Proper maintenance equals longevity

Boy, it has been awhile since I have posted a blog. My apologies everyone. Life gets in the way I guess. :)

This blog might be more of a rant than anything. I see or hear things in the BBQ world that drive me nuts. They are either blatantly not true or incorrect usage/handling of products.

Here are my top griefs/recommendations:

1. Digital thermometers

• Bluetooth stinks. The range is horrible and it flakes out 80% of the time. Wireless works great but stay away from Bluetooth use thermometers until the technology is better. 
• The probes are almost never water proof. Do NOT clean your probe under water, etc. In fact, do not even wipe your probe wire with a damp cloth. Wipe off the tip that was in the food and store it away. All you need to do. 
• Like everything, you get what you pay for. That $10 wireless thermometer at the big box store is a great deal until it dies half way through your season. 

2. Wood pellet grill digital controllers should hold temperature to the degree. Wood pellet grills are NOT designed to hold their temperatures right to the degree. They are designed to swing in temp anywhere from 5 to 20 degrees. Sometimes more. Unless you have 50 degree swings or more, don't worry about it. Remember that 100 years ago we smoked meat over a fire with no temperate control whatsoever. The auger will feed pellets into the fire pot. The heat will go up. To compensate the auger will slow down feeding less pellets. The fire will die down a bit and the process starts over. When the temp is going up, less smoke. Then the temp is coming down, more smoke. 

3. Your smoker should be air tight. It drives me nuts when people see some smoke coming out from around the lid of the smoker and want to do a bunch of crazy modifications. The analogy I use is to go out in a huge field and light a fire and stand next to it for 15 minutes.  You will smell like smoke. It isn't the smoke leaking you should be worried about. It's the possibility of your temperature not being stable. If your smoker is leaking smoke but your temps are dialed in and do not sway much, leave it. 

4. Tons of smoke equals good flavor. It is possible to over smoke foods. Personally, I prefer my smoked foods to actually be lightly smoked. Some like a heavy smoke and that is great. When you are starting out smoking foods, a little goes a long way. Start with lighter smoke and work up. 

These are just a few of the things that I encourage our customers not to worry about. 

Keep on smoking everyone and keep it simple! 

Dan M. 

Colorado BBQ Outfitters