Matt wrote:

>
> Yeah but the real beauty of the Bradley is that it can operate as either a
> smoker and/or oven, with our without smoke. For example, smoking a boston
> butt can take 12-16 hours in my Bradley, but I only apply smoke for the
> first 4 hours when doing a butt. So yes, you may be operating the Bradley
> for 16 hours, but it certainly doesn't cost you $16 for those 16 hours.
> Generally foods will only absorb smoke the first few hours of the smoke,
> after that you're just wasting smoke. You can get the Bradley wood pucks
> directly from Amazon with free shipping for .75 cents per hour (not $1/hr).
> Smoking a boston butt (4 hrs) for example, costs me $3 in pucks. You also
> have to keep in mind that the Bradley produces some pretty fine smoke, and a
> little bit goes a long way. When hot smoking salmon (one of my favorites) I
> generally only apply 2.5 hours of smoke, even though it is in the smoker for
> 5-7 hours in all. So while you may be operating your smoker for 20 hrs per
> week, do you require smoke for all 20 hours? probably not.
>
> I don't find the Bradley any more expensive to operate than any other
> smoker, when you figure in the cost of lump charcoal and/or flavored wood
> chunks used in other smokers. Just buying meats on sale and smoking larger
> batches at a time and you can more than make up for the cost of the wood
> pucks, imho.

Matt has given you a very good answer, and I heartily concur. I've been
the full route of everything from a little Weber grill as a youngster to
a masonry pit to SS gas grill and IR grill. I got a Bradley about 8
months back and absolutely love its simplicity and versatility. It
produces results that equal or exceed even a well designed masonry pit.
The only difference is that burning coals or charcoal give you a smoke
ring, where the Bradley doesn't. Taste is not an issue- just that smoke
ring some folks value as a measure of quality.

I also modified the Bradley with a digital differential thermostat that
regulates the heater instead of the Bradley thermostat. That's the
smartest thing I've done in a long while. The differential thermostat
begins to ramp down the hood temperature when the meat reaches within
25f of the setpoint, and by the time the meat equals the setpoint, the
hood temp is at that value as well.

I liked it so well I just had one sent to my son, along with a
differential thermostat kit.

Nonny

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---Nonnymus---
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trying to make others appear shorter.