Dave R Look at Auber WiFi PID controller. It works awesome with Masterbuilt. It requires a modification to The masterbuilt mine was a single jumper wire to bypass the built in controller. For making summer sausage and snack sticks it is great because you can program the steps in. You can have up to 6 programmed steps set up. Those steps can be defined by time at a certain temperature, or temperature of meat or a combination of both. It’s $225 so worth it though especially for snack sticks that need a more precise temp. https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=702

KillerNoms I have the MB40 also with the Auber PID WiFi controller. It works awesome. I thought about the fan also. Do you have pics of your fan inside the MB40?

If you are running a Masterbilt XL with two burners, you can just use one burner or instead of turning dial counterclockwise, you can turn it slowly clockwise for a lower flame than the “LOW” setting.

Just curious, did you use 5w20 or 10w30 and regular or synthetic oil on the dowels?? LOL Cut 1/4" rebar for my Masterbilt XL. These will outlast my smoker and me. Insulated wit some foil insulation from Ace, 3/4" spaced out from sides (3/4x1 1/2" ) , run only one burner for low heat, found a roasting pan for water which forces heat to go around pan for better distribution. Hang 3# summer sausages (6 per rod) with no problems. Recently did 200#.

craigrice i was thinking this idea as an alternative to a water pan using sponges & towels. Would lava rocks evaporate more h2o compared to sponges?

Cabelas90 I buy the cheep nitrle gloves from hbf then use them for mixing and seasoning and can easily discard them

I agree with PapaSop on the sure-jel and I also like the “twang” the ECA gives.

Jonathon I have some injectable pa’s in the fridge mixed in a 1/2 gallon jug.How long will it stay good?

Additional comments because my original post was longer than I intended:

I think the phosphates in the marinade are what really make the difference. I think you would get similar results with any marinade assuming it contains them. I pumped a lot of marinade into the loin with an injector. I’m sure this made a big difference with moisture retention also. In my opinion, lean cuts like pork loin that are easy to dry out when grilling respond very well to marinades with phosphates. I understand that there are some people are hesitant to use phosphates due to health concerns. I am not saying to use them on a daily basis. These marinades are great to use for a special occasion or a treat.

HerbcoFood said in Brining ribs:

processhead Do you think it would take more than 24 hours to brine? I know you aren’t really supposed to go more than 24 hours on chicken.

You might be right on that. I have always heard to give a brine 1 inch per day for penetration.
Ribs are pretty thin so it might be closer to 1-2 days.

RafterW i told him last time I saw him, they need to let Walton’s sell them.

Sorry I got my feet under the table after the dogs have already licked the floors clean.
I’m unsure about a probe temp. I’m more into a look of pull back from the (like pork ribs) then a probing feel like brisket.

glen that is a crazy amount of info. Thanks for the post.

take your time we can wait for a good recant of the events !

Chef If you haven’t already check out niche meat processing

shoprat53 powdered milk is the actual binder in suregel. Phosphate retains moisture, but it also acts as a meat preservative by raising the PH of meat. There are several binders available and they do have their places depending on what you are doing. I use suregel and carrot fiber depending on what I’m doing, but in a previous life I used some of the other binders and moisture retention products as well.

I started out with a Louisiana pellet, switched to Traeger. Both ended up at son-in-laws houses. They both worked fine, but… end up with a Yoder ys640s and I can say this’ll be the last one I’ll need

RON PARRISH I’m not sure why I haven’t done that yet. Sounds great

Ok that sounds like a plan. I have a #32 grinder so I can have the meat near frozen and grind it so it doesn’t smear

Fractured Fitness Sounds like you are well on your way to perfecting your system, if there is such a thing for jerky and sausage making. I think I have something figured out and then I read something new on this sight or get a suggestion from a friend and it’s back to the drawing board to try something new, but that is the fun of homemade product, you can always improve or modify to suit your desires!

cdavis thank you

processhead Last time I was in Cancun at the resort we stayed at, I ordered oso bucco and the lasagna. I then just dumped the oso bucco over the lasagna…boy howdy talk about a power move!

Made 6 pounds each of chicken fajita and smoked jalapeno sausage yesterday. They turned out great I think I like the chicken better than the pork now. If you use chicken for cured sausage always use sure gel add about 20 to 25 % more seasoning than you do with pork. Also I mix mine for at least 6 to 8 minutes with hand mixer. After stuffing just smoke as you would pork except bring internal temperatures to 165.

Cover it… check!
Looks great

Jamieson22 Jonathan forgot to tell you to also join team ORANGE, I am sure it was just an oversight on his part.

Chef Thank you young man.

Agree with the above. Vac sealing and freezing the finished product would be most convenient later. If you don’t mind thawing and cooking, then I do that a lot of times with no issue.

Frequently I buy enough thighs for 4 or 5 competitions at a time, trim, and then seal and freeze to save work week of. Can’t tell the difference.

shoprat53 YEah, I tend to see that to really get that oat look gone you need to add a little more water. Maybe that would be something we could go over on a Weekly Livestream?

TexLaw doesn’t the instructions say to wet the sawdust?

kimari Check out the learning center video. Jonathon does a pretty good video explaining the process. My hams and turkeys have come out great. Make sure you get adequate cure into the hams since they are such a large muscle group.

DennyO
I guess you can never rule out the possibility of malfunctioning smoker controls and resulting in the temp swings.

The control systems for pellet smokers/grills are more complicated than systems for other fuels. They are controlling pellet feed rates and an air blower to try and maintain temperatures.

gChart I do a 2-2-1 @ 240 and have never been disappointed

Jamieson22 said in Questions for PK 100 Owners:

When I look at online dimensions for the PK it shows H 48" x W 21" x D 21". Just checking your 22.5" cover width is accurate.

I got out my tape measure and measured the thing, and those dimensions were what I ordered. As I mentioned, the only thing I would change is the length. That was tricky to estimate because I didn’t know how the cover would hang over the control panel.

I put a small battery operated desk fan on low over the top vent when cold smoking with MB to increase air flow. Fan won’t last forever but cost less than $5.

HerbcoFood that’s my liking also

Thank you. I really appreciate all the help.

I got a masterbuilt off of offer up for 75 bucks. Great starter electric made temp control easy and the smoke pan worked well enough.

Chef said in Vintage Brinkman Smoker and Grill:

Jamieson22 if 20 is vintage, then I’m prehistoric. Me, I’m older than dirt, I use a few knifes that are 80 plus years old, a slicer that is 70 years old…the list goes on.

I would like to see a picture of the old items if you get a chance to post them. The vintage items have character. Just like their owners. lol

Randyman Cold Phosphate is going to increase the pH of your meat, making it easier for the water to bond with the meat. Increasing pH also lowers the shelf-life of the meat so use it accordingly.

Sign of early cause they had a tv plug a few month ago about it ,they only take about 30 or so people.

that is the success of this forum it is topic specific and people are willing to help each other

mrobisr said in New idea for humidity:

Jonesy from my experience tender jerky comes from low and slow temp along with pulling it out at the right time meaning it is still pliable yet when torn is dry.

I have to agree with these comments. For traditional style jerky it’s more about technique and timing than it is about adding special ingredients.

Great responses guys, thank you. One more thing to keep in mind, if you use fish as your “meat” that changes it as well as most fish contain decently high levels of nitrates already. This will be an upcoming (next few months) meatgistics university episode.

Let me know what you think of your outcome uppy. I’m in hopes that you may be able to tame your gasses as I have mine. I’ve had the the Big Block GOSM for 15 +/- years now and had a smaller version for 6 years prior. Like I said I should have acted on this years ago. jmo.

@RJ Adventures Yep they can go quickly.

twoheartedloon I tried the email, wasn’t a fan of the tang it gave…so now I use smoked meat stabilizer always as I don’t always want to wait or have time to wait for the cure, and absolutely love the outcomes, everyone seems to love the flavor and bite to my sticks

I use pellets works great for cold smoking and adding smoke to my cured sausages.

Seanlee Hardy what do you guys think of wood chips box? Will they make difference if i use them instead of wood chips tray?

twilliams said in Smoked sausage in PK100:

Ive not only been reducing my dust amounts to a half pan i also change wood species depending on what flavor im doing at the time.

That’s the beauty of a smoker like this or a pellet cooker. I have a “library” of sawdust (and pellets for my pellet cooker) and adjust what I use for what I’m cooking. Oak, mesquite, hickory, cherry, maple, pecan. I might use any of those.

That is a bunch of meat

twilliams yep. I have some just haven’t used it yet. I was going to try it on some ribs but I always forget. 🍺 may be part of the problem about forgetting the pink paper!

Hosshess
:+1: It’s better than the other option :grin:

MCURRAN I can’t guarantee this but I’d be pretty shocked if you weren’t happy with the smoke flavor from the PK100

I have had some luck with throttling the propane pressure down at the bottle. Not the best solution but it does aloe you too get a smaller flame on your burner.

Thanks for the information Jonathan, was curious to see if anyone had done jerky. Think I will just do it all in the smoker.

PapaSop Pretty good score there.

ButcherBrown In my opinion the PK100 is about as good as it is possible to get with this size smoker, I have done hams and bacon, ribs and pork butts in it and it the color and smoke flavor are on the same level as the big commercial smokehouse. Now, it is not without issues, the price is pretty high and you can only use sawdust in it but that’s about it, other than that the insulation is amazing, the heat wave is very reasonable compare to other smokers and the vents system adds some good versatlity. Also, we never use the lower watt setting.

So I pulled 15 chubs off of my WSM at 140 and put them in a turkey fryer pot without bagging . Everything worked great , fast and the casings stayed perfect, bottom line I guess is no need to bag. Thanks for all the info

processhead No, I have never done 100 lb in it. I can say after loading it with 25 lb of the 2.9" X 24" casings (or whatever the biggest is) I believe it is possible but it is going to be very crowded in there for sure. Also, you might be able to get more than one row of the shorter in there.

Thanks for the information.

shoprat53 Yes, grinding a 3rd time isnt a bad idea with chicken sausage either. Basically, make it goup before you stuff it and I agree that Sure Gel is better than soy for chicken. Another thing I have used is super bind with chicken and that has worked well. It doesn’t actually have protein in it but it does a very good job in catching all the moisture that the meat expells.

Thanks for the report. Will have to put those two on the list.

You will be asking yourself why you did not try this sooner. Tasty leftovers for days to come. Also, BBQ freezes well.

looks good like a home built pk 100👌

How do briskets and ribs turn out in the PK100? This is what I would use it for most of the time outside of sausage making.

twilliams I use hickory when doing cheese smoke about 2 hrs. depending on the kind of cheese

@NDMike I do all my smoking on a stick burner. Best way to control it for low temp is a small fire to start like processhead said. Flue wide open and I usually close the firebox vent all the way. If the temp starts to drop just crack the vent on the fire. When you hit the stall throw in some more wood and give it more air.

smoker.jpg

No sugar. Just salt, black pepper, and garlic powder on this one.

Midwest_kc sounds fun

Parksider
I have done a lot of custom controls on a variety of smokers and coolers. One thing I do before drilling and cutting any steel is do trial runs with just temporary placement of sensors and heat sources.

After I know something will function correctly, then I start planning the permanent installation.

I never rush the planning phase, because I want to avoid making a big hole only to find out something I can’t see is in the way . Usually a do a lot of measurements on the inside and outside.

On a double walled box, once I know where I think I want an opening, I will drill a tiny pilot hole, maybe 3/32nd" and just through the first layer. Then I use a tiny wire to probe the hole and make sure there are no wires, structures or other obstacles between the inner and outer skin of the cabinet.

Once I have determined nothing is in the way, I drill all the way through with the pilot bit and then complete the hole to the final dimensions.

The main rule for smoking is that you never want the product making contact in the smoker. For best results, the product needs even flow of heat, smoke and air around the product. Depending on the size of what you are smoking, this makes the spacing distance kind of a moving target.

At a minimum, you probably want your rack system spacing capable of handling the largest product you ever intend to smoke.

Another option is to devise a flexible system that can be adjusted to suit the dimensions of the product you intend to smoke .

marvsBBQ said in More Smoke on an Already Smoked fully cooked ham:

jbeach when we would cook 2 we would use 2 that weighed 10-12 lbs each so we wouldn’t have TOO much left over but always enough to send home with who ever wanted some. I would keep the bones to boil down for turkey soup and turkey enchiladas
ALWAYS gravy with roasted garlic & cream cheese mashed potatoes

shoprat53 Depends on what you mean by better and what different peoples health requirements are. I am firm believer that it isn’t fat that is making us fat but a combination of things. I myself eat a lot of fat, probably close to double the RDA on many days but I try not to mix it with carbs and I try not to eat junk food.

In general though, yes, I would think for the average person that all chicken brat would be healthier. I’ve brought this up to our old application specialist a few times when I was trying to make a low fat chicken brat and he always told me not to use the word healthier because it is different depending on goals. Sorry, rambled a bit there!

Correction, it was -5° not 15°. We finally broke our cold snap here and I swear people are walking around in t-shirts in 30 weather because it feels so much nicer!

I too just bought a Dyna Glo large off set smoker and seasoned it Monday of this week (2/22/21).
If you fill up the charcoal box/off set fuel box, to the top and use a roofing torch to light it, then you will reach a temperature of 250 degrees. Keeping the charcoal box full will give you a more even heat for a longer time. I also sealed all of the seams with Lavalock RTV450 Black Silicone Sealant. I also installed Fireblack Hi Temp BBQ Gasket High Heat 1/2 x 1/8 gasket around the inside edge of the firebox. Any where you see smoke coming out get some chalk and mark the spot then come back when the smoker is cool and place the silicone to seal.

shoprat53 Yeah, I wouldnt add ECA to a polish or german or anything like that. Maybe use Sodium Erythorbate if you want the cure acceleration without a tang?

Jonstotz1 Yup 225 in the PK works well!

Mschmidt wow, small world…lol

s.a.m If you were asking me about the camp chef that was with a smoke setting of 1. I was more concerned with temp than amount of smoke at this point. I maybe could have upped the smoke settings after the first hour or so.

time and temp. is dependent on when you pull them ,I run my water @ 170 degrease and leave the temp probe in ,i pull mine at 1440-145 and it takes 20-40 min. depending

Sdickey1960 It also depends on how you are planning on cooking them. I recently did a batch of sticks on the Camp Chef we have and that starts at 160. It was too cold to stay out there and work on propping the lid so I just started them at 160 and then bumped them at 175 when they hit 130 IT. The sticks were nice and full, flavorful and had a really strong snap to them. Now, after leaving them in the cooler overnight I feel like the casings took on more moisture than they would had I done a normal smoke schedule in a vertical. That caused them to have not the best bite but the batch was far from “ruined”.

So batch size matters, 5-10 lb on a pellet grill combo is no issue, much more than that though and a vertical is going to make your life simpler and (IMO) will give you a superior finished product.

Jonathon There is just no trade off for time invested… The more you know the luckier you get😎

Jonathon, I do not have any pics. The flavor was not bad, like I say the only problem was when you bite into them you gotta have a couple napkins at the ready because they make a “greasy” mess! I have made brats in the past, never had the issue. I will look into adding carrot fiber or super bind in the future. Thanks for the help everyone.

Jonathon , I think I missed tagging you in my reply. In addition to my previous reply, I’ve been thinking of trying to grow in pots this year. We’ll see how that works out 🤞

Jonathan, thanks you for the link and the answer.

Christopher Beach I do not. naked for mine

Tex_77 Yup, nice heavy cast iron, this thing works awesome!

Deepwoodsbutcher Another option might be the camp chef vertical smoker is coming soon and it will be around $600, it wont be of the same quality as a PK100 (few things are!) and it will run off pellets so will be a little more efficient.

taxi So you are saying marinade and then freeze before cooking? Other than the water expanding within the meat and do some minor damage I don’t see a large issue with is but I’ve also never tried it.

shoprat53 Yup, we have cold smoked our high-temp cheese in the past and then added it to sausage. Since we smoke the meat anyway it doesn’t really shine through but still fun to do!

We did more here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQcs-iLAX-w

Cheese is my 2nd favorite food group after meat

smokinbubba I’m with ya no fridge space or patience I always use a accelerator I’ve used both sodium Erythorbate and smoked meat stab. Don’t use ECA much

Thanks for the good advice Jonathan, think that I will give it A try in the near future. With the last chicken summer sausage I used cold phosphate but you recommend to use the sure gel. Will use that next time as my binder.

Johnathon
Yes I did use critic acid and temp was held at a good temp for more than a few hours. I don’t think the fat ran out but maybe it did. The smell is great but texture just not right. I finished in the oven until temp got to 160. I’ll try again later this week. Thanks for your input.

Fractured Fitness Yup, 3-2-1 with the PK is the way to go. With mine it always ends up being 3-2-0.75 of an hour. I get nervous that the last hour is going to dry it all out too much!

Thanks thought so just checking. Will let you know how they turn out.

Andy_9 Are you the person I happened to be in the showroom when you called yesterday? Sounds exactly like what I was helping the showroom out with yesterday. processhead good answer, concise and accurate!

Kainam Yup, Ive done it with goose and then again the other day with Pheasant and it was excellent both time! https://www.pheasantsforever.org/BlogLanding.aspx?categoryid=369 the pheasant pepperoni should be released on that site soon

AaronSilves Thank you!

Thanks, I will try it without food and see how it goes. Perhaps a 2 wide snake then increase to 2 wide & 1 on top then 2 stacked over 2 and see what happens. I also have a neighbor that has a 22. I may borrow his mid section and try double stacking. Might need a ladder. :’)

Like the tying and rotating idea.

Thanks!

Bigtwin 165F is too hot for sous vide snack sticks
They will reach that temp in minutes and you may have fat-out
Better to give them an hour at 150-153F this will not over cook the sticks and ground meat at 150 internal will be pasteurized in around a minute