I unwrapped them and put them in my MES for 1 1/2 hours at 100˚ without smoke.
Then I lit both ends of a Hickory filled A-MAZE-N-SMOKER (6" X 6"), and put it in the bottom of my MES30.
After another hour, I bumped the heat up to 110˚.
Then 120˚ for one hour.
Then 130˚ for another hour.
After 3 1/2 hours my A-MAZE-N-SMOKER burned out, so I bumped it up to 150˚, and threw some dust & some Apple chips in my MES chip drawer.
I am finally starting these tonight to put on the smoker on Friday and have a question about the timeline. I am probably reading this wrong but it says they went on for 1 1/2 hours with no smoke, then another hour with smoke, then another hour at 120 and another hour at 130. I have that at 4 1/2 hours, but the next line says at 3 1/2 hours you bumped it to 150. That is confusing, but it's from 2010, when I was just starting to do "Step by Steps". I got better as I got more experience in writing these up. Actually at that point it was 4 1/2 hours in the smoker. However the AMNS ran out of Sawdust after 3 1/2 hours. So I threw some dust & chips in the chip tray, instead of reloading my AMNS. Then I continued bumping the temp up from there.
Does it really matter the times and temps as long as you are starting at a low temp and stepping the temp to maximise the smoke? The temp progress doesn't have to be the same. Once you have the Pellicle, which is the reason for no smoke in the beginning, then if you want you can hold it at 140° or 160° to get lots of time giving it smoke. Then when you want to get it done, jack it up to 180° or even 190° to get Internal temp to your finished temp (160°).
Thanks for your help, I'm really excited to try these. I am using a 50/50 mix of beef and pork, my neighbor is making buffalo with added pork fat at the same time. I'm using a MES 30 and my neighbor a Bradley. Vancouver Island Dark Lager will be consumed while sitting in the smoke and "supervising" the process.
Just yell if you have any more questions (If you PM me I won't miss it).
Bear