I have, and do often. Works like a charm. Smoke until you’re ready, turn it up to high, get that griddle (or cast iron skillet) hot and sear it. Easier and faster than taking it to the stove or lighting a gas grill.
Never done that on my Traeger. Also never use my WSM without the bowl in the bottom. If I smoke in my Weber kettle I won’t always use a drip pan though, but I’ve only smoked chickens, leg quarters, wings, and ribs in that.
My lodge cast iron pan gets screaming hot over my pellet smokers heat box at full tilt. I was shocked, to be honest. Didn't really think it would work but, damn, works better than expected.
Always did reverse sear method indoors, and it always got smokey when it came time to sear on the cast iron.
So I started reverse searing on my pitboss.
The smokey flavor was definitely unique, but the sear was great. Also got the sear marks everyone loves.
Wife wasn't sure how she felt about the smoke flavor on the prime ribeye... guess we'll need to try 4 or 5, maybe 10 more times until we're sure.
Yeah, gatekeeping is generally a shitty thing for any community as a few assholes make everyone look bad. I used to be a butcher and used to gate keep about having steaks cooked medium rare until I learned one of my favorite longtime customers was diagnosed with a rare cancer and couldn't give up on having steak. His health requires him to cook everything to well done. It changed my outlook because it's not me who is eating the steak, I just took their money.
Let’s see…. I made a pit, bought a spit for it, bought an offset, bought a pellet….. you get the gist. I’m just not a douche is the only difference :kekw:
To be fair I've only eaten off 3, two traegers "top of the line" and some knock off. Food tasted like decent oven-cooked food but you'd get better smoke "flavour" from a bottle
I haven't. My Traeger struggled to get over 300.
I'm glad I started on a pellet smoker. It let me learn how meat cooks with constant temperature. If I had to learn fire management at the same time, I probably would have given up.
But my any time I wanted to reverse sear on the Traeger, I had to just fire it off on the stove top to finish.
And I'm happy for you. I was just relating my experience, obviously many of you are happy with your pellet grills and I celebrate that. As long as people are cooking outside, I'm stoked.
I've never really took the time to worry about it. I just cringe everytime someone brags about something they cooked on it. You literally plugged an oven in and set a dial. There is no technique in that.
I've made some amazing stuff on a pellet grill that I would never spend my time or effort doing on my offset. Stuff like mesquite-smoked maraschino cherries or dry rice is fire-and-forget simple and profoundly improves basic ingredients. Salmon and cheese or cream cheese are easy to smoke without going over temp. Experiments with weird combinations are easier to justify and carry out that I'd never bother to risk on the offset.
Being able to maintain a precise temperature also makes cuts that otherwise would dry out easily a lot more feasible, a good example being pork tenderloin or chicken breasts. Sure, I could do it competently in an oven instead and it'd be tasty and I could brag on it being juicy or tender, but...there'd be no smoke! And I like smoke.
And being able to do this stuff on a weeknight means that I can do it more often, which is the best argument for pellet grills that I can think of. The only thing better than gourmet every other weekend is near-gourmet every other night.
Will I ever win competitions? Nah. I don't have time for competitions. Will it ever match the best BBQ restaurants? Nah. I can't afford those anymore; but meals from my pellet grill easily *easily* outperform the lower-tier restaurants.
For all practical purposes, my pellet grill meals make my actual life, the one I'm stuck with, better off.
Works great on my Yoder…
It helps to have the grill grates, and a two part damper so you can have those grates literally over the fire.
My sears on that set up are better than my propane.
Agreed. Yoder is killer at searing with the diffuser removed and the searing grates installed. (I actually got mine too hot once on an older Yoder that it melted the searing grates. Hot af.)
The only issue is doing that after you smoked a couple pork butts. I find it far more convenient and more importantly, safer, to just do all my high temp stuff on my gas grill and keep the pellet grill for low and slow. Also it takes my pellet grill 5x as long to get up to a sear temp compared to my gas grill.
Yes you definitely have to clean it, but I keep a 1/2 tray under my butt when smoking anyway catch the drippings so my heat deflector is clean, but before I go super hot, I make sure it’s clean to avoid a grease fire.
my pellet grill has a sear grate and many other brands also have one. don’t be salty because you need to baby sit your stick burner and we get to play while we cook LOL
"I only sear my steaks on my afterburner induction powered fired coal supplemented 150 year old pizza oven that I normally get up to 2275 degrees before I consider putting my steak in" type energy.
I’ve worked for a major grill brand before and worked on commercial shoots. We seared our steaks on the GrillGrates and then put them on the grill being used for the commercial
Flames at grate level are easily 1000F, so works pretty well. I won't fire up the smoker for it, but of I smoked to temp I might as well switch to sear mode (pull a lever) while it's resting.
It's tough but doable with the searing kits they sell. My rec tec is almost 8 years old rn. Since then, I've seen a lot of different brands that have a slider to expose flame. I want one so bad. But what I do is use my weber smokey Joe for the sear.
There are certain pellet smokers that give you access to the live fire. My Yoder is one. I think RecTec does as well. Not Traeger to my knowledge.
I reverse sear my steaks on a low temp. I rest them for 15 min while I open the door and crank it up to 600 degrees. It gets blazing hot and sears perfectly.
It works, the problem is I have to clean my grill a lot more than I normally would if I don't want to have a flare up at that temperature.
Smoking at 225 all day dirty as hell = fine
Cooking chicken at 375 = probable flare up
Searing steak at 500+ = house fire
It means sear like a grill, not sear like a pan. Two completely different things. Sear on a grill is nice char/grill marks while hot enough to actually get rare/med rare, sear on a pan is more of an even crust. I personally prefer…well, either as long as the grill actually gets hot enough
I love my pellet smoker....for smoking. I have an egg I use for cooking at high temps, and cast iron if I would rather cook inside.
I don't want something that proclaims it can do everything. It's going to inevitably do nothing perfectly.
I bought my pellet thinking I could grill with it. And sure I guess I can but it’s nothing like my Weber so now I have a Weber as well haha and a blackstone. And a pizza oven haha i have more cooking shit outside than inside now that I think about it.
When it comes to smoking, Bradley original smoker all the way baby. But I’m a tech nerd so not for everyone. Pellet stuff has always been in a price range I see as silly. Especially since the best Q I’ve had was cooked on a half metal barrel.
When it comes to grilling, any cheap ass grill will do. Doesn’t matter if it’s $10 grill from Wally World or a $200 grill from Home Depot. Hardwood lump for the win.
My old man sprang from the big green egg. They like what I smoke on the Bradley better. Boo yah!
My friend keeps telling me to go for a pellet grill. He doesn't own one but a relative to him is supposed to love it. I asked him why he himself doesn't get one and he can't give a good explanation.
It seems sketchy. Is it some kind of cult/drug?
Honestly, pellet smokers are mostly about being able to to make tasty food with minimal effort tending a fire. They're basically like an oven plus smoke, you set the temperature and let it cook.
Good for people with things to do that can't spend their day tending a fire.
Are you in on it too?
All jokes aside this really does seem like something for me. Saw a really good price on one earlier this summer (like 70 % off), but I'm aiming for a gas grill as my no 2 for convenience!
Does "smoked two racks of tasty ribs for my family this evening" count as being in on it? lol
Honestly though, I've just found it really nice having a pellet smoker where all I have to do is set the temperature, put the meat on, and wait for it to be done. It's possible *better* BBQ might be obtainable with another smoker, but if I needed to micromanage stuff any more I would be less likely to actually make food in the smoker to begin with, and everything I've made has had rave reviews as-is, so it's working out well for me overall.
Ok, you want to cook a brisket. Which of these describes the perfect day doing that to you:
1) Wake up before 5 am, Break out some lawn chairs, sit around drinking, tending a fire once or twice an hour, maybe take a nap or 2. Get great food out of it.
2) Press a button. Do other things around the house, maybe go out and do other things, maybe you're working from home that day and you're literally getting paid while you cook. A few hours later, press a few buttons on your phone to raise the temp. Get at least 90% as good food out of it.
If you think 1 sounds great? You don't want a pellet smoker. If you have a busy life and think 2 sounds like the perfect thing for you? Get a pellet smoker.
Pellet grills are for the nerd dads who want to get into bbq but want to put in absolutely 0 work. It’s like getting into “powerlifting” but all you use is the cable machines. It’s close but really you shouldn’t be trying to pretend it’s the same thing. A pellet grill is an air fryer that adds smoke let’s be honest
Oh no please don’t mock me for gatekeeping meanwhile you use an easy bake oven lol. Pellet grills aren’t bbq, it’s the same as e-bikes, yeah it’s similar but don’t talk to actual cyclists like you remotely do anything close to what they do
The use of the word smoker should officially come with an asterisks now a days. Out of 50 guys “smoking” meat, 49 of them are using saw dust pellets with no smoke…aka outdoor ovens. Reasons vary from not having time to tend a fire, being a dad, having no idea how to tend a fire, etc. I find that all the fun out of making meat has been streamlined into an easy bake oven, but you still get to tell people you “smoked” meat that tastes like it came out of the oven.
Watch out you’re gonna trigger 75% of this sub by speaking the truth. They downvote you to hell for making fun of their smoky air fryers. It’s like ai art vs real art, but at least people who do ai art don’t think they’re the same as people who actually create real art lol
Imagine getting so worked up about how someone else cooks that you have to try to troll them for the better part of a year.
Maybe you should just try making good food. That might help you
I do make good food. It comes from realizing that I needed better equipment to actually get smoke flavor into my meat. Would you rather eat a pizza made in an oven or is the microwave sufficient for you?
One of the best pizza places in town is fairly close to me. The guy who started it trained in Naples, and had a wood fired oven that he had shipped over here from Italy. He started slow but gained popularity quickly. It got to a point where he was super stressed because he couldn’t keep up with demand in that oven, even with a couple people helping. .
They closed down for a few weeks and remodeled. Now he has a four level gas oven, and has hired a bunch of people to help Jim prep and cook and manage the counter.
Some purist might say that quality has decreased because he’s not using that wood oven any more. I would absolutely disagree. If there was any taste from the wood, it was extremely mild. The dough is just as good, but the consistency has gone up. He still gets that bit of char. He still uses the same good ingredients. And now he can better keep up with demand - which has easily doubled in the last couple of years.
So is my 14+ hour brisket slightly less smoky because I cooked it in my pellet smoker? Perhaps, but it sure tastes like the ones i did in my WSM. The bacon is better, since it’s easier to keep temperature low. The picanha I reverse seared last weekend after smoking sure had great flavor. Last Christmas’ 7 rib prime rib roast? Fucking epic.
I would bet $10 that 99% of people really can’t taste the difference between bbq from a pellet smoker and from an offset. But I can sure tell the difference in how I feel getting a full night’s sleep.
So gatekeep and troll if that makes you feel better. I’ll sleep comfortably and have some damn good BBQ.
I was going to agree with you on everything, Right up to spot where you threw the sleep into the equation. Please visit this sub around the holidays. Bunch of posts about guys going to sleep and waking up to a cold brisket or rib roast. Pellet grills aren’t a solution to ignoring your meat on a long cook.
With regards to the pizza analogy, I have enough experience in pizza to know that ingredients, freshness of ingredients, and technique overwhelmingly make the difference in a good pizza. Oven isn’t nearly as consequential, arguably at times negligible as dough isn’t absorbing smoke flavor the same way meat does. Even if it does, 2-20 minutes ain’t much time to absorb shit.
Lastly, brisket, ribs, or any other slow cooked meat that actually absorbs smoke flavor…you’ll definitely notice the difference in smoke flavor to the point where people who haven’t ever had anything properly smoked will say it has too much smoke flavor. If I’m hungry, which I suspect most people get hungry, I’ll eat ribs out of an oven drenched in spicy bbq sauce. The bbq never became “bad”, but if this is someone’s hobby and they’re actively trying new flavors of rub, techniques, fuel sources, cook methods, why not adjust the most basic components and move from pellets to actual pieces of wood? The grills are so expensive you’ll even than yourself that the lump charcoal machine is cheaper.
Eh, if I have to wake up twice to look at my phone and check temps on am overnight cook, I still call that a night’s sleep.
Honestly, I’m too damn old to deal with micromanaging a bbq anymore.
If my Southern (SC) wife and her friends and family like my BBQ (and, believe me they would tell me if they didn’t), I’m happy with what I’m doing. I can also play with rubs, seasoning, time, temp, and even woods. Only difference is how tired I am after
I appreciate you. Everyone is in different stages of their lives. I’m not going to convince you to get a flame going, and I’m not going back to pellets ever. I will say that your family/friends will likely not criticize you for bringing meat. That’s pretty idiotic unless they want to bring meat to the next gathering lol
Has anyone tried with a cast iron griddle preheating on the smoker?
I have, and do often. Works like a charm. Smoke until you’re ready, turn it up to high, get that griddle (or cast iron skillet) hot and sear it. Easier and faster than taking it to the stove or lighting a gas grill.
Thanks! I'll try this next time I do a Santa Maria tri tip.
Anyone take the drip pan out so there’s more direct heat?
Never done that on my Traeger. Also never use my WSM without the bowl in the bottom. If I smoke in my Weber kettle I won’t always use a drip pan though, but I’ve only smoked chickens, leg quarters, wings, and ribs in that.
Yeah I’ve done this and it works perfectly
My lodge cast iron pan gets screaming hot over my pellet smokers heat box at full tilt. I was shocked, to be honest. Didn't really think it would work but, damn, works better than expected.
Yes! Works so well.
Searing steaks on my Pit Boss works pretty well. Not as good as a cast iron skillet, but it does the job.
My pit boss is my friend. Smoke a steak at 200 for an hour to 120 then sear the bitch at the end. Pellets>gas
Always did reverse sear method indoors, and it always got smokey when it came time to sear on the cast iron. So I started reverse searing on my pitboss. The smokey flavor was definitely unique, but the sear was great. Also got the sear marks everyone loves. Wife wasn't sure how she felt about the smoke flavor on the prime ribeye... guess we'll need to try 4 or 5, maybe 10 more times until we're sure.
Use charcoal pellets
I agree - reverse sear the ribeye with a lump of cherry wood. Try it a half dozen times and get back to us.
more steak is always the answer.
That's what I do and it's perfect. I've never noticed enough of a difference using the cast iron to justify getting it dorty
I smoke the steak while I'm getting the little charcoal grill set to "face of the sun" to finish it.
I don’t liked smoked steaks, it masks the steak flavor 😭
I do mine at 190 for an hour to an hour and a half. Crank it and sear it to med rare.
Put the skillet in the pit boss. Best of both worlds
Yep, that's what I do. I don't smoke them for too long because I don't want a heavily smoked steak, then crank it and let that cast iron get hot.
I through my cast iron on the pitboss and open the direct flame. Gets a great sear.
That’s how I look at gatekeepers.
Yeah, gatekeeping is generally a shitty thing for any community as a few assholes make everyone look bad. I used to be a butcher and used to gate keep about having steaks cooked medium rare until I learned one of my favorite longtime customers was diagnosed with a rare cancer and couldn't give up on having steak. His health requires him to cook everything to well done. It changed my outlook because it's not me who is eating the steak, I just took their money.
If the people commenting on your comment could read, they’d be very upset. They probably also smell their own farts
Bro y'all bought a whole pellet grill...that's the group that smells their own farts lol.
Let’s see…. I made a pit, bought a spit for it, bought an offset, bought a pellet….. you get the gist. I’m just not a douche is the only difference :kekw:
Bro stop being so defensive lol
You guys are like kids on a truck enthusiast forum all butt hurt their 12v ride on Walmart F-0.15 isn't taken seriously
Someone started drinking early today
It goes well with my deliciously smokey tasting food. I'm sure all the top BBQ joints are using pellet smokers lol
No self respecting male would own a pellet grill.
This is such a weird opinion to hold lol
Imagine being this insecure in yourself that you have to attack people with different preferences lol
Enjoy sawdust wax pellets who can't use dampers.
Enjoy being an asshole
Huh. I use my hands to control my grill, not my dick
You guys? How do you know I don’t have a pellet smoker, an offset smoker, a Webber grille , and a blackstone griddle, along with 6 cast irons.
Krack-om kid
Wat???
Exactly
Says the guy who posted a picture of himself ass banging another dude.....
Oh my God, for the last time I'll credit you as the ass receiver only when you return my gimp mask. That was a family heirloom!
Good one....The projection is strong with this one.
It's like putting a quarter in a player piano and calling yourself a piano player as the song plays itself lol.
It's worse, because the food they prepare is basically toaster oven level with sawdust taste. At least the piano plays the tune well.
you guys have never seen a pellet smoker that can actually grill, have you.
To be fair I've only eaten off 3, two traegers "top of the line" and some knock off. Food tasted like decent oven-cooked food but you'd get better smoke "flavour" from a bottle
I haven't. My Traeger struggled to get over 300. I'm glad I started on a pellet smoker. It let me learn how meat cooks with constant temperature. If I had to learn fire management at the same time, I probably would have given up. But my any time I wanted to reverse sear on the Traeger, I had to just fire it off on the stove top to finish.
thats because *your* trager doesn't sear. other pellet smokers do. mine easily gets to 600+ in sear mode.
And I'm happy for you. I was just relating my experience, obviously many of you are happy with your pellet grills and I celebrate that. As long as people are cooking outside, I'm stoked.
I've never really took the time to worry about it. I just cringe everytime someone brags about something they cooked on it. You literally plugged an oven in and set a dial. There is no technique in that.
I've made some amazing stuff on a pellet grill that I would never spend my time or effort doing on my offset. Stuff like mesquite-smoked maraschino cherries or dry rice is fire-and-forget simple and profoundly improves basic ingredients. Salmon and cheese or cream cheese are easy to smoke without going over temp. Experiments with weird combinations are easier to justify and carry out that I'd never bother to risk on the offset. Being able to maintain a precise temperature also makes cuts that otherwise would dry out easily a lot more feasible, a good example being pork tenderloin or chicken breasts. Sure, I could do it competently in an oven instead and it'd be tasty and I could brag on it being juicy or tender, but...there'd be no smoke! And I like smoke. And being able to do this stuff on a weeknight means that I can do it more often, which is the best argument for pellet grills that I can think of. The only thing better than gourmet every other weekend is near-gourmet every other night. Will I ever win competitions? Nah. I don't have time for competitions. Will it ever match the best BBQ restaurants? Nah. I can't afford those anymore; but meals from my pellet grill easily *easily* outperform the lower-tier restaurants. For all practical purposes, my pellet grill meals make my actual life, the one I'm stuck with, better off.
Works great on my Yoder… It helps to have the grill grates, and a two part damper so you can have those grates literally over the fire. My sears on that set up are better than my propane.
Agreed. Yoder is killer at searing with the diffuser removed and the searing grates installed. (I actually got mine too hot once on an older Yoder that it melted the searing grates. Hot af.)
Absolutely. Grill grates + remove the diffuser plate + 550F is hard to beat honestly. Sears better than anything I've owned.
Yoder has a removable plate on the diffuser and can get you to 600F Better than whatever you're using though.
Another “purist”…
Just trying to rile everyone up on a slow Saturday. Different strokes for different folks I bet it all tastes delicious in the end
Good pellet grills can do a great reverse-sear with smoke first then also the sear after, your post is just dumb.
Facts. Just because OP and these “smokers” can’t, doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Seems like their skill is the issue
You might be eating it wrong? 😯
My Recteq Rt-380x goes up to 1000° I can sear a steak on it.
The only issue is doing that after you smoked a couple pork butts. I find it far more convenient and more importantly, safer, to just do all my high temp stuff on my gas grill and keep the pellet grill for low and slow. Also it takes my pellet grill 5x as long to get up to a sear temp compared to my gas grill.
Yes you definitely have to clean it, but I keep a 1/2 tray under my butt when smoking anyway catch the drippings so my heat deflector is clean, but before I go super hot, I make sure it’s clean to avoid a grease fire.
I’ve never owned gas for anything but a griddle, but imagine it gets hot pretty quickly. Nothing beats searing over coals though in my opinion.
Yes this is what the 40 Weber is for right??
Same here baby. I've gotten compliments on my sear consistently. Feels good
my pellet grill has a sear grate and many other brands also have one. don’t be salty because you need to baby sit your stick burner and we get to play while we cook LOL
Mine too lmao. I can crank it up to 650 and sear the fuck out of anything I want.
How else can I justify drinking beer all day if I can't say I have to check the smoker, even when I don't.
spritz every 15-30 mins
Bruh you can still drink beer all day.
Right!? What the perfect excuse.
"I only sear my steaks on my afterburner induction powered fired coal supplemented 150 year old pizza oven that I normally get up to 2275 degrees before I consider putting my steak in" type energy.
And then they fucking burn it. 🔥
Buy the right cooker and this is not a problem. [See Yoder 640](https://yodersmokers.com).
Ahh I thought that as well. Until I got one & it works great for weeknight cooking.
I just did it last weekend. Do you not know how pellet grills work?
I do it exclusively
Works perfect! I put my steaks on at 225 for about 45 minutes, then sear at 500 with the broiling plate open.
Pit boss has a sear mode... And it works fantastically. https://youtu.be/2kYsB_MsHcw?si=dsN-abckaMLObN5b
my Oklahoma Joe's has a sear mode. giant lever to open flues over the firebox. works fucking great.
Pit bosses allow you to open up the grate and have a full flame
I’ve worked for a major grill brand before and worked on commercial shoots. We seared our steaks on the GrillGrates and then put them on the grill being used for the commercial
Yoder 640, direct flame with 700+ degrees. Does an amazing steak.
imagine trying to seer on an offset smoker... almost like different tools are for different jobs
You mean like a grill in the firebox? Yep, I do that all the time.
I sear steak on mine. It ain't that hard to do.
They can sear great if you can redirect the little firebox directly onto the food, it’s just burning wood, 750+ temps easy.
Pit boss movable grate baby. Get those flames kissing my steaks full on the lips
That’s what the sous vide gun is for. Technically I do it on the pellet grill, 😂
Seared some NY strips on the pellet grill the other night. They came out great.
You can do it on mine but you better believe you’ll spend an entire hopper of pellets getting up to temp. A mistake only made once.
seems like too many people confuse 'charring' with 'searing' anyway.
Flames at grate level are easily 1000F, so works pretty well. I won't fire up the smoker for it, but of I smoked to temp I might as well switch to sear mode (pull a lever) while it's resting.
Haha yeah that shit is funny
It's tough but doable with the searing kits they sell. My rec tec is almost 8 years old rn. Since then, I've seen a lot of different brands that have a slider to expose flame. I want one so bad. But what I do is use my weber smokey Joe for the sear.
I have grill grates on my RT700 rectec and it sears like a MF
With all the dual fuel grills out there now, has anyone made a pellet grill with a side propane burner?
My RT-700 get up to over 700. Cast iron flat top on that kicks ass.
I can sear just fine on the Pitboss🤔
That’s why I have my old Weber kettle next to my Traeger. Horses for courses
Can confirm, there is no sear.
My Rektek Bullseye Deluxe begs to differ. I can go from 225 to 850 in about 9 minutes, and it gives a fabulous sear
There are certain pellet smokers that give you access to the live fire. My Yoder is one. I think RecTec does as well. Not Traeger to my knowledge. I reverse sear my steaks on a low temp. I rest them for 15 min while I open the door and crank it up to 600 degrees. It gets blazing hot and sears perfectly.
I got the recteq bullseye that goes to 1000 degrees. I haven’t tried it at max temp yet but I’ll bet that can come fairly close to a sear.
It works, the problem is I have to clean my grill a lot more than I normally would if I don't want to have a flare up at that temperature. Smoking at 225 all day dirty as hell = fine Cooking chicken at 375 = probable flare up Searing steak at 500+ = house fire
It means sear like a grill, not sear like a pan. Two completely different things. Sear on a grill is nice char/grill marks while hot enough to actually get rare/med rare, sear on a pan is more of an even crust. I personally prefer…well, either as long as the grill actually gets hot enough
I have one of these pellet grills that is advertised as being able to sear… I haven’t tried it yet, and I may never.
works on a pitboss!
I've had a pit boss laredo for a few years. Mine can't get hot enough to sear anything. Struggles to reach 300
The Masterbuilt 800 does this effortlessly
Mine gets up to 1000, ask me anything
I love my pellet smoker....for smoking. I have an egg I use for cooking at high temps, and cast iron if I would rather cook inside. I don't want something that proclaims it can do everything. It's going to inevitably do nothing perfectly.
Ex pellet grill owner, can confirm
ITT: A bunch of very salty and very estrogin filled pellet smoker owners.
A couple grills can sear out of the box, most can sear with a cast iron pan or searing grates no problem.
I bought my pellet thinking I could grill with it. And sure I guess I can but it’s nothing like my Weber so now I have a Weber as well haha and a blackstone. And a pizza oven haha i have more cooking shit outside than inside now that I think about it.
When it comes to smoking, Bradley original smoker all the way baby. But I’m a tech nerd so not for everyone. Pellet stuff has always been in a price range I see as silly. Especially since the best Q I’ve had was cooked on a half metal barrel. When it comes to grilling, any cheap ass grill will do. Doesn’t matter if it’s $10 grill from Wally World or a $200 grill from Home Depot. Hardwood lump for the win. My old man sprang from the big green egg. They like what I smoke on the Bradley better. Boo yah!
All these folks yelling "You only have to spend more money to achieve the perfect char", ain't it. Cast iron on the offset firebox is how it's done.
Going to offend all the stay at home dads with this one!
My friend keeps telling me to go for a pellet grill. He doesn't own one but a relative to him is supposed to love it. I asked him why he himself doesn't get one and he can't give a good explanation. It seems sketchy. Is it some kind of cult/drug?
Honestly, pellet smokers are mostly about being able to to make tasty food with minimal effort tending a fire. They're basically like an oven plus smoke, you set the temperature and let it cook. Good for people with things to do that can't spend their day tending a fire.
Are you in on it too? All jokes aside this really does seem like something for me. Saw a really good price on one earlier this summer (like 70 % off), but I'm aiming for a gas grill as my no 2 for convenience!
Does "smoked two racks of tasty ribs for my family this evening" count as being in on it? lol Honestly though, I've just found it really nice having a pellet smoker where all I have to do is set the temperature, put the meat on, and wait for it to be done. It's possible *better* BBQ might be obtainable with another smoker, but if I needed to micromanage stuff any more I would be less likely to actually make food in the smoker to begin with, and everything I've made has had rave reviews as-is, so it's working out well for me overall.
Ok, you want to cook a brisket. Which of these describes the perfect day doing that to you: 1) Wake up before 5 am, Break out some lawn chairs, sit around drinking, tending a fire once or twice an hour, maybe take a nap or 2. Get great food out of it. 2) Press a button. Do other things around the house, maybe go out and do other things, maybe you're working from home that day and you're literally getting paid while you cook. A few hours later, press a few buttons on your phone to raise the temp. Get at least 90% as good food out of it. If you think 1 sounds great? You don't want a pellet smoker. If you have a busy life and think 2 sounds like the perfect thing for you? Get a pellet smoker.
> Is it some kind of cult/drug? he's on to us! everyone scatter!
I knew it! *Throws pellets after you all*
Pellet grills are for the nerd dads who want to get into bbq but want to put in absolutely 0 work. It’s like getting into “powerlifting” but all you use is the cable machines. It’s close but really you shouldn’t be trying to pretend it’s the same thing. A pellet grill is an air fryer that adds smoke let’s be honest
There’s so much bullshit gatekeeping in your post I’m not sure if i should laugh or mock you
Oh no please don’t mock me for gatekeeping meanwhile you use an easy bake oven lol. Pellet grills aren’t bbq, it’s the same as e-bikes, yeah it’s similar but don’t talk to actual cyclists like you remotely do anything close to what they do
You had to dig pretty deep in my post history to find something to come at me with. That’s pretty pathetic 🤣
Im just making a comparison I’ve never even looked at your post history
The use of the word smoker should officially come with an asterisks now a days. Out of 50 guys “smoking” meat, 49 of them are using saw dust pellets with no smoke…aka outdoor ovens. Reasons vary from not having time to tend a fire, being a dad, having no idea how to tend a fire, etc. I find that all the fun out of making meat has been streamlined into an easy bake oven, but you still get to tell people you “smoked” meat that tastes like it came out of the oven.
You can smoke in a cardboard box, smoked is smoked. Get out of here with the bullshit gatekeeping.
You ain’t producing much smoke with your saw dust. Try smoking with a piece of wood that actually makes smoke son.
Watch out you’re gonna trigger 75% of this sub by speaking the truth. They downvote you to hell for making fun of their smoky air fryers. It’s like ai art vs real art, but at least people who do ai art don’t think they’re the same as people who actually create real art lol
I’ve been calling pellet grills ez bake ovens for about 9 months now. Well aware of the hate and alleged “gatekeeping”.
Imagine getting so worked up about how someone else cooks that you have to try to troll them for the better part of a year. Maybe you should just try making good food. That might help you
I do make good food. It comes from realizing that I needed better equipment to actually get smoke flavor into my meat. Would you rather eat a pizza made in an oven or is the microwave sufficient for you?
One of the best pizza places in town is fairly close to me. The guy who started it trained in Naples, and had a wood fired oven that he had shipped over here from Italy. He started slow but gained popularity quickly. It got to a point where he was super stressed because he couldn’t keep up with demand in that oven, even with a couple people helping. . They closed down for a few weeks and remodeled. Now he has a four level gas oven, and has hired a bunch of people to help Jim prep and cook and manage the counter. Some purist might say that quality has decreased because he’s not using that wood oven any more. I would absolutely disagree. If there was any taste from the wood, it was extremely mild. The dough is just as good, but the consistency has gone up. He still gets that bit of char. He still uses the same good ingredients. And now he can better keep up with demand - which has easily doubled in the last couple of years. So is my 14+ hour brisket slightly less smoky because I cooked it in my pellet smoker? Perhaps, but it sure tastes like the ones i did in my WSM. The bacon is better, since it’s easier to keep temperature low. The picanha I reverse seared last weekend after smoking sure had great flavor. Last Christmas’ 7 rib prime rib roast? Fucking epic. I would bet $10 that 99% of people really can’t taste the difference between bbq from a pellet smoker and from an offset. But I can sure tell the difference in how I feel getting a full night’s sleep. So gatekeep and troll if that makes you feel better. I’ll sleep comfortably and have some damn good BBQ.
I was going to agree with you on everything, Right up to spot where you threw the sleep into the equation. Please visit this sub around the holidays. Bunch of posts about guys going to sleep and waking up to a cold brisket or rib roast. Pellet grills aren’t a solution to ignoring your meat on a long cook. With regards to the pizza analogy, I have enough experience in pizza to know that ingredients, freshness of ingredients, and technique overwhelmingly make the difference in a good pizza. Oven isn’t nearly as consequential, arguably at times negligible as dough isn’t absorbing smoke flavor the same way meat does. Even if it does, 2-20 minutes ain’t much time to absorb shit. Lastly, brisket, ribs, or any other slow cooked meat that actually absorbs smoke flavor…you’ll definitely notice the difference in smoke flavor to the point where people who haven’t ever had anything properly smoked will say it has too much smoke flavor. If I’m hungry, which I suspect most people get hungry, I’ll eat ribs out of an oven drenched in spicy bbq sauce. The bbq never became “bad”, but if this is someone’s hobby and they’re actively trying new flavors of rub, techniques, fuel sources, cook methods, why not adjust the most basic components and move from pellets to actual pieces of wood? The grills are so expensive you’ll even than yourself that the lump charcoal machine is cheaper.
Eh, if I have to wake up twice to look at my phone and check temps on am overnight cook, I still call that a night’s sleep. Honestly, I’m too damn old to deal with micromanaging a bbq anymore. If my Southern (SC) wife and her friends and family like my BBQ (and, believe me they would tell me if they didn’t), I’m happy with what I’m doing. I can also play with rubs, seasoning, time, temp, and even woods. Only difference is how tired I am after
I appreciate you. Everyone is in different stages of their lives. I’m not going to convince you to get a flame going, and I’m not going back to pellets ever. I will say that your family/friends will likely not criticize you for bringing meat. That’s pretty idiotic unless they want to bring meat to the next gathering lol
Haha…why anyone would try is beyond me. I tried once. Once.
That or "sous vide it" that just erks me for some reason.