Pellet Smokers

[rob_s]

No Im not 100% set.
One of the things I really want is simplicity to do a quick smoke and then finish it out with grilling, its ready to cook in a few min quick. Thats for everyday stuff like burgers chicken steaks veggies or even using the smoker to give the meat for a dish a bit of extra flavor. I dont think theres any way to get that with charcoal or wood.
For the longer smokes I want very accurate temps regardless of weather and not have to deal with the smoker at all during the cook unless Im wrapping meat.
Ill be able to sample pellet cooked meat in two weekends that should give me a good idea of what direction Im going.
So regardless of fuel type I still dont know how much better a double walled insulated is than a double wall. I think Ill call Traeger, they should have some good info since they have both.

Not sure if I'm reading the above correctly or not, but IMO I wouldn't plan to "quick" or "sear" anything on a pellet smoker unless you're using that Camp Chef with the side burner, regardless what any manufacturer claims.

I smoke on charcoal, on a smoker where I can cook over the fire box, and I still have a propane gill as well.

On the charcoal front, a good friend has one of these and loves it

https://www.weber.com/US/en/grills/c.../18501101.html

[UNK]

Not sure if I'm reading the above correctly or not, but IMO I wouldn't plan to "quick" or "sear" anything on a pellet smoker unless you're using that Camp Chef with the side burner, regardless what any manufacturer claims.

I smoke on charcoal, on a smoker where I can cook over the fire box, and I still have a propane gill as well.

On the charcoal front, a good friend has one of these and loves it

https://www.weber.com/US/en/grills/c.../18501101.html

Thats a great option that I have considered if I get a smoker only. I dont think it would be that hard to build a stand for a dedicated sear unit like the camp chef model.

For people who have gone from a charcoal smoker to a pellet is the flavor difference that noticeable?

[Pepper]

For people who have gone from a charcoal smoker to a pellet is the flavor difference that noticeable?

Yes! But now I can taste the food and not the smoke. I have been using a Weber kettle for grilling and smoking since 1974. That is a lot of charcoal and wood chunks burned. Added a pellet smoker in January. My old recipes are new again without all the smoke. Everything tastes a whole lot better.

[rob_s]

Yes! But now I can taste the food and not the smoke. I have been using a Weber kettle for grilling and smoking since 1974. That is a lot of charcoal and wood chunks burned. Added a pellet smoker in January. My old recipes are new again without all the smoke. Everything tastes a whole lot better.

It's amazing to me how many people have cooked for so long who never learned anything about the basic science of smoke(ing). I myself have been among them.

Most people need a hotter fire (which is not the same thing as the food-chamber temp) and less wood than they think they do.

I recently added a thermometer to my firebox for just this reason, and severely cut back the amount of wood I add. You want that fire to be up north of 500-degrees. If you're using an offset, you control that with the dampers. If you're using a direct-cook like the kamado you need a small, hot, fire and something like the snake method keeps the fire hot but the meet at the 250-ish range.

Frankly, however, most people would be just as happy, if not happier, with a meat-chamber ambient temp of 275 or even more.

[littlejerry]

I've used Traeger and own Camp Chef. Prefer the Camp Chef by a wide margin(easier clean out, better controller, and costs less).

If you're comparing a pellet smoker to a Green Egg... Don't. They aren't even remotely the same. I see a case for having a good charcoal grill, gas grill, and pellet smoker. Just like I have a crock pot, microwave, and oven.

Pellet smokers are the easy button to cook meat with a smokey flavor. It'll never be as good as a quality char oal cook(or better yet cooking over an open fire) but it gets you 80% of the way there with 20% of the effort.

For pellets I've tried lots of brands on Amazon and typically default to whichever blend happens to be priced well. If I'm doing something like brisket I might get a specific type of wood, but otherwise the blends do just fine.

[RoyGBiv]

I've used Traeger and own Camp Chef. Prefer the Camp Chef by a wide margin(easier clean out, better controller, and costs less).

If you're comparing a pellet smoker to a Green Egg... Don't. They aren't even remotely the same. I see a case for having a good charcoal grill, gas grill, and pellet smoker. Just like I have a crock pot, microwave, and oven.

Pellet smokers are the easy button to cook meat with a smokey flavor. It'll never be as good as a quality char oal cook(or better yet cooking over an open fire) but it gets you 80% of the way there with 20% of the effort.

For pellets I've tried lots of brands on Amazon and typically default to whichever blend happens to be priced well. If I'm doing something like brisket I might get a specific type of wood, but otherwise the blends do just fine.

I know some folks that make delicious stuff on their eggs. I didn't enjoy cooking on one the one time I tried. Pellet smokers are truly the lazy persons way to get great results. You can get fancy with technique and technology, or play with wood types, or set and forget... but any way you cut it... pellet smokers are easy. Especially if you have a nearby grill to reverse sear.

Haven't cooked over an open pit in a very long time.... I'll eventually get my dream-design fire pit built and will definitely have a grill/grate for it.

Pit Boss brand pellets from Lowes and Walmart are inexpensive and delicious. $15 for 40 pounds of Competition Blend or a bit less for 20 pounds of Hickory cover most of my needs. They have plenty of other woods for reasonable prices.

[scjbash]

A buddy just bought a camp chef, he gets in about two weeks Im going to watching that with interest. Hes never smoked before so Ill be helping him out a bit. Im going to buy him Meatheads book as it covers so much material that is really useful.

I bought a Camp Chef a few weeks ago. It was missing some hardware but I had some extra nuts and it came with a bunch of extra bolts so I was able to get it together. Then during the initial burn-in the controller died. I joined a Camp Chef group on Facebook and these are both common problems. They don't have customer support on the weekends (you know, when everyone is using them) so I called them that Monday. The woman I talked to was nice but it took them 10 days to get a new controller to me.

Now that it's working it's working great. Hopefully it I don't have any more problems but they are apparently having rampant controller failures. One guy in that group is on his fourth controller.

[BehindBlueI's]

Are you dead set on a pellet grill? I kinda was until I looked into Big Green Eggs. With all the accessories available I was sold.

I was looking for something I could do it all on, from low and slow to ridiculously high temp searing.

After being sorely disappointed with my foray into pellet grills with a lemon unit from Green Mountain, I bought a Big Joe II kamado. It's awesome. You can do everything on it from low n slow to pizza oven temps.

No Im not 100% set.
One of the things I really want is simplicity to do a quick smoke and then finish it out with grilling, its ready to cook in a few min quick. Thats for everyday stuff like burgers chicken steaks veggies or even using the smoker to give the meat for a dish a bit of extra flavor. I dont think theres any way to get that with charcoal or wood.
For the longer smokes I want very accurate temps regardless of weather and not have to deal with the smoker at all during the cook unless Im wrapping meat.

I'm no pellet expert, but "few minutes" probably won't get a pellet grill up to temp. It will be faster than charcoal or kamado, though. You can do pretty much anything in a kamado but you have to do it from cool to hot. It has so much thermal mass it takes a long time to cool down. I've done 12 hour cooks in mine without adding wood or fiddling with dampers. Obviously there is no bluetooth, so you can't start it remotely or anything. It doesn't break, though, and it doesn't go on the fritz and ruin the meat on it.

[UNK]

After being sorely disappointed with my foray into pellet grills with a lemon unit from Green Mountain, I bought a Big Joe II kamado. It's awesome. You can do everything on it from low n slow to pizza oven temps.



I'm no pellet expert, but "few minutes" probably won't get a pellet grill up to temp. It will be faster than charcoal or kamado, though. You can do pretty much anything in a kamado but you have to do it from cool to hot. It has so much thermal mass it takes a long time to cool down. I've done 12 hour cooks in mine without adding wood or fiddling with dampers. Obviously there is no bluetooth, so you can't start it remotely or anything. It doesn't break, though, and it doesn't go on the fritz and ruin the meat on it.

Ive seen pellet grills that claim 7 min. You cant start them remotely although some will attempt a restart at certain low point a certain amount of times and if temps dont go up it will give you an alarm. When I I try the pellet smoked meat if I like it Ill be going pellet. As far as them breaking or losing power I guess you could throw it in the fridge or in the oven.
Ive smoked plenty with charcoal on a weber and really Im just over the hassle of it. If it had been more stable and held more fuel I wouldnt be looking at better options.

Traeger CS was absolutely no help with questions about double walled vs double wall and insulation. Instead of just saying I dont know the answer and getting me to someone who did she speculated. I may call back another day and hope for someone more knowledgable.

Ive just put MAK on my list. Veteran owned all mfg and materials US based . https://makgrills.com/

[scjbash]

Ive seen pellet grills that claim 7 min.

Set to 225 the startup timer on mine is 7 minutes.