Still trying to get deep smoke flavor in my Pellet smoker.

[Shadowdog500]

After all that? Didi the The “Heavy D” Stick Burning Heat Diffuser work?

It works great!

 

[brisketboss]

After all that? Didi the The “Heavy D” Stick Burning Heat Diffuser work?

I got one of these and I'd say it worked in a sense, you def tasted more smoke but the more I thought about it and tasted meats cooked with it the less I really liked it. what it does is it smoulders the logs you put in it. if you put chunks in it, they will catch fire (At least with my smoker) and run the temps way up, which means you have ot open the lid to keep from fast cooking..

more I study the art the more I conclude I don't like that heavy smoke flavor it repeats on me and stinks. I've found that I get deep smoke rings with just the pellet fire, and all the clean burn compounds go into the flavor without the house fire flavor. I think this is what wood burners shoot for - a smoke you can barely see, not billowing clouds of white gray smoke. a nearly invisible blue smoke and that's what the pellet burner does perfectly

so moral to the story I bought one, then I stopped using it. same with the smoke pellet tube. it's just dirty burn smoke that doesn't taste good to me.

 

[BlueHaze]

I use lumberjack pellets . Start out real low. 190-210. For the first 3 or 4 hrs. I usually get a nice smoke flavor. Nice smoke ring. I am using a Pitts and Spitts pellet smoker. I haven’t tried a smoke tube yet.

 

[brisketboss]

I use lumberjack pellets . Start out real low. 190-210. For the first 3 or 4 hrs. I usually get a nice smoke flavor. Nice smoke ring. I am using a Pitts and Spitts pellet smoker. I haven’t tried a smoke tube yet.

I want to try them but they are tough to come by. Dicks has them but I'm not a fan of that store. Amazon has them but over a buck a pound.. looking to move away from pit boss pellets after a brisket disaster I posted about. Before the jam up, I had no complaints on flavor from them or the smoke-ring pellets. both resulted in good flavor and nice smoke rings.

 

[NoCoPk360]

A lot of Lowes stores have the Weber pellets on sale right now for around 10 bucks a bag. I've picked up several bags but haven't tried them yet. I've heard good reviews so might be worth a shot. I've had good luck with Lumberjack.

 

[TropicDad]

Rural King carries Lumberjack.

 

[brisketboss]

Rural King carries Lumberjack.

Wish I had a store close by. shipping costs more than the pellets!

 

[SweetHeatBBQnSC]

I use lumberjack pellets . Start out real low. 190-210. For the first 3 or 4 hrs. I usually get a nice smoke flavor. Nice smoke ring. I am using a Pitts and Spitts pellet smoker. I haven’t tried a smoke tube yet.

^^^^ this

Lots of people use pellet smokers like grills (in terms of grilling temps) and are disappointed when they don't get smokiness. In my short while with my Rec Teq using extreme smoke and LJ 100% Hickory does a good job imparting smoke. Not going to say it's 100% the same, but very close.

 

[chingador]

Yeah. You get people who watch Aaron Franklin's videos and insist on cranking their pellet cookers to 275. Hint: You are not cooking on a stick burner.

You need to be below 225 to get more smoke flavor from a pellet cooker for at least the first half of the cook. Once you get past internal 165 or so, crank it up to finish the cook.

 

[Porcine Aviator]

I believe the problem with the smoke profile in pellet smokers is in the basic production of heat.

Universally, the pellet has to be driven by a fan during its burn cycle in order to produce heat. This forces the pellet to burn at a much higher temperature than a natural fire does. The constituents in the wood that produce smoke flavor are produced at natural combustion burn temperatures and are destroyed at higher temperatures.

It is not the pellet. If you subjected small pieces of natural wood to supercharged (forced) air in a fire the results would be the same. The inherent design of the pellet smoker is the problem. If this doesn't make sense to you, turn off the combustion fan in your pellet smoker and see what happens.

Look at the small amount of pellets that you burn at any one time to produce heat in a pellet stove compared to the size of a fire in a normal grill or oven. You are using far more fuel in a normal smoker that burns for a long period of time compared to a pellet stove that burns small amounts of fuel for a very short period. When you want to force all of the energy out of your fuel very quickly, it requires very high combustion temperatures that are good for heating rooms but not for BBQ flavor.

Coincidently, the pellet smoker design was derived from the pellet stove industry for heating homes. The designers spent a great deal of time to create a burn cycle that was as clean as possible. They had to pass stringent EPA requirements for effluent gas discharge.

 

[brisketboss]

I believe the problem with the smoke profile in pellet smokers is in the basic production of heat.

Universally, the pellet has to be driven by a fan during its burn cycle in order to produce heat. This forces the pellet to burn at a much higher temperature than a natural fire does. The constituents in the wood that produce smoke flavor are produced at natural combustion burn temperatures and are destroyed at higher temperatures.

It is not the pellet. If you subjected small pieces of natural wood to supercharged (forced) air in a fire the results would be the same. The inherent design of the pellet smoker is the problem. If this doesn't make sense to you, turn off the combustion fan in your pellet smoker and see what happens.

Look at the small amount of pellets that you burn at any one time to produce heat in a pellet stove compared to the size of a fire in a normal grill or oven. You are using far more fuel in a normal smoker that burns for a long period of time compared to a pellet stove that burns small amounts of fuel for a very short period. When you want to force all of the energy out of your fuel very quickly, it requires very high combustion temperatures that are good for heating rooms but not for BBQ flavor.

Coincidently, the pellet smoker design was derived from the pellet stove industry for heating homes. The designers spent a great deal of time to create a burn cycle that was as clean as possible. They had to pass stringent EPA requirements for effluent gas discharge.

good points. the way my unit runs is it cycles the fan to hold temp, that means hot/smolder/hot/smolder/hot.. etc it never really does a billowy smoke but basically what all the pros say they like to see out of a good stick burner almost invisible blue and you get great smoke rings. Smoke rings don't need "smoke" as much as they need high concentrations of nitrogen which burning woods produces (vs electric with smoldering wood chunks which produces zilch, and vs gas which also produces very little).

the end result I get is great smoke ring, a not to smoky flavor (but not a no-smoke flavor like a simple roast it's something unique really) which everyone I've had eat my meats say is much better than the local smokehouses put out which range from very smoky to house fire gag smoky.

other points have been raised on this forum about low temp cooking in the pellet grills, big believer in that - 195 for the first portion of the cook that gets the wood burn compounds into the meat nicely, then you can finish at higher temps to get your barks developed.

 

[DanB]

If you are adding the bars ( 4 come in a pack) to a pellet grill you will get that deeper smoke without the creosote flavor. Mojobricks - you can get away with using the minis - thats the 8 pack product. I'd go with their Cherry product in the minis. Its probably the best all around wood for a richer smoke flavor profile ( in a pellet grill). Otherwise - the oak product you purchased is going to give off a very fragrant oak almost smells like graham crackers or pecan wood. Otherwise - I have been using Mojobricks since 2010 - its the only wood I use.

Hi How many and where do you place the mini Mojobricks? I have a RecTeq 590..


Thanks DanB