smoking bricks?

That'll work. But, I'd heat them up in the oven first. That way you don't have to wait for the cookshack to heat itself and cold bricks.

I don't think it will work, but sure, go ahead and try. The bricks at only 200/250 won't have enough mass to compensate for the cycle of the heating element.

Personally?

I think everyone worries too much and the fluctuations don't matter. Until the internet and some engineer, No One every worried about their BBQ pits and the temp variances.

Plus or minus is usually 15 to 20 degree and that 10% and that percentage is even less over a 12 to 18 hour cook, the variance goes down based on averages.

I know for a fact it won't improve your cooking if the temp never varies.

LOL! Damnit Smokin, let the guy play around!

...And if it does work it'll cut a bit of time off his cook. True, it shouldn't taste any better though.

Yep, I know the fluctuations shouldnt have any effect on the final products taste. I guess what I was getting at was the on - off - on - off -on- off cycling of the unit. I know with the fridge or freezer the constant on and off is bad for the unit which is why having added jugs of water helps to maintain the temp. Im thinking that the constant on and off might be bad for the heating element. Dont know for sure but wanted to put it out there. I also wonder if the cooking times might vary with 1/2 rack opposed to 3 racks.

For the record, I will not use a brine on my bricks, but I will rub with mustard then liberal amounts of dry mortar. Im hoping the foiling doesnt make them mushy. I will use one lump of charcoal to try and get a good smoke ring.

The way I look at it, if you have room for bricks, you have room for more meat which would serve the same purpose. Never tried eating a brick before.

Who says cycling on and off is bad?
Surely the electrical component engineers have the foresight to give the elements, compressors, thermostats, switches, etc. that ability.

Well, fact is that there have been several posts on here where folks say when they put small amounts of food that ARE NOT fast smoke items it takes longer than when they pack their smoker full.

I don't see any reason not to give this a try. Unless of course ya really are gonna eat the bricks.

quote:

Originally posted by GLH:
Who says cycling on and off is bad?
Surely the electrical component engineers have the foresight to give the elements, compressors, thermostats, switches, etc. that ability.

I think its bad because its more wear and tear. A cooler thats 40 degress inside but empty will loose its temperature faster than one that has a case of beer in it. A compressor in the frige would have to run more to keep an empty frige cool.
More run time = more wear.

The same is also true of heating elements. If they didnt fail they wouldnt offer replacements. Even though they have no mechanical movement, they do expand and contract with temperature fluctuations. When a heating element fails it generally has a crack which may or may not be visible. Repeated on and off will stress the material, just like repeatedly bending a piece of metal. Im sure the engineers that design these elements test the heck out of them so this whole thread might be for not. I also know that most on this forum have been using their electric smokers for many years with no trouble.

I was just wondering if keeping the temperature more consistent would be better and if anyone had tried using a brick or something to accomplish this, since I will be doing such small loads. Im going to try it just to see what happens. Maybe I'll keep a log to see what it does for cook times. I'll try one cook with and one without a couple bricks (not preheated)

Len

quote:

Originally posted by Thunderbyte:
....For the record, I will not use a brine on my bricks, but I will rub with mustard then liberal amounts of dry mortar. Im hoping the foiling doesnt make them mushy. I will use one lump of charcoal to try and get a good smoke ring.

ROTFLMAO

Now THERE is someone who reads the forum closely

Donna's family developed the smokette a half century ago to cook briskets.

The design is used successfully through all sizes and shapes of their cookers.

They all work great and the results, after tinkering, lead to the understanding that it isn't necessary to reinvent the wheel.

There have been some folks that like to tinker,as a hobby,and they get more pleasure doing that.

Some of us are more interested in learning to cook good product and prefer to focus on that.

When all the tinkering is done,folks are satisfied and get on with learning to cook good product.

Just a couple of thoughts.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom:
There have been some folks that like to tinker,as a hobby,and they get more pleasure doing that.

Unfortunately thats me, Im a tinkerer. I wont mess with the unit (electronically or structurally) itself, but I will try darn near anything else to see what happens. My hobby used to be RC planes and trucks, but now that I own a retail hobby business that all has become work. Thats were BBQ comes into play. Its my new hobby and I love it. This forum is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.

quote:

Some of us are more interested in learning to cook good product and prefer to focus on that.

Yup, thats why Im trying the smaller loads. I havent been real pleased with my results lately, so I need to mix things up a bit. Experimenting with 1/2 a rack at a time is a lot cheaper and Im not worried about spoiling just a little. It will allow me to be a bit more daring. Kind of like Evel Knievel but with a piece of meat instead of a motorcycle!

Well,that is the nice thing about a Cookshack,even our less than perfect are still edible.

Can't say that for many others.

quote:

Originally posted by Thunderbyte:

Unfortunately thats me, Im a tinkerer. I wont mess with the unit (electronically or structurally) itself, but I will try darn near anything else to see what happens. My hobby used to be RC planes and trucks, but now that I own a retail hobby business that all has become work. Thats were BBQ comes into play. Its my new hobby and I love it. This forum is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.

I can relate! Believe me. I had no idea what kind of tinkering SOB I'd become after I bought my LST. Hell, now there's hardly an original part on it!

Tinker on my man!

I too was concerned that the on/off cycling (clicks every 15-30 seconds sometimes) was not good for electrical things like the contacts, but a call to Cookshack said they use "self-cleaning" types, so don't worry and just keep cooking.

quote:

Originally posted by GLH:
Who says cycling on and off is bad?
Surely the electrical component engineers have the foresight to give the elements, compressors, thermostats, switches, etc. that ability.

Yep. What he said.

My 08 was built in 1999. Still got the same heatin' element. Don't think I'm going to lose any sleep over element failure.

BTW -- How did the bricks turn out..? Falling off the bone? Moist? Did you use a rub or did they go naked? Foil or not? Curious minds want to know.

Slow weekend, couldn't resist!

The bricks were a little tough for my liking. I had trouble slicing without damaging my knife. No smoke ring either. They were no where near mushy though, so I guess thats a plus.

Seriously though, the bricks didnt do much except maybe shave about 30 minutes off my smoke. Even thats hard to know for sure since each smoke is different. Im never in a hurry when doing a smoke, so thats really no benefit. The bricks were room temperature and the smoker was cold when everything went in. I wanted to simulate a full load with the bricks. All in all it probably isnt worth the effort. Next time I'll just load up with more ribs! I wanted to do smaller loads to try some new stuff to get better flavor, but I figured it out on the first try. My hickory and apple chunks (all small, golf ball sized) were both about 5 years old and were stored in open plastic bags in my garage. I cant say for sure, but I think the older wood might have been the culprit. The previous few smokes were a little bland. I did this last smoke with some new wood and the smoke flavor is back!

Funny thing is when I pulled the bricks out and tossed them on the ground my two golden retrievers thought they had just hit the jackpot. There always waiting for me to accidentally drop a steak or a rack of ribs. Im sure the bricks smelled great, but I dont think its what they had in mind