Pellet smokers Please help!

SlowmotionQue said:
At the end of the day, if you are used to food which has come off of WSMs burning charcoal and wood chunks or logs, and have been eating it for 14 years, and you're looking for the type of smoke flavor comparable to that, well then it is unlikely that you are going to get a similar smoke profile from burning pellets.
Click to expand...


I don't expect it to be the same but I do want smoke to be discernible. I am in no hurry to add another pit(ya right!) so I am going to wait till I can try it in person on any pellet smoker or knock the cobwebs out of my billfold and get one of those insulated cabinet smokers that Lone Star Grillz or Pitmaker build. I have lusted after those for some time but the price tag on the sizes I like and rolling around on a nifty cart ain't cheap. I am more than willing for one of these pellet contraptions to be push a button BBQ magic box....but like they say if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
 
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Well, I will say that I am a very proud owner of a Ys640S. I absolutely love the cart, makes moving it around a breeze. Now, I just picked this up a couple months ago, and it gets more use than my kamado, or my reverse flow stick burner. What is really great about this yoder is that you can completely replace a natural gas grill because you can get to steak searing temps. Its also nice to be able to go low on a long cook. I cook burgers, chicken, steak, veggies, brisket, and well everything on it! There are some drawbacks though, you are limited on how much smoke your going to get, even if you add a tube. The bark on a brisket will be less pronounced, and I am finding that the tx crutch does not fare to well on the yoder because of the forced air, which makes a brisket take longer. If im ranking brisket bark and smoke ring quality this is mine
1 reverse flow/stick burner, 2 kamado, 3 cabinets, 4 pellets.
All this being said, I prefer the pellet on my ribs and chicken over the stick burner because of the ease, and the lessened need of a big smoke.
14 racks of ribs I cooked the other day on the yoder... oh yeah!
 
lonerider said:
I don't expect it to be the same but I do want smoke to be discernible. I am in no hurry to add another pit(ya right!) so I am going to wait till I can try it in person on any pellet smoker or knock the cobwebs out of my billfold and get one of those insulated cabinet smokers that Lone Star Grillz or Pitmaker build. I have lusted after those for some time but the price tag on the sizes I like and rolling around on a nifty cart ain't cheap. I am more than willing for one of these pellet contraptions to be push a button BBQ magic box....but like they say if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
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Well, I do hope that you get the chance to eat some bbq prepared low and slow from off of a pellet grill and compare the taste from it to that which you've grown accustomed to.

I'm in agreement with the other poster who indicated that it is better to go about it that way as opposed to spending a good chunk of money on a first pellet grill and possibly discovering that you aren't satisfied with the smoke flavor from off of a pellet grill.
 
My Pitboss puts out great food but its less smoke flavor and after a year of using it never got too much smoke, I have had to retrain my taste buds to except it lol. the ease of cooking is great,the wife cant do heavy smoke these days so I get to use it more, it can cook a great smoked washed steak,30 minutes of smoke then sear it. its not a high dollar cooker but in all honesty I don't think any of them will put out much different smoke profile, burning pellets of the same brand doesn't magically change the taste due to how much you paid for the cooker imo, ymmv. I paid $500 for mine and it came with a 1 year warranty and 6 months latter they went to a 5 year warranty :sad: oh well win some loose some.
 
Since you don’t have access to a pellet grill at the moment the best way I can describe it is that when I went from my kamado to my first pellet grill (GMG) I was a little disappointed in the smoke flavor initially. I then bought a stickburner which I liked and cooked on it for a while. I then went back to charcoal and no longer liked the taste as much (the smoke tasted dirty). I then tried pellet smoking again but this time on a Mak and now I like it.

If you are used to charcoal and smoldering wood chunks you may not be a fan of pellet grills. It took me retraining my taste buds with a clean burning stickburner and pellet grills to prefer a lighter yet cleaner smoke flavor.

Now for everyone saying that spending more on pellet grills won’t give you a better grill or smoke profile... that is untrue. I’d say a gmg pellet grill is about 50% of smoke flavor of a clean burning offset. Mak is closer to 90%. But both pellet grills and stickburners put roughly the same flavor profile on food but just in different amounts.

Also there is a learning curve with pellet grills. Knowing what I do now I could get a much stronger smoke profile off of the gmg I used to own, you just have to leave on smoke mode a bit longer.

For reference I did CSRs yesterday on my Mak. I did 30 minutes on smoke and finished at 275 deg (I programmed the controller to make those changes automatically). The smoke flavor was very present and I if given the option to add more smoke I would’ve declined lol.

To get the same smoke profile on the gmg I’d have to leave on smoke mode for 1 hour and cook at 225 deg the rest of the way probably. So not a big deal. Also spritz every 1-2 hours once the bark sets to help smoke to adhere to the meat. That always seems to help.
 
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In all honesty, we now prefer smoked meat off of the pellet grill verses Waylon (Weber Summit charcoal.)

We never thought it didn’t have smoke flavor off the pellet grill just different. Did several cooks on it then went back to Waylon, ewwww, the flavor was dirty, sort of acrid, bitter, vs the pellet. At this point Waylon is a searing station.

YMMV
 
I have been very happy with my Yoder YS640, which I've had for close to 4 years. I bought it used from a competition guy. Like many others, I use it regularly for everything from burgers, dogs, and steaks, to competition meats and sides.

I came to the YS640 from a RF Offset stick burner. My friends and family cannot tell the difference between the two from a smoke perspective. I can, but I'm a BBQ nerd....however, I will tell you that the Yoder is the closest thing I've come across to a clean burning stickburner. I am not a fan of WSM, UDS, or anything with a choked down charcoal/wood chunk fire. I can taste in my food when charcoal is lighting on fire.

As to capacity, I have squeezed 10 pork butts on it at one time. Extremely tight, but no adverse effects, and I rotated meat during the cook. I think you could easily get 2 butts and 2 briskets on it. It easily cooks for my family of 4 and stragglers! lol.....

I can't speak to the P&S or RecTec, but the YS640 is solid and the new controller sounds great......

Ed
 
Cat797 said:
I have been very happy with my Yoder YS640, which I've had for close to 4 years. I bought it used from a competition guy. Like many others, I use it regularly for everything from burgers, dogs, and steaks, to competition meats and sides.

I came to the YS640 from a RF Offset stick burner. My friends and family cannot tell the difference between the two from a smoke perspective. I can, but I'm a BBQ nerd....however, I will tell you that the Yoder is the closest thing I've come across to a clean burning stickburner. I am not a fan of WSM, UDS, or anything with a choked down charcoal/wood chunk fire. I can taste in my food when charcoal is lighting on fire.

As to capacity, I have squeezed 10 pork butts on it at one time. Extremely tight, but no adverse effects, and I rotated meat during the cook. I think you could easily get 2 butts and 2 briskets on it. It easily cooks for my family of 4 and stragglers! lol.....

I can't speak to the P&S or RecTec, but the YS640 is solid and the new controller sounds great......

Ed
Click to expand...
^^^this is the capacity I expected from the grate sizes.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
pjtexas1 said:
^^^this is the capacity I expected from the grate sizes.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

The bottom rack is an easy 6 pork butts. I think 7 is a little too tight for airflow. I squeezed 4 on the top rack that is only about 2/3 the size of the bottom one. The other thing is that the front of the Yoder is sloped, so that affects the width of meat on the top.

I think in this case, I would look at doing 2 butts side by side at the firebox end, and the brisket longways with flat end facing the stack on the bottom. I think you could get one longways on top and a pork butt across at the firebox end too. You're gonna be losing 40%-50% of size as it cooks so in my experience it has worked out...........
 
4ever3 said:
In all honesty, we now prefer smoked meat off of the pellet grill verses Waylon (Weber Summit charcoal.)

We never thought it didn’t have smoke flavor off the pellet grill just different. Did several cooks on it then went back to Waylon, ewwww, the flavor was dirty, sort of acrid, bitter, vs the pellet. At this point Waylon is a searing station.

YMMV
Click to expand...

This 100% mirrors my experience.
 
Cat797 said:
I have been very happy with my Yoder YS640, which I've had for close to 4 years. I bought it used from a competition guy. Like many others, I use it regularly for everything from burgers, dogs, and steaks, to competition meats and sides.

I came to the YS640 from a RF Offset stick burner. My friends and family cannot tell the difference between the two from a smoke perspective. I can, but I'm a BBQ nerd....however, I will tell you that the Yoder is the closest thing I've come across to a clean burning stickburner. I am not a fan of WSM, UDS, or anything with a choked down charcoal/wood chunk fire. I can taste in my food when charcoal is lighting on fire.

As to capacity, I have squeezed 10 pork butts on it at one time. Extremely tight, but no adverse effects, and I rotated meat during the cook. I think you could easily get 2 butts and 2 briskets on it. It easily cooks for my family of 4 and stragglers! lol.....

I can't speak to the P&S or RecTec, but the YS640 is solid and the new controller sounds great......

Ed
Click to expand...

Yeah I think if you get a good pellet grill it’s hard to tell a difference. I still like a stickburner best but my Mak is 90% of a stickburner according to me lol. My family can’t tell the difference either. If I can get 90% of the flavor for a 1/10 of the work I think that’s pretty awesome. I might it a stickburner though but just to play with fire mainly. You lose that with a pellet grill.
 
BKING! said:
Yeah I think if you get a good pellet grill it’s hard to tell a difference. I still like a stickburner best but my Mak is 90% of a stickburner according to me lol. My family can’t tell the difference either. If I can get 90% of the flavor for a 1/10 of the work I think that’s pretty awesome. I might it a stickburner though but just to play with fire mainly. You lose that with a pellet grill.
Click to expand...

Exactly Right! I can drink a helluva lot of beer with a pellet smoker!! LOL
 
Sounds like too many of us are running our charcoal fires way too choked down. I know that taste...

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pjtexas1 said:
Sounds like too many of us are running our charcoal fires way too choked down. I know that taste...

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

It’s not that way for me. The problem is my taste buds have changed. Can’t explain it. I ate off a stickburner 3 weeks ago and nope that was fine too. I believe to get the best flavor wood needs to be in the 650-750 deg range with plenty of oxygen. For reference, burning bush stage 3 of wood burning is 700 deg which is a low standing flame.

I run TBS on my kettle. It’s ok but I keep gravitating back to burning wood flavor
 
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SlowmotionQue said:
At the end of the day, if you are used to food which has come off of WSMs burning charcoal and wood chunks or logs, and have been eating it for 14 years, and you're looking for the type of smoke flavor comparable to that, well then it is unlikely that you are going to get a similar smoke profile from burning pellets.
Click to expand...


I am willing to adjust my palette a bit as I will admit that at times I have over smoked which I think has led to my occasional indigestion issues that I experience.
 
All of you thanks for the advice and it gives me much to consider. On the positive side of pellets I like what some say about a clean burn. On the down side there are those that point out the folks that feel the need to have smoke tubes and what not and still not happy. Then there are the electronics themselves that seem to be a matter of when and not if that they will fail.



Those thoughts bring me to this, if I am going to invest the kind of coin in a tricked out Yoder 640 or Pitts & Spitts and have these potential issues I am not far off coin wise from a LSG mini cabinet. No electronics to fret over and plenty of smoke.
But....by the time I option them out with cart, custom paint (don't really need) this and that the cost runs to $4000 before freight. And some talk about the dirty burn that comes with a IVC which I already have with the WSM....minus the inconvenient aspects of the trusty WSM.


These thoughts then bring me to....Hey! I really need to look hard at the LSG 20X42 offset that you know damn well will put out the best Q at half the price of that cabinet. Just get the dang charcoal "S" basket (DO THESE WORK?) for night cooks and get to burning sticks.


And that takes me 180 degrees away from my said goal of convenience of the pellet burner or IVC. God help me I am losing my marbles in this vicious circle of BBQ equipment decisions.:drama: Ah yes...first world problems are quite the bear are they not?


One other thing if someone would enlighten me, are the IVC units a tad messy pulling those grates out with meat on them? Are they any more of a chore to clean after a cook than anything else?
 
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