Working on opening day 😭

[hotkarl]

If you have to work on opening day of Deere season you might as well load up some sausage and program the smoker to take care of the rest!!

[Jonathon]

hotkarl LOVE the sponges! In my opinion that is the 3rd best thing we have don here (#1 being tender jerky and #2 finishing in water and Parksider really gets the credit for that)
But talk to me about your control panel!

[hotkarl]

In 10 years of smoking sausage and snack sticks I’ve never came close to the results at home that I have now. All thanks to you guys and the community here. Lifetime Walton’s customer earned for sure!

Thank you!

Now if only I could figure out how to load my pictures in the right orientation from my phone ‍️

[hotkarl]

Jonathon the controller is from Auber Instruments. I ran PID controllers for 8 years and wanted the WIFI / App capability and also program capability to help drive consistency. It is capable of handling 1800 watts but I knew that I would be drawing more than that running 2 heating elements with fans from a convection oven so I hooked up a solid state relay in line to handle to load. The controller has 6 steps that can be programmed to jump to the next step based on time or temp from probes. It also lights the igniter in my smoker attachment when programmed to.

The other app shown is for the Fireboard thermometer. I purchased this so I could have a thermometer that I could move around to the grill or oven, access remotely and log sessions . It really helped me become aware of the heat variation that I had in my custom 1950 International Harvester fridge / smoker that was my grandfathers. This is why I added the convection oven fans and also the two fireplace fans.

[PapaSop]

hotkarl
Old meets new. Wow! Very cool.

[craigrice]

hotkarl as a retired hillbilly truck driver I need to ask what part of nasa do you work for ???

[craigrice]

hotkarl very good work !

[hotkarl]

craigrice Ha! Not NASA. Just a former Army avionics guy that needs to keep too many projects going at the same time.

[blackbetty61]

hotkarl wow that is a kick a*s setup

[Joe Hell]

hotkarl Impressive to say the least!

[roxy2500]

Jonathon hi am from the Caribbean my family don’t eat pork or beef so I make chicken hotdogs but I would like to put a filler in them and get them the reddish/pink colour normal sausage are can u help thanks

[AdamCA]

roxy2500 Do you use any type of cure? I’d recommend trying some Sure cure, you don’t need much. 1 ounce is enough for 25 lbs of meat.

[roxy2500]

AdamCA yes I do use Walton sure cure but its still white in colour and my kids don’t want to eat it cause they are a custom to reddish hotdogs

[AdamCA]

roxy2500 How do you cook them, do you smoke them? Other than that I don’t have any ideas, hopefully someone with more experience can offer some ideas.

[roxy2500]

AdamCA no I steam them

[hotkarl]

Jonathon my wife is going to kill me but I’ve finally got some use out the 2 roasters that we got for wedding presents 9 years ago. Way more consistent than using the grill or gas Turkey roaster.

[blackbetty61]

hotkarl I have thought about using a roaster for the water finish but wasn’t going to buy one if it wouldn’t work. Apparently it works…how well does it work? I wanted to try some summer sausage in one.

[hotkarl]

blackbetty61 It’s much easier to control than adjusting a burner on the grill. I get the water temp to 165 and then throw the sticks or sausage in. The water temp will drop but comes back nicely. What’s been pretty crazy to me is once the water temp is back at 160 the meat is also done. I wouldn’t suggest changing any temps on the roasters once you have it set.

[akdave]

hotkarl Awesome Set Up, Great to have the convection fans also, helps so much to have the even temperature in smoker

[Parksider]

hotkarl That is an awesome idea, never thought about roasters! Very cool set up BTW!!