Help with a new purchase

[porkies swine]

Hello all I'm looking into buying a smokin-it #3 and wanted to ask a couple of questions first.  I want to make sure this smoker will be able to do all that i want it to.. i can tell it makes great ribs, pork butts and all of the above but I am also interested in making summer sausage, snack sticks as well as cold smoking pork bellies for bacon.  If i buy this unit i will go ahead and put the pid smoker controller in it as well as getting the cold smoker plate and maybe the jerky dryer if it is a must for the summer sausage.  it seems like plenty have had luck making summer sausage...? but was curious that with the electronic controller accompanied by the cold smoker plate will this be enough to keep the temp where it needs to be for cold smoking?

Thanks a lot

 

[Grampy]

Porkies welcome to the forum from SW Arkansas! The short answer to your question is yes, the #3 should be able to handle everything that you are wanting to do. There are several members on here that smoke summer sausage, jerky, bacon etc. with great success. I own the SI#2 so I can not offer any advice on the #3 specifically but others will chime in soon and give you some great advice. I can tell you that the you won't find a better electric smoker than the SI's.

 

[gregbooras]

Welcome from Saint Augustine Florida!

+1 on what Jimmy said!

I also own a #2 and I am very happy with my smoker.

Greg

 

[smokeasaurus]

I used the jerkey dryer for the first time yesterday and it is real nice. The #3 can handle anything you throw at it!!

 

[SuperDave]

I use my #4 for cold smoking cheese and can manage 2 hours of smoking and stay under 80 degrees with the cold plate and some ice.  For sausage, are you somewhere around 150?  The Auber PID controller can do that without a cold plate. 

 

[porkies swine]

thanks for the great insight guys, i am getting pretty excited about getting a #3.  had another question in regards to the cold smoking.  reading around on the forum sounds like you have to turn the heat on for 20 min every hour when you are cold smoking.  Do you still have to do this with the auber and cold plate installed?

Thanks

 

[SuperDave]

thanks for the great insight guys, i am getting pretty excited about getting a #3.  had another question in regards to the cold smoking.  reading around on the forum sounds like you have to turn the heat on for 20 min every hour when you are cold smoking.  Do you still have to do this with the auber and cold plate installed?

Thanks

That depends a lot on what your heat limit is, outside ambient temperatures and how long your smoke is going to last.  So, in some cases that situation is likely to be true but in many others it won't be.  Most cases of it being true are if you are trying to stay under 100 degrees box temperature and it is above say, 60 - 70 degrees outside.  What slightly works against us is that the heat given off by the smoking wood creates heat gain as well as the heating element.  Some have invested in outside smoke devices as to not introduce any heat to the smoker box.

 

[porkies swine]

Well thanks that is some good information.. I guess if I have any problems keeping the heat low I can look into making an outside smoker But it sounds like I will be happy with this unit.

 

[DivotMaker]

Hi Porkies!  Are you wanting to truly "cold smoke" you sausage?  Or, are you wanting to low-temp smoke it?  If actually cold smoking, the setup you are describing will be great.  This will keep the box temp < 80°.  I think you'll find that most smoke jerky and sausage at low-temp.  I, for example, smoke jerky at 140; the Auber PID can handle this better than the stock controller (no temp swings).  If you use the cold smoke plate, you don't need the Auber, but it can "automate" the smoke/rest cycles!

I would recommend going to the jerky/sausage section and checking out any threads started by Pork Belly (Brian) and NDKoze (Gregg).  Those guys have #3s, and are sausage gods, around here!

No matter how you use it, you can't go wrong with the #3...it'll handle whatever you want to do, and will allow your creativity a place to call home.

 

[porkies swine]

Yes  you are prolly correct.. What I call cold smoke is more of just a low temp smoked or making bacon and smoking some cheeses.. We have been smoking our sausage to 152 degrees in the past when we have made it in tho oven...I will definently go and do some more reading the ought the forum.. Thanks again.. Sounds like a common thing is that the #3 can handle whatever you through at it!

 

[DivotMaker]

Porkies - the low-temp will be great for your sausage.  For cheese, the cold smoke plate is great.  It really helps isolate the smoke chamber from the heating element.  I use one in my model 1, and it works well. 

Now that you've found us, how about adding a first name and town to your signature line?  We're pretty casual around here, and like to know who our new club members (club Lazy Q, that is) are!

 

[NDKoze]

Looks like the guys answered most of your questions.

Here are a few things that I would add that may be helpful:

* A jerky dryer is an absolute necessity for sausage, snack stix and jerky no matter whether you have an Auber PID or not. Without the dryer there is just too much moisture in the box and you will end up steaming your sausage verses smoking/drying it. This well insulated and moist box is awesome for butts, brisket, and ribs. But for sausages and jerky it is just too moist. Thus the need for the dryer.

* For true cold smoking (less than 100°) There are alternatives to the cold smoke plate. For example, I cold smoke cheese at 50-80 degrees by using some frozen 2-liter soda bottles and my A-MAZE-N cold smoke generator. I have also used the A-MAZE-N to cold smoke bacon as well. SuperDave has a few posts describing his cold plate alternative which is using ceramic tiles to act as a barrier. Nothing wrong with the Smokin-It Cold Smoke plate. I'm just saying that there are other alternatives as well

 

[porkies swine]

Sounds like a jerky dryer will be in order for sure than since making summer sausage will be a must with this unit. 

How low of a temp are you guys able to keep your smokers at without the cold smoke plate?

 

[SuperDave]

Garret, like Gregg mentioned, I use ceramic tiles and lots of ice and I can smoke for at least a couple of hours straight at 80 - 90 degree box temp.  Caveat, I haven't experimented a lot with how low I can go on the heating element setting and still get smoke production so I run it pretty hot.  I think I could get lower and longer if I pushed the envelope a bit to see if I could get smoke production at say, 100 - 120 degree setting on the element. 

 

[porkies swine]

Good that was what i was hoping to hear... I had some free time this afternoon so really was doing some reading on the form and seemed like plenty of people have made sausage as well as bacon without the auber controller so was thinking about maybe not ordering that right off the bat unless i had to just to save the extra money?

 

[porkies swine]

and sorry for all the newbie questions but i do appreciate all the insight..

 

[NDKoze]

Don't worry about the questions at all. That is what we are here for. Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes. My first time with snack stix I didn't use a jerky dryer and I definitely learned my lesson the hard way.

I don't have an Auber yet and have made several batches of snack stix with excellent results. No Summer Sausage yet, but I could not see any reason why I couldn't.

My family does our Country Style and Summer Sausage in such large batches (200-300lbs at a time) that we take ours in to our small town German meat market and they smoke our large batches for very cheap. They don't do jerky or snack stix, so we have do our own in a combination of my SI #3 and my Dad's large propane smoker. I do prefer the sticks from my SI better than the propane though. We usually do about 200-300lbs of snack stix. But we do those in 25lb batches several times a year. 25lbs is the max per batch in my SI #3 and I usually need 6 trays depending on the size of the casings that we use.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

 

[DivotMaker]

Good that was what i was hoping to hear... I had some free time this afternoon so really was doing some reading on the form and seemed like plenty of people have made sausage as well as bacon without the auber controller so was thinking about maybe not ordering that right off the bat unless i had to just to save the extra money?

Yes, Garrett, lots of folks make sausage and bacon without the Auber - with great success!  It is NOT essential to make great Q.  But, it excels with these types of smokes, as well as anything that you do NOT want the temperature spikes that come with the stock controller, like jerky or fish.  When I smoke jerky, I absolutely don't want my smoker to go above 140.  The stock controller will spike to 160, or so, which is into the range where the thin jerky strips start to cook, rather than dry.  It's all a personal preference, but I love the accuracy and predictability of the Auber.

 

[porkies swine]

Wow NDKoze sounds like you guys feed an army up there! lol... Yes i think for now i will hold off on the auber but will definitely be getting the jerky dryer to use for summer sausage and snack sticks.  Guess I will keep letting my brother in law take care of the Jerky with his dehydrator and maybe if i want to get into the jerky making as well i will get one so i can control the temp spikes as DivotMaker pointed out..

 

[DivotMaker]

Garrett, you can still make jerky with the stock controller; you just have to monitor a little closer, to avoid the higher temps.  I just like the freedom the Auber gives me.  But, the most important thing is to get the #3!  You can add the Auber anytime!