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[Bar-B-Lew]

Was the cheese melting or deforming at all?

[Bentley]

Very little amount at the grate, I mean hardly noticeable...so far.  A little over an hour in.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Is that colby jack?

[Bentley]

Yes.  Good Tex-Mex taco & burrito cheese!

[Bar-B-Lew]

My buddy and I smoked about 5 or so different types of cheese one day.  The MAK side chamber was pushing 90°.  The colby jack was the only type that deformed.  All others held shape.  I am assuming it is a "softer" cheese.  He said the flavor was great when he ate it weeks later so the slight change in shape didn't impact the final product.

[Bentley]

Kristin and I tasted it, we know what had happened to it, so no way to be objective, but you could taste that ash tray flavor.  So it is in the fridge.  It is my brothers birthday, so going to sister #1's house to have dinner.  Will be the six of us and the 2 uncles, so I will take 6 small pieces of the green stuff and six of these and just ask if there is ant flavor difference!

[Bar-B-Lew]

haha...there is an obvious difference right off the smoker.  be sure to do the same test in 3 weeks.

[bbad]

This was a great review. I ran out and bought the last Pit Boss they had at the Walmart near me. This smoker should be able to replace the old masterbuilt electric smoker I use for smoking sausage and my GMG pellet grill (on its last leg) that I use for all other smokes.

[Bentley]

Did not see this comment the 1st go round, and I was thinking on the reason they came out bad.  I don't think it had and thing to do with the cooking, and the sausage is not bad tasting.  It is the casing!  Even though they are "natural" hog casing, they are that stuff from amazon.  They felt funky when I opened them.  I think you and many others use them, so this is probably a stretch.  But once these are gone, it is always going to be "fresh" casings!

Sorry if my cooking method ruined it for you.

[Bar-B-Lew]

So I sent an email to Pit Boss last night.  Spare racks and hooks will be available in May. If you register your pit, they will be sending 25% off coupon to you.  The items will be listed on their website when they are ready to sell.

"We will have the accessories in our warehouse probably in May. Once they arrive, we plan to post them for sale on our website. Did you register your grill and get the 25% off coupon yet? If not, do that so you can save some money!"

[slaga]

Yeah, 3 hours and I have not been above 100° yet!  I was thinking the same thing and am going out side to pull it right now.  Will take a picture since I have to open the pit!

I would pull out the pan of water or you will have that going forever, and may be a challenge to dehydrate the jerky with the water in there.  If you can keep the pit in the 150°-170° range, it should be good for the jerky.

This is the post that really got my attention on this unit. For some reason I thought the ambient temps that day were in the 40s. Does that sound about right to you Bentley? 3 hours in and the temp was between 90 and 100 and holding pretty steady. If I am correct on the ambient temps, that is about 3 hours with a 50 to 60 degree rise in temperature over ambient. I am hoping I can smoke jerky all year long here in South Texas. If I can maintain a 50 to 60 degree rise over ambient, it should not be an issue.

Edit below:

I don't anyone to be mislead. It did not run 50 degrees over ambient on its own. The water pan at the bottom had water in it and there was a tray full of ice on the lowest shelf. Those 2 things created a situation where the cooking chamber was only about 50 degrees above ambient. If I have to freeze a tray full of water and give up 1 shelf to get that 50 degree rise, I feel it is good trade off.

[Kristin Meredith]

Our low that date was 42 and the high was 69.  It looks like he was cooking in the morning, so I would guess the temps on the patio would have been between 45 and 50 for that period.  We were also having a lot of wind in that period, so that may have affected temp.  He may remember better.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Plus, I still firmly believe the amount of water in the pan drops the temps below set temp.  I will have to test it when I get my unit.  Putting a tray of ice in addition to a full water pan also drives the temps down significantly below set temps.  This seems like a grill that requires a temp probe on a cooking grate and then setting the controller to whatever temp gets you to the temp at the grate level.  For example, you may need to set the controller to 200° to hit 150° grate temp.

[slaga]

Our low that date was 42 and the high was 69.  It looks like he was cooking in the morning, so I would guess the temps on the patio would have been between 45 and 50 for that period.  We were also having a lot of wind in that period, so that may have affected temp.  He may remember better.

Thank you Kristin. That is in the ball park of what I wanted to hear. Perfect...

Plus, I still firmly believe the amount of water in the pan drops the temps below set temp.  I will have to test it when I get my unit.  Putting a tray of ice in addition to a full water pan also drives the temps down significantly below set temps.  This seems like a grill that requires a temp probe on a cooking grate and then setting the controller to whatever temp gets you to the temp at the grate level.  For example, you may need to set the controller to 200° to hit 150° grate temp.

I have no issue with this. I can always use the meat probe and put it through a small ball of aluminum foil to keep it up off the grate and set it on one of the middle grates. I would then use the display on the grill to get actual temp at grate level and adjust the control knob to get the grate temperature I want. If I can maintain a 50 or 60 degree rise over ambient for 5 or 6 hours with all of that real estate for jerky, I will be golden! I am a little giddy about this because jerky is one of my favorites to cook.

To top it all off I had this built for my Traeger and it will fit nicely in the Pit Boss. I can add an additional 5 racks to the racks that come with the grill. Even more real estate for jerky...

[Bar-B-Lew]

I have 4 sets of these that I have been using without the pan on the bottom.  Will have to see if they fit in the Pit Boss.