Smoke -- Charcoal/Chunk vrs Pellet

Having cooked for many years with charcoal/chunks and sticks, I made the switch to pellets in 2017. Absolutely love em’! That being said, taste is highly subjective. What I can say with certainty is that myself and those I cook for absolutely love the light/clean smoke profile imparted by pellets. Also, with a busy family/schedule the convenience of pellets cannot be beat

Regarding Hasty Bakes... I had a Gourmet 256 for about a year back in 2015. Cooked on it a lot and sold it. Just got tired of everything tasting like charcoal... and the HB’s lay down some serious charcoal flavor.

When you use the WSM do you get billowy smoke too?
Too much wood with not enough draft will do that, use less chunks, maybe buried in the coals to keep the wood in the hottest zone, depending on the amount of wood and temp I can get light smoke or heavy in a WSM, My son has a pellet cooker and while its not super smoky, it's smoky enough and it really is practically foolproof.
It really matters what YOU want, like everything else, ...it depends...:-D

I have a Kettle and an offset. My daughter and son in law have pellet grills . I have eaten at Burn BBQ (Oklahoma Best????). When I was doing research, as best I could tell if you want the offset profile, with the ease of pellets. A gravity feed with a controller might be a good option to look at.

I've used just about every type of cooker there is. I think that the low airflow cookers like the wsm, eggs, insulated cabinets, etc produce the easiest to distinguish flavor of any type of cookers. Pellets are not going to give you stick burner flavor no matter what but I think the flavor between the 2 is more similar to each other than the charcoal/chunk burners. I've had many different brands of pellet cookers since the early 2000's. They have all produced pretty similar product, and it's the one type of smoker I would not want to be without.

Smoked on charcoal and chunks for a long time, from a kettle to a uds then bought the weber summit charcoal, all made great food!

Then we got into pellet cookers and stopped smoking with charcoal. Thought I’d smoke a pork butt on Waylon here a while back just for old times sake... Everyone agreed there was a bitter taste compared to the MAK. Only thing I could come up with was the really low air flow and really small fire...

Haven’t smoked anything on it since...

Lynn Dollar said:

I'm thinking about getting into the pellet pooper game. I've been cooking on a WSM since 2002 and a Kettle even longer than that. I also have a stick burner that I enjoy very much and that's the barbecue flavor I'm after.



But I'd like a " set and forget " cooker that's even simpler than my WSM.



The basic issue for me is smoke, charcoal/chunk smoke vrs pellet smoke. I've had a stick burner for 3 years now and its taught me a lot about smoke. And I've begun questioning charcoal/chunk smoke.


There's an extremely popular barbecue joint in Tulsa called Burn Co. Some claim its the best barbecue in the state of Oklahoma. IDK, I've not eaten there. But they cook with charcoal/chunk. They have Hasty Bake smokers. They use chunks of wood from bags like we buy at the big box store.


Steven Raichlen visited Burn Co a few years ago and posted this vid on Facebook. He goes into the smoke room, picks up the lid on a couple of Hasty Bakes and I see this white billowy smoke pouring out ........... and that's the kind of smoke I don't want from my stick burner.


Here's the 3 minute Facebook vid. This puts all kinds of questions in my mind about smoke from charcoal/chunk.



Hope this link works, I don't do FB, my wife does , this is new to me



https://fb.watch/23rifugVAh/

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I think this is a great post and question you raise... Charcoal/Chunks vs. Pellets... ?? Do you want smoke to be the first flavor profile you taste when eating bbq? IMO with Pellet Grills, that will definitely not be an issue. Burning Charcoal/Chunks the wrong way, it’s quite possible. I believe smoke is very important and the type of smoke being produced is also very important. If you take a bite of a spare rib or a slice of brisket and the only thing you taste is Smoke and nothing else, then there’s a problem. Now, on the other hand, if you were to take a bite of a spare rib or a slice of brisket and it tasted like it came out of an Easy Baked Oven, I’m sure that would be a problem for some as well. If you’re use to eating bbq from a stick burner or even a GF smoker, then the smoke flavor profile of a pellet grill will be different, especially if the stick burner or GF grill smoke management was done incorrectly. Pellet Grill smoke profile can be to light for many, but if it’s used correctly and in some cases, a few mods added, pellet grills can make some great smoked bbq. If you’re looking for a light tbs bbq, then a pellet grill is the way to go. Options/mods can be added to them to increase the smoke flavor profile to any level you want if necessary, but it does require some added effort. I would suggest to anyone considering buying a Pellet Grill or anything that is completely different to what they are accustom to using, is if possible, try some bbq from a pellet grill first and see if you like it... and even then, it does take awhile for your taste buds to adjust to the lighter, cleaner smoke flavor profile. I’ll say this though, now when I do buy bbq from some bbq restaurants, often times it taste like garbage, because all I can taste is smoke and nothing else.... and often times, dirty smoke. With Pellet Grills, you won’t get that. FYI.. With any Bbq Smoker used, Smoke/Fire management is key... Thanks for posting that FB video... I don’t know if I helped you any, but something to think about. Good luck.

I was in the pellet game for 11 months. A GMG Davy Crockett. Absolutely loved the taste of food and ease of operation. I disliked the drain system and really disliked the extension cord. As for set and forget, look at what “can” happen if you don’t follow cleaning instructions. I don’t mind staying up late, I love starting before sunrise. Regardless of cooker a frequent sad story begins, once upon a time I placed a beautiful brisket/butt etc in the cooker and went to bed, when I woke up———is this safe to eat?

Bottom line I found the taste of my pellet cooker satisfying if not perfect, if I did my part.
Damn extension cords

Well, I started off on an offset, added a kettle, the a WSM. I gradually used the WSM the most bc of ease of use. I recently got a MAK pellet grill. Looking back on it the WSM sometimes made me burp smoke flavor - not my favorite way to spend the evening. I still love offset brisket, but the MAK is closer than you'd think and way easier. So, in summary, I think I'll stay in the MAK camp.

Oh - I've had Burn Co. many times. Very good, but not, IMHO, OK's best. Definitely worth your time/money though.

If you're considering a pellet smoker and smoke flavor is important to you, make sure you get one that is known to produce good smoke flavor. Many pellet smokers do not produce enough smoke flavor, to my taste. I went thru several, before I found my MAK2. I pair the MAK2 with LJ pellets and couldn't be happier with the resulting flavor they produce. Before the MAK2, I was trying all sorts of different smoke generators to get smoke flavor, but it just became a pain. Now I set and forget, as long as I keep the everything cleaned out well.
Good luck.

You will get good flavor from a pellet cooker, especially if using quality pellets at the right temps. As good as a stick burner? Not quite. But still really good. But since you are keeping the stick burner you are not going to miss out on that flavor when you really want it.

But the pellet cooker would be a perfect compliment to your mix and the convenience and consistency will absolutely win you over.

Before I got my pellet cooker, I was cooking with charcoal and chunks for a long time. The main issue with charcoal and chunks is that from cook to cook there will be variance. Depending on charcoal, chunks, climate and even how the charcoal was stacked, my combustion would be better on some days more than others. With a pellet grill it is the same every time. That is what keeps me using it. I love the peace of mind and convenience. Also, a great thing is that you can easily lower your temp. Been cooking at 300 and want to dumpy back down to 225? That isn’t going to happen on my Primo or UDS. But on my rec tec, no problem.

I have eaten at BurnCo and it's pretty good.

I mostly cook with charcoal and wood chunks and I like the taste it gives. I really like the taste of something cooked using all wood too.

I don't have a pellet grill but one of my good friends used to have a Traeger and now has a Weber Smokefire and I've had food off of both and I could not taste hardly any smoke in the meat cooked on either. Like others have said, I'm sure some pellet grills do a better job than others creating a smoke flavor.

I started with a WSM years ago and enjoyed the flavor. I bought a Smokefire earlier this year and the WSM is now the last smoker I think about. I like charcoal for grilling so have a couple of options for that, but 9 times out of 10 if it's something that needs to be cooked fairly low and slow I'm using the Smokefire. I think the smoke flavor is great and as good as anything I cooked on the WSM.

I’ll add this though, not all Pellet Grills are created equal, so do your research before you buy. Some have great Tech built in... ie. WiFi, Bluetooth, as well as ease of off-site operation of the pellet grill and great costumer service and some produce a better smoke flavor profile then others. Know that Pellet Grill smoke will never be overpowering as a stand-alone... So, if that’s your goal, then great. When I first got my PB Austin XL a few years back, the convenience was good, but it’s smoke flavor profile was to light from what I was accustom too. I added a Smoke Gen. to mine that is able to burn lump charcoal, wood pellets, hardwood wood chips and chunks so the level of smoke is completely up to me at any temp and I can enjoy the best of both worlds at the same time or I can go strictly pellets. As far as pellet grills, Lone Star Grillz has a new pellet grill coming out that as per their website says... Quote.. has a Patent pending burn pot design allowing a mix of hot burning pellets and smoldering ones giving the best smoke profile available on a pellet smoker. End quote... https://lonestargrillz.com/products/pellet-smoker?_pos=5&_sid=2b5ca0536&_ss=r Just something else to consider and worth researching for your pellet grill options if you do decide to go that route... Good luck.

okiej said:

I have a Kettle and an offset. My daughter and son in law have pellet grills . I have eaten at Burn BBQ (Oklahoma Best????). When I was doing research, as best I could tell if you want the offset profile, with the ease of pellets. A gravity feed with a controller might be a good option to look at.

Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. I own an offset, pellet, gravity, ceramic, and drum. The only thing that can imitate an offset is the gravity (at least in my collection). For ease of use, it imitates the pellet smoker. You can get into a gravity for a VERY low cost (masterbuilt 560). Or, you can make a lifetime investment with an Assassin, Stumps, or T&K.

honestly that's not much smoke coming off those cookers. I definitely wouldn't refer to it as billowing. you will get some white smoke if you cook directly over coals. you can get a clean no visible smoke burn with the minion method. it takes a little time but once it stabilizes the super heated charcoal ignites clean.

I think the characterization of WSM as having billowy white smoke all the time is either false or from poor fire management. I use charcaol marked as "all natural" (brand doesn't seem to matter too much) and chunks. The key is to let the fire settle in. Takes about 45 minutes. At that point I get thin/blue or clear and that is when the meat goes on. No over smoked taste.