So I started smoking salts quite a bit, and was selling them for a short time on Etsy until I didn't feel like doing it anymore.
I had the same issues with the MES at first and was trying to find a balance of time and heat. Anyway, for me at least the AMPTS was part of the solution, and worked out pretty well, but I started doing smoke in both the chip tray AND the AMPTS, it needs to be REALLY smoky in there to achieve a good result. I also found that a level of moisture helped a lot, I know it seems weird to introduce moisture into there with salt but just a little bit at occasional intervals (what I would do was only about 1/4 cup water in the pan during the first part of the cook). You also need to stir the salt around every now and again to make sure its even. I even started to work on making a sort of "cement mixer" attachment for a rotisserie but never finished it.
All of that said, I did have results just doing the AMPTS in the smoker at 275 for a full 12 hours, so if you have the time it does need it. I think its just a "results vary" situation. If you have a charcoal smoker it really works a TON better, at the tail end of my selling it, I tried a few batches in my UDS with extra chunks of hickory and oak and those came out really nice after a much shorter time.
Another thing to consider is a smaller grain salt, or a flaky salt. I was selling only course sea salt for the first couple months, and it really was not very smoky even trying the above stuff. So if you can get some flaky salt, or some "fluer de sel" it will hold the smoke a lot better, and also looks nicer for gifts.
One last thing to think about is to "cheat" a bit, maybe not a bit, possibly a lot, but basically I purchased some "hickory powder" from a spice company online, and would put a tiny bit into the salt, shake it all around and sift out whatever would settle to the bottom. I never did that with any I sold, that was just an experiment, and I did do that for the stuff I gave as Christmas gifts cause I knew the people who wanted it wanted it really smoky.
Anyway hope some of that helps. I too was surprised at the poor result of just doing it in an electric smoker alone. especially considering the coating the smoker was getting on the glass, I thought it would adhear better to the salt.
I had the same issues with the MES at first and was trying to find a balance of time and heat. Anyway, for me at least the AMPTS was part of the solution, and worked out pretty well, but I started doing smoke in both the chip tray AND the AMPTS, it needs to be REALLY smoky in there to achieve a good result. I also found that a level of moisture helped a lot, I know it seems weird to introduce moisture into there with salt but just a little bit at occasional intervals (what I would do was only about 1/4 cup water in the pan during the first part of the cook). You also need to stir the salt around every now and again to make sure its even. I even started to work on making a sort of "cement mixer" attachment for a rotisserie but never finished it.
All of that said, I did have results just doing the AMPTS in the smoker at 275 for a full 12 hours, so if you have the time it does need it. I think its just a "results vary" situation. If you have a charcoal smoker it really works a TON better, at the tail end of my selling it, I tried a few batches in my UDS with extra chunks of hickory and oak and those came out really nice after a much shorter time.
Another thing to consider is a smaller grain salt, or a flaky salt. I was selling only course sea salt for the first couple months, and it really was not very smoky even trying the above stuff. So if you can get some flaky salt, or some "fluer de sel" it will hold the smoke a lot better, and also looks nicer for gifts.
One last thing to think about is to "cheat" a bit, maybe not a bit, possibly a lot, but basically I purchased some "hickory powder" from a spice company online, and would put a tiny bit into the salt, shake it all around and sift out whatever would settle to the bottom. I never did that with any I sold, that was just an experiment, and I did do that for the stuff I gave as Christmas gifts cause I knew the people who wanted it wanted it really smoky.
Anyway hope some of that helps. I too was surprised at the poor result of just doing it in an electric smoker alone. especially considering the coating the smoker was getting on the glass, I thought it would adhear better to the salt.
