Help from Grill / Smoker experts

These Website and Forums are great places to start along with youtube videos. the important thing to remember is watching the region these people are from and the type of rub they are using or smoking methods and may very from how you want your product to turn out. Keep the first one simple and go from there. For my first one I went apple juice injection. A Yard Bird rub. Added some honey and brown sugar along with rub when I wrapped at 165 and cooked to 205. The big thing is making sure that bone can pull out to get the tenderness done. Each smoke is its own adventure. Plan a nice relaxing day tinkering in the garage and watching the smoker.

Make sure to save the bone from your smoke. It makes great broth with a little smoke flavor. Double smoking a ham and making ham bean soup with it is fantastic. That extra smoke flavor in the soup just kicks it up a notch.

Does anyone else use a smoke tube along with the pellet grill to supplement smoke? I started using one this spring and it works flawlessly and the best $20 I have spent. Just never hear much from others using.

jimmysiewert wrote:

Does anyone else use a smoke tube along with the pellet grill to supplement smoke? I started using one this spring and it works flawlessly and the best $20 I have spent. Just never hear much from others using.

I know of some who use one on their gas grill. I guess I’m not sure why you would need one with a pellet grill. The ones I’ve seen burn pellets just like a pellet grill does. I may be missing something.

jimmysiewert wrote:

Does anyone else use a smoke tube along with the pellet grill to supplement smoke? I started using one this spring and it works flawlessly and the best $20 I have spent. Just never hear much from others using.

I made one and use it every once in a while. When cooking at higher temps seems to produce less smoke I will use it sometimes. They can also be used with charcoal or gas grills also

Fishthumper, make sure you clean your pellet grill fairly often, like after every few times, otherwise you risk flare ups

If you want to make cleaning easy wrap the greasy pan under the grates in tin foil. When it gets really dirty rip it off and replace and might as well vacuum out the ash pot and around the ash pot at the same time

jimmysiewert wrote:

Does anyone else use a smoke tube along with the pellet grill to supplement smoke? I started using one this spring and it works flawlessly and the best $20 I have spent. Just never hear much from others using.

I use an 18″ A-MAZE-N smoker tube as my primary source of smoke in my homemade smoker. Works like a charm and will provide 6+ hours of uninterrupted smoke if filled all the way. I have a 6″ tube for smaller jobs like ribs, etc.

They were on at 6:15 this morning. Here’s a picture at the 7 hr Mark. I’m at 170 deg’s look on schedule to finish between 4:00 and 5:00

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I flipped them. I liked the bark I had on the bottom didn’t want any darker. I did them fat side up. Thinking maybe I should have done with fat side down. Learning process I guess. Cant decide to foil or not. Think going to foil 1 to see the difference at the end

I second Meatheads Amazing Ribs website as a good resource. I use his Memphis Dust recipe for my pork rub. I smoke butts at 235 for about 15 – 16 hours (last 2 or so at 250) and cook to 205 if I am pulling right away. If I am holding for a pull a couple hours later I will cook to 195 – 200 and store foil wrapped in a cooler. I like the slower cook to a slightly higher temp because I believe it helps render more of the fat.

Just thought I’d give give a update on the finished butt. Overall I think it turned out well. All the people who ate it said it was great. Cooked it at 225 from start to finish. One was done In a little less than 10 hrs the other took 11 and could have used another hour. I did learn one thing. I should have foiled the surface below. It’s going to be a messy clean up. Won’t make that mistake again. Not sure what’s up next. I’m hungry for smoked fish, so it may be a salmon. Then again I’m hungry for a nice ribeye so it may be that.

My neighbor works at the dump in town and grabbed me a Pitboss pellet grill that looked darn near new, it just needed the heat dealy replaced, $12. It’ll be nice to set the temp and head out on the boat for a few hours. Having said that, I might suffer withdrawals as I am a diehard stick burner.

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Couple things. Keep smoking some things before salmon. Get used to different temps and times. I prefer to smoke my butts fat side facing the heat. So in this case fat side down. Plenty of fat in a pork but to keep it moist throughout. Fat cap towards heat source will protect against flare/heat ups. I prefer a darker bark and wrap my butts midway through the stall. Those burnt edges add a lot of flavor to the rest of the pork meat.
There is no right or wrong way to smoke anything. Mostly getting meat to proper temp. Low and slow is always turns out better.
Salmon is a process with the brine and all I would suggest doing a few more meats first. Ribs chicken ham all pretty easy.
I smoke a lot and prefer my wood burner over my pellet for longer smokes, but it is all about learning the smoker you have. Never smoke to time always to temp and you will most likely cook it correctly and make some amazing meals.
I did two mini hams with a bourbon brown auger glaze loaded mash potatoes (added Colby cheese an chives to finish) and corn on the cob today for Mother’s Day.
Oh and all that mess you are referring to is the good burn off next smoke.😂

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I just jumped into pellet smoking also recently. Been having a bugger of a time with the unit itself. Seems I got a lemon. On my second control board. Only cooked 5 times on it so far. It went haywire again today. I fiddled with it and finally got it working again. I’m definitely calling pit boss tomorrow. I think I’m going to ask for a refund and buy a different brand. I am so disappointed. But when it works the food is amazing! Did 4 racks of ribs 2-2-1 method, and armadillo eggs for Mother’s Day today.

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WTH?
Test worked and this worked but nothing else!

Sorry for butting in with a rant, I’m having issues with posting any bbq help.

smoking meat forums . com

amazing ribs . com

the 2 very best sites for a novice or semi professional q’er

That took me 6 tries to post!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes posts are rejected when there’s a url in them.

The last on posted because the wasn’t the “3 w’s” in front of the xxx.com.

I think.

Trying this once again, the link has the 3 w’s
smoking

And here for Meatheads channel.
Meathead

I don’t get it! working now. Frustration supremo!

It’s an Iowa thing.

MNdrifter wrote:

I just jumped into pellet smoking also recently. Been having a bugger of a time with the unit itself. Seems I got a lemon. On my second control board. Only cooked 5 times on it so far. It went haywire again today. I fiddled with it and finally got it working again. I’m definitely calling pit boss tomorrow. I think I’m going to ask for a refund and buy a different brand. I am so disappointed. But when it works the food is amazing! Did 4 racks of ribs 2-2-1 method, and armadillo eggs for Mother’s Day today.

Return that thing if they’ll take it and get a recteq. Unbelievable build quality, and even better customer service.

There are certain parts of a smoker that will break down over time, internal temperature probe, the ignition system, etc. I’ve had my recteq for ~5 years and have had those things break after A LOT of use. That will happen WITH ANY SMOKER, the question is how easy is it to get fixed?

Ignition system broke on mine, I called them up and they sent me out a newer design igniter that has a much longer working life. Oh, and, “It’s kind of tricky to replace the igniter, so we’ll just send you a new one that’s already installed on a new firebox”. 4 bolts to take the old piece out and then bolt the new one on, good to go.

Called this year after my internal temp probe had gone haywire, they sent me a new one no questions asked. Then I asked if there’s something I can do for my side shelf, as it had just started to rust a bit(the newer models are full stainless steel, but my older one was powder coated). “Oh, we have some unfinished stainless shelves if you don’t mind installing it yourself, I’ll send you one of those and a hardware kit”.

That’s an $80 ignition system, a $20 temp probe, a $150 shelf, and probably like $30 worth of stainless hardware they’ve just sent me free, no questions asked.

Ever have any issues? Their customer service reps are all like trained on how the grills operate and how to troubleshoot. The grills are put together extremely well in a way that is easy to swap out parts if you need to. Heck, their CEO even gives his personal cell phone number to you when you buy a grill, there’s reviews on amazon of people calling him like 4th of July to get help with their grill.

I can’t say enough good things about them, I think their grills are all made in Georgia, and are a way higher build quality than their competitors at the same price point.

BBQ Brethren.com
You’ll be entertained/educated for weeks.

Foil vs no foil
Fast side up vs down
Ford vs chevy
Vexilar vs Helix
Etc.

Just a few of life’s debates

^^^exactly

I’ve actually had a few experiences in the last month or so where I can’t post to topics either or there is a major delay. I just figured BK had implemented a smart ass feature which blocks my comments….

crappie55369 wrote:

crappie55369 wrote:

I hate to say it because now there is even more reasons here for members to take away my man card – But I loved Zima. Awhile back they came back out with it for a short time and I purchased a decent amount of it.

Justin Donson wrote:

Return that thing if they’ll take it and get a recteq. Unbelievable build quality, and even better customer service.

recteq was the other brand I looked hard at. The problem I had was finding anyplace locally that carried them. My neighbor has the Bullseye stainless and loves it. ( he had to order his online – he could not find a place locally that had any ) They seem to always get great reviews. I guess only time will tell how well the pitboss will hold up and perform. I know 4 or 5 guys who own them and so far none have had any problems with theirs. One guy is going on his 4th year with his.

My muddy just bought a rectec and that thing is awesome. The owner called him personally and discussed it with him. Now that’s some awesome customer service. They shipped it to him on a truck from out of state and put it together for him in his garage.
The owner told him if any meats get ruined due to a default or issue with the smoker then he would get a check for the meat replacement. Thats pretty solid

Bearcat89 wrote:

My muddy just bought a rectec and that thing is awesome. The owner called him personally and discussed it with him. Now that’s some awesome customer service. They shipped it to him on a truck from out of state and put it together for him in his garage.
The owner told him if any meats get ruined due to a default or issue with the smoker then he would get a check for the meat replacement. Thats pretty solid

That is about as good of customer service as anyone could ask for !!!!