New 2D Owner

[lukeface]

New 2D should be delivered tomorrow, enough for the break-in and a practice session before Christmas day.  Pretty pumped.  I was the owner of an electric smoker for only a week or so, before I had to start troubleshooting it.  I'm not going to call them out, but it went through these wood pucks like mad.  As a side note, can I use these extra pucks I have in the SI?  Couldn't see anyone asking this before.  Anyway, the smoker was a no-go one early morning, and I realized I wanted my Q to be EVEN lazier.  Returned.

Same day, bought the 2D and I'm ready to get going.  I'm already dreaming of some, from scratch, pastrami.  The Christmas wishlist BALLOONED pretty much instantly.  Prost!

 

[SconnieQ]

Sorry you had so much trouble with your Bradley LOL ;D You can probably use your pucks, by chopping them up a bit and using them in place of chips for the low temp smokes, cold smokes, or any smokes where you would use chips. You might even be able to use them up by placing whole pucks (or chopped in half if they don't fit) in the wood box. I'm not aware of any particular situation where someone has Bradley pucks to use up like this, but it would probably work okay for using up your pucks. Your SI uses "real" wood chunks rather than those expensive manufactured pucks. That's what is so great. Buy any wood chunks from any source you want! Even though you will want to rid yourself of those expensive manufactured pucks, a preferred source for wood chunks is smokinlicious.com. A double-filet size, and the 3-variety pack is a favorite.

 

[old sarge]

Luke, Congrats on the #2 and RIP Bradley.

 

[NDKoze]

Welcome from ND Luke! You ate going to love your new #2.

Regarding the pucks, we have had some discussions and I know some peoples are using them successfully. I guess I would read through the discussion posts and try to use up what you have. But once they are used up, I would get a three-pack of double fillet from Smokinliceous as it is going to be far superior to the pucks.

If you search for pucks in the search area (top right of the page) you'll find several threads/posts that discuss the use of pucks. Here are a couple as an example:

http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=80.msg9261


http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=25.msg213

 

[lukeface]

Thanks Greg and all!  I must have missed some keywords or something, since I swear I did a quick search.  I did end up ordering chunks from fruitawood, just because I'm a big fan of Pecan, and I know smokinlious's business model in the Northeast focuses on locally sourced stuff.  But, we'll see how that ends up going.

 

[swthorpe]

Welcome from Delaware, Luke!  You have found the right place and I see many happy smokes in your near future.  Cheers

 

[LarryD]

Congrats, Luke!  The SI's really are awesome smokers...

 

[ibbones]

Welcome from South Texas.  What are you cooking first?

 

[lukeface]

I've got about an 8lb boston butt that I was about to get ready last Saturday, but like I said, the Bradley was uncooperative.  Thankfully, I hadn't prepped it yet.  After the seasoning session tonight, I plan to get the butt in tomorrow evening as a test run.  I'll be doing another butt then on Christmas Eve for my daughter's birthday party on the 26th with plans for double smoked (pre-cooked) spiral ham on the 30th.

I'm not sure if my wife is ready for all of this smoked meat action, but I bought a couple racks of baby backs and have a few pork tenderloins going as well.  Anyway, I'll putting this thing through the ringer here, and I've got all the confidence in that based on the feedback here on this forum.  Went home over lunch to unpack the smoker immediately upon delivery, with the new fruitawood delivery as well (oak and Pecan).

 

[lukeface]

Man this thing is nice.  Did the initial seasoning and she held 250 like a champ (or at least that's what the Auber read).  Anyway, this Auber really does make this brainless.  It looked intimidating at first, but man is it simple.  Exited to get some Q on it tonight.

 

[ibbones]

Good luck Luke.  You will do fine.

 

[NDKoze]

Are you going to brine your butt? If not, I would strongly recommend it if you have time still. It really makes a difference.

Check out Tony's Brine recipe that is stickied in the pork section.

 

[lukeface]

Thanks Michael.  Gregg, I did not, at least not this time.  Going to do a plain practice run here to see what I'm working with.  I'd like to see what a baseline is with minimal effort before I start really kitting out my smokes.

 

[lukeface]

For reference, I was quite happy with the results.  On the test run I did Oak and Pecan, but for the real deal I used straight Pecan.  I was quite happy with the result all around, I can't imagine how good it'll be if I end up brining my butts in the future.  I'd easily put it up against the more mediocre BBQ places in the city.

 

[lukeface]

It appears I've fallen victim to the obnoxious photo rotation (or lack there of).  Shucks.

 

[ibbones]

Looks good even sideways.

 

[BBinMO]

Luke, I bought my D2 the first of November and have been smoking everything in site ever since. I love this smoker! I've smoked whole chicken, turkeys, a pork Butt, brisket, cheese, Sumer sausage, ribs and meatloaf. Still need to do salmon. My wife keeps coming up with others ideas of things to smoke. I'm having the greatest time - you will too!