First timer questions

[Islander]

Hi smokers, I'm new to smoking, and we just bought our first smoker, a smokin-it #2 smoker. We got it and seasoned it right away, like the paperwork said too. Than we smoked up a load of herring and whitefish, about 12 pounds of fillets. Everything we read said to smoke fish at about 180 degrees for 4-5 hours untill the fish reached a temperature of 140 degrees. So we did that, and 7 hours later the fillets were barely 100 degrees and clearly not done. We ended up finishing them in the oven. The outdoor temp. was 20 and dropping, so I'm wondering if it was too cold or maybe we had too big of a batch or maybe a combination. I really like this smoker but maybe we need to wait until warmer weather. Any help will be appreciated. Thankyou- Islander

• Tweet
• 

[old sarge]

I would start investigating by checking to see if the smoker reaches the desired temperature, whether 180 or 200, whatever, with a good  remote digital thermometer that you have verified the accuracy of with boiling water.  I would not think that the outside temperature would have much of an effect, but it may.  Can you move the smoker into a sheltered area?  If so, just fire it up with no wood and monitor the temperature.

[Grimm5577]

I have a #2 and I have used it all winter without a problem hitting desired temp.

[Islander]

Thanks for the help, we don't have a remote thermometer but I think that it would be a good idea to get one and check the temp. accuracy of the smoker. It seems to me that it should work alright in winter so thats why I am wondering about it. We did use an extension cord.
  Is it possible to overload a smoker? I doubt it,but we did have the racks crammed full of fillets, and the ones on the bottom were more done than the ones on top.
  We want to try a turkey next, but not until some of this snow melts, it just keeps coming, spring or no spring!!
   Thanks for the help everybody, Rob

[old sarge]

It is possible to overload the smoker, which is why they have load limits.   The food will absorb the temp and could prevent the internal thermostat from reading the temp for some time.  I generally place the food at or above the temp probe if it is a small load.

Regarding the remote thermometer.  They are fairly inexpensive at the big box stores and can be used in your oven as well as out doors (many folks use the Maverick brand because it has 2 probes : one for the meat, one for the temp of the smoker/grill/over). Very helpful when cooking a large cut of meat, like to shoulder, to a specific internal temperature. No opening the door to probe and losing heat.  And just running the probe thru the smoke hole into the smoker is a good way to check the inside temperature of the smoker. Just clip it to a rack, sort of out of the way.

[Islander]

Well here's what I did this afternoon. We don't have a garage so I put the smoker in the house and plugged it into the wall w/out an extension cord and stuck a temp. probe into the smoke hole. There was nothing in the smoker, no wood, no racks, nothing, and turned it up to 200 degrees, 10-15 minutes later it was up to 200 on the probe. Next I plugged it into the extension cord (still inside) and did it again, and it worked fine. Than I brought it outside plugged into the extension cord and again turned it up to 200, 20 minutes later the temp probe was up to 220! The ambient temp. was around 25 degrees. It seems to work just fine, so I'm not sure what our problem was. As soon as we get some decent weather we're going to try a turkey and see what happens.

[old sarge]

Sounds good. 

Is there any chance, even a small one, that your food was positioned such that it came into contact with the probe and interfered with with the temperature?  Just a real wild thought.

[mikeinctown]

There needs to be enough room around and between the food on the racks for the heat to circulate as well.

One other thing I have noticed is that a 5 degree change in the set temp on the dial can make a big difference in how fast the food cooks.

[swthorpe]

Sounds good. 

Is there any chance, even a small one, that your food was positioned such that it came into contact with the probe and interfered with with the temperature?  Just a real wild thought.

This did happen to me once and affected the temperature reading on my Maverick remote.   I am now very careful to make sure no food comes into contact with the Maverick probe as well as the #2 temp probe on the back wall of the unit.

[afratki]

Sounds good. 

Is there any chance, even a small one, that your food was positioned such that it came into contact with the probe and interfered with with the temperature?  Just a real wild thought.

I had this happen also. With this and the temp swings I'm learning real quick not to worry so much about the smoker temp, IT is the most important temperature.

[swthorpe]

I agree.  After several smokes now with the #2, I am comfortable that the smoker temp is fine, so I am relying more on the IT using the Maverick.  Just did a 13lb turkey yesterday and really liked knowing that the IT was right before removing the turkey from the smoker.