Very well done forum BigPoppa, spent an hour looking through and decided to register as I am sure I will be seriously needing all the improvements I can get in search of the perfect smoke.
I always wanted a smoker, so 2 tears ago I bought all the items to make a homemade smoker out of 55 gal drums. Found the plans under the name of Big Smokey or something like that. Cast iron stove parts from Vozelgang. My neighbor owns an auto mechanic shop so one Sunday afternoon we built it! (3 weeks in my home garage I'm sure).
First cook was at his house on Labor Day for 35 people - no stress 6 racks and 2 pork butts...one guest from North Carolina could not believe it was our 1st try.
So far so good...smoke once a month or so year round and it can get quite cold up here in New England so tough in winter to maintain the 225 sometimes.
I killed my homemade friend though just before Xmas. 6 pork shoulders were on for 14 hours and I could not get the internal meat temp above 170, sat there from 19:00 to 22:00. So I went against wisdom and threw 2 or 3 hickory logs in the lower fire chamber (embers and soaked chips only usually). 23:00 showed 350 chamber temp and 180 for the meat- good. Went back out 45 mins later and I could hear the inferno and the thermometer for cooker chamber registered HHH which is HOT and meat thermometer was 210, oops! Grabbed 3 shoulders, brought those in, grabbed the pan and went back out and my backyard was lit up from the flames shooting out the top! Yes, I had elbow length rubber gloves, saved the other 3 which had fallen down since the grate had collapsed due to the heat. Opening up the lid must have fed enough oxygen to light the grease up
2 years of monitoring that smoker every 45 minutes for temp changes has really caused me to absolutely love this idea of pellet smoking. I will be getting a Traeger I believe, only because of a friend in the industry at a very very good price. I hope I don't realize some of the issues I have read about, but we will see.
Now to start enjoying the day (and over night) while seeing the smiles of New Englanders eating BBQ, real BBQ, again. They ain't used to it.
But what I am really looking forward to is dinner for my family. I cook meals every day but never smoked as it takes too long and is labor intensive on Big Mio. I am really looking forward to meals off the Traeger (lil Tex Elite is my current choice) 3 or more times a week - which going back to my 1st paragraph is where I think this forum will help me greatly.
Happy Smoking!
Miolnir
(Norwegian - it's the name of Thor's hammer and yup, even Scandinavians appreciate the correct way to cook meat)
I always wanted a smoker, so 2 tears ago I bought all the items to make a homemade smoker out of 55 gal drums. Found the plans under the name of Big Smokey or something like that. Cast iron stove parts from Vozelgang. My neighbor owns an auto mechanic shop so one Sunday afternoon we built it! (3 weeks in my home garage I'm sure).
First cook was at his house on Labor Day for 35 people - no stress 6 racks and 2 pork butts...one guest from North Carolina could not believe it was our 1st try.
So far so good...smoke once a month or so year round and it can get quite cold up here in New England so tough in winter to maintain the 225 sometimes.
I killed my homemade friend though just before Xmas. 6 pork shoulders were on for 14 hours and I could not get the internal meat temp above 170, sat there from 19:00 to 22:00. So I went against wisdom and threw 2 or 3 hickory logs in the lower fire chamber (embers and soaked chips only usually). 23:00 showed 350 chamber temp and 180 for the meat- good. Went back out 45 mins later and I could hear the inferno and the thermometer for cooker chamber registered HHH which is HOT and meat thermometer was 210, oops! Grabbed 3 shoulders, brought those in, grabbed the pan and went back out and my backyard was lit up from the flames shooting out the top! Yes, I had elbow length rubber gloves, saved the other 3 which had fallen down since the grate had collapsed due to the heat. Opening up the lid must have fed enough oxygen to light the grease up
2 years of monitoring that smoker every 45 minutes for temp changes has really caused me to absolutely love this idea of pellet smoking. I will be getting a Traeger I believe, only because of a friend in the industry at a very very good price. I hope I don't realize some of the issues I have read about, but we will see.
Now to start enjoying the day (and over night) while seeing the smiles of New Englanders eating BBQ, real BBQ, again. They ain't used to it.
But what I am really looking forward to is dinner for my family. I cook meals every day but never smoked as it takes too long and is labor intensive on Big Mio. I am really looking forward to meals off the Traeger (lil Tex Elite is my current choice) 3 or more times a week - which going back to my 1st paragraph is where I think this forum will help me greatly.
Happy Smoking!
Miolnir
(Norwegian - it's the name of Thor's hammer and yup, even Scandinavians appreciate the correct way to cook meat)