Wet Bulb Temperature and Thermal Processing
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processhead Power User Regular Contributors Smoker Build Expert Bowl Choppers Nebraska Veteran Team Camo
I was looking at a recipe that had a fairly detailed smoke schedule that included wet bulb temperatures, so that tells me the smoker has some sort of humidity control.
Hope to get some input from the community on the subject and if you have a wet bulb thermometer, where did you get it? Is anyone doing this in their smaller smokers?
As I understand it, it is just a normal thermometer/ temp probe with an absorbent cover than can be kept saturated while it is in the smoker. Seems like it should be fairly easy to make one.
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processhead i want to install one in mine, i think i will contact the manufacturer and see whats involved
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You can get the wet bulb temperature of your smoker using a wet towel over a thermometer with a cup of water soaking the towel, thats the easy part. Hard part is adding humidity to your smoker, theres tips on here to do that, but without a commercial smoker that smoke schedule you have is going to be VERY hard to do.
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processhead Power User Regular Contributors Smoker Build Expert Bowl Choppers Nebraska Veteran Team Camoreplied to lamurscrappy on last edited by
lamurscrappy said in Wet Bulb Temperature and Thermal Processing:
You can get the wet bulb temperature of your smoker using a wet towel over a thermometer with a cup of water soaking the towel, thats the easy part. Hard part is adding humidity to your smoker, theres tips on here to do that, but without a commercial smoker that smoke schedule you have is going to be VERY hard to do.
I would agree with everything you said. What I am thinking is trying to learn more about humidity measurements, sources, and controls for my smoking.
This is just kind of a baby step in that direction. -
Chef Canning Dry Cured Sausage Primo Grills Team Blue Sous Vide Power User Cast Ironreplied to processhead on last edited by
processhead It is easy. I have an old one from my lab days. Two thermometers, one with a like tubular wick that went around one of the bulbs. Looks like cotton, but it is an older one. The end of the wick went into a jar of water. There are any number of charts that show the differential of the temperatures so you can tell the relative humidity. Many on the internet.
The one think that I’m not sure about if would the wick material change the rate of evaporation and hence the differential temperatures?
You can also use two thermocouples and it will do the same thing
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mrobisr Team Blue Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Dry Cured Sausage Masterbuilt Military Veterans Power User Regular Contributorsreplied to processhead on last edited by
processhead if you can measure the temperature and humidity then there are online calculators that will give you the index, just another possibility.
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processhead said in Wet Bulb Temperature and Thermal Processing:
I was looking at a recipe that had a fairly detailed smoke schedule that included wet bulb temperatures, so that tells me the smoker has some sort of humidity control.
Hope to get some input from the community on the subject and if you have a wet bulb thermometer, where did you get it? Is anyone doing this in their smaller smokers?
As I understand it, it is just a normal thermometer/ temp probe with an absorbent cover than can be kept saturated while it is in the smoker. Seems like it should be fairly easy to make one.
Was experimenting one cold winter day.
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing/18?_=1629144368586 -
Chef Canning Dry Cured Sausage Primo Grills Team Blue Sous Vide Power User Cast Ironreplied to PapaSop on last edited by
PapaSop Didn’t see the original post till now. Great observation. And I gave my slidrule up in 1974, although I still have the slidrule my dad used to help him in the design of the 1st stage of the Saturn V.
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We’ve got the waltonsinc.com/smokehouse-wet-socks that work for this purpose. I 've done it with the madgetech thermometers so I can graph it, but really, you can do it with anything. We’ve got some information on it in the post that PapaSop was referencing above.
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltons.com youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/@waltonsinc
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Chef Canning Dry Cured Sausage Primo Grills Team Blue Sous Vide Power User Cast Ironreplied to Jonathon on last edited by
Jonathon What is the material mad of? really interested in if the material type makes a difference?
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Chef Interestingly enough there is almost not information on the item card in our main system. Just that it is 4"x5". Ill do some poking around and see what I can find. I’d have guessed a cotton blend but I will see if I can actually get a real answer.
Edit - I mistakenly said INterestingly enough when that was the least interesting thing ever said in this community!
Also, I asked commercial salesmen and they looked at me oddly and just said cotton. I then did some searching with the vendor and they don’t have anything listed so it is either REALLY proprietary or simple cotton…feels like cotton. I’m out for the night guys, when I start rambling like this it is time to go!
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If I remember right, it was just a piece of cotton fabric.
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Chef Canning Dry Cured Sausage Primo Grills Team Blue Sous Vide Power User Cast Ironreplied to Jonathon on last edited by
Jonathon The old wetbulb I have seems to be cotton. That is about 45 to 50 years old. Not sure just how different fibers would evarorate water. might not even be an issue.
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processhead Power User Regular Contributors Smoker Build Expert Bowl Choppers Nebraska Veteran Team Camo
I read a reference that said the wick just needs to be an absorbent material that will soak the water up out of the container and keep the bulb/probe wet. Cotton would certainly do that.
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Back in my previous life dealing with meteorologists and their explanation of the wet bulb instrument was that it was a cotton covered instrument. This was to take outside weather reading’s, but I can’t see why it would be any different using it inside a room or container.
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processhead
Thinking back I believe I used a cotton tie from a hoodie.
