My #3 Unpacking Story

OK...just so we're clear:  Left-leaning (smoke box) is bad. ;)  Don't think it will be a problem, if you approach your first smoke conservatively.  ;D
 
Hey Gregg:

Congrats on the #3.  I wish I had been on this forum when I unpacked my #2!

I have smoked a lot of salmon now (15 pounds at a time) an I have found that if you use the rough chopped chunks of wood, you can get a lot of smoke off them at 175 degrees.  I put fresh chunks in at 4 hours when I remove the skin and get another blast of smoke.  At low temps, the smoke coming off the chunks decreases significantly within an hour even though they are not burnt through. Probably because the element is not on much at low temps except for at the beginning.

Oh yeah, the smoke box bracket on my #2 also leans left.  I lean to the right and it makes me dizzy sometimes!

Cam
 
Thank Cam.

Does your smoker smell fishy after all the fish that you have run through it?

I smoke fish (Salmon and some Ocean Black Bass that I caught this summer) too. But have been thinking that I may continue to use my Big Chief for the fish because smoking at low temperatures is one thing that it excels at. Plus I didn't want to get my SI full of fishy smell.
 
NDKoze said:
Thank Cam.

Does your smoker smell fishy after all the fish that you have run through it?

I smoke fish (Salmon and some Ocean Black Bass that I caught this summer) too. But have been thinking that I may continue to use my Big Chief for the fish because smoking at low temperatures is one thing that it excels at. Plus I didn't want to get my SI full of fishy smell.
Click to expand...

No fishy smell here!  I'm not as finicky as some, but really, all I smell is "smoke" when I open the smoker door a couple of weeks after a salmon smoke.

One of my friends uses a Little Chief to smoke his trout and salmon.  It usually turns out reasonably good, but the last time he did it was during a cold snap here in So Cal.  He couldn't get the internal temp of the Little Chief up high enough to actually cook the thick salmon fillets (they were raw in the middle).  The trout came out dry for my taste, almost like jerky, I think because of the extra time he had to use to try to get the salmon cooked.  I don't know about the Big Chief, but the Little chief seems to pump too much air through the chamber which, to me, results in a dryer fish.

Cam
 
OK, Cam. You convinced me. I will try my next batch in the SI.

You are right that the Chief's (big and Small) have trouble maintaining temperatures in colder temps. That is the main reason I got my new smoker. For the most part all the Chief's do is impart smoke. For anything other than jerky, stix, and fish, you have to finish everything else in the oven/grill after the smoke has been applied.

Thus the reason I have never been able to do a pork butt or a brisket.

No problems with that now. I just need to find the time and money to pay for all of this meat that I want to smoke.
 
NDKoze said:
OK, Cam. You convinced me. I will try my next batch in the SI.

You are right that the Chief's (big and Small) have trouble maintaining temperatures in colder temps. That is the main reason I got my new smoker. For the most part all the Chief's do is impart smoke. For anything other than jerky, stix, and fish, you have to finish everything else in the oven/grill after the smoke has been applied.

Thus the reason I have never been able to do a pork butt or a brisket.

No problems with that now. I just need to find the time and money to pay for all of this meat that I want to smoke.
Click to expand...

Gregg:

You probably saw my write-up on smoking salmon in the "Fish" section.  The SI does a beautiful job with the salmon.  As far as the time issue, you'll have more time on your hands.  My friend has to be near his Little Chief all day because he had to change out the wood chips about every 1.5 hours, thereby increasing beer consumption and thus costing more $$$.

Cam
 
I don't have any Salmon right now. But I do have a freezer full of Bottom Fish that I caught on an Ocean Charter Fishing trip out of Westport, WA this summer that I will be smoking some of.

I'll give it a shot and will reference your thread again before I do the next batch.

Thanks for the tips.
 
Tony, your metal expansion theory makes more sense than my 'burping the baby'.

A few years ago, we bought a 8 burner gas range from blue star.  Every time we fired up the oven, the floor pan groaned and popped. Just metal expanding.  All the rivets on one side of the removable pan popped. A replacement pan fixed the issue.  I also fixed the original. With the tension gone, and elongating the holes, and some new rivets, it is a quiet as a church mouse.
 
Dave, I thought of that because I noticed a little expansion noise when seasoning the proto model 2.  I guess the bigger element causes it.  It went away after a few uses.
 
Tony, That is a lot of heat surrounded by a metal wood box.  There is bound to be some expansion and contraction which would be audible, but harmless. And as you have indicated, it just sort of goes away.
 
I think the "seasoning" process should be called the "break in" process.  We're not just placing a smoky coating in the box, but it's breaking-in the metal.  You're right, Dave - nothing to worry about!
 
I have never heard this.... How fascinating. 

I feel,as though I have missed out on something like this that scares the bejesus out of you just so one has a war story.
 
Actually the first couple uses of my #2 there was a small noise that I heard from the smoker but I never really thought about it since it was just running for the first time. I really just thought of it as a virgin cooker doing it's thing. Makes perfect sense.
 
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