Stick Burners or Pellet Cookers

[GreenDrake]

It's the cook, not the cooker. Granted I think for experienced judges there is a flavor profile they are accustomed to. Pellet poopers dish out a much cleaner burn. I alternate my meats on purpose, or am also working on some suspension grates in the belly of my pellet grills to allow for airflow to circulate all the way around an already burning charcoal lump. Yep, I add a couple lumps to my Traeger while it's cookin.

We like to start our meats on coals and sticks, then move them to the pellet grills for the night cook, for rest, beer intake, sleep and ease. It's all trial and error, and getting easier as I mess with my times and temps for each meat category.

 

[smalls65]

I switched to pellet cookers for sleep purposes. IT let me get a couple extra hours of sleep, which I need if I have a few cocktails with friends

I have cooked on a Jambo a couple times now (Thanks Rob!), and thanks to a quick download from Rod G., and Rob's input on his pit.... it was not hard at all to build/manage the fire. Very efficient pit. I think it has a similar smoke profile to pellets, honestly. And having never cooked on one, I still pulled at 7th overall at Shelby. I dont think the pit matters as much as the person using it.

Good cooks are good cooks. Kev, you mentioned Munchin's pit at winter fest... his Horizon was snowed in @ the shop in Oklahoma. He used Paul's home-made vertical... that he had never cooked on before.

And yes, the Royal and Royal invitational have been won 3 times by guys cooking on trash cans.

I have to agree w/ you there!!!! I am a young cook to the BBQ game and out of my 1st 2 comps have finished at respectable 18th out of 66 and 13th out of 44 (against TOUGH TEAMS!!) all cooking on WSM's...This season we are adding a BWS-Chubby frankly because I want a new toy, and hate having to pull out my top rack to get to the bottom rack for my big meats!!! :roll: Don't get me wrong I don't blame anyone for wanting to add comfort and luxury when it comes to BBQ'ing cause I sit in amazement watching those cooks out there work those JAMBO's...but a good cook can make magic on any BBQ machine in my opinion!! :thumb:

 

[chibi]

As long as you can get and keep your temps where you want them it does not matter what you cook on. Even temps throughout the cook is the key.
I can do it with an offset or a Guru controlled clone.

 

[RedPig]

It's the cook, not the cooker. Granted I think for experienced judges there is a flavor profile they are accustomed to. Pellet poopers dish out a much cleaner burn. I alternate my meats on purpose, or am also working on some suspension grates in the belly of my pellet grills to allow for airflow to circulate all the way around an already burning charcoal lump. Yep, I add a couple lumps to my Traeger while it's cookin.

We like to start our meats on coals and sticks, then move them to the pellet grills for the night cook, for rest, beer intake, sleep and ease. It's all trial and error, and getting easier as I mess with my times and temps for each meat category.

Just curious. Why lump?

 

[Alexa RnQ]

Add one more WSM team to the OP's list -- All Sauced Up uses them.

And we do know one more team, Otis and the Bird, who doesn't figure in the top 25 due to number of contests cooked, but is a formidable competitor. Jaybird has had a beautiful Jambo, but reverted to cooking brisket on a WSM.

 

[porkerfacebbq]

I've noticed the change too. I have noticed that the judges apear to be wanting more of a smokey taste on the food. even with my wsm's I find myself doing better adding more wood chunk and trying to get more smoke out of them. I guess its a change we will have to get used to for now.

Steve

 

[swamprb]

I've noticed the change too. I have noticed that the judges apear to be wanting more of a smokey taste on the food. even with my wsm's I find myself doing better adding more wood chunk and trying to get more smoke out of them. I guess its a change we will have to get used to for now.

Steve

We started out the season cooking on a Klose using Cherry low n slow and never got any comment cards complaining of lack of smoke flavor. (1 GC)

After moving back to WSM's a few negative comment cards started to arrive. I have a tendency to not add too much wood to the bullets, but will be stepping it up too.

 

[JD McGee]

I switched to pellet cookers for sleep purposes. IT let me get a couple extra hours of sleep, which I need if I have a few cocktails with friends

I have cooked on a Jambo a couple times now (Thanks Rob!), and thanks to a quick download from Rod G., and Rob's input on his pit.... it was not hard at all to build/manage the fire. Very efficient pit. I think it has a similar smoke profile to pellets, honestly. And having never cooked on one, I still pulled at 7th overall at Shelby. I dont think the pit matters as much as the person using it.

Good cooks are good cooks. Kev, you mentioned Munchin's pit at winter fest... his Horizon was snowed in @ the shop in Oklahoma. He used Paul's home-made vertical... that he had never cooked on before.

And yes, the Royal and Royal invitational have been won 3 times by guys cooking on trash cans.

We're not in the KCBS top 20...but we do use WSM's and get plenty of sleep...:twisted: The pit is a tool...nothing more...nothing less...some just have more cool factor than others!

 

[Ron_L]

We started out the season cooking on a Klose using Cherry low n slow and never got any comment cards complaining of lack of smoke flavor. (1 GC)

After moving back to WSM's a few negative comment cards started to arrive. I have a tendency to not add too much wood to the bullets, but will be stepping it up too.

In four years of cooking with the FEC I have never received a comment card about a lack of smoke flavor. I've gotten some interesting comment cards, but never one about the amount of smoke. :-D

 

[big brother smoke]

I use to burn sticks at comps but thanks to Sled and JD, I am a huge WSM fan now for comps. Needing to get shut eye the more I age.:thumb:

 

[glenntm]

Were big fans of the Backwoods with the Stoker. These things hold temp, and require minimal adjustments. We've had no flavor problems with Kingsford Blue bag and wood chunks.

 

[Divemaster]

Some will joke, but I cook better "relaxed" :thumb:

"Relaxed". I'm going to have to use that term next season!!!!

 

[Candy Sue]

if im not wrong Pellet Envy has a pellet burning Jambo.correct me though if im wrong.

That would be me with the only (so far) pellet fired Jambo! And Jamie did it for me (only took me 2+ years to talk him into it...)

 

[Candy Sue]

Neat thread! The most amazing contest I was at this year was the Sam's final in Bentonville. There's only been one other contest where I've seen so many Jambos in one place -- that would be Kennedale, TX a couple of years ago. Those Jambos were mostly early ones. In Bentonville, there were mostly new ones. All beautiful! There were only a handful of pellet cooking teams there. But those teams did get calls.

Over time, judges tastes change. Looking at the Jack, there'll be a stick year, then a charcoal year, then a pellet year, not necessarily in that order. In my opinion, there's no rhyme or reason for any of it. You cook the best you can on whatever cooker you're using, then do up the box the best you can with what comes out of the cooker. If it's your day and you've had luck to land on a table where your meat doesn't offend more than one judge and pleases five of them, maybe you do well.

 

[Hub]

I took Rod Gray's cooking class in 2010. He cooked all the KCBS meats on both an FEC100 and a Jambo. I could tell no significant differences except that the brisket was just slightly more moist on the FEC100. All prep was the same and temps were the same as were cooking times.

Among stick burners the Jambo is a dream pit to maintain and doesn't require the constant tending that cheaper boxes do. The FEC100 with the new controller is also a dream pit and takes even less tending. Being a Pellethead I'd go with the FEC, but I know for a fact that either will produce award-winning chow.

 

[sitnfat]

"Among stick burners the Jambo is a dream pit to maintain and doesn't require the constant tending that cheaper boxes do." someone should tell Tuffy that lol