I get great smoke rings with my pellet grill. My brisket I did for memorial weekend was done over night at 200 and I think the lower temp makes for a better smoke ring. It does not give the deep smoke flavor of other smokers but I prefer the pellet grill for ease of use and less smoke flavor. You can add a smoke tube for extra smoke flavor. If I knew how to add a picture I could post one of my smoke ring.
Smoke rings develop until the meat reaches 140°. Lower temperatures result in longer time periods under 140 and more smoke ring. With that being said a bigger ring is not always worth the other issues associated with longer cook times.
Celery has natural nitire so some people use celery seed (not salt, my bad) to enhance a smoke ring. Just remember that smoke ring isn't an indicator that the end product will be good. It's just a visual thing.
Thank you for that information. I always do 200-250 even smoking. If doing an overnight cook I set it at 200 till morning then bump my temp after wrapping.
Yeah, it is. I have an egg for grilling and a traeger for smoking. There's a lot of things that pellet grills do better and/or easier than other smokers, I like to use mine like an oven for a lot of stuff and get a baked + smoke flavor. Pecan pies and peach cobbler are personal favorites. Potatoes au gratin and smoked lasagna are delicious too. Because of the ease of using the traeger I end up using it much more often than I ever did with my wood burners.
I really like my pellet smoker. The ability to set it and walk away is really nice. Admittedly, you can get better smoke from an offset, but that requires far more work. I have found that the pellets used have a massive impact on the amount and quality of smoke you get. So far, Lumberjack pellets are the best ones I've found that are easily available in my area.
Ask on camp chef or pellet grill reddit
Woodwind 24 pro allows you to add wood chunks, also you can use a smoke tube
Many many opinions on this
Folks here like to be punched in the face with smoke.
I am very much just a dad who likes grilling and smoking things so I am far from an expert but I have a propane grill and a pellet smoker and I really enjoy having both. I have had a pitboss vertical pellet smoker for about 4 years now. It's perfect for throwing something on and not having to worry about it while I'm chasing after my kids. As everyone has said, you don't get as much smoke flavor but I have found putting it on the smoke setting (~170° and heavier smoke) for about the first hour really helps. I really like the vertical because I don't have much space and I'm not worried about searing. The vertical also has so much more room so you could load it up and feed a small army. Mine has a 40lb pellet hopper too so you don't have to stress about running out of pellets on an overnight cook.
My favorite thing to smoke is pork loin because it always comes out delicious and only takes about 2hrs.
Yes… for me it was… and now I smoke food more than grill food…
If you are accepting recommendations, the camp chef woodwind pro is amazing. It is a significant improvement over the previous versions, and I get fantastic results with almost zero effort. It is the first time I’ve ever had a pellet smoker produce a product that was too smokey, and the ability to do cold smoking comes in very handy if you are considering getting into that down the road.
But be warned, if you ever smoke cheese, and give it away as a gift, they will bug you about making them more non-stop…
Oh, also camp chefs seems to be the easiest pellet smokers to clean, swap pellets, and maintain… at least from my experience…
I was very much in your position at the beginning of the year when I was looking at adding a smoker to my outdoor cooking. I also have a decent gas grill that I didn't want to part with.
I ended up getting a pit boss, bit on the smaller side 700 sq inch grilling surface. I've maybe used it twice for actual high heat grilling to test out how it sears and I gotta say I'm not the biggest fan, but of course I knew what I was getting into having the burn pot in one area vs a gas grill that has burners over the entire grates. When I do things like burgers, I'll smoke them on the pit boss for a while, then finish them off on the gas grill to get those good grill lines and more even sear. Same for steaks, chicken breast, etc etc.
I love offset smoking and have nothing but appreciation for people who are able to put the time & commitment into running a long smoke session with an offset, but for a lot of people that just isn't feasible. For an average griller though I think they'd be happy with the smoke flavor that can come off a pellet grill.
For longer smokes, so far with my pit boss I've done numerous pork ribs, beef ribs, whole chickens, a 20lb turkey, a full 15lb packer brisket, and on everything like this I've been able to get solid smoke rings and absolutely noticeable smoke flavor. It's definitely been a game changer in how I approach outdoor cooking.
My only regret is that I probably should have put more thought into the grill size. It's just me & my gf here so for daily cooks or weekend smokes it's more than enough for the 2 of us, but if we ever had a big family cookout here it would be difficult to do a ton of food, for example I could technically fit 2 briskets, but one would have to be on the bottom rack and the 2nd above, so there's no chance they'd cook evenly.
My 2nd regret is that I maybe shouldn't have been so stubborn about keeping my gas grill and maybe looked into getting one of those combo smoker/gas grill units, and selling my current gas grill, if nothing but to make it more aesthetically pleasing and to save some space on the deck.
I started with a WSM. Flavor and bark was amazing, but I would be up all night managing temperatures. I switched to a Traeger and am happy. The end product is great (not as good as the WSM), and the quality of life improvement is off the chart. I smoke more now because of the ease of use.
I think pellets are a great compromise. I got a GMG, it's easy to set at 225 and maintain temp and get outstanding food. It's not as good as a dedicated smoker but the easiness makes up for it.
I enjoy the whole process of smoking so I got a WSM for that and the food is definitely better. Maybe when I retire and have more free time I'll ditch the pellet, but for now I love it.
I have the same Recteq you are looking it. It's a really high quality unit and their app is great. Would highly recommend.
Pellet grills are actually pretty terrible at being grills. They don't brown food well unless you get other attachments to create heat - crank your pellet smoker up to 500\* and cook burgers in it and they'll come out gray like you cooked them in an oven with a bit of color from the smoke. But it's a great smoker.
I run the RecTeq specifically for smoking, a Weber propane grill for grilling and a Blackstone flat top.
Yes. Don’t expect stick burner smoke flavor, but you’ll be a brisket master in no time.
I got a 400$ camp chef DLX and eventually upgraded the diffuser plate with the Heavy D diffuser that carries wood splits, so I get ease of pellet with a couple wood splits in there to boost the smoke
I have a reqtec and have been happy with it. One alternative that hasn't been mentioned is gravity fed charcoal. It seems to have the ease of pellets but the ability to get hotter and give you more smoke.
I don't personally have experience with them but have heard good things.
For me the combination of the pellet and a blackstone work for my needs. Can't think of much I would cook on a gas grill that I can't do on the griddle.
They also make grill grates for grilling on a pellet, they help retain the heat and give you grill marks. However most people recommend flipping them over and at that point they pretty much become a griddle.
I use a pellet smoker, and it has a super smoke option if I want a smokier flavor. It was a much higher cost, but my brother used a cheaper offset smoker and a bullet shaped smoker, and he has to plan a whole day around cleaning everything and watching it. For me, I can just fire it up, and I don't need to clean it as often, mostly the grates. Because of the convenience I can experiment more, babysit less, and not have to plan on filling it up to make it worthwhile. I mean I fired it up twice today, once to smoke a block of American Cheese (not a good idea btw, melts too much, probably should do a cold smoke) and again for some burger patties.
No. You can get it to look good sure , but the flavor isn't there. I've had all types of smokers (minus a good offset) and so far the pellet grill was by far the worst experience as far as a good smoke flavor. I had a camp chef with a smoke tube and then eventually upgraded to a kahuna or something like that. Where you could put wood chips in it and it would pump smoke into the chamber- still didn't do anything.
If you want a set it and forget it with a PID and want good flavor then I recommend a gravity fed. I've got the Chargriller 980 and it's amazing, but for the last year or so I've been just using a weber kettle. A Masterbuilt 580 or 1050, both put out some solid food and they have the ease of the pellet grill AND you can run wood in them.
I went a pellet grill from the start. I get great meat from it however the price of the pellets can add up. I typically get 20-40 hours smoking per bag of pellets. However it's almost as easy as an oven to use and I can easily cook while working from home during the week.
I tried my smokebox from my electric smoker just sitting on the grill did not seem to help. I'm planning to try it under my grease pan closer to the firebox to see if that will help but haven't tried that yet.
All I am ding is repeating what I see posted several time per week. I have one too and it works great but my charcoal grill produces a better product for me. Plus no jams, flame puts or fires.
Not really. A pellet grill does a lot of things but doesn't do any of them great. For some people, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages of a pellet grill. You are not one of these people.
A pellet grill can grill. Burgers, steaks, whatever. You already have a gas grill that can do that stuff, and do a better job.
A pellet grill can smoke food. You already have an electric smoker, which will give better smoker flavor.
A pellet grill is easy to use. You turn it on and you don't need to tend to a fire. Your gas grill and electric smoker also has this advantage.
>The MB is kind of a pain to smoke with as you have to constantly manage the wood chips.
You literally just have to put on wood chips in it every 30-45 minutes. Or even just once an hour. It's really not that much work, it's nearly as easy as pouring a glass of milk. It takes less than five minutes to add chips. And you don't need to keep adding chips for the whole cook. If you're doing an 8 hour cook, you'll have plenty of smoke flavour after 3 or 4 hours.
So really, the only advantage that a pellet grill is going to give you is saving you maybe half an hour of adding chips over the course of an 8 hour cook. But in saving that time you're giving up smoke flavour and spending $500-1,000 to do so. Totally not worth it.
I've run an electric smoker which I liked just fine but at no point did I feel it gave more "smoke flavor" than a pellet grill. Also you refer to having to touch your cooker every 30 minutes as no big deal but some people want to do other things while their meat cooks for half a day
The funniest thing is mine only needed wood chips every 2-3 hours. But also I've learned the more time I spend around BBQ/Smoking subreddits is that some dudes are looking for an excuse to avoid their family and sit on the patio for 14 hours more than they care about cooking meat
I get great smoke rings with my pellet grill. My brisket I did for memorial weekend was done over night at 200 and I think the lower temp makes for a better smoke ring. It does not give the deep smoke flavor of other smokers but I prefer the pellet grill for ease of use and less smoke flavor. You can add a smoke tube for extra smoke flavor. If I knew how to add a picture I could post one of my smoke ring.
Lower temp doesn't make better smoke rings, I cook at 250/275 on my pellet and get the same smoke ring every time.
Smoke rings develop until the meat reaches 140°. Lower temperatures result in longer time periods under 140 and more smoke ring. With that being said a bigger ring is not always worth the other issues associated with longer cook times.
It’s 100% aesthetics. Has nothing to do with the meat tasting smoky. I guess they are nice to look at, but why do people care so much?
Yeah if you want a deep smoke ring, just add celery salt to your rub.
I see that you were downvoted for your comment. What does celery salt do?
Celery has natural nitire so some people use celery seed (not salt, my bad) to enhance a smoke ring. Just remember that smoke ring isn't an indicator that the end product will be good. It's just a visual thing.
that's really interesting, cheers
Thank you for that information. I always do 200-250 even smoking. If doing an overnight cook I set it at 200 till morning then bump my temp after wrapping.
You get the same smoke ring as the person you replied to? Interesting…
Yeah, it is. I have an egg for grilling and a traeger for smoking. There's a lot of things that pellet grills do better and/or easier than other smokers, I like to use mine like an oven for a lot of stuff and get a baked + smoke flavor. Pecan pies and peach cobbler are personal favorites. Potatoes au gratin and smoked lasagna are delicious too. Because of the ease of using the traeger I end up using it much more often than I ever did with my wood burners.
I really like my pellet smoker. The ability to set it and walk away is really nice. Admittedly, you can get better smoke from an offset, but that requires far more work. I have found that the pellets used have a massive impact on the amount and quality of smoke you get. So far, Lumberjack pellets are the best ones I've found that are easily available in my area.
Ask on camp chef or pellet grill reddit Woodwind 24 pro allows you to add wood chunks, also you can use a smoke tube Many many opinions on this Folks here like to be punched in the face with smoke.
I am very much just a dad who likes grilling and smoking things so I am far from an expert but I have a propane grill and a pellet smoker and I really enjoy having both. I have had a pitboss vertical pellet smoker for about 4 years now. It's perfect for throwing something on and not having to worry about it while I'm chasing after my kids. As everyone has said, you don't get as much smoke flavor but I have found putting it on the smoke setting (~170° and heavier smoke) for about the first hour really helps. I really like the vertical because I don't have much space and I'm not worried about searing. The vertical also has so much more room so you could load it up and feed a small army. Mine has a 40lb pellet hopper too so you don't have to stress about running out of pellets on an overnight cook. My favorite thing to smoke is pork loin because it always comes out delicious and only takes about 2hrs.
Pork loin and tenderloin all the way! It is such an easy and quick cook.
Yes… for me it was… and now I smoke food more than grill food… If you are accepting recommendations, the camp chef woodwind pro is amazing. It is a significant improvement over the previous versions, and I get fantastic results with almost zero effort. It is the first time I’ve ever had a pellet smoker produce a product that was too smokey, and the ability to do cold smoking comes in very handy if you are considering getting into that down the road. But be warned, if you ever smoke cheese, and give it away as a gift, they will bug you about making them more non-stop… Oh, also camp chefs seems to be the easiest pellet smokers to clean, swap pellets, and maintain… at least from my experience…
I was very much in your position at the beginning of the year when I was looking at adding a smoker to my outdoor cooking. I also have a decent gas grill that I didn't want to part with. I ended up getting a pit boss, bit on the smaller side 700 sq inch grilling surface. I've maybe used it twice for actual high heat grilling to test out how it sears and I gotta say I'm not the biggest fan, but of course I knew what I was getting into having the burn pot in one area vs a gas grill that has burners over the entire grates. When I do things like burgers, I'll smoke them on the pit boss for a while, then finish them off on the gas grill to get those good grill lines and more even sear. Same for steaks, chicken breast, etc etc. I love offset smoking and have nothing but appreciation for people who are able to put the time & commitment into running a long smoke session with an offset, but for a lot of people that just isn't feasible. For an average griller though I think they'd be happy with the smoke flavor that can come off a pellet grill. For longer smokes, so far with my pit boss I've done numerous pork ribs, beef ribs, whole chickens, a 20lb turkey, a full 15lb packer brisket, and on everything like this I've been able to get solid smoke rings and absolutely noticeable smoke flavor. It's definitely been a game changer in how I approach outdoor cooking. My only regret is that I probably should have put more thought into the grill size. It's just me & my gf here so for daily cooks or weekend smokes it's more than enough for the 2 of us, but if we ever had a big family cookout here it would be difficult to do a ton of food, for example I could technically fit 2 briskets, but one would have to be on the bottom rack and the 2nd above, so there's no chance they'd cook evenly. My 2nd regret is that I maybe shouldn't have been so stubborn about keeping my gas grill and maybe looked into getting one of those combo smoker/gas grill units, and selling my current gas grill, if nothing but to make it more aesthetically pleasing and to save some space on the deck.
I started with a WSM. Flavor and bark was amazing, but I would be up all night managing temperatures. I switched to a Traeger and am happy. The end product is great (not as good as the WSM), and the quality of life improvement is off the chart. I smoke more now because of the ease of use.
I think pellets are a great compromise. I got a GMG, it's easy to set at 225 and maintain temp and get outstanding food. It's not as good as a dedicated smoker but the easiness makes up for it. I enjoy the whole process of smoking so I got a WSM for that and the food is definitely better. Maybe when I retire and have more free time I'll ditch the pellet, but for now I love it.
I have the same Recteq you are looking it. It's a really high quality unit and their app is great. Would highly recommend. Pellet grills are actually pretty terrible at being grills. They don't brown food well unless you get other attachments to create heat - crank your pellet smoker up to 500\* and cook burgers in it and they'll come out gray like you cooked them in an oven with a bit of color from the smoke. But it's a great smoker. I run the RecTeq specifically for smoking, a Weber propane grill for grilling and a Blackstone flat top.
Yes. Don’t expect stick burner smoke flavor, but you’ll be a brisket master in no time. I got a 400$ camp chef DLX and eventually upgraded the diffuser plate with the Heavy D diffuser that carries wood splits, so I get ease of pellet with a couple wood splits in there to boost the smoke
its fine for smoking but you just wont get that charcoal or wood flavor
100%
I have a reqtec and have been happy with it. One alternative that hasn't been mentioned is gravity fed charcoal. It seems to have the ease of pellets but the ability to get hotter and give you more smoke. I don't personally have experience with them but have heard good things. For me the combination of the pellet and a blackstone work for my needs. Can't think of much I would cook on a gas grill that I can't do on the griddle. They also make grill grates for grilling on a pellet, they help retain the heat and give you grill marks. However most people recommend flipping them over and at that point they pretty much become a griddle.
I use a pellet smoker, and it has a super smoke option if I want a smokier flavor. It was a much higher cost, but my brother used a cheaper offset smoker and a bullet shaped smoker, and he has to plan a whole day around cleaning everything and watching it. For me, I can just fire it up, and I don't need to clean it as often, mostly the grates. Because of the convenience I can experiment more, babysit less, and not have to plan on filling it up to make it worthwhile. I mean I fired it up twice today, once to smoke a block of American Cheese (not a good idea btw, melts too much, probably should do a cold smoke) and again for some burger patties.
No. You can get it to look good sure , but the flavor isn't there. I've had all types of smokers (minus a good offset) and so far the pellet grill was by far the worst experience as far as a good smoke flavor. I had a camp chef with a smoke tube and then eventually upgraded to a kahuna or something like that. Where you could put wood chips in it and it would pump smoke into the chamber- still didn't do anything. If you want a set it and forget it with a PID and want good flavor then I recommend a gravity fed. I've got the Chargriller 980 and it's amazing, but for the last year or so I've been just using a weber kettle. A Masterbuilt 580 or 1050, both put out some solid food and they have the ease of the pellet grill AND you can run wood in them.
I went a pellet grill from the start. I get great meat from it however the price of the pellets can add up. I typically get 20-40 hours smoking per bag of pellets. However it's almost as easy as an oven to use and I can easily cook while working from home during the week.
You will get a lot of opinions but common complaint of pellet grills is that they lack on smoke flavor, smoke ring and crust on PP and brisket.
I had wondered about just throwing a smoke box with chips in somewhere would help with that?
It does
I tried my smokebox from my electric smoker just sitting on the grill did not seem to help. I'm planning to try it under my grease pan closer to the firebox to see if that will help but haven't tried that yet.
Been using pellet smokers for years and literally have never eaten something and thought "Hrm, not smokey enough"
All I am ding is repeating what I see posted several time per week. I have one too and it works great but my charcoal grill produces a better product for me. Plus no jams, flame puts or fires.
No
Not really. A pellet grill does a lot of things but doesn't do any of them great. For some people, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages of a pellet grill. You are not one of these people. A pellet grill can grill. Burgers, steaks, whatever. You already have a gas grill that can do that stuff, and do a better job. A pellet grill can smoke food. You already have an electric smoker, which will give better smoker flavor. A pellet grill is easy to use. You turn it on and you don't need to tend to a fire. Your gas grill and electric smoker also has this advantage. >The MB is kind of a pain to smoke with as you have to constantly manage the wood chips. You literally just have to put on wood chips in it every 30-45 minutes. Or even just once an hour. It's really not that much work, it's nearly as easy as pouring a glass of milk. It takes less than five minutes to add chips. And you don't need to keep adding chips for the whole cook. If you're doing an 8 hour cook, you'll have plenty of smoke flavour after 3 or 4 hours. So really, the only advantage that a pellet grill is going to give you is saving you maybe half an hour of adding chips over the course of an 8 hour cook. But in saving that time you're giving up smoke flavour and spending $500-1,000 to do so. Totally not worth it.
I've run an electric smoker which I liked just fine but at no point did I feel it gave more "smoke flavor" than a pellet grill. Also you refer to having to touch your cooker every 30 minutes as no big deal but some people want to do other things while their meat cooks for half a day
Same reaction I had. "Just have to" put wood chips in it every 30-45 minutes?
The funniest thing is mine only needed wood chips every 2-3 hours. But also I've learned the more time I spend around BBQ/Smoking subreddits is that some dudes are looking for an excuse to avoid their family and sit on the patio for 14 hours more than they care about cooking meat