Kyle Serlington
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2014
- Location
- Binghamt...
I've had a Weber smokey mountain for the last 5 years, and while I really like it I was getting a little sick of charcoal, especially after my last cook where I dealt with some bad weather. There's been a lot of posts on here about pellet grills lately and after a month or so of research I decided to go with the GMG.
So yesterday I picked up the grill and put it together in about an hour or so. The DVD they gave me with it was useless, it was smaller than a regular DVD and it wouldn't play in my laptop or DVD player. The box is pretty heavy, 150lbs, so I definitely needed help setting it up. Another thing that threw me off is that they changed the grease pan, it's not the same as in the instruction manual. It's now a 2 piece system that I may or may not have installed correctly haha, but I didn't have any issues with grease for my first cook.
I started the grill up and after the 1st or 2nd cycle it started smoking. a LOT of smoke came out, my whole back porch was covered! after a minute it started thinning out a bit. this pic was after it cleared out a little
it was thick white smoke for a while but then it turned to thin blue smoke that smelled very good. I did the initial burn in for about 45 minutes. I set it to 375 for this but I checked the oven thermometers i placed inside and they were only around 250! So I cranked it up to about 450 and the fan kicked on and when this happened almost no smoke came out. It got up into the 300s and then after a while I turned it off and let it cool down. While it was cooling down I went and seasoned my ribs, pork belly, and wings and put them back in the fridge so they would stay cold while the cooker got ready. I usually leave my meat out for an hour when i would heat up my WSM, but I decided to keep it cold this time because I recently read that smoke sticks better to cold meat, and with a pellet grill I didn't wanna take any chances. I put the belly and ribs on around 4:30... late start, I know, oh well. I put the wings on about an hour later. When I put the pork on I had the grill set to 225 and the oven thermometer was only reading 200, so I cranked it up to 275. Instead of buying the GMG top rack for $30 I spent $10 and got 3 wire cooling racks that have built in stands, they gave me more grilling space for less money. they only stand 3.5" tall, but what shocked me was that in such a small height difference the temperature was different by at least 25 degrees. It's odd that in my WSM the top shelf usually runs about 25 degrees higher than the bottom one, but in this smoker the bottom shelf is hotter. It's also a little hotter on the right side of the grill. So for the first part of the cook the pork on the bottom rack was at 225 and the wings on the top rack were at 200 while the grill was set to 250. after about an hour of that I bumped the grill up to 290 and the bottom rack got to 260 and the top rack got to 225. I found this annoying because the reason that I wanted this grill was to set it and forget it. Well I found myself checking the temps on this just as much as I would on my WSM. Maybe it's just that the first few cooks are a learning experience, I'm sure I'll learn the ins and outs of this grill soon enough. I also had to deal with a little 10 minute rain storm. The store that I bought this at just got the grills in last week but apparently the accessories didn't come in yet, so I have to wait to buy the cover. I think it's BS that the cover isn't included. It's an outdoor grill that runs on electricity, of course you need a cover for it, it shouldn't be optional. during the rain I covered the electric parts in plastic and it worked out fine
so the wings ended up being on for 3 hours, this picture below was taken about a half hour before they were taken off.
When it comes to wings I always do a high heat finish on a propane grill. the skin needed to be a little crispier, and the high heat finish helped a lot, and I like to grill the sauce in too. The first pic is the wings before the grill, then there's a plate with my homemade bbq sauce and a plate of wings finished with cattlemen's gold
The wings came out very good. I'm not gunna give the grill all the credit though, I bought the wings at a different store and they were bigger than what I usually cook, so that helped. when I took them off the GMG they were pretty juicy, but some of that was lost when I did the high heat finish. The smoke flavor was definitely more mild than what I'm used to, but the char from the high heat finish helped the flavor.
the next pic is the ribs and belly right before I took it off. When I took the wings off I rotated the ribs and belly. for most of the cook the thicker ends of the ribs and belly were to the left, which was a mistake on my part, I should have rotated them quicker. the thin end of the ribs came out charred on the bottom, but the thick end was pretty good.
by the time I got done finishing the wings it was 9pm. the pork went on until 10 and then I took them off and had a small sample of each and then took some pics and then saved the rest for leftovers.
the smoke ring on the ribs came out pretty good, but the flavor was definitely on the mild side. I did like that the flavor from the rub came through a little more though. the bark wasn't as dark as usual but I actually liked that. I spritzed the ribs and belly a few times through the cook, and on my WSM I didn't do that as often. The smoke ring on the belly wasn't too impressive but it was there, and again I wish it had more smoke flavor. I got 2 free bags of GMG brand pellets with the smoker but I didn't use them. I used a mix of Cookin Pellets Hickory and Camp Chef Apple, heavier on the hickory. I need to find a brand of apple that's 100% apple, can anyone suggest one? I know the Cookin Pellets brand does 100% hickory, but they don't make apple ones.
If the weather is good next weekend I think I am going to try my first overnight cook. My goal is to get the grill to 210 or so inside and smoke a pork shoulder overnight. Im also going to put a water pan in the smoker too to see if that helps at all. I'm also going to order an Amaze n tube and hopefully I will get that in time to use it next weekend. If that doesn't give me the flavor I want then for my next overnight cook I'm going to smoke the meat on my WSM for an hour or so and then put the meat on the GMG before I go to bed.
Thanks for reading, if there's any other GMG owners reading this I'd love to hear your experience on the temperatures. also everyone feel free to ask questions, i'm a little buzzed right now so I may have left a few things out haha
So yesterday I picked up the grill and put it together in about an hour or so. The DVD they gave me with it was useless, it was smaller than a regular DVD and it wouldn't play in my laptop or DVD player. The box is pretty heavy, 150lbs, so I definitely needed help setting it up. Another thing that threw me off is that they changed the grease pan, it's not the same as in the instruction manual. It's now a 2 piece system that I may or may not have installed correctly haha, but I didn't have any issues with grease for my first cook.
I started the grill up and after the 1st or 2nd cycle it started smoking. a LOT of smoke came out, my whole back porch was covered! after a minute it started thinning out a bit. this pic was after it cleared out a little
it was thick white smoke for a while but then it turned to thin blue smoke that smelled very good. I did the initial burn in for about 45 minutes. I set it to 375 for this but I checked the oven thermometers i placed inside and they were only around 250! So I cranked it up to about 450 and the fan kicked on and when this happened almost no smoke came out. It got up into the 300s and then after a while I turned it off and let it cool down. While it was cooling down I went and seasoned my ribs, pork belly, and wings and put them back in the fridge so they would stay cold while the cooker got ready. I usually leave my meat out for an hour when i would heat up my WSM, but I decided to keep it cold this time because I recently read that smoke sticks better to cold meat, and with a pellet grill I didn't wanna take any chances. I put the belly and ribs on around 4:30... late start, I know, oh well. I put the wings on about an hour later. When I put the pork on I had the grill set to 225 and the oven thermometer was only reading 200, so I cranked it up to 275. Instead of buying the GMG top rack for $30 I spent $10 and got 3 wire cooling racks that have built in stands, they gave me more grilling space for less money. they only stand 3.5" tall, but what shocked me was that in such a small height difference the temperature was different by at least 25 degrees. It's odd that in my WSM the top shelf usually runs about 25 degrees higher than the bottom one, but in this smoker the bottom shelf is hotter. It's also a little hotter on the right side of the grill. So for the first part of the cook the pork on the bottom rack was at 225 and the wings on the top rack were at 200 while the grill was set to 250. after about an hour of that I bumped the grill up to 290 and the bottom rack got to 260 and the top rack got to 225. I found this annoying because the reason that I wanted this grill was to set it and forget it. Well I found myself checking the temps on this just as much as I would on my WSM. Maybe it's just that the first few cooks are a learning experience, I'm sure I'll learn the ins and outs of this grill soon enough. I also had to deal with a little 10 minute rain storm. The store that I bought this at just got the grills in last week but apparently the accessories didn't come in yet, so I have to wait to buy the cover. I think it's BS that the cover isn't included. It's an outdoor grill that runs on electricity, of course you need a cover for it, it shouldn't be optional. during the rain I covered the electric parts in plastic and it worked out fine
so the wings ended up being on for 3 hours, this picture below was taken about a half hour before they were taken off.
When it comes to wings I always do a high heat finish on a propane grill. the skin needed to be a little crispier, and the high heat finish helped a lot, and I like to grill the sauce in too. The first pic is the wings before the grill, then there's a plate with my homemade bbq sauce and a plate of wings finished with cattlemen's gold
The wings came out very good. I'm not gunna give the grill all the credit though, I bought the wings at a different store and they were bigger than what I usually cook, so that helped. when I took them off the GMG they were pretty juicy, but some of that was lost when I did the high heat finish. The smoke flavor was definitely more mild than what I'm used to, but the char from the high heat finish helped the flavor.
the next pic is the ribs and belly right before I took it off. When I took the wings off I rotated the ribs and belly. for most of the cook the thicker ends of the ribs and belly were to the left, which was a mistake on my part, I should have rotated them quicker. the thin end of the ribs came out charred on the bottom, but the thick end was pretty good.
by the time I got done finishing the wings it was 9pm. the pork went on until 10 and then I took them off and had a small sample of each and then took some pics and then saved the rest for leftovers.
the smoke ring on the ribs came out pretty good, but the flavor was definitely on the mild side. I did like that the flavor from the rub came through a little more though. the bark wasn't as dark as usual but I actually liked that. I spritzed the ribs and belly a few times through the cook, and on my WSM I didn't do that as often. The smoke ring on the belly wasn't too impressive but it was there, and again I wish it had more smoke flavor. I got 2 free bags of GMG brand pellets with the smoker but I didn't use them. I used a mix of Cookin Pellets Hickory and Camp Chef Apple, heavier on the hickory. I need to find a brand of apple that's 100% apple, can anyone suggest one? I know the Cookin Pellets brand does 100% hickory, but they don't make apple ones.
If the weather is good next weekend I think I am going to try my first overnight cook. My goal is to get the grill to 210 or so inside and smoke a pork shoulder overnight. Im also going to put a water pan in the smoker too to see if that helps at all. I'm also going to order an Amaze n tube and hopefully I will get that in time to use it next weekend. If that doesn't give me the flavor I want then for my next overnight cook I'm going to smoke the meat on my WSM for an hour or so and then put the meat on the GMG before I go to bed.
Thanks for reading, if there's any other GMG owners reading this I'd love to hear your experience on the temperatures. also everyone feel free to ask questions, i'm a little buzzed right now so I may have left a few things out haha
