I used to think pellet grills were cheating until I tried one at a friend's place in Lincoln

I've been a stick burner guy for like 8 years now. Always thought pellet grills were just for people who didn't want to learn real BBQ. But last weekend my buddy Dave fired up his Camp Chef at his house in Lincoln, Nebraska. He threw on a pork shoulder and that thing held 225 degrees for 12 hours straight without him touching it once. The bark came out with a deep red color and the smoke ring was actually solid. I had to eat my words because the meat was juicy and had good smoke flavor, not like that fake campfire taste I expected. The clean up was basically nothing compared to scraping out my offset after 12 hours of babysitting. I'm not selling my stick burner but I get it now. Has anyone else here gone from hating on pellet grills to actually respecting what they can do?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_cameron1mo ago

You mentioned "I'm not trying to be a jerk" but honestly a lot of people do attribute the smoke ring to the cooker when it's more about the chemistry of the meat and the airflow. If you want a stronger ring on a pellet grill without messing with curing salts, try spritzing with apple juice every hour and tossing a small smoke tube in there for the first few hours to boost the initial smoke. That combo has worked for me on my Traeger when I wanted that deep ring without babysitting an offset all day.

sarahh481mo ago

You mentioned "the smoke ring was actually solid" but that's not really a pellet grill thing. The smoke ring comes from nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide (or something like that) reacting with the meat, and it actually forms better in humid conditions. Offsets tend to have higher humidity because of the water pan and steam from the wood, so they actually produce a better smoke ring most of the time. Pellet grills run drier and that's why you'll often get a lighter ring or none at all, especially on shorter cooks. Your buddy might have just gotten lucky with that cook or used a rub with curing salt in it by accident, because that's the only way I've ever seen a deep red ring come off a pellet grill. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just think people give pellet grills too much credit for stuff that happens more from the meat and environment than the cooker.