

Have you considered using an AMNP tray to achieve TBS? Just about all MES owners here on the forum swear by them. Of course, the AMNP is pellet only, no chips.

 

[dr k]

You will not get a smoke ring with an electric smoker with or without a mailbox mod... period. Electric smokers lack the necessary combustion ingredients to produce nitric oxide and carbon monoxide. I've read where folks have added a briquette to the smoker's chip tray with mixed results. With that said, a smoke ring is not really necassary for for good Q.

Have you considered using an AMNP tray to achieve TBS? Just about all MES owners here on the forum swear by them. Of course, the AMNP is pellet only, no chips.

This doesn't produce a smoke ring consistently but it's for flavor not looks. Oh, before I got the PID controller it eliminated temp swings from the added heat, making short cycles. I get baby smoke rings but found Jack Daniel's charcoal pellets for flavor = 0 smoke ring but easy to mix pellets in the Amnps with other pellets.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

This doesn't produce a smoke ring consistently but it's for flavor not looks. Oh, before I got the PID controller it eliminated temp settings from the added heat, making short cycles. I get baby smoke rings but found Jack Daniel's charcoal pellets for flavor = 0 smoke ring but easy to mix pellets in the Amnps with other pellets.
View attachment 376742 [AT

I have wanted to try the briquette method just out of curiosity. But if I burned up the EZ-Bake, the wife would kill me. Seems the smoker has fallen under her "supervision". :D:D:cool:

 

[normanaj]

I get baby smoke rings but found Jack Daniel's charcoal pellets for flavor = 0 smoke ring but easy to mix pellets in the Amnps with other pellets.

You might also like the Lumberjack charcoal/hickory(20/80) blend.Nice flavor.

 

[SmokinAl]

If your going to use the MB cold smoking unit to hot or cold smoke you need to separate it from the smoker. It produces a lot of creosote & that needs to be taken out before the smoke hits the smoke chamber. A long tube will allow the smoke to cool & the creosote will remain in the tube & you will get clean smoke in the smoker. Personally I think the Amazwn pellet tray or tube is a much better option, but that being said here is the way I set up the MB cold smoke unit on my MES40 for cold smoking bacon.

Hope this helps!
Al

 

[husker3in4]

Well I got the problem figured out, sort of. I had been burning pellets in there with mixed results. It was leaving alot of sticky residue in the cold smoking kit so I took it out and soaked it in soapy water and got it clean. Then i went back to using chips (hickory) and smoked an 8lb butt and a 3.5 lb chuck roast. 11 hrs later they were done and it was the best chuck I have ever made. No smoke ring but the meat had a red tint to it near the top and had a delicious sweet hickory flavor. I suppose the stove pipe or dryer hose would work too, I just dont know if its needed for hot smoking as it turned out perfect without it. I guess the lesson here is use chips, not pellets.

 

[tallbm]

I didn't think the cold smoking attachment was meant for pellets but only for chips.
Also I believe a number of the guys who have the attachment also use a dimmer switch chord to hook it up. This way they can control the attachment to prevent it from over smoldering/undersmoldering the wood and to get the best smoke they could make.

I hope this info helps :)

 

[Princeau99]

I didn't think the cold smoking attachment was meant for pellets but only for chips.
Also I believe a number of the guys who have the attachment also use a dimmer switch chord to hook it up. This way they can control the attachment to prevent it from over smoldering/undersmoldering the wood and to get the best smoke they could make.

I hope this info helps :)

I have been reading Amazon reviews for this attachment and found this:

"Works great. I would just like to clarify one thing though that I have seen in other reviews that looks like it is in error. Many people mention getting too much smoke from this unit. Others have responded to use less wood, but I think the real culprit here is that they leave the unit powered ON after the chips are already lit. If you keep the unit powered on, the heating element will stay on throughout the smoking process and produce a much faster burn with a lot of creosote (white and/or black smoke). This leads to bitter food with an overly smoked flavor. I believe the correct way to use this is to load the chute with chips, turn it on until the chips at the bottom have lit (wait until you see a steady stream of smoke), and then TURN IT OFF (I only leave mine on for 15-20 minutes to get the chips lit initially). If you turn the unit off after the chips are lit, they reduce to a nice slow burn and keep the chips directly above lit as they burn down. This produces a nice thin blue smoke (TBS), which is exactly what you want. Using this method works great for me."

Has anyone here tried this?

 

[tallbm]

I have been reading Amazon reviews for this attachment and found this:

"Works great. I would just like to clarify one thing though that I have seen in other reviews that looks like it is in error. Many people mention getting too much smoke from this unit. Others have responded to use less wood, but I think the real culprit here is that they leave the unit powered ON after the chips are already lit. If you keep the unit powered on, the heating element will stay on throughout the smoking process and produce a much faster burn with a lot of creosote (white and/or black smoke). This leads to bitter food with an overly smoked flavor. I believe the correct way to use this is to load the chute with chips, turn it on until the chips at the bottom have lit (wait until you see a steady stream of smoke), and then TURN IT OFF (I only leave mine on for 15-20 minutes to get the chips lit initially). If you turn the unit off after the chips are lit, they reduce to a nice slow burn and keep the chips directly above lit as they burn down. This produces a nice thin blue smoke (TBS), which is exactly what you want. Using this method works great for me."

Has anyone here tried this?

Hi there and welcome!

The review makes sense since the chips are gravity fed. Hopefully someone tries out the approach a good number of times and reports back on what to expect from it.

 

[dr k]

The gravity feed smokers I've seen are completely sealed with a sealed lid and a straight through airflow through the burning bottom inch of fuel or so unlike the snaking unsealed airflow of the slow smoker MB attachment. Sealing the hopper and a short run straight through at the bottom where the burn, heat, airflow and smoke stay eliminates wafting smoke throughout the slow smoker, gumming up the gravity feed design at the lower, middle and top of the hopper. Then adding tubing between the smoker and the slow smoker would condense creosote there instead of the throughout the slow smoker and lid. A 3" alum T sticking out of the chip loader hole with the opening facing down with a topless beer can in it for ash clean out and hole in the top opposite side of the T to slide in and out the sealed top cap hopper bottom burner tube with a grate or something similar would be a cleaner gum free gravity feed if you have to use chips but I have the Amnps in a mailbox mod. Same thing but the fuel is horizontal instead of vertical and doesn't need to drop to burn.