"Nonnymus" > wrote in message
news
> My digital Bradley is now a couple months old and I've had a little
> experience with it. As some of you may recall, I'm not new to barbecuing,
> but am now in a situation where real estate is very limited and I no
> longer want to fiddle with charcoal or preburn. I have a very decent gas
> grill and have built my own IR cooker for sear cooking. The Bradley is
> the third addition to my arsenal, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
>
> The Bradley arrived in perfect condition. The unit was packaged about as
> well as anyone could ask- to me that is just another sign of quality. It
> assembled in about 2 minutes with excellent instructions. Recipes or
> helpful suggestions are a bit lacking, but since I've cooked a couple
> pounds of meat in my life, I had a few recipes of my own to play around
> with.
>
> The Bradley is for folks who want to crank out a consistent result. It
> takes a lot, but not all, of the art out of smoking meat. It leaves you
> with control of temperature and the duration of smoke (independently), and
> of course you have complete control of marinades, rubs, mops, brines and
> cures.
>
> When we have company, and that's frequently, I had a conflict between
> cooking them some good fare and showing them around town. With the
> Bradley, you can set it and jump in the car, returning later to perfectly
> cooked and smoked meat. When I discuss the following, please do not
> consider it to be criticism of the Bradley, but just my own thoughts of
> alternatives that "tweak" an already good system.
>
> 1) I have a Power Raptor and Competitor controller on order. The digital
> controls of the Bradley are good, but lack any logic control. As with an
> oven, you pick a temperature and duration for cooking. With the Power
> Raptor and Competitor controls, you set a hood temperature and meat
> temperature. As the meat temperature approaches the hood temperature, the
> hood temperature is reduced until the two meet at the meat's setpoint.
> Then, the temperature is changed to a holding temperature. This will only
> increase my ability to "set and forget" the Bradley.
>
> 2) Setting of the damper is probably the biggest learning curve for the
> Bradley. The damper is what you use to control the humidity inside the
> hood. Like the R2D2, there's a water pan in the Bradley. The purpose of
> the pan is to catch the smoked out wood pucks and extinguish them.
> However, I've found I can toss in some orange or apple juice and flavor
> the smoke a tad, as with the R2D2. Once I got comfortable using a steamy
> hood to begin with, then drying it out by opening the damper fully to give
> a crust to the meat, I was quite happy. I may even motorize this one day,
> just for the fun of it.
>
> 3) I wish that the heating element (500 VA) was larger. During freezing
> weather here, I felt that the Bradley struggled a tad when first loaded
> and possibly even later on. I see no reason why I couldn't toss in either
> a second element or a bigger one, and might do so. I cannot say what the
> power switching capability of the factory controls are, but the Power
> Raptor is good for 1500 or so watts, as I recall, so it's a moot point.
How cold do you consider freezing? I've got -14C here overnight, and -8C
during the day. My freezer is stocked with smoked goods, but I've been
considering the Bradley for fresh consistency. Do you think it would
perform well in the shed with my well works? Since that area is minimally
heated, I've been toying with the idea of putting an over the stovetop vent
out there to accomodate an electric smoker. High winds are a big concern
here in Newfoundland.
I've also heard there is no smoke ring when you use these. I wonder if I
could fake that effect with small amounts of lump charcoal dust on the
pucks?
>
> --
> -Nonnymus-
>
> Please stop Californicating Nevada
>
> In the periodic table, as in politics,
> the unstable elements tend to hang out on
> the far left, with some to the far right as well.