Skagg2000

Does anyone know how noisy the Luvele Deluxe is? Our Low Noise Eiffel has just about given up & we need to buy another. The Eiffel was good & I like the fact it wasn't noisy like the cheaper domestic sealers such as the Foodsaver. The Luvele seems to get good reviews but if is noisy then i'll pass & buy another Eiffel.

Cheers n Gone Nick

Did my cook yesterday, so I can enjoy the fruits of my labour today  

Maybe Texas chilli in the dutch oven using some of the brisket on Monday or if the weather is nice, get the pizza oven out & some sparkling french cider

Cheers n Gone Nick

Just about managed to shoehorn this 7KG piece of locally sourced brisket onto the ProQ yesterday morning. trimmed & applied an SPG rub 12 hours earlier.

Whiskey Barrel Oak was the smoking wood of choice on this occasion. 16 1/2 hours on the smoker. wrapped in butcher paper 8 hours in to minimise the stall, then ramped the heat up a tad. rested overnight wrapped in a towel & placed in a cool box.  Unwrapped this morning & had some on toast for breakfast with Sauerkraut. Lush

I used GloBaltic briquettes on this cook. They did produce a lot of ash compared to Heatbeads or Weber briquettes, & the temperature was a bit hit & miss at times, so not the best in my opinion. I'll stick with their lumpwood for short cooks I think.

Cheers n Gone NIck

I notice the wild garlic is beginning to sprout around here. I want to have a go at making some wild garlic butter this year. I see the OP gave a recipe in his post but just wondered when is the best time to pick garlic, i,e before, during or after flower & which parts of the plant to use, just the leaves, or leaves & stems, or everything except the bulb?

Cheers n Gone Nick

As Wade says Australian Heatbeads are very low ash but unless on a deal somewhere rather pricey. The Globaltic ones gave no more ash that the Weber or Green Olive ones I've used & were reasonably priced.

Cheers n Gone Nick

8 hours ago, Chae said:

On the subject of Globaltic - has anyone tried the Globaltic Briquettes? I normally use the ProQ Cocoshell Briquettes but am wanting to change it up a little and wondered if anyone had used these before?

I have a couple of bags at the moment & quite happy with it, Lights easier than Heatbeads, decent, steady hot burn. no nasty smells. I'd buy it again.

Cheers n Gone Nick 

Great bit of kit, i've been through a few brands & have to say the Meater+ is the best i've had. Some say the estimated cook time is a bit off sometimes but it;s a smoker, not a microwave!

There are a few me too products around now, not that i've tried them. But the meater+ i'd certainly recommend.

Cheers n Gone Nick

I'd got fed up with having to spend over the odds for replacement braided cables for my various blowers, thermometers etc. They kept failing due to heat surges. I noticed that with my bullet smokers it was the entry point into the smoker where the heat was causing them to fail I presume the heat travelling up the side of the bullet without any baffle as such was the problem. In the centre behind the water / sand pan all was fine. I'd seen that some people used foil to protect the cable at this entry point, but I found that was a bit of a faff & the foil had a tendency to move during the cook. I turned to the internet for a better solution. Heat resistant sheath was in my head, I found THIS. In the 6mm size it can take a couple of cables & will fit into the grommet on the ProQ & Fornetto giving a secure fit & protecting the cables at there vulnerable points. I've not had a cable fail due to heat spikes since.

For £3 a metre it's worth having a length in your man cave.

Cheers n Gone Nick

Just completed my first attempt at Pastrami and rather please with the outcome. Followed Meatheads Katz recipe. 10 hours at 230f the rested for 2 hours before enjoyed in a Reuben Sandwich. 

Cheers n Gone Nick

I'm planning on making some Pastrami in the coming weeks & just been looking online for some guidance. I'd normally buy a full packer joint, but see that for Pastrami people seem to either use the just the Flat or the Point. What's the preference?

There seems to be more detail where the Flat has been used in the UK, of course this will make a leaner cut compared to the Point which the Americans seem to favour.

I've also added a poll, just because I found I could!

Cheers n Gone Nick 

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On 1/30/2021 at 8:36 AM, Ripple said:

Hi Jo,

I used to have the same problem but following advice from here, I now dry my dust in the microwave for a couple of minutes, spread out on a plate.  I had never managed to keep a smoke going but now I have not had one go out, did a bacon last weekend with two fills of the maze, about 20 hours, and no issues.

Martin

+1 from Me. I suffered the same on occasion when cold smoking cheese. Iceman shared the microwave trick, no problems since.

Cheers n Gone Nick

And other listed today. Bishop Stortford this time. £100

https://www.gumtree.com/p/barbeques/smoker-bbq-brinkmann-oklahoma-joe-highland-smoker/1394862389

Cheers n Gone Nick

Another popped up in my feed today in Worksop. £100 if anyone interested.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/barbeques/oklahoma-joe-smoker/1394581889

One day one will be local to me!

Cheers n Gone Nick

Not sure how long this offer has been around, but £30 is a decent price for a Thermapen. A £10 donation is also made to the NHS charities "together" 

If it's like the other classic & mk3's they can be set to either DegC or F using the dip switches in the battery compartment.

Free delivery on items over £24.99 so should be 30 quid delivered.

Here is the LINK

Cheers n Gone Nick

So, I'm now gathering quite a collection of probes, fans etc. In the recent Prime day extravaganza I picked up a Meater+ for £74 quid or so. Whilst I haven't shown it any heat yet, I've set it up indoors & in principal seems good & well made. I used a spare phone as a bridge from Bluetooth to Wifi & then checked I could access the cook online via my cloud account on another device using mobile data which was very simple on a android device. The instructions & video make mention of having to enable the Meater+ Link in the app but this seems to be an automated process in the android app at least. 

I'm hoping this is the long term solution for me as I'm fed up with forking out on cable probes at £25 a throw only for them to fail by supposed overheating. 

All i need to do now is find a way to do away with the probe for the fans.

Cheers n Gone Nick 

Nice one. Look surprised! Lots of fellow ProQ users here & a wealth of knowledge  on too.

Look forwards to some pictures & cooks in time.

What do you plan to cook first? Chicken is always a safe option for your first smoker cook, quite forgiving & cheap so no matter if the meat spoils on your first attempt. I think ProQ even give a recipe in their instruction manual for they used to.

Cheers n Gone Nick 

Hii

I let it go to 170f the recommended 185 seemed rather high and running the risk of dry meat. 

170 is high for me I like my lamb medium to well do usually closer to 145f

As I butterflied the leg yesterday and marinaded it then I knew where the meat had been so wouldn't have worried about a lower I

Cheers n Gone Nick 

So inbetween a few other outside job in the garden today i set up the ProQ with some globaltic lumpwood & olive wood for flavour I had a go with this Lamb Shawarma using a Lamb leg I butterflied yesterday & set in the marinade overnight. 

Came out rather nice, extremely tender & the smell when it was resting in the kitchen was amazing

Would a leg of lamb, butterflied be a suitable alternative for shoulder in this meal?

Cheers n Gone Nick

On 9/2/2020 at 8:54 AM, Wade said:

Btw. Most of the guests were in fancy dress and I was a chimney sweep - hence the blackened face...

I usually look like that Wade when i'm on a days smoking session in the garden. Like a fireman on the footplate of a steam loco

Cheers n Gone Nick

Made this for tea yesterday, got in a bit of a pickle with the pastry & nded up having a homemade shortcrust base & pre bought putty top which was different!

Cheers n Gone Nick

Glad to hear its all come good. I think the single wall of bullet smokers create the temperature variable so +/- 5 def or so of the target temp is good going. 

Cheers n Gone Nick 

34 minutes ago, Justin said:

It is not the daisy wheel mate (I can remove that as per ice advice,it is the adaptor and the spacing doe snot line up with the holes.  I am in touch with Pro q.  I think it needs this adaptor. I a thinking they have sent the wrong adaptor for 14.5 inch wsm.

Yes, that look much more flexible. Looks at though you have it in hand with the guys & girls @ Mac's now

Cheers n Gone Nick

Hi Justin,

Is THIS the universal adaptor your using with the Smartfire & a Weber WSM? 

Looking at it I would have thought you should need to modify the Weber or ProQ to make it fit. In the image it's fitted to a later ProQ with the daisy wheel in place. I'd have thought & stand to be corrected that it's a case of lineing the vent on the daisy wheel to fully open, place the bolt through one open hole, then align the machined stainless tube with another hole & tight in place with the big washer & wing nut to hold it all in place.

However, if it was me I would probably remove the daisy wheel from the smoker. If it's riveted drill it out as Ice suggested. TBH, The rivets will work loose over time & a stainless bolt with a spring behind it will work much better to hold the daisy wheel in place yet still allow it to be opened & closed with ease. I'd then remove the stainless machined tube from the cake tin & secure this directly to the smoker through one of the holes. The remaining holes I'd seal with heat resistant aluminium tape.

Cheers n Gone Nick

I'll have to try this Lamb one. I bought the spike & did the chicken one a little while ago which was fantastic. This looks great too.

Thanks for sharing SOTV

Cheers n Gone Nick