Serious Discussion On Pellets

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barbefunkoramaque

Guest
Okay, I went through Woodpile and stuff for Pellet Discussion and saw a lot of noise.

Now everyone knows I use all wood, and have tasted great BBQ from people using Wood Charcoal. LOL and bad BBQ made from Wood Burners.

So I saw one of these little pellet thingys so work the other day and though it was neat. However, I have never had any Q from one.

Then... I find that there is a HUGE tissy about it.

So please, feel me in. Last time I commented on this I was told, quite abruptly I might ad, that people can and DO win contests with this.

Plus, second only yo the term "boiling" I here a sort of back-handed joke about it.

So... as one all wood guy... to other, whatever you guys use. Please, talk to me. No insults, no reason to get all upset, really.... what's the deal? Why is this considered a joke by some.

I have NOT tasted BBQ from this type of machine. I actually CAN tell electric and Gas NTTAWWT.

Be this as it may... people at my church (which is a growing BBQ Society) are asking me and I am trying PUSH them toward starting a Drum Society.

Once again.... don't be insulting (unless its toward me) because a friend of yours here could use one....
 
I've never cooked on one but one of our former team mates has one. We would steal his pellets, wrap them in a foil pouch, poke some hole in it and toss it on top of the Charcoal in our WSM or Backwoods smokers. The smoke form the hickory pellets smells a bit concentrated to me and I never liked those, but the Pecan with rosemary smells great and makes for an out of this world chicken.

I'm still at a loss for why these are not considered electric smoker though.
 
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57575&

thats the beginning of my adventure with the pellet pooper.

Post 41 is my feelings on it.


One thing about the pellet cookers.. THEY ARE COOKING MACHINES. (No pun intended). Fire it up, and it will run for days on end, just churning out BBQ. I cooked for 200 and the FE100 went for 2 days straight, non stop.. butts, ribs, chicken.. its impressive.

Flavor profile is different from a stick burner. Lighter, not as smokey. Even the heavily smoked stuff on a stickburner just has a 'cleaner' taste.

Big ass fan in the FE gives a convection effect. Stuff cooks different, not always faster.

After using it for 6 months, and ALOT of cooking.. its a great cooker..kinda like a well trained dog.. Does everything u ask of it.. but it will never replace a trusty old lab.
 
Wow... this has the potential to get interesting
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I cook in an FEC-100 for competitions and larger home cooks, and in a WSM, or Egg with lump and wood chips for smaller home cooks and in my Good One offset for medium home cooks using lump as a base and wood for flavor. Each has it's own flavor profile. Is one better than the other? Hard to say. I like the food from all of them. (how's that for non-committal :-D) For comps I prefer the FEC for it's ability to produce consistent results under all conditions. It makes my life a little easier in a hectic environment.

As far as the animosity (if you can call it that) between pelletheads and stickburners a lot of it is good natured kidding. Guys who cook in stickburners will say that using a pellet cooker is cheating since it has a feeder for the pellets and a temperature control. So does a stickburner with a Guru or Stoker. Pelletheads will comment about getting some sleep at a competition while the stickburners are up all night (I really do wish you guys would oil your pit doors! All of that creaking is keeping me up :-D :rolleyes: ). Of course, there are some that take either position to an extreme, but I have found that these are not that common. Someone at the competition we were at this past weekend commented that they have seen stick burners purposely kick the power connection to pellet cookers to disconnect them. I hope that I never run into someone that malicious.

Finally, the pit (yeah, I used the P-word) is just a tool. It doesn't really matter if I stick my meat into a pellet cooker or an offset or a vertical, I still have to know how to use the tool and how to season the meat, manage the timing, etc. to produce consistent, high quality results. Look at cooks like Rod Gray of Pellet Envy. Rod is consistently at the top of the KCBS rankings and he cooks some competitions using his FECs and some competitions using his Geer. The common ground is Rod and his skills as a cook and mastery of his tools.
 
ZILLA said:
I'm still at a loss for why these are not considered electric smoker though.
Click to expand...

It's quite simple, they burn wood for heat, whereas electrics use heating elements to produce their heat. If I run a stoker on my BGE does that make it an electric smoker since it uses electricity?
 
I don't care if you use commercial rubs, your own rubs, propane, electric, old tires, or dirt if it's good it's good and that's all that matters to me.
 
No, I simply do not know anything at all about the Pellet cookers, except that they plug into a 120v source, have an electric auger to feed the pellets, and an electric element that ignites the pellets.. and that's about it.

I was not aware that those pellets smoldering in a pot could heat a cooker to 250+ degrees.

I thought the igniter may have added to the heat. I just didn't know.
 
So far at the comps I start the big meats in the spicewine(burning logs) and then transfer them to the pellet cooker after 4-6 hours to finish. Same with ribs, they go into the spicewine for 3 hours, then move to the FE. Only do that becase I like the flavor profile you get from the sticks better. chicken is mostly in the spicewine.,

For catering, the FE cant be beat.. liek I said, it churns out great food, but some customers prefer "the Show" with the clanging steel, squeaky doors and feeding logs. i have run into that 3 for 3 in the bast 2 months.

Home cooks.. depends. do u want therapy, or dinner?
 
(I really do wish you guys would oil your pit doors! All of that creaking is keeping me up :grin: :rolleyes: ).

Singlehandedly the funniest thing I ever read on here. Ever. Takes me back to the old days.
 
ZILLA said:
No, I simply do not know anything at all about the Pellet cookers, except that they plug into a 120v source, have an electric auger to feed the pellets, and an electric element that ignites the pellets.. and that's about it.

I was not aware that those pellets smoldering in a pot could heat a cooker to 250+ degrees.

I thought the igniter may have added to the heat. I just didn't know.
Click to expand...


its actually a fire pot filled with pellets and a fan blowing on it.. it will climb to 350 in 20-30 minutes.

One thing i dont like much is the response time. An FE packed with food will take 30-40 minutes to climb to from 200 to 275-300.. Whereas when i want more heat in the stickburner, I add a log and open the dampers and in 10 minutes I have 100 more degrees. Your at the mercy of the auger and controller.
 
barbefunkoramaque said:
Okay, I went through Woodpile and stuff for Pellet Discussion and saw a lot of noise.


So... as one all wood guy... to other, whatever you guys use. Please, talk to me. No insults, no reason to get all upset, really.... what's the deal? Why is this considered a joke by some.

.
Click to expand...

Please let me bring some understanding on this matter.

Underneath all of the controversy surrounding so called "pellet poopers" vis a vis real bbq pits that burn actual sticks of wood, is a religious based understanding. Good etiquite suggests that 'religion' not be discussed with friends let alone in public.

That said, the reality is: God don't like pellets and God loves, really loves folks that tend the fire all night with real farkin wood - please put your hands on the radio and say........ "Amen".

The Right Reverend Billy Sol Hargus
Del Rio Texas
 
if the stick burning could load the same size logs on a ramp and the fire stayed at 250 and you had to plug in to do it would you and you could leave and go to work or to sleep ????as a pellet guy i like being able to load the hopper and go to sleep and wake up 6 hrs later and see the temp is right at 250 pellets are wood in a pot and there is a fire to keep them lit I dont like the to feed the fire every 2 to 4 hrs on long burns lol just saying im the weird one lol i have a pellet stainless drum lol
 
Although I kid Billy and others about the pellets, I can see the advantages. Sleep, consistency in product, etc. I would use one if I couldn't get a Spicebox orBackwoods for vending and catering. Stickburners are where I get to be the artist. I have fire, wood, metal, and meat. No electronics, no auger noise, no red lights. Take your FEC to a deer lease in Doss Texas, then ask yourself at about midnight if everything is good. I've done it with a stickburner. Just stars, Shiner, and sweet blue. It was good.
 
Cook with pellets or heat your home with pellets. I got tired of cutting fire wood. Cook in your pellet stove too. :icon_clown Fill your pellet stove or pellet grill once or twice a day. Kick back. :razz:

DSC00976.jpg


CornStove060.jpg
 
I have a couple of BGE's and an FEC. When I first got my FEC some of the first cooks on it were kind of lack luster, not enough smoke flavor for me. It is certainly a much cleaner tasting smoke, and has a very distinct flavor.

I have gotten around this by doing a low smoke temp(170) with out of the fridge meat for about 4hrs, then raise it to 220-250 for the finish. Since then I have been really liking the product turned out. It is really nice to know that it will be the same time after time. One of the other major reasons was so I could have my wife start/tend/take off anything. I have 2 full time jobs and cater quite a few things. It was really hard with my eggs and having to start a fire (which my wife refused to do). With the fec it is as easy as turning on an oven...Hell I have a 6 step instruction page that ANYONE could walk up and do.

The FEC is isn't great for everyone but for me it fit the bill for what I needed to do...With that said my next purchase will be a stick burner.

Bryan
 
BBQchef33 said:
One thing i dont like much is the response time. An FE packed with food will take 30-40 minutes to climb to from 200 to 275-300..
Click to expand...

Thats the nice think about Louisiana Grills like the Country Smokers, they have a prime button. I hold it down for 60 seconds and in 5 minutes its 100 degrees hotter.
 
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