What is the lowest temp available on the FE100? Can you cold smoke with the FE100?
Thanks
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rainman,
the smoke setting on my unit with bbqr's delight pecan blend pellets consistantly holds in the 145-165f area.
as far as cold smoking goes i think you might be able to make an effective baffle using a standard 6" hotel pan filled with ice to hold your temps down.
or you might try that plus mixing pure flavor pellets in with your heat pellets to further lower the heat but you might run into flame out problems.
just keep good notes while you are working your mix on the pellets up.
also (and i do this every friday) putting your meat in frozen is a very effective way of holding interior temps down.
hope it helps some
jack
the smoke setting on my unit with bbqr's delight pecan blend pellets consistantly holds in the 145-165f area.
as far as cold smoking goes i think you might be able to make an effective baffle using a standard 6" hotel pan filled with ice to hold your temps down.
or you might try that plus mixing pure flavor pellets in with your heat pellets to further lower the heat but you might run into flame out problems.
just keep good notes while you are working your mix on the pellets up.
also (and i do this every friday) putting your meat in frozen is a very effective way of holding interior temps down.
hope it helps some
jack
Not every cooker will do everything,and we usually seek the cooker that meets our particular needs.
If cold smoking is your primary need,I'd pass.
An easy answer is" you will always fight it,and never be satisfied"
If you are seeking a top cooker that will meet 90% of cooking needs this is it.
How about putting a cardboard box beside the FEC.[Like one the hot water heater comes in].
Cut a hole for the exhaust ,into the box.
Place a set of cheap,collapasible shelves from the dollar store in the box.
Cut a door in the box front.
Collapse the whole thing down ,when you don't need it.
Just my $0.02
Tom-Fl
If cold smoking is your primary need,I'd pass.
An easy answer is" you will always fight it,and never be satisfied"
If you are seeking a top cooker that will meet 90% of cooking needs this is it.
How about putting a cardboard box beside the FEC.[Like one the hot water heater comes in].
Cut a hole for the exhaust ,into the box.
Place a set of cheap,collapasible shelves from the dollar store in the box.
Cut a door in the box front.
Collapse the whole thing down ,when you don't need it.
Just my $0.02
Tom-Fl
Tom,
That sounds like an Alton Brown knockoff idea there. Go back to the weather channel. LOL
That sounds like an Alton Brown knockoff idea there. Go back to the weather channel. LOL
I cold smoked a batch of salamis in my FEC last week. The temp held at 85 degrees on smoke setting. Of course, the temp outside was 20 with 30 mph winds. 
Mike
Mike
Yep,but Alton used old gym lockers. 
The issue is the pellet burn pot and the force air. Takes a certain amount of air and pellets to stay lit (right Tom)
To answer the question, it's not designed to cold smoke. It's minimum, on average, will be 150 to 180 depending on outside temps. Others mileage may vary, but 150 is as low as I get.
All you really need is an alternate heat source. The heat plate/tin pan/sawdust AB uses in his box method would work fine.
To answer the question, it's not designed to cold smoke. It's minimum, on average, will be 150 to 180 depending on outside temps. Others mileage may vary, but 150 is as low as I get.
All you really need is an alternate heat source. The heat plate/tin pan/sawdust AB uses in his box method would work fine.
Hi Rainman,
If you're looking for a pellet burner to do cold smoking of small batches, this is one case where you'd be better off looking into something like a Traeger 070 or 075, due to their lack of insulation. On Thanksgiving morning, my 075 was doing 60-70 degrees on the smoke setting--of course it was 5 degrees and we had 25mph winds (northern types have a distinct climate advantage when it comes to cold smoking). They also have a cold smoking attachment for the 070 and 075, but since I don't have it, I can't tell you how well it works. Maybe i'll get it for giggles and find out.
The BBQ Guru folks also make an attachment that fits smaller Cookshack electrics that MIGHT be able to make them work more effectively as cold smokers. Just a thought there.
However, if you have your heart set on an FEC and want to use it for a lot cold smoking, I'd ask Eddy if you could mount a portable cold smoking box to the FEC exhaust with flex venting or something of that nature. You probably can get away with it without mucking up how your pellets burn as long as you don't reduce the size of your vent opening or have too long of a run of venting. Heck, you probably could even regulate your cold smoke box temperature that way by stretching out your venting on warmer days and shortening it up on colder days.
Now with all that said, I can't wait to get a test drive of the FEC at the Dec 2 class. The darn thing is that the more you get into smoking, it is just like anything else.....you find that you need multiple units, because each tool has different strong points. For example: No matter how many smokers I own, I wouldn't trade my Cookshack 55 for anything, because a 25lb batch of 20 inch sticks of summer sausage hang and smoke perfectly in it, retaining plenty of moisture with very little shrinkage.
Paul
If you're looking for a pellet burner to do cold smoking of small batches, this is one case where you'd be better off looking into something like a Traeger 070 or 075, due to their lack of insulation. On Thanksgiving morning, my 075 was doing 60-70 degrees on the smoke setting--of course it was 5 degrees and we had 25mph winds (northern types have a distinct climate advantage when it comes to cold smoking). They also have a cold smoking attachment for the 070 and 075, but since I don't have it, I can't tell you how well it works. Maybe i'll get it for giggles and find out.
The BBQ Guru folks also make an attachment that fits smaller Cookshack electrics that MIGHT be able to make them work more effectively as cold smokers. Just a thought there.
However, if you have your heart set on an FEC and want to use it for a lot cold smoking, I'd ask Eddy if you could mount a portable cold smoking box to the FEC exhaust with flex venting or something of that nature. You probably can get away with it without mucking up how your pellets burn as long as you don't reduce the size of your vent opening or have too long of a run of venting. Heck, you probably could even regulate your cold smoke box temperature that way by stretching out your venting on warmer days and shortening it up on colder days.
Now with all that said, I can't wait to get a test drive of the FEC at the Dec 2 class. The darn thing is that the more you get into smoking, it is just like anything else.....you find that you need multiple units, because each tool has different strong points. For example: No matter how many smokers I own, I wouldn't trade my Cookshack 55 for anything, because a 25lb batch of 20 inch sticks of summer sausage hang and smoke perfectly in it, retaining plenty of moisture with very little shrinkage.
Paul
Try leaving the door cracked and not sealed...
What if you ran a baffle into the FE's exhaust pipe and pumped smoke in from a pie pan on an electric hot plate. Leave the pellet burner off in the FE (obviously).
I have also lit a few charcoal briquets and a lump of wood and put them in a pan in the bottom of the FE. Honestly, it was too much work... I'm not used to doing that much work on the FE.. ;-)