here my list

[bigtim665]

Ok tomorrow got deleyed due to late on the mail getting my check to me.
I am getting the bradley smoker i know alot of people of said not to buy it but the guy at gander told me if i had any trouble to bring it back. i called to make sure they would match cabelas even know there 200 miles away.
I want to try and smoke a bunch of stuff togathers as the bradley puck cost a good chunk of cash.


1. Pulled beef bbq
2.canadien bacon
3.roastbeef lunch meat. need a recipe if you would.
4. belly bacon
5.smoked leg quarter or whole chicken.
Can i smoke all of this stufff togather. I think i might need to do the belly bacon by itself since it is cold smoke.

[Richtee]

Prolly not the whole chicken either. You want to do that upwards of 275-300. Quarters would be OK in the 225-250 range tho. Toss 'em on a grill to crisp them up after smoking.

[wutang]

I agree with you that the belly bacon will need to be cold smoked. I am not sure how much room you have but keep in mind however you arrange the meat the chicken has to be on the bottom for food safety reasons.

Here is a link to a roast beef/lunchmeat thread I did-it came out great.
http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1811

[Capt Dan]

Thats alot to ask of a watt burner, I think you might want to slow down a little and do some research. It takes alot of BTU's to smoke that much meat at one time. Unless the Bradley's have come up with a new model, you'll never get them all in the same smoker together, or be able to keep the temps where ya need them. I would do one or two things at a time untill you learn your smoker. You might just not like the outcome of the product.

You can do the roast beef and pulled beef at the same time, just cook one longer than the other for the pull. The Bacon has to be done alone, or with other bellies, the chicken can be done, but I wouldn't mix it till you learn your rig.
The CB is an easy one and can be done at any time, you might as well cure a couple of them , and then smoke them both.

Its great to be ambitious, but lets be patient and not waste your money.

Keep reading, and make up a plan. The beef will take you a whole day and then some, the chicken and CB can be done on the same day seperately, and the bacon needs a partial day of its own.

Keep us posted, and good luck with your new smoker!

[Richtee]

Thats alot to ask of a watt burner, I think you might want to slow down a little and do some research. It takes alot of BTU's to smoke that much meat at one time. Unless the Bradley's have come up with a new model, you'll never get them all in the same smoker together, or be able to keep the temps where ya need them. I would do one or two things at a time untill you learn your smoker. You might just not like the outcome of the product.

This is prolly what I SHOULD have said. I assumed you knew the machine...when I read you just aquired it. Doh on my part.

Learn your tools, the finished product will be much better.

[The Spy-Guy]

I have the Bradley Jim Beam Model for about three months now. If you load it up too much it takes forever for the temp. to recover. Go easy and learn it's ins and outs. It may not be the best smoker out there but it sure is easy to use. Enjoy it! Bill

[Texas-Hunter]

Ok tomorrow got deleyed due to late on the mail getting my check to me.
I am getting the bradley smoker i know alot of people of said not to buy it but the guy at gander told me if i had any trouble to bring it back. i called to make sure they would match cabelas even know there 200 miles away.
I want to try and smoke a bunch of stuff togathers as the bradley puck cost a good chunk of cash.


1. Pulled beef bbq
2.canadien bacon
3.roastbeef lunch meat. need a recipe if you would.
4. belly bacon
5.smoked leg quarter or whole chicken.
Can i smoke all of this stufff togather. I think i might need to do the belly bacon by itself since it is cold smoke.

That does seem like alot for one smoke... I would suggest breaking your smokes up the week of the party..

First cold smoke your belly bacon, when that is done bump up the heat and pop in your CB... Let it smoke to temp.. That way when done you can slice and vacuum seal them and keep in the frig till the party.. Then I would do the pulled beef and roast lunch meat the day before the party and have it pulled / sliced in the frig as well... The day of the party smoke your leg quarters or whole chickens, pop your pulled beef in the oven to warm... heat and serve your other items throughout the day or have them ready for everyone to eat...

One thing is I have found.. Try to have as many things completed before all the folks show up... That way you can spend time entertaining your guests and family, not standing over your pit and running around trying to get everything done at the last minute..

Just my 2 penny's worth

[Capt Dan]

Just my 2 penny's worth

with a gimp, hobble, shuffle , slide added in!

LOL, had to see if there was a new icon!

Thats a pretty good plan right there hop along,( Ken) hope yer haunches and hooves get better soon!

[curious aardvark]

I want to try and smoke a bunch of stuff togathers as the bradley puck cost a good chunk of cash.

Yep that's it's one main disadvantage.

Well as I couldn't talk you out of buying it (and when mine was working I have to admit I did like using it - but that was back when I had a lot more work on and could afford to run it - and it wasn't dead lol).

Okay a few things to take into account.
1) the bradley generates a lot of smoke (while keeping it thin and blue) and things like cold smoking don't take anywhere near as long in a bradley as they do in a conventional smoker setup.
For cold smokes I never went longer than 5 hours. And yeah you will want to throw as much stuff in persmoke as you can.
So if you're cold smoking bacon (hang from top tray with paperclip hooks)


This still leaves you the bottom tray to do a whole bunch of cheese on.
Cheese takes 2 hours max.
Cold smoking setup is real easy.
Get yourself a smallish cardboard box and a 4inch diameter dryer tube and do this :

Hmm looks like I put the cheese above the bacon :-) lol that'll work too

So that's cold smoking.

Hot smoking - as people have mentioned it won't get very hot, very quick. In fact it just won't get very hot.
But fo smoking you don't want hot - so unless you're doing ribs, which were the one thing I consider a failure from the bradley - it'll cook everything else fine.
Leave out the bacon and I can't see any reason why you shouldn't do the whole lot in one go.
Chicken leg quarters won't take more than a couple or three hours, you'll be pushed to get the beef to 205 - but 160 won't be a problem and you can foil and shove in the oven at that point anyway.

No idea what you're calling roast beef luncheon meat - so can't help there.

Get yourself a bunch of probe therms as you won't want to be opening and closing the door to check if it's done.
Also on a hot smoke the top tray is much cooler than the bottom tray, so you might need to rotate on a longish smoke.

If you fill the drip tray with liquid it keeps the temps very low and doesn't seem to add anything to the food flavour. I just kept it empty and used as a drip tray.

As far as best pucks for genral purpose smoking I ended up with oak.
Tried a few of the others - cherry was a real harsh almost bitter flavour, apple wasn't much better - oak seemed to be the best all rounder to me.
Mind you it's pretty much the main wood used in smoking in the uk anyway - so maybe my taste buds have been corrupted over the years :-)

Let me know if you want any info and good luck with your smokes :-)

[bigtim665]

thanks i had planned to set it up top and forgot about the issue of it being chicken. I went with leg quarters and bone in breast. plus a few pounds of ribs. I think i might through in some country ribs since they where cheap. I went with the bradley digital smoker. I know alot of people have issues. But gander said they had a 90 day return if nothing else.

I agree with you that the belly bacon will need to be cold smoked. I am not sure how much room you have but keep in mind however you arrange the meat the chicken has to be on the bottom for food safety reasons.

Here is a link to a roast beef/lunchmeat thread I did-it came out great.
http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1811

[bigtim665]

I did endup getting the bradley i went with the digital setup. i had gotten some country ribs about 8 big leg quarters of chicken, and some chicken breast bone in. i had a chuck roast to. I am thinking the chicken and the ribs then wait and do the roast this weekend for pulled beef.
Thanks for the help if the bradley breaks in the 90 day return or does not do it's job i am going to go with a offset i think. WIth you cold smoke set up did you have the smoke unit in the box and a bowl for the pucks then run the duct to the smoker. Thanks alot I will let you know how it goes.

Yep that's it's one main disadvantage.

Well as I couldn't talk you out of buying it (and when mine was working I have to admit I did like using it - but that was back when I had a lot more work on and could afford to run it - and it wasn't dead lol).

Okay a few things to take into account.
1) the bradley generates a lot of smoke (while keeping it thin and blue) and things like cold smoking don't take anywhere near as long in a bradley as they do in a conventional smoker setup.
For cold smokes I never went longer than 5 hours. And yeah you will want to throw as much stuff in persmoke as you can.
So if you're cold smoking bacon (hang from top tray with paperclip hooks)


This still leaves you the bottom tray to do a whole bunch of cheese on.
Cheese takes 2 hours max.
Cold smoking setup is real easy.
Get yourself a smallish cardboard box and a 4inch diameter dryer tube and do this :

Hmm looks like I put the cheese above the bacon :-) lol that'll work too

So that's cold smoking.

Hot smoking - as people have mentioned it won't get very hot, very quick. In fact it just won't get very hot.
But fo smoking you don't want hot - so unless you're doing ribs, which were the one thing I consider a failure from the bradley - it'll cook everything else fine.
Leave out the bacon and I can't see any reason why you shouldn't do the whole lot in one go.
Chicken leg quarters won't take more than a couple or three hours, you'll be pushed to get the beef to 205 - but 160 won't be a problem and you can foil and shove in the oven at that point anyway.

No idea what you're calling roast beef luncheon meat - so can't help there.

Get yourself a bunch of probe therms as you won't want to be opening and closing the door to check if it's done.
Also on a hot smoke the top tray is much cooler than the bottom tray, so you might need to rotate on a longish smoke.

If you fill the drip tray with liquid it keeps the temps very low and doesn't seem to add anything to the food flavour. I just kept it empty and used as a drip tray.

As far as best pucks for genral purpose smoking I ended up with oak.
Tried a few of the others - cherry was a real harsh almost bitter flavour, apple wasn't much better - oak seemed to be the best all rounder to me.
Mind you it's pretty much the main wood used in smoking in the uk anyway - so maybe my taste buds have been corrupted over the years :-)

Let me know if you want any info and good luck with your smokes :-)

[Texas-Hunter]

Good luck... Take plenty of pics...

[curious aardvark]

the digital is a much better unit - haven't heard of any major problems with that - it's what irishteabear has and I know she was very pleased with it before getting a charcoal burner :-)

So why are shoulder steaks called country ribs ?
'spose it goes with calling the shoulder a butt lol

If you can fit it in - I'd do it all in one smoke. Chicken quarters and shoulder steaks and beef don't have any problems being cooked together that I can think of.

[bigtim665]

I got 5 pounds of quarter 5 pounds of country ribs. Aka crap ribs. But 5.00 for baby backs i can get at sams for 3 was not happening. Then i got 4 whole chicken breast i could have gottin 2or3 more pounds of ribs on the two rib racks. Or a couple more chicken breast. It smoked just find. I went swimming watched tv. and only checked it 4 time. more just to look at it then anything. Now comes clean up for a early sunday party smoke.

the digital is a much better unit - haven't heard of any major problems with that - it's what irishteabear has and I know she was very pleased with it before getting a charcoal burner :-)

So why are shoulder steaks called country ribs ?
'spose it goes with calling the shoulder a butt lol

If you can fit it in - I'd do it all in one smoke. Chicken quarters and shoulder steaks and beef don't have any problems being cooked together that I can think of.