Homemade Sausage Making

Butterbean wrote:There is a graveyard for the tanks not far from the house and I can pick them up very cheap. They are heavy but the thickness of the steel keeps the temperature consistant once you set the temp.

Way cool! There's an army post nearby. I wonder if there's a spare Abrams...

el Ducko wrote:

Butterbean wrote:There is a graveyard for the tanks not far from the house and I can pick them up very cheap. They are heavy but the thickness of the steel keeps the temperature consistant once you set the temp.

Way cool! There's an army post nearby. I wonder if there's a spare Abrams...

Might work but if you bumped into the base psychologist you might get shot.

[Might work but if you bumped into the base psychologist you might get shot.]
Yikes! Fort Hood redux. (re-Dux. Ducks and more ducks. Yuck yucks.)
I kinda had Camp Mabry in mind. ...probably nothing left there that's later than WW-I vintage.

I've been quiet for some time, busy moving and getting settled in. Well, Alabama is home now and so Bubba will continue his sausage making and meat smoking learning curve from here.

My immediate plans changed a few times from wanting to buy a Bank repo home down here to eventually deciding to rather rent a home, get to know the area well, then buy after a few months.

With that I could not build my smoker I wanted, most of my tools are still packed up and shall remain so until I know I have a home I own!
Plan 'B' was to then purchase a smoker, I decided on the Bradley 6 rack, and seasoned it last weekend.

This smoker is very different to the comfort zone I had with my old smoker, but so I shall practice and work out all the tricks with this new one.

Some photos of my new toy



Applying the first smoke to season

WOW! you gonna have to make a lot of sausage to pay for that one. NICE!

Oh, our Bubba is just the man to keep that thing active! Welcome home bro, things weren't the same around here without you.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

I smoked some brined Pork Loin in it this weekend for it's "maiden run". The Pork Loin was chosen because I have made it a few times now and am comfortable with the recipe and end result.
In the new Smoker it did not do so well, another empty run will tell me the tricks to learn. The IMT took way too long to reach 150 F, and I picked up a smoker temperature difference between the digital readout and my remote read out.

I did buy the cold smoke adapter for this unit as well, and will also modify the inlet to take a chip smoker.

I have some work to do, but will figure it out!

OK I'm all excited about learning how to put up pictures so heres my recently made smoker, its a little sanford and sons, but its worked fantastically, especially the first time I used it when it was 40 degrees out! And hats off to all of you here for posting so many great ideas about DIY stuff and to the Marianski smokehouse book!!!

Welcome to Alabama Bubba! I don't think you're too awful far from where I am. I'm in Oneonta, just north of Birmingham.

Bubba wrote:The IMT took way too long to reach 150 F, and I picked up a smoker temperature difference between the digital readout and my remote read out.

Bubba I have a Bradley six rack too, I used mine for about a year before I purchased a more accurate controller made by Auberins. The Bradley digital is a good smoker but the thermastat has 20 to 25 degree temp swing which can be very frustrating. The Aubeins Plug and play controller will keep the Temperature +/- 1 degree which results in a faster smoke time . Heres a picture of my set up.

I have difficulty with controllers that claim ± 1 degree. The best lab equipment costing thousands of bucks would like to achieve this. Only with an independent recorder could they hope to support this claim. Deadbands are a real problem in all process control.

Hi Keymaster and Ross,

From my initial observation it would be better for me to go the route of using a temp controller like the Auberins. I was going to dig into the Bradley electronics to figure a way of reducing the extreme temp swings. If the Auberins keeps within 5 deg F I'll be a happy camper.
Keymaster you have a beautiful deck there!

Hi Checkerfred,
You are indeed very close to me! I drove up to Huntsville 2 weeks ago for work and was amazed with the beautiful city of Huntsville.

Hi Randalleg,

Good job with posting the photos! I wish I could set up my own home built smoker, in a year's time I will be able to.
What is the inside of your smoker lined with?

I was reading the Auberins website and realize that their controllers a proportional as compared to the traditional on-off thermostats which always have a wide dead band.I am somewhat surprized that Bradley would produce such a fine product with such an archaic temperature controller.

Hi Ross,

Yes I was thinking the same and wondered if maybe they test their products in an empty condition.
With no load in the Smoker it works and holds temps not too bad, but as soon as one loads it the temps go crazy with long fluctutations of temps.

But I'll overcome that hurdle no problem.

Ross this is a statement fom the site that sells the Auberins controller. I Have sat and watched my smoker for hours and can vouch for the controller 100% it does what it says it will do unless your in the Antarctic

This plug-and-play PID temperature controller is for controlling the temperature of the Bradley Smoker and other electric smokers. The original temperature control mechanism of the Bradley Smoker is unstable and inaccurate. For the same dial position, the smoking temperature can vary significantly depending on content in the smoker, the ambient temperature, the wind speed, the ambient humidity, and even the direction of sunshine. This controller uses a PID algorithm to automatically adjust power to the heater, in order to compensate for these disturbances. This temperature control can hold the smoking temperature within one degree precision.

I hope that this has Helped gain a little trust in what I post, Please quit picken on the Newbies

Aaron