Go big they say,so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[misfish]

I did. Another deal to be had, so, snagged this Big Chief. Dents had no effect on the smoker,but it would seem it was the cause of the discounted price . Oh I am so devilishly sly .

All I can say is wow, this thing is going to be so nice to use. No more cutting up ribs in to 3 pieces,or the same with fish. Just throw the whole slab on. 5 racks and huge burner . The only thing I need is to either drill a small hole on top to get my thermometer in it,or buy one of those fancy wireless ones. I am not a nerd nut for these, so might just do the hole thing . Unless someone can convince me different .

I will put a few pans of smoke through it Tomorrow and Thursday to season it, then this weekend well,who the hell knows what I am going to do.

Oldest boy will get my other smoker. He is happy,as he loves smoked fish and ribs and beef . It will be a learning curve for him, but I know once he gets the hang of it,he will have his river hound buddies asking to have their catches smoked .

I love new shiny things.

[Terry]

Nice 

[ketchenany]

Smoke away my friend! So you went ‘big’ but going to drill a ‘small’ hole! 
I just purchased this for my BBQ, has the long cord that you may be able put the wire in the door and still close it. 
 

[glen]

One of the best meals I’ve ever had.  
fine dining and they served bc smoked salmon.  
I can almost taste it right now.  

[smitty55]

I've had 3 Big Chiefs, first two were top loaders and the newest one is a front loader. It's handy to access things without having to pull out the whole rack. What I don't like is that they only put the rack supports at the front and back instead of all the way so if you pull it out partway and let go the back of the rack tilts down and things slide off if you're not careful.  Now you'll be able to do bigger chunks of meat like picnics but with a max temp of 160° or 170 maybe on a hot sunny day you'll still have to finish things off in the oven. That last picnic I finished yesterday was over 8 hours in the smoker and then 5 1/2 hours in the oven at 235° for it to reach 200°. It turned out great, super moist with ton's of flavour and I ended up with almost 2 cups of juice in the foil that I let sit in a measuring cup until the fat had separated at the top and then sucked out the juice under it with a baster and heated it to a boil in a pot. Between the mustard, spice rub, ginger ale and maple syrup the flavour is fantastic and it thickened up well with a corn starch slurry. It will work well too for pulled pork sandwiches for sure.
Have fun with it Brian, now you'll be able to do up a smoker full of old bread to make crumbs. I've found that the regular store baked white bread loaves soak in the smoke well and give the nicest light crumbs that stick well for coatings. Sourdough works ok but you can tell it's a bit heavier. I've added a loaf of "brown" into the mix too, but stay away from whole grain and heavier breads if you want it for coatings. It's fantastic on the schnitzels, the smoke flavouring brings them to a whole new level. One last thing, I give the dried chunks smaller/shorter shots of smoke but spread out with a break between. So instead of 2 full pans I use 4 half pans. The result is a smokey flavour that stands out from the crowd. I'll be using 4 cups easy tomorrow for a freshly sliced, trimmed, and pounded loin I did up for schnitzel tomorrow.

Cheers

[woodenboater]

go wireless. Have a Maverick temp probe (two probes, one for grill and one for the meat) from HD. It's nice being able to monitor temps from inside, esp if weather is damn ugly. but yeah, still gonna need a small hole for the probe, think maybe 1/4", 3/8" tops.

[smitty55]

So I did up that pork loin yesterday, took a good while to slice,trim and then pound down the cutlets with a rubber mallet. I got 20 all told of different sizes. It was exactly five pounds of cutlets,  maybe 2 lbs of trim for mince pork and another pile of waste, mostly fat. So today wifey did the prep, first dip in seasoned flour, then egg and milk mix and then into the smoked bread crumbs. Placed them on parchment paper on two large cookie sheets and the into the fridge for a good hour. Then the two of us got at frying them in two cast iron pans with a good two inches of oil and some butter mixed in and in 30 minutes we were done as it takes maybe three minutes at the most to get them nice and brown and crispy. Once cooled they got vacuum sealed and frozen. Makes for a great quick meal, once thawed it's only a quick fry to heat them up.  Did I mention how damn good they are hehe. I could never go back to store bought and I'd put them up against any restaurant easily. My daughter moved in for a few months while looking for a house and once she'd tried them her eyes lit up whenever I told her there was one in the fridge for her. I did remember the before and after pics this time. I know I posted before about these but wth, they're worth it.

EDIT: oops, I meant to post this in the cooking thread, but the bread and paprika were done in the smoker

Edited July 22, 2021 by smitty55

[woodenboater]

8 hours ago, smitty55 said:

So I did up that pork loin yesterday, took a good while to slice,trim and then pound down the cutlets with a rubber mallet. I got 20 all told of different sizes. It was exactly five pounds of cutlets,  maybe 2 lbs of trim for mince pork and another pile of waste, mostly fat. So today wifey did the prep, first dip in seasoned flour, then egg and milk mix and then into the smoked bread crumbs. Placed them on parchment paper on two large cookie sheets and the into the fridge for a good hour. Then the two of us got at frying them in two cast iron pans with a good two inches of oil and some butter mixed in and in 30 minutes we were done as it takes maybe three minutes at the most to get them nice and brown and crispy. Once cooled they got vacuum sealed and frozen. Makes for a great quick meal, once thawed it's only a quick fry to heat them up.  Did I mention how damn good they are hehe. I could never go back to store bought and I'd put them up against any restaurant easily. My daughter moved in for a few months while looking for a house and once she'd tried them her eyes lit up whenever I told her there was one in the fridge for her. I did remember the before and after pics this time. I know I posted before about these but wth, they're worth it.

EDIT: oops, I meant to post this in the cooking thread, but the bread and paprika were done in the smoker

I'd inhale those sooo fast...mmmm

[mamona]

On 7/20/2021 at 4:37 PM, misfish said:

I love new shiny things

Get it dirty! Congrats

[akaShag]

Attaboy Brian!  I have been using a Big Chief Top loader for a couple decades.  As Smitty says, it doesn't get all that hot, so when I want a hot smoke I cover it with a cardboard box.  I also do that in the winter time.

I have never used a thermometer in any of my smokers............

Doug

[misfish]

I did 2 smokes this weekend . First was another one of those flank steaks. The new smoker gets hotter then the little chief . I could hold a temp of 170 deg covered with the box . I could of went 1 hour less then I did . There was pink, but I like the red juicy . Non the less, it was still tasty as heck.

So with lesson learned, I did not cover the box today,and kept a full controlled 145 deg for my buddies smoked salmon he dropped off . This thing was huge. Used 2 grates as I had to cut it in half . 3 pans of apple and 6 hours later using the 2 middle racks, all good.

Next weekend,pulled pork and try that smoked bread crumbs and smoked Paprika that Smitty raves about.

[misfish]

All cooled and seal packed. Love when it looks professional an all .

 

[Terry]

Looks great