The Official Pellet Grill Smoker thread.

jermoQ said:
I am confused as to why the first person who decided to put a window on a smoker, thought it was a good idea, considering that smoke and grease are going to be flying around inside? I guess that seeing the food can help a little, but still...:wacko:
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I don't understand that either, but each their own. I guess they didn't like the motto " IF you're looking, you aint cooking!". lol
 
KevinJ said:
Under 1K with wifi, look at the Rec Tec Stampede. If you up your price point, the Rec Tec Bull would be worth a look and the Blaz'n Grill Works Grand Slam although with the Baz'n wifi is an upgrade and you would have to factor in shipping as well.
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Thanks for the suggestion. Man, not feeling the horns, I would be cutting them. lol It has great reviews though.

I'm going to check out the other ones you suggested.

I guess it doesn't have to have wifi, I can always buy a thermometer with it. My price was 1k for unit, not including shipping. I left that out.

Again, thanks for the suggestion.
 
Dr. Weld said:
Thanks for the suggestion. Man, not feeling the horns, I would be cutting them. lol It has great reviews though.

I'm going to check out the other ones you suggested.

I guess it doesn't have to have wifi, I can always buy a thermometer with it. My price was 1k for unit, not including shipping. I left that out.

Again, thanks for the suggestion.
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Not a fan of the horns either.
 
Dr. Weld said:
Good day all!!!

I was reading through this thread, and I'm looking to get my first pellet smoker. I just got my first stick burner and I do like it, but I can't devote hours upon hours to smoke a brisket or pulled pork, hence why I'm here in this thread.

Since I just bought a new 6 burner gas grill, I just need the smoker to smoker. I would like it to embed( I've been reading some pellet smokers don't smoke well.) a nice smoke flavor into the meats. I would also like it to have a decent cooking area( Handle a 12lb brisket,6 racks of ribs, etc. not at once though.) and Wifi too. Last, I would like to keep the price around or under $1,000.00 ( I know this may be hard), so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I've been searching, but I figured I would ask you men and women what your thoughts were.
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I know you are going to hate this answer, but man if you could swing the extra cash and get the MAK 1 Star general. Big Poppa Smokers runs sales on the grill time to time. I would take that $1000, put it in the bank and save up for the MAK. I will tell you why>>>

I cannot speak for the Rec Tec, but I have been using a Camp Chef Woodwind for a year now and I thought I was cooking good, however after I bought the MAK 2 Star General, I found out that I was not cooking good food. I made my first ribs last weekend on the MAK and I did it on a whim and when I say this, I mean it. My wife came to me and said those are the best ribs you made yet! Now I feel like I made some great Ribs in the past on the Pellet, but this time it was different. I had more control, more smokey flavor and damn if they did not taste like they came from a BBQ smoke house.

The cheaper pellet grills do not hold the temps well. I mean they are so up and down, I mean after I bought my Maverick thermo, I had found that my Camp Chef Woodwind was having temp swings of 30>40 and 60 degrees!!! Mostly it was over cooking, but it did undercook also. Alarms were going off left and right.

Now some guys on you tube videos say, just set it and forget it, the temps will just work out in the end and that is BS your stuff will over cook. I have over cooked my Q quite a few times. I mean you really have to learn the grill and learn to set the grill temps lower. I know if I want 225 on the CC, I need to set it at 200 and so on. It is just amazing at the temperature control on the MAK with the Pellet Boss. I mean you set 225 and it cooks at 225 and man does it lay down the smoke. Light years better than the Camp Chef.

It would be great if more guys would do some more reviews of their grills in this thread to get some more info on different grills. I mean it is kind of a goal to find the best budget grill that puts out good smoke.
 
Rib Rub said:
I know you are going to hate this answer, but man if you could swing the extra cash and get the MAK 1 Star general. Big Poppa Smokers runs sales on the grill time to time. I would take that $1000, put it in the bank and save up for the MAK. I will tell you why>>>

I cannot speak for the Rec Tec, but I have been using a Camp Chef Woodwind for a year now and I thought I was cooking good, however after I bought the MAK 2 Star General, I found out that I was not cooking good food. I made my first ribs last weekend on the MAK and I did it on a whim and when I say this, I mean it. My wife came to me and said those are the best ribs you made yet! Now I feel like I made some great Ribs in the past on the Pellet, but this time it was different. I had more control, more smokey flavor and damn if they did not taste like they came from a BBQ smoke house.

The cheaper pellet grills do not hold the temps well. I mean they are so up and down, I mean after I bought my Maverick thermo, I had found that my Camp Chef Woodwind was having temp swings of 30>40 and 60 degrees!!! Mostly it was over cooking, but it did undercook also. Alarms were going off left and right.

Now some guys on you tube videos say, just set it and forget it, the temps will just work out in the end and that is BS your stuff will over cook. I have over cooked my Q quite a few times. I mean you really have to learn the grill and learn to set the grill temps lower. I know if I want 225 on the CC, I need to set it at 200 and so on. It is just amazing at the temperature control on the MAK with the Pellet Boss. I mean you set 225 and it cooks at 225 and man does it lay down the smoke. Light years better than the Camp Chef.

It would be great if more guys would do some more reviews of their grills in this thread to get some more info on different grills. I mean it is kind of a goal to find the best budget grill that puts out good smoke.
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Thanks for the reply!

I was looking at the mak smokers, I just wasn’t sure I wanted to spend that on a smoker yet. I did just get into smoking. Lol I do like the smell and taste of the stick burner Q though. If the mak replicates that, I may just look into getting one. I know with pellet smokers, getting the smoke flavor could be tough. That’s why I was asking what everyone in this thread thought..

Decisions decisions. Hmm
 
Baychilla said:
Wouldn't work here. Our rain comes in sideways.:mmph:
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KevinJ said:
This is why when I had an addition and a backyard patio built onto the back of the house, I made sure there was a good 9' of cover over the patio, don't care how hard it rains unless it's a Hurricane.
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Dr. Weld said:
Thanks for the reply!

I was looking at the mak smokers, I just wasn’t sure I wanted to spend that on a smoker yet. I did just get into smoking. Lol I do like the smell and taste of the stick burner Q though. If the mak replicates that, I may just look into getting one. I know with pellet smokers, getting the smoke flavor could be tough. That’s why I was asking what everyone in this thread thought..

Decisions decisions. Hmm
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I think allot of people have said that the MAK gives a great smoke flavor like a stick burner. As I said above I finally did my first batch of ribs on my MAK 2 and the first thing I noticed was the smoke flavor. Was much better than the camp chef. I think you would be highly impressed with the smoke off the MAK.
 
Did a rib cook yesterday MAK vs Hunsaker Drum.

iqZT92C.jpg
 
Does anyone have any thoughts on Grilla smokers? They seem to get many rave reviews and seemed to be built decently well.

As I said in a another thread, so many options and companies to choose from. Uggh.
 
Looks like good quality, customer service, and value. Not made here that I know of, but some podcasts seem to like them. I had them shortlisted due to short drive over the border. But decided on a ys640 because of the fit and finish. Price difference was huge but I am happy. At least until my first cold weather cook and I wish I had the double wall construction.
 
sleebus.jones said:
So I think I've found the solution for the leathery/rubbery skin. It's a combination of a few things I've heard/done over the years.

To get the skin to crisp up/be edible, you need to dehydrate it and render it (duh!) but doing that correctly is the trick. Now when I was oven cooking pork belly (skin on) in the UK, everyone always said to rub the skin with salt so it will crisp up properly (OMG pork belly cracklin' is the best) so that's what I always did and ended up with nice crispy skin. Oil is the second trick to get things to render quickly.

So, on to the tricks.

1. Pre-season your yardbird about 30 minutes before you cook it. If your rub has salt, you're good. If it doesn't, you may want to consider salting, then applying the rub. If you can't tolerate salt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2. Oil yer bird. I saw a recipe that recommended buttering the chicken, then applying rub. What a giant pain in the butt that was, messy and not very effective. I put the rub on, they spray it down with olive oil and LET IT SIT. This is part of the 30 min rest thing. The spices will absorb the oil and then they won't burn, and the oil will naturally spread itself out into a nice even coating. The big thing here is that the oil helps with heat transfer to the skin to render it. It also helps prevent the skin from drying out. Don't leave this step out.

3. Bird goes on the pellet smoker skin side down first. Cook for 30 mins before flipping. This starts rendering the skin, since heat mainly comes from the bottom up on a pellet smoker, hence putting it skin side down. I cook at 275°. You can go higher, but I probably wouldn't exceed 300°, but feel free to experiment. Once you flip, you've probably got 15 mins until it's done.

I've been doing chicken this way for a while and have had good success. Haven't tested it with a whole bird, obviously hard to put that skin side down unless spatchcocked.
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Ok I haven't read the whole thread yet but I have to comment on the chicken skin. If you want the skin to crisp up well it needs to be dry when it goes into the heat. The easiest way to do that is to put the chicken in the fridge on a rack and let the fridge dry the skin out. I usually just thaw my roasters on a rack set down in a casserole dish so they thaw and the skin dries at the same time.



Alternatively if your chicken is fresh and you need to dry out the skin you can bring in a back up skin dryer AKA a hair dryer. Yep it works.

link is to a google search so that you can have your choice of articles to read about using a hair dryer on chicken skin.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dry...ir+dryer&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1

You may all thank me later. :mrgreen:
 
SmokePigTails said:
Looks like good quality, customer service, and value. Not made here that I know of, but some podcasts seem to like them. I had them shortlisted due to short drive over the border. But decided on a ys640 because of the fit and finish. Price difference was huge but I am happy. At least until my first cold weather cook and I wish I had the double wall construction.
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I am sure I will never see cold like you, but my ys640 performed perfectly in sub zero temps this winter. If it's in your budget, you might consider the insulated jacket, that they sell. I really like mine. If you don't want to spend the $$ on the jacket, invest in some welding blankets. Just drape them over the cooker. Hope you enjoy your Yoder as much as I do mine.
 
Drying the skin definitely helps, but the easiest, quickest way to get good chicken skin, is up your cooking temp. Chicken absorbs smoke very well, doesn't need the long cook. Go 400+ degrees, and it will come out crispy and delicious. Just my opinion.

Camille Eonich said:
Ok I haven't read the whole thread yet but I have to comment on the chicken skin. If you want the skin to crisp up well it needs to be dry when it goes into the heat. The easiest way to do that is to put the chicken in the fridge on a rack and let the fridge dry the skin out. I usually just thaw my roasters on a rack set down in a casserole dish so they thaw and the skin dries at the same time.



Alternatively if your chicken is fresh and you need to dry out the skin you can bring in a back up skin dryer AKA a hair dryer. Yep it works.

link is to a google search so that you can have your choice of articles to read about using a hair dryer on chicken skin.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dry...ir+dryer&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1

You may all thank me later. :mrgreen:
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So Anybody liking the RecTecs? Or No?
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They have a very dedicated following on Facebook, and I think a few members have them. I have never heard anything bad. I can honestly say that if I was in the US the decision would have been very difficult to make. REC TEC, Grilla, MAK, Yoder, Blazn. If I was in Texas Pitts and Spitts would probably have been the winner.
 
I'm planning to add a RecTec to my arsenal soon. I may even given up my beloved FPG500 and use the RecTec for my direct grilling.
 
I was hoping that I could find out a bit more information / comparison on the different pellet smokers by actual users. Opinions on the Pitts & Spitts Maverick 1250 ? Seems that it's mostly MAK and Yoder. thx
 
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