Redneck Electric Smoker Reversible Conversion Kit

[Lew Newby]

My two grown grandkids flew in from Colorado last night and their Dad helped me make some Beef Sticks for snacks. I had read that slowly stepping up the temperature, starting at 110° F., helped the collagen casings get a snap. It got very close and the casing bit through clean. Most of the time they were in the Smokefire my heat source was a 400 watt electric hot pad and smoke came from a smoke tube that I was using for the first time. I closed off the two right vents and put the hot pad on the right side. I got good smoke but had to flip the meat around to get even cooking. Once the temp maxed out at 155° F I let it run for another hour and then fired up the Smokefire on Smokeboost. It took about an hour to finish after firing up the grill. No need for a water pan when the humidity is 85%. One lb. was done with LEM Backwoods original jerky seasoning and to the other I added pickled Jalapeno juice and chopped Jalapeno plus 4 oz. shredded Cheddar cheese. The cheese just disappeared and we couldn't taste it but the Jalapeno amped up the Backwoods Original seasoning and we both were delighted with the taste. I just ordered a 1200 watt hot plate so I can run the entire cook without firing up the EX6. This was a fun experiment.

 

[BFletcher]

You just simply know how to get it done when it comes to outdoor cooks. This is an awesome thread.

 

[Lew Newby]

You just simply know how to get it done when it comes to outdoor cooks. This is an awesome thread.

I appreciate the compliment. I have a lot of fun trying this kind of stuff. Plus, the Grandkids liked the beef sticks, especially the Jalapeno ones.

 

[C Lewis]

Pretty cool Lew, great idea!
I used to make a lot of jerky in the dehydrator, and venison summer sausage and snack sticks in the oven. Never put them in the smoker for whatever reason, but I've been thinking of getting back into it and might have to try your method.

Charlie

 

[Lew Newby]

Pretty cool Lew, great idea!
I used to make a lot of jerky in the dehydrator, and venison summer sausage and snack sticks in the oven. Never put them in the smoker for whatever reason, but I've been thinking of getting back into it and might have to try your method.

Charlie

In the net couple of weeks I'm going to make another batch of beef sticks and I now have a 1200 watt hot plate. If I can do the whole cook with that then it will also work for Jerky. I got about 5 hours of smoke with the smoke tube and that's all I need for sticks or Jerky. I'll post the results of my next test.

 

[C Lewis]

Looking forward to seeing it.

 

[Lew Newby]

Looking forward to seeing it.

Charlie, I did 1.5 lbs today using my new hot plate. Even with 1200 watts I couldn't get the temp up to 180 to finish. I even closed off the third exhaust vent and couldn't get it. By the time I wanted to go to 180 the smoke tube had burned out and I was surprised that it made a decent contribution to the heat inside. Keeping food away from the heat sources eats up some real estate so meat capacity is reduced by 1/3. Next time I'll make some changes and see if I can get what I want. The sticks came out real good and the collagen casings snap when I bite off a chunk.