When you are done cooking, it is good to burn a small batch of wood chips to clean out your smoker. Set your smoker for the maximum time and 10 degrees over the desired temperature you never want your smoker to stop early. I am a fan of using a separate probe thermometer because I think they are more accurate, but if you use a wired probe try to run it out the bottom of the door so as not to disrupt the seal. Your smoker has a built-in wired temperature probe that you can insert into the middle of the thickest piece of meat so you can check its progress. The temperature will be higher at the top of your smoker, so you arrange thicker cuts on upper shelves and thin ones on lower shelves. Use the lowest rack first when cooking fish. Slide your food onto the racks as quickly as you can, starting with the top rack when cooking meats and poultry. You can check out a grill mat with this affiliate link. When you open the smoker stand to the side a bit and let that first puff of smoke dissipate so you can breathe while loading. I arrange my meat on grill mats for fast and easy loading before I open the smoker. We will talk more on this subject in the tips below. Also always use small wood chips with this smoker because if you don’t it will not smoke well. As you are running your smoker put one load of chips in each hour to keep constant smoke and even temperatures. You can fill the loading tube twice to fill the tray completely, but I recommend not overfilling it as it will reduce the smoke output. You turn the tube and pull it out of the smoker, fill it with chips, and then slide it back in and turn it to fill the tray. The smoker has a loading tube with a handle. Loading wood chipsīy far, one of my favorite features of the Masterbuilt electric smoker is the way you load the wood chips. Also, when preheating put a few woodchips in as instructed in the next section. Put your smoker on the highest setting for meat or poultry and let it run for an hour before putting in food. Preheating your smoker is a must, and this smoker needs more time than a propane smoker. The closer to the edges you place the tin foil pan the less mess you will have. Then on the bottom rack, I put in a large disposable pan or make a tin foil pan to catch the dripping. I put water in the main grease tray, which I don’t use to collect grease. It is always a good idea to load water in your smoker when you are cooking in it.