Smokers..... not you CA/CO/WA folks... meat smokers.

Unit74

Unit74

Final Approach
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Unit74
Soooo.... I have good information that leads me to believe I have a pellet smoker to assemble rather soon. Anyone consider themselves a decent pellet smoker person have any tips? Been usin* a Masterbuilt electric for the last 8 years, but it died conveniently on Thanksgiving day with a turkey inside.

Just bought 9 bags of Pit Boss pellets at Lowe’s, as they are on sale right now. This will be a whole new world to me.....
 
I have a 10lb Tri Tip in the smoker now and have been smoking Brisket for the past 4 hours.

Attempting to make burned end brisket for the first time.

I use a Traeger
 
Jamie Kirk said:
I have a 10lb Tri Tip in the smoker now and have been smoking Brisket for the past 4 hours.

Attempting to make burned end brisket for the first time.

I use a Traeger
Click to expand...

So how do you run it? My electric I had to feed chips every 20-30 min. Set the time, set the temps, feed chips. My understanding is this one you just set temp and letter go. Any probs with outside temps? My electric was the same hot or cold outside as it is insulated.
 
Unit74 said:
So how do you run it? My electric I had to feed chips every 20-30 min. Set the time, set the temps, feed chips. My understanding is this one you just set temp and letter go. Any probs with outside temps? My electric was the same hot or cold outside as it is insulated.
Click to expand...

Set temp
Put meat in
Watch wireless meat probe

My Traeger will run 20 hours before I need to refill pellets.

I’m in Southern California, weather isn’t an issue.
 
I’ll send you some of ours.... ice, repetive thunderstorms, tornadoes....... bugs.
 
Tri tip is off
4ba2b37e5e875ec4e28666d7905f4b3d.jpg
 
Unit74 said:
Any probs with outside temps? My electric was the same hot or cold outside as it is insulated
Click to expand...

I have a Traeger pellet grill without the insulating blanket, and on Thanksgiving day the temps was around 35-40f while cooking the bird. It came out fine. Moist as all get out, and came out just as tender as can be. My neighbor has the same grill but with the blanket. No difference. But I would not try it at any colder temps.
 
In the midwest, maybe you top it off mid way thru if its really cold and a long smoke. 99% of the time not needed, but it doesn't hurt because the pellets will be there for the next time.

Clean it up occasionally and it'll light right off. Mine recommends hitting the on switch, and when it hits 400F, turn it down to what you wan (normally 225) and wait until it is there. If you want to speed up the process you open the lid to help it cool down. I assume the 400 is just to warm everything up and get some crap melted off. I've done it with and without that first step and not noticed any difference.

I use a louisiana grill smoker, same as the Traeger really. buy the right size, the bigger ones burn more pellets ALL the time.
 
I have two. I have a Grill Dome (sort of a generic version of the Big Green Egg) which works quite well for smaller things (like a single turkey or a couple of pork shoulders). It got too small for my larger parties, so I have a Carolina Cooker. Here's a pic with Ms. Piggy in the final stages...
IMG_0940 by ronsensor, on Flickr
 
Jamie Kirk said:
I have a 10lb Tri Tip in the smoker now and have been smoking Brisket for the past 4 hours.

Attempting to make burned end brisket for the first time.

I use a Traeger
Click to expand...

10 lb worth of tri tip, or 'a' 10 lb tri tip?
 
Someone said "smoker"?

I'd like a Traeger (or some other quality pellet smoker). Convenience and control are the selling points for me.

I know a lot of pellet smokers are used in the BBQ contest circuits, but one of the complaints I've heard about Traegers (not sure about the others) is they "don't travel well". The legs aren't quite sturdy enough to take the pounding of being loaded and unloaded very many times during transport.
 
Frankly, I think that the egg-like things work well. I know a couple of competition guys who use them. You can load them up with charcoal and wood and they'll run just fine for hours. If you don't want to keep checking it, bet a Stoker or a DigiQ (these are little microcontrollers that have a temperature probe that blows on the coals for you to maintain the temperature). The pellet and biscuit biscuit smokers aren't a whole lot easier (in fact, when your Bradley misfires a biscuit you may end up with a ruined piece of meat unless you're watching it or have another alarm).
 
Have an Egg, but the auto temp control of the Traeger is appealing. I supposed I could go DigiQ or similar, but damn they're spendy. Half the price of a small Traeger just for the temperature controller. Maybe I just need both, then I can do ribs and butts at the same time!
 
We got my father a Camp Chef 24 w/sear box. That thing is built solid (I put it together for him). Definitely a good value compared to a Traeger of similar size. Ease of changing wood pellets and dumping ash cup is a bonus as well. Can't really go wrong with the PitBoss/Camp Cheft/Traeger units though.
 
I keep thinking about getting a smoker. It seems to me like the pellet ones are "cheating" a bit, but OTOH, I do NOT relish the thought of pulling an @astanley and sleeping next to the thing, waking up every friggin' hour to painstakingly move coals around and say nice things to the meat.

So, what are the options? The easier overall, the better. And I like "smart" gadgets too, so bonus points for that. :)
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I keep thinking about getting a smoker. It seems to me like the pellet ones are "cheating" a bit, but OTOH, I do NOT relish the thought of pulling an @astanley and sleeping next to the thing, waking up every friggin' hour to painstakingly move coals around and say nice things to the meat.

So, what are the options? The easier overall, the better. And I like "smart" gadgets too, so bonus points for that. :)
Click to expand...
How big?

I have 1.5 of these (2 racks @ 1 brisket or two butts per rack):
https://www.weber.com/US/en/grills/charcoal-grills/smokey-mountain-cooker-series/721001.html

I want 1 of these (2 racks @ 2 briskets or 3 butts per rack):
https://www.weber.com/US/en/grills/...in-cooker-series/731001.html?cgid=220#start=1

You can buy temperature controllers for each.
https://bbqguru.com/info/DigiQ?keyw...4uDxvYX3AjPanJooP7KXaoAfPBZwKCroaAmNVEALw_wcB

Generally, I find I have to monitor the coals the first hour or two much more closely than the rest of the day. Once things settle down, add extra coals every 3 hrs or so and top off the water pan as needed.

When I get really hungry I use this (8 racks at 2-3 briskets or 5-6 butts per rack):
http://www.americanbarbecuesystems.com/abs/Judge.html
 
Matthew said:
Generally, I find I have to monitor the coals the first hour or two much more closely than the rest of the day. Once things settle down, add extra coals every 3 hrs or so and top off the water pan as needed.
Click to expand...

Blech. Sounds like work. ;)

(I just got put back into the pellet crowd, didn't I?)
 
I’ll be honest here... I tried all kinds of smokers. They were to smart for me. The pellet smoker is amazing. When it dies I’m getting another one. It really is set it and forget it. Mine has two thermometer readouts built in. If they were WiFi I wouldn’t even have to get up to check the temps. It just works. I’ve used mine in temps down to the mid teens without issue. I was however sheltered from the wind.
 
In the GrillDome, I can do a 16-hour smoke without ever touching anything other than adjusting the vents (before I had the stoker, or just periodically looking at the stoker to assure the fire is still burning, that's why it has a IP interface, I could do it from my office).

Even with the Carolina Cooker above, once I get the fires going and the temperature settles to what I want it, I don't have to mess with it much. I regularly get six hours of trouble free burn after about the first 30-45 minutes of fire tinkering. The Carolina Cooker is a hybrid so after 6-7 hours on wood smoke for the whole pig, I kick it over to propane (it ain't going to take any more smoke anyhow in my opinion). At that point, I can go to bed. It will hold the temp rock solid on propane without adjustment. I do have a wifi thermometer (GrillEye) to wake me up if the tank runs dry or something.

The last thing you want in my opinion is to add WATER to the system. I've never understood these alleged "water smokers." Maybe perhaps if you were using electric heat but there's enough water liberated by burning wood/charcoal/gas. I do use an EMPTY clay plant saucer down below the meat in the Grill Dome to kind of provide some indirection to the heat and to keep the grease out of the fire. Of course, the NC pig style is to have the grease fall into the fire, so the cooker I don't have that provision.
 
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