Brisket SM008 vs. FEC100

baltraven,
not really familiar with the 008 but i can get my sm150 to match my fec in taste, tenderness and bark. i think the trick is to use the same pellets from your fec in the sm. remember pellets are always a cut of heat wood (oak, alder, ect and the flavor wood. the pellets i use are 2/3rds oak 1/3rd pecan as an example)
the foil thing i never do in the sm as there is no forced air flow like there is in the fec.
from my runup notes it always takes my sm 2 hours to reach a stable temp so i have been using that as my true start time.
but for sure you can match taste and tenderness it just takes some fiddling around and making sure that you are using identical woods in each unit.
hope it helps some
jack
ps the sm in our rig with the fec takes 8 mins less time to come to temp as my other sm does.

Prisonchef

Do you follow the same weight guide lines for the pellets as you do for wood in the sm? Thanks for the reply! Keep smoking

baltraven,
yes but only to a degree. i make pellet bags out of aluminum foil and load them with 4 oz of pellets. these go in as the meat does after a 2hour preheat to my temp. in the case of brisket i am manually set to 210 degrees. so on a big cook i start my sm 2 hours ahead of the fec as both of my units gain and achieve a stable temp much later than an fec does. kinda like the difference between a gas oven and an electric one.
one thing i can't wait to try are the smoke stix from bbqrsdelight. these are designed for large volume smokers like a southern pride and will not require the pellet bags to be made and have quite a long smoke duration so hopefully i will not have to reload at the 4 hour mark. nice part is even though they are pure wood flavor since i know that their mix is 2/3rds oak to 1/3rd pecan i can still match the flavor and color of whatever is in the fec. i should be getting those this week and after doing a few runups to make sure what is going on i would be happy to share my results with you.
it just occured to me that i haven't explained how to make a pellet bag so here goes. it is ez'r to do than explain;
1-tear off a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil
2-fold it in half
3-put that fold line next to your tummy. the left and right hand sides will be open.
4- fold the left hand side over about an inch to seal that side.
5- do the same thing on the right hand side.
6- at this point only the top will be open.
7- pour in the pellets (in my case i use 4 ounces.
8- fold the top over and place the bag in the wood box
9- use a toothpick and make only one hole in the top
10- slide it into the smoker and add the meat and shut the door.

since i just have never encountered the oversmoking problem on long smokes like brisket i will reload at the 4 hour mark

hope it helps some,
jack

quote:

Originally posted by Baltraven:
[qb]Compared to the brisket that I make in my FEC100 the meat was very smoky and didn�t melt in your mouth. Don�t get me wrong the meat tasted good and it was tender but there was a HUGE difference between the 2 smokers in taste. Did we do something wrong? Can you get similar tasting brisket from the 2 units? Thanks for your help. [/qb]

Jack's got some great thoughts as always.

The internal moisture levels are different, as well as the heat properties. That's why it's hard to match what you do in a 150 with smokettes. Smaller heating elements does make for a lot difference.

Not too many people out there cook on the smallers Cs's and a FEC.

Why are you trying to match the taste? Sounds like you're wanting your FEC to taste like the smokette? Can you be a little more specific. Are you wanting more smoke, different bark.

Biggest difference is the SM is a "humid" heat and the FEC is not.

FEC smoky? Usually the comments are the other way around. The cooking method in the FEC using dry heat and pellets usually ends up with a much lighter smoke and the 008 would be heavier. Main reason is the smaller vent holes.

quote:

For cooking time and temps we followed the CS cookbook that came with his SM008

As for the one not melting in your mouth, sounds like it was undercooked. They're different methods and you need to cook based on both a finish temp and doneness check. If I cook two briskets, same weight, in two different smokers, that doesn't mean they'll come out the same when you pull them. Not sure what it said for time and temp, but go with the forum recommendations.

We can get you there, although I prefer my FE briskets in a drier heat than the moist heat in the SM. But that's just me.

SmokinOkie I did mean 008 was smoky not the FEC. I also prefer the FEC brisket I'm trying to help him achieve a similar tasting brisket. I'm going to try using some pellets on the next cook and see how it turns out. Lots to learn thanks for your help!