Category: Food

Smoking with Brinkmann Gourmet Electric Smoker

smoker with wood chips, on top of aluminum
I used Penzy’s Spices Chicken Jerk my sister Jen got me!
Ahh all that wonderful blue smoke
I love this thermometer. It is telling me I need to leave it in longer.
Temp: 142. I need to get to 160 as internal temp so I don’t die upon eating
I was surprised how well the smoker worker- until I had a huge flame up and tried to find my water bottle to put out the flames

Put a oven heater element in the bottom of a tube. That is the Brinkmann Gourmet Electric Smoker. Unless you are a smoking snob, you will consider the things you take out of the smoker a success. Great ribs, chicken and more. The problem? No control. No ability to control temperatures, crazy flame ups when the wood chips catch fire, etc.

Isn’t that the case with any specific, quality product?

“What? You bought an automatic transmission?! Blah blah..

“What?! You let your SOFTWARE decide what is best for you?! Blah blah.

“What?! You haven’t hacked your own cell phone?! Blah blah.”

and on and on. Economists focus on the margin, the part of the bell curve that is open to change. This is why posting a far right or left wing comment on Facebook doesn’t do much- it just reinforces stereotypes. Most of us want the Gaza Strip and the middle east to compromise and figure things out. Most of us want our politicians to “walk across the isle” and shake hands with someone they don’t like for the onward movement of our country.

It is the same in smoking food. There seems to be an expectation that if you make something these days, you must be an expert or you shouldn’t share. I disagree. I think we need more comprimising politicians, more mediocre home cooks, more self-taught half-good bar-b-quers. Why? Because the more people who allow themselves the space to make a mistake means there are more people who may be willing to improve. That is the point, isn’t it? Why should we all hide out like Rocky in a secluded Russian boxing camp before we perfect our skill? No one else gets to see our mistakes and learn from them.