Greetings all,
I'm the type of guy who likes to follow instructions to the letter and have perfect results. That being said, my love of AmeriQue grows and grows, from just the opposite of how I like things to work. I am on a journey with the AmeriQue, learning more and more---not from any instruction book, but from things I've noticed during cooks.
Ribs will be my last frontier, but to date, I am putting out awesome chicken, and Shrimp cooks. I've also been happy with fish cooks, but now I can add fish steak or fillet cooks to the list of ummmazing cooks that I do.
Shrimps I've been doing at 180º, but for fish I've been setting the AmeriQue to 200º The last time I did a 90 minute fish cook though, I noticed that the initial heating cycle sent the AmeriQue up to 228º before it started settling down. Eventually the AmeriQue cooked at a steady 200º. My fish has always been tasty, but tonight I did an experiment. I cooked my Salmon steak at 180º. The initial heat cycle, sent the AmeriQue to 209º. Eventually the heat settled down to the 180º I had wanted. Fish doesn't cook a long time, and my hunch tonight proved right on the money. Setting my AmeriQue to 180º, for the 90 minutes of a fish cook, let my fish cook at 209º for a while---enough heat to make sure that my fish was cooked through, but not enough heat to over cook. The averaging out of the temperature, after the initial 209º, let the fish cook through, and stay extremely moist.
Breaking up my wood chunks into chips for a low (200º and under) temperature cook, is the other epiphany, that lets wood smolder fully---but that epiphany was not self taught---it was SmokinOkie who suggested that trick!
Cheers all,
Jeff
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