Initial impressions are that it looks like a really nice grill (and not a smoker but I knew what I was getting into). It came with some oak pellets with a Memphis label on the bag. I don't know much about those so I loaded it up with the CookinPellets Perfect Mix that I've used for the last so many years in my smoke tube. Fired it up and it just worked. On the low temps (225 I set it at initially) is was really putting out smoke.
The only thing that concerns me is the huge vent across the entire back/top of the hood that let's all the smoke flow out. I'm thinking about using some tin foil or something to close that up a bit to restrict airflow a bit more.
Brought it up to 650 using my phone and went back outside and before too long that's what the temp on the control unit said it was at. I plan on using my fireboard to read the temps inside the thing tomorrow while I cook and compare that to the reading on the probes that came with the Memphis and with the internal probe that reads the internal temp.
I plan on doing 2 tri-tips seasoned with Pappy's, 2 spatchcocked chickens with Yardbird, and the pork belly burnt ends. My wife ended up finding some pork belly at another Costco that's already sliced into 1" strips. Why they sell it that way instead of the whole slab I have no idea.
I do the tri-tip and chicken quite a bit in my old gasser cabinet with the same seasoning and the same wood pellets so this should be a pretty good comparison.
