Yesterday I loaded up the Bradley smoker with a 14 pound brisket ($1.47
a pound) and two 9 pound pork shoulders ($1.29 a pound). I also smoked
three small turkey drumsticks that we got from the old meat section.

Observations:

1) The Bradley works great for smoking, but I am too impatient to run it
long enough for the meat to cook. I ran the smoke for 5 hours and left
the meat in for a total of 12 hours. Temperature in the smoker never
got much above 205 degrees. The Bradley people tell me this is normal.

2) At 12 hours, the pork was an internal temp of 180 degrees and the
small blade bones slid out of the meat effortlessly.

3) At 12 hours, the internal temp of the brisket was 170 degrees. I put
it in a covered pan and into the oven at 325 degrees for 90 minutes
until the temp was 190. Perfect.

4) Took the turkey legs out after the 5 hours of smoke and finished then
in the oven.... ate them for lunch. Very good.

5) Refrigerated the meat overnight and got out the slicer and sliced
everything this morning. Portioned it out into 15 freezer bags, each
containing one pound. Had one more bag of scraps that will go into soup
or pad thai.... and we had a meal of the pork last night. We figure
that we will get at least 22 +/- meals out of this for a per meal cost
of around $2.

6) The Bradley smoker doesn't get hot enough to suit me. I've talked
with them on the phone and they say it is working the way they designed
it to work. In the future, I will pre-heat it, load it with meat and
run the smoke feature for 5 hours... then take the meat and finish it in
the oven.

This is only the fourth time I've used the smoker since I bought it a
year ago and got the best results. I figure I will only use it 3 or 4
times a year, smoking a full load of meat each time.

Tonight's supper... BBQ Beef Brisket with cole slaw and french fries.

George L