Which Smoker?

[DMM]

I am looking to buy a new smoker.  I have a charcoal bullet type but want to get an electric that will allow me to cold smoke as well.  I am down between the Masterbuilt and the Bradley.  I hear a lot of good things about the Bradley, but wondered if the Masterbuilt might be a better choice because I do not have to use only the wood chip disks.  Any thoughts on this?

Thanks
Derek

[PICKNGRIN]

I know someone who works at Scheel's Sporting Goods.  They sell both and have more complaints on the Masterbilt.  Not sure what the problems were.  You might want to type the models in on Google and see if you can find opinions on them.

[Running Buck]

If you haven't made up your mind yet, Try  www.sausagemaker.com  out of buffalo N.Y. I got one of their 20 LB smokers two years ago. This thing does every thing I want it to do. They sell hickory saw dust and just about anything you will need for game processing or smoking.

[Al Dente]

I think Ron recently got a Bradley and he's been giving it quite a workout and seems very pleased with it.

[BigRonHuntAlot]

I spent my Christmas bonus and bought a Bradley Digital Smoker and it has been GREAT so far. I smoked some summer sausage and spicy snack sticks last week and they turned out AWESOME. If I had to smoke to serve more than 15 folks at a time I might would want something bigger. The seasoning kits from sausage maker have been right on time.  Good Luck with your decision.

[Brian P.]

I have the Maserbuilt and it has served me well. I also have a couple friends who own Bradley smokers. 1 original and 1 digital.
 The heat controls on all the models mentioned are horrible, regardless of brand. I would highly recommend the addition of a dual probe thermemeter. Something that will measure both the internal temp of the meat and the smoker temp at the same time.
 My Masterbuilt runs consistantly 20-30 deg hotter than what the digital control says. My buddy's digital Bradley is just the opposite, being colder than what the digital control says. Only way to tell this is with the second thermometer.
 I plan to replace my Masterbuilt and get a 6 rack Bradley soon. The only reason is I want something a bit bigger. The one I have now works great, just a bit small.
 My friends and I get together every year and make close to 300 pounds of venison sausage, much of it smoked. The larger size will be a great help to getting it all done.

This might give you an idea. The 1st photo is maybe half of what we made a couple weeks ago.
BP

 

 

 

[BigRonHuntAlot]

Looks Great Brian. Thanks for the pics!

 I would recommend the Maveric ET-7 thermometer with its dual probes and remote indicator that can be placed away from your smoker to let you know when that magic temp is reached. All smokers heat controls could be better but as Brian said the internal temperature of what you are smoking is the key to success.

  Where are you buying your casings and spices and what have you had the best luck with?  Thanks

[Brian P.]

I buy pretty much all my seasonings and casings from butcher-packer.com. They are located in Michigan, I believe, and you can order right online. Very fast service, too.

 If we are making snack sticks, I get those casings (19mm collagen) from sausagemaker.com. It is the only place I have seen that size.

 The casings we use depend on what we are making. For bratwurst type sausage, we use natural hog casings, breakfast sausage just gets packed in meat bags (no casing), and summer sausage/ bologna type stuff, we use synthetic fibrous casings. Casing size depends on the intended use of the sausage.

 I am sure there are some really good pre-mixed seasonings out there, but all our stuff is from recipes we have collected here and there. We are still pretty new to this, having only made sausage for 3 or 4 years now, but it is great fun and we havent "laid an egg" yet.

 For anyone who wants to start making their own sausage, they should first buy a copy of "Great Sausage Recipes" by Rytek Kutas. I consider this the bible of sausage making with loads of information and recipes. It is available from sausagemaker.com (Rytek started the company, I think), Amazon, and other places. Well worth the money. We havent found a bad recipe in it yet, either.

 Making sausage is fun, easy, and you can fine tune your recipes to taste. Cant beat it IMO.

BTW, the sausages in the picture that are in the smoker, are about 14-15" long, and 2" in diameter. If you look, you can see I had to make a few pieces to raise the top of the links higher (risers the smoke sticks are resting on), and I replaced the the water pan with a formed aluminum piece to give me more room at the bottom. Otherwise, I couldnt have smoked these links. That is my main reason for wanting the 6 rack Bradley. More length.

BP

[Goose]

I had some of stuff Brian P. makes while at the PBS banquet and it was top notch!  He said they made a lot of it but I guess I didn't totally realize the extent of theit operation until I saw the pictures!  Looks like a butcher shop!
Good job Brian!
Goose

[Brian P.]

Glad you liked it, Steve.

 You should have seen it when we had all themeat out being chunked up and ground. Looked more like a butcher shop then.

If you are going to do something, might as well do it right.

BP

[JEFF B]

lets see one of these smokers in action. give us a low down on what ya do as in prepare the smoker and firing it up and what temp to start smoking. etc etc thanks. jeff  

[Al Dente]

When I get ready to smoke, I prep several days ahead.  I trim then brine/slather/rub the meats accordingly.  About 2 hours before smoking will begin, I take the meat out to get it up to room temp.  Smoking is much better when the meat is closer to room temp.

Prepping the smoker:

If using a bullet type or WSM (water smoker), I wrap the water pan in 2 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil, then either fill the pan with water or sand.  The filled water pan is used to dispense the heat evenly without scorching or burning the meat, and it imparts a moist cooking method if using water.

If using a barrel type smoker, I line the entire barrel with 2 layers of heavy duty foil, and I line the bottom and sides with fire bricks to retain the heat.

I get the probe(s) ready, get the mop/spray ready, and start the chimney starter.  I crumple some newspaper and put in the bottom of the chimney, then fill the chimney with hardwood charcoal and light the nespaper.  While igniting the coals, I set up the firepan.  I layer lump charcoal and hickory (my go-to wood) and then wait for the coals in the chimney to be ashy and redhot.  Then I dump the coals on top of the lump/wood in the firepan.  I then wait for the temp to get to 225-270.  Then, I insert the probe(s) into the meat, set the desired alarm temp and I'll add the meat to the smoker and throw a few more chunks of wood onto the pile.  The idea is as the coal burns it will burn the wood, and that will continue for several hours, so you'll have a nice even flow of smoke and heat.  Whenever you add wood, your temp will immediately shoot up, and if you introduce more oxygen through the opening of vents, it will also increase the temp.  But, remember that the higher the temp, the faster the burn will be.

And do not keep peeking at the firepan or in the smoker.  Every 10 second peek adds 10 minutes to your cook time due to temp drop.

Hope this helps.

[JEFF B]

well thank you very much for the detailed aneswer this helps a lot as the smoker i have at the moment is a meth burner one and ya can only burn 15min at a time  its a real pain in the ass