I got a brand new Bradley smoker for my birthday (Thank you, Sally!) and this is its maiden voyage (if voyage is the right word here? Outing perhaps?). Here it is sitting in a temporary home out in the back yard (note the very un-winter-like Southern California weather we're having). I think I'm going to build/buy a little shelf or table to put it on that's somewhat lower than the counter top it's on now (because I hate "reaching up" to things). Maybe a rolling cart of some sort? A bit of use should help converge on the right height and configuration.
After running the initial break-in empty, I had the Ruhlman recipe bacon (see previous posts) cured, trimmed and sitting in the refrigerator, so why not smoke it. Stick the probe into the bacon, clip the air temp probe to the rack, fire it up, and away we go. Mesquite wood for now (because that's the first package I opened).
Here's the bacon slabs on the racks, probed and ready. Per Ruhlman, I'll get the smoker up to 200F and wait til the meat temp is 150F.
I'm using a Maverick ET73. I found that it was cheaper to buy a whole new unit with two probes for $30 than to try and buy replacement probes for the thermometer I already have. Consumer electronics pricing is certainly odd.
And just because I'm that kind of person, I'll probably look into PID control using a Arduino with a web interface.
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