Smoking & Grilling

I have had some luck with throttling the propane pressure down at the bottle. Not the best solution but it does aloe you too get a smaller flame on your burner.

Thanks for the information Jonathan, was curious to see if anyone had done jerky. Think I will just do it all in the smoker.

@PapaSop Pretty good score there.

@ButcherBrown In my opinion the PK100 is about as good as it is possible to get with this size smoker, I have done hams and bacon, ribs and pork butts in it and it the color and smoke flavor are on the same level as the big commercial smokehouse. Now, it is not without issues, the price is pretty high and you can only use sawdust in it but that’s about it, other than that the insulation is amazing, the heat wave is very reasonable compare to other smokers and the vents system adds some good versatlity. Also, we never use the lower watt setting.

So I pulled 15 chubs off of my WSM at 140 and put them in a turkey fryer pot without bagging . Everything worked great , fast and the casings stayed perfect, bottom line I guess is no need to bag. Thanks for all the info

@processhead No, I have never done 100 lb in it. I can say after loading it with 25 lb of the 2.9" X 24" casings (or whatever the biggest is) I believe it is possible but it is going to be very crowded in there for sure. Also, you might be able to get more than one row of the shorter in there.

Thanks for the information.

@shoprat53 Yes, grinding a 3rd time isnt a bad idea with chicken sausage either. Basically, make it goup before you stuff it and I agree that Sure Gel is better than soy for chicken. Another thing I have used is super bind with chicken and that has worked well. It doesn’t actually have protein in it but it does a very good job in catching all the moisture that the meat expells.

Thanks for the report. Will have to put those two on the list.

You will be asking yourself why you did not try this sooner. Tasty leftovers for days to come. Also, BBQ freezes well.

looks good like a home built pk 100

How do briskets and ribs turn out in the PK100? This is what I would use it for most of the time outside of sausage making.

@NDMike I do all my smoking on a stick burner. Best way to control it for low temp is a small fire to start like @processhead said. Flue wide open and I usually close the firebox vent all the way. If the temp starts to drop just crack the vent on the fire. When you hit the stall throw in some more wood and give it more air. [image: 1615753754855-smoker.jpg]

No sugar. Just salt, black pepper, and garlic powder on this one.

@Midwest_kc sounds fun

@Parksider I have done a lot of custom controls on a variety of smokers and coolers. One thing I do before drilling and cutting any steel is do trial runs with just temporary placement of sensors and heat sources. After I know something will function correctly, then I start planning the permanent installation. I never rush the planning phase, because I want to avoid making a big hole only to find out something I can’t see is in the way . Usually a do a lot of measurements on the inside and outside. On a double walled box, once I know where I think I want an opening, I will drill a tiny pilot hole, maybe 3/32nd" and just through the first layer. Then I use a tiny wire to probe the hole and make sure there are no wires, structures or other obstacles between the inner and outer skin of the cabinet. Once I have determined nothing is in the way, I drill all the way through with the pilot bit and then complete the hole to the final dimensions.

The main rule for smoking is that you never want the product making contact in the smoker. For best results, the product needs even flow of heat, smoke and air around the product. Depending on the size of what you are smoking, this makes the spacing distance kind of a moving target. At a minimum, you probably want your rack system spacing capable of handling the largest product you ever intend to smoke. Another option is to devise a flexible system that can be adjusted to suit the dimensions of the product you intend to smoke .

@marvsBBQ said in More Smoke on an Already Smoked fully cooked ham: @jbeach when we would cook 2 we would use 2 that weighed 10-12 lbs each so we wouldn’t have TOO much left over but always enough to send home with who ever wanted some. I would keep the bones to boil down for turkey soup and turkey enchiladas ALWAYS gravy with roasted garlic & cream cheese mashed potatoes

@shoprat53 Depends on what you mean by better and what different peoples health requirements are. I am firm believer that it isn’t fat that is making us fat but a combination of things. I myself eat a lot of fat, probably close to double the RDA on many days but I try not to mix it with carbs and I try not to eat junk food. In general though, yes, I would think for the average person that all chicken brat would be healthier. I’ve brought this up to our old application specialist a few times when I was trying to make a low fat chicken brat and he always told me not to use the word healthier because it is different depending on goals. Sorry, rambled a bit there!

Correction, it was -5° not 15°. We finally broke our cold snap here and I swear people are walking around in t-shirts in 30 weather because it feels so much nicer!