Weak flavor on Pellet Grill

B

bbqdano

Guest
Been using a Lousiana Country Smoker CS570 for a couple of months now. Long smokes at lowest temp setting provide cooked meat but with very little smoke flavor.

Anyone else experiencing that? Have tried various different pellets with same result. Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.
 
Yessir, I know what you mean. My Traeger doesn't put any good smoke into the food I cook. I'm going to just use it as a grill now. I know I can buy an electronic addon that will cook it lower...but...I bought it to cook it right. It does do wicked steaks and anything that needs to be seriously grilled though. I'm just not keen on buying this for something that has a 'smoke' setting. http://www.traegergrills.com/shop/Details.cfm?ProdID=113&category=10
 
Honest Question here. Not one of those smart-alec anti pellet questions.

If you don't get much smoke flavor what's the advantage. Again sincere question, because I've consider a traeger a couple of times.
 
trp1fox said:
Honest Question here. Not one of those smart-alec anti pellet questions.

If you don't get much smoke flavor what's the advantage. Again sincere question, because I've consider a traeger a couple of times.
Click to expand...




The advantage to me was that a store here had it for about $200 less than MSRP...and I bought it. IMHO without the addition of the mod that let's you cook at a real 'low and slow' temp, it's worthless as a smoker. If you set it on 'Smoke' setting, which I did the first night cooking some butt's.....you have a great chance of your fire going out. I thought I messed something up and tried again the day after...woke up at 3am to check the temp...and the pellets had gone out...cold.

What happens is, an auger runs pellets at the 3 different settings...Smoke, Medium and High. At 'Smoke' it runs for a minute and it's off for 3 minutes ( just recalling) in those three minutes, the pellet(s) that was on fire can go out. You'll wake up the next morning with 10 pounds of dry unfired pellets in the bottom of the pit. It happened to me twice in a weekend.

I know it's assholish, but I refuse to buy the $170 mod that makes it actually be a smoker.



-Brian
 
bbqdano said:
Been using a Lousiana Country Smoker CS570 for a couple of months now. Long smokes at lowest temp setting provide cooked meat but with very little smoke flavor.

Anyone else experiencing that? Have tried various different pellets with same result. Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


Oh, and sorry...I didn't answer your original question. They just don't seem to put out the same amount of smoke into food as any smoker I've had. They do work wicked as grills though.


-Brian
 
BFoster said:
The advantage to me was that a store here had it for about $200 less than MSRP...and I bought it. IMHO without the addition of the mod that let's you cook at a real 'low and slow' temp, it's worthless as a smoker. If you set it on 'Smoke' setting, which I did the first night cooking some butt's.....you have a great chance of your fire going out. I thought I messed something up and tried again the day after...woke up at 3am to check the temp...and the pellets had gone out...cold.

What happens is, an auger runs pellets at the 3 different settings...Smoke, Medium and High. At 'Smoke' it runs for a minute and it's off for 3 minutes ( just recalling) in those three minutes, the pellet(s) that was on fire can go out. You'll wake up the next morning with 10 pounds of dry unfired pellets in the bottom of the pit. It happened to me twice in a weekend.

I know it's assholish, but I refuse to buy the $170 mod that makes it actually be a smoker.



-Brian
Click to expand...

i was going to get a Traeger before my egg. For some unknown reason they had discontinued the low smoke feature (180 smoke) and stuck with a 225 low smoke. Everyone who had purchased a Traeger before had no issues but lots of people after the conversion did. The Traeger "outlet" in Oregon, offered the remainder of the stock of the original, but now has a "new" version they must have had made. You can buy it now with the 180 smoke. I think one of the major complaints was that the 225 isn't really 225 at grid temp. It just didn't seem to work as well as it should have.
As for smoke flavor, I have eaten off a buddies traeger, and it was great, full of smoke (he quickly grilled a steak).
I mention the Traeger Outlet in West Linn, and found their BBQ (they cook food there, though it is reheated) was lacking in flavor and quality.
 
Stick Burners Rule!!!!!
Sorry, I freaked out.
 
I experienced the same. Kapn advised me to cook slower (lower temp) than on other cookers. It made a world of difference. He also advised me on pellet purchase. Might send him a PM.
 
I have the 180 low smoke but just got a digital thermostat from another Forum Member that I'll be installing today. I haven't had any problem getting plenty of smoke flavor from Mine in either smoke or medium settings. I use mostly misquite and hickory pellets and feel the apple wood pellets have less smoke flavor. I also don't usually foil so that may influence results. I'm really glad I got a pellet smoker.
 
Thanks for the replies!!

Can't speak for other makes of grills but the Louisiana Country Smoker's paddle wheel feed design produces a wide array of performance depending on pellet size.

BBQ Delight pellets are on average 3/4" or less in length. On minimum setting, during the warm weather here lately, the lowest temperature the grill will operate at is 250. Using the Fast Eddy pellets, they average 1" to 1.25" in length, the temp drops to 165. The larger size pellets just don't feed through the wheel as fast. Still not very much smoke however.

Am experimenting with a digital temperature controller, one of those PID "Fuzzy Logic" gadgets. Does pretty good at maintaining temperature. Did have the fire go out a couple of times because the controller was above setpoint and did not feed any pellets for several minutes. Have since re-wired it so the factory timer is in parallel with the controller allowing a minimal pellet feed every so often regardless of temperature setpoint. Am going to add a time delay relay to prevent the controller from over feeding the pellets. The fire department is busy enough!!

All in all, I like the grill but it definitely requires different tactics than the stick burners.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
bbqdano said:
Am experimenting with a digital temperature controller, one of those PID "Fuzzy Logic" gadgets. Does pretty good at maintaining temperature. Did have the fire go out a couple of times because the controller was above setpoint and did not feed any pellets for several minutes. Have since re-wired it so the factory timer is in parallel with the controller allowing a minimal pellet feed every so often regardless of temperature setpoint. Am going to add a time delay relay to prevent the controller from over feeding the pellets. The fire department is busy enough!!

All in all, I like the grill but it definitely requires different tactics than the stick burners.
Click to expand...
Try using low alarm to run hot rod. If temp drops below XXX hot rod comes on insuring pellets are lit.
 
I'd be willing to bet that the brand of pellets would have a significant impact to the amount of smoke you get at any given setting. Maybe you could try a small bag of several different ones to see if any others work better.

But yeah - stick burners rule! <chuckle>

Arlin
 
I have a CS Whole Hog, have had some success with it and a Traeger 075 the past few years at competitions. I think it smokes well. But to be perfectly honest with you, the only wood I can distinguish is Mesquite. Cooking at competitions, you dont taste smoke after you have been cooking a day and a half. Only time I taset smoke flavor is when I seal it up and eat it days later.

Here a lot of good things about cookingpellets, just ordered 3 bags, suppose to be here next wed., will try them next weekend and see!
 
Bentley said:
I have a CS Whole Hog, have had some success with it and a Traeger 075 the past few years at competitions. I think it smokes well. But to be perfectly honest with you, the only wood I can distinguish is Mesquite. Cooking at competitions, you dont taste smoke after you have been cooking a day and a half. Only time I taset smoke flavor is when I seal it up and eat it days later.

Here a lot of good things about cookingpellets, just ordered 3 bags, suppose to be here next wed., will try them next weekend and see!
Click to expand...
crap, someone already posted about cookingpellets, you will swear I work for them, or have interest in them, because I have a strong opinion about the quality of the pellets (100% wood), it will take your pellet pooper to another level! cherry, hickory and mesquite(you will swear it came from a stick burner)
 
I was thinking about getting a traeger next year........I might go with the SW.

Jeff
 
jeffjenkins1 said:
I was thinking about getting a traeger next year........I might go with the SW.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Might? :wink: Just messing....the SW is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I'm not trying to get those boys to buy me a beer either...I promise.

Also, I don't want to come off as a jerk...I had a few beers in me last night. With the mod, I think the Traeger would be a damn fine smoker...it's well built with good metal. It's just not ready for 'prime-time' as it is.

-Brian.
 
Your pellets are probably having a lot to do with this. I own a Traeger, Country Smoker, and FEC-100. I've cooked on several models of each. First and foremost, the Traeger pellets are crap!!!! The BTU's are low and the smoke sucks. I've not tried CookingPellets.com, but BBQr's Delight are great. Your fuel makes a lot of the difference. Try the hickory or pecan to start and see if you get a better smoke flavor and a better burn.

Pellet cookers ARE stick burners. Our sticks are just smaller.
 
Plowboy said:
Your pellets are probably having a lot to do with this. I own a Traeger, Country Smoker, and FEC-100. I've cooked on several models of each. First and foremost, the Traeger pellets are crap!!!! The BTU's are low and the smoke sucks. I've not tried CookingPellets.com, but BBQr's Delight are great. Your fuel makes a lot of the difference. Try the hickory or pecan to start and see if you get a better smoke flavor and a better burn.

Pellet cookers ARE stick burners. Our sticks are just smaller.
Click to expand...

Thanks Plowboy. You ever use the Fast Eddy pellets? They've got lots of good press in the forum.
 
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