Love your story and your moral, Willie. I've had the same smoker for over 5 years now. No mods because I'm not as adept as you and some other but I've learned to make my little guy--as I call my MES 30--turned out some incredible Q. The story of how you found and how little you paid for yours is funny. I paid quite a bit more for mine on Amazon because my wife and I rarely go to yard or garage sales. I'd never smoked before but always wanted to. So, from reading cookbooks and online smoking articles and recipes, watching some videos, and after finding SMF, I learned tips and techniques that have helped me become a pretty good home smoker. With almost every smoke I try to do an experiment to learn from. I found out this past week that you don't need to wrap a whole beef brisket for it to turn out moist and juicy with nice bark. My family also loves the smoked foods I bring to the table. After winning a beef jerky making kit in one of A-MAZE-N's monthly drawings, I've been working on turning out professional-tasting teriyaki beef jerky. It's still a work in progress. Todd and Rhonda Johnson, the company owners, are wonderful people who provide among the best customer service I've ever experienced. They do indeed deserve our support and that's why I buy wood pellets and other smoking accessories exclusively from them.
What amazes me about that little MES 30 is that you can turn out Q so good that you no longer have to go or order out BBQ at some phony BBQ franchise place. There are times I'd like to have a larger smoker so I wouldn't have to slice a whole brisket in two to make it fit inside, or so long racks of pork ribs wouldn't touch the walls before they shrink down during smoking, but this little guy works great and I've learned tons and upped my smoking game exponentially by cooking with it. I just smoked a whole beef brisket. Like you, I'm too old to stay up all night babysitting the smoke. But I started the point at 11 am last Sunday, went to bed at 10 pm that night fully trusting my MES 30 to carry on well thru the night, and just happened to wake up at 5:30 am the next morning when the brisket point had been cooked to perfection. I think those of us with a talent and love for smoking are rewarded with good luck.
I don't know if there's an art to smoking, but an argument can be made for it. To me, it's a skill, an intrinsic ability to make a number of decisions throughout the smoke to produce great food. Yes, when you have the MES 20 set up right, it IS set it and forget it. But that's not quite right, is it? There's always a series of little things to pay attention to and to do. It's not a labor intensive as a stick burner but you have to monitor the cook, which I do with my Maverick ET-733. And Willie, maybe I'm biased but when my smoking is on-point, I'll put my smoked pork ribs or brisket or turkey breast against any smoker's--pro or not (OK, I tasted some St. Louis ribs at a BBQ competition I'll never be able to match. Still the best I've ever had). Someday my beef jerky and smoked cheeses will be up there too. They're sure getting closer. And it's all so much fun.
