The Official Pellet Grill Smoker thread.

rwalters said:
4 hour reverse sear cook from today. Started off level (not to the very top, but level in what you see in the pic) and here it is after 4 hours on the Smoke setting...
ffdc1f1f8924d5c5035778ac5a1328db.jpg

Almost nothing :)
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Perfect. This really is great news. Pellets cost money so this is something I factor into the big picture.
 
So anyone that has known me on this forum knows I like to experiment lol. I’ve don’t this a few times before but I really like grilling Yoder style on my Mak. Basically I just remove the guts and cook over the fire pot with a pair of grill grates. Works pretty good! By the way, all pellet grills can sear. No just a select few....
 

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BKING! said:
So anyone that has known me on this forum knows I like to experiment lol. I’ve don’t this a few times before but I really like grilling Yoder style on my Mak. Basically I just remove the guts and cook over the fire pot with a pair of grill grates. Works pretty good! By the way, all pellet grills can sear. No just a select few....
Click to expand...

Does this mean you don’t need the flame zone insert? Would be much cheaper to get a set of Grill Grates.
 
JJJBBQ said:
Does this mean you don’t need the flame zone insert? Would be much cheaper to get a set of Grill Grates.
Click to expand...

Well 2 points. The flame zone makes the Mak run more efficient and produce more smoke as a smoker. 2nd point is I still remove the covers and sear either on the grill grates or the stainless grates. I only cook directly over the fire pot if I want a screaming hot sear. From now on I’ll probably only use this technique with steak after pondering it for a while. The flame zone with the covers removed gets plenty hot for everything else.
 
Was looking through old photos tonight. Was reminded that a little over 4 years ago I had 3 ceramic kamado’s, a stick burner, a large griddle and a gas grill. My wife thought I had “issues”... lol.

Fast forward to present, and the MAK 2 Star has replaced ALL of them (minus the griddle/Otto). Never in a million years did I think a pellet grill would take over my cooking arsenal. That was before I had cooked on a MAK [emoji846]
7a4311de015a31924528efb10b3a3f93.jpg
 
Yeah.. two days away from getting my Grilla grillz silverbac.. I refuse to look at this thread. SEE YA IN TWO DAYS :D
 
blazinfire said:
Yeah.. two days away from getting my Grilla grillz silverbac.. I refuse to look at this thread. SEE YA IN TWO DAYS :D
Click to expand...



Welcome to the wonderful world of pellet cooking! Why refuse to look at this thread... whatcha afraid of? [emoji3061]
 
I've read through a LOT of this thread and my interest is piqued....


Right now have a Performer, Big Joe and a Q220 for quick stuff. I'll be honest, I'm 5 years behind on pellet grills and don't really know what to expect out of one. I can't afford a Mak or a Yoder - budget would be whatever I can sell the kamado for plus a couple of hundred.



But - can pellet grills do it all now? It seems that many of the units are, at a bare minimum, more than competent smokers. But what about grilling and searing? I do a lot of reverse sear right now and it would be great to do that on one machine.



1. Where's the value point on pellets right now? I can't afford a Mak, but don't want to throw away $400 on something either.



2. What brands should I be looking at? Seems like Camp Chef, Pit Boss, Traeger, Grilla, Green Mountain?



3. I'm very early in this, what else am I not thinking about?



I copied this from earlier in the thread:

What are your requirements in a pellet grill?

-Low n slow only, or will you be grilling? GRILLING
-How cold do the winter months get in your neck of the woods? Cold - routinely in the teens and twenties
-What types of proteins do you think you'll be cooking most often? Chicken, plate short ribs, ribs, pork
-How many people do you feed on a regular basis, and do you enjoy entertaining? What's the highest head count you think you'd be feeding at one time from this cooker? Regular cooks are 4-6, and can't imagine going over 15?
-When you say that you want something "as easy to clean as possible"... exactly how clean are you talking? Scrape down the drip pan and vacuum out the ash on a regular basis... with the occasional scrape/wipe down of the interior walls? Or are you talking showroom clean after every cook? I want to keep it from burning down and that's probably it :)

Let's start there and see where it leads... :)
 
Also.... how hot is hot enough to get a good sear?


I think the 700+ degrees on the kamado has melted my mind a bit....
 
MattGoose said:
I've read through a LOT of this thread and my interest is piqued....


Right now have a Performer, Big Joe and a Q220 for quick stuff. I'll be honest, I'm 5 years behind on pellet grills and don't really know what to expect out of one. I can't afford a Mak or a Yoder - budget would be whatever I can sell the kamado for plus a couple of hundred.



But - can pellet grills do it all now? It seems that many of the units are, at a bare minimum, more than competent smokers. But what about grilling and searing? I do a lot of reverse sear right now and it would be great to do that on one machine.



1. Where's the value point on pellets right now? I can't afford a Mak, but don't want to throw away $400 on something either.



2. What brands should I be looking at? Seems like Camp Chef, Pit Boss, Traeger, Grilla, Green Mountain?



3. I'm very early in this, what else am I not thinking about?



I copied this from earlier in the thread:

What are your requirements in a pellet grill?

-Low n slow only, or will you be grilling? GRILLING
-How cold do the winter months get in your neck of the woods? Cold - routinely in the teens and twenties
-What types of proteins do you think you'll be cooking most often? Chicken, plate short ribs, ribs, pork
-How many people do you feed on a regular basis, and do you enjoy entertaining? What's the highest head count you think you'd be feeding at one time from this cooker? Regular cooks are 4-6, and can't imagine going over 15?
-When you say that you want something "as easy to clean as possible"... exactly how clean are you talking? Scrape down the drip pan and vacuum out the ash on a regular basis... with the occasional scrape/wipe down of the interior walls? Or are you talking showroom clean after every cook? I want to keep it from burning down and that's probably it :)

Let's start there and see where it leads... :)
Click to expand...


Hi Matt- Based on what you have shared, and if I were in your shoes, this is the grill that would most have my interest. Although I have never cooked on one, I have seen them in person and they seem to be a great bang for the buck. They also have the sear zone, which from everything I have gathered works very well.


http://www.walmart.com/ip/Pit-Boss-...red-Pellet-Grill-with-Flame-Broiler/838778838
 
rwalters said:
Hi Matt- Based on what you have shared, and if I were in your shoes, this is the grill that would most have my interest. Although I have never cooked on one, I have seen them in person and they seem to be a great bang for the buck. They also have the sear zone, which from everything I have gathered works very well.


http://www.walmart.com/ip/Pit-Boss-...red-Pellet-Grill-with-Flame-Broiler/838778838
Click to expand...

Good call, especially to get in and see if you like pellet grills. Eventually, you'll feel the need to spend a lot of money on a new one, no matter what you buy today :grin:
 
MattGoose said:
1. Where's the value point on pellets right now? I can't afford a Mak, but don't want to throw away $400 on something either.



2. What brands should I be looking at? Seems like Camp Chef, Pit Boss, Traeger, Grilla, Green Mountain?



3. I'm very early in this, what else am I not thinking about?



I copied this from earlier in the thread:

What are your requirements in a pellet grill?

-Low n slow only, or will you be grilling? GRILLING
-How cold do the winter months get in your neck of the woods? Cold - routinely in the teens and twenties
-What types of proteins do you think you'll be cooking most often? Chicken, plate short ribs, ribs, pork
-How many people do you feed on a regular basis, and do you enjoy entertaining? What's the highest head count you think you'd be feeding at one time from this cooker? Regular cooks are 4-6, and can't imagine going over 15?
-When you say that you want something "as easy to clean as possible"... exactly how clean are you talking? Scrape down the drip pan and vacuum out the ash on a regular basis... with the occasional scrape/wipe down of the interior walls? Or are you talking showroom clean after every cook? I want to keep it from burning down and that's probably it :)

Let's start there and see where it leads... :)
Click to expand...

Hi Matt,

I bought an Oklahoma Joe's Rider DLX last month from Lowe's. It was $600, so I don't know if that's out of your price range or not.

It's my first pellet grill, and so far I like it. Lots of space, big sear area that gets really hot. When I did some temp tests, with an empty pit it would run about 50* hotter than what the unit read. But with food in there it was a lot closer and the variance from left to right was within 10 degrees. I use a smoke tube with it for additional smoke. The QuickDraw hopper is a nice feature, but the doors are spring loaded so I'm not sure how reliable that will be in the long run.

The build quality is OK, not spectacular. The door has a bit of a gap on the right bottom side, and I was planning on getting a lava lock gasket to address that. I also have in intermittent problem where it sometimes trips the GFCI about 20 minutes after starting it. After you reset the GFCI it runs forever. They are sending me a new control board to address that.

No wifi or app, but I have a Thermoworks Signals so that was no big deal to me.
 
I am a couple of cooks in on the MAK and I gotta say, I love this thing. Being able to program the controller, throw some meat on in the morning and head to work is a game changer. Coming home from work and being an hour away from nicely smoked ribs is something I can get used to! I have been monitoring the temps with my Thermoworks and I seem to be maintaining the set temp within about 5 degrees. Much better than the 30 or so degrees I was getting on my last setup.

I have to be honest and say that I doubted all of the claims of how much more smoke this puts out over other pellet grills, but I am happily proven wrong. One of these days I will quit being lazy and post a few pics.
 
alias_rice said:
I am a couple of cooks in on the MAK and I gotta say, I love this thing. Being able to program the controller, throw some meat on in the morning and head to work is a game changer. Coming home from work and being an hour away from nicely smoked ribs is something I can get used to! I have been monitoring the temps with my Thermoworks and I seem to be maintaining the set temp within about 5 degrees. Much better than the 30 or so degrees I was getting on my last setup.

I have to be honest and say that I doubted all of the claims of how much more smoke this puts out over other pellet grills, but I am happily proven wrong. One of these days I will quit being lazy and post a few pics.
Click to expand...



Do you work really short days or cook ribs for a really long time?


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