Smoke Daddy?
- Thread starter ITFD#15
- Start date
scooter
Moderator
Pellet cookers offer a more refined smoke flavor than other traditional bbqs like charcoal cookers or stick burners. Some have found the smoke flavor a pellet cooker offers to be quite satisfactory while others have found it quite lacking.
I have the Big Kahuna model attached to my 2 Star. The areas of dramatic improvement in smoke flavor have been in items cooked under 3 hours or when I'm cooking at temps over 300F where pellet cookers are not kicking out as much smoke as they do at lower temps. I've not detected a dramatic improvement in smoke flavor on long cooks like brisket or butts.
What the SD gives you is options. It sits outside your smoker so you can check it, stir the wood, add more wood chunks etc all without taking up any space inside your pit as other smoke generators do or require you to lift your cooker lid to check or add more wood like other smoke generators do.
The hardest part about owning one is the psychological barrier you may face when it comes time to drill out the 7/8" hole in the side of your cooker. Once you're through, it's all smoking bliss from there on.
The other thing I've had to work through is the application of a SD on a pellet cooker and not a "smoker". When I bought it, Dennis (SD INC owner) had not done much testing at all with his units on pellet cookers. Some of us on another pellet cooker forum were the first (that I know of) to try an SD on a pellet cooker and blog about it for others to learn. What attracted me to the unit was Dennis' claim that you fill it, start it and it will run for 3 hours or more. Well, when I got my Kahuna I filled it with chips and pellets and got it going on a big cook for the people at work. I did a brisket and ribs for them using the Kahuna the whole time (Should have never experimented with new equipment during an important gig). What I found that first use was that while it was kicking out smoke, it was the dreaded white smoke and it was coating the inside of my cooker, including the brisket and ribs, with tar. It literally dripped sticky creosote/tar from the bottom of the SD and from a couple of the output vents on the MAK down onto my redwood deck! I could taste the tar on the brisket and ribs and I had to cover them heavily with bbq sauce to make them edible! Lesson learned, never experiment with a new accessory on an important cook! What happens is the pellet cooker fan is creating enough back pressure on the SD that it is in effect starving it of air and the pellets take up so much available space inside the SD that airflow through the SD is also inhibited. Starve a fire of air and you'll get creosote/tar as a byproduct carried off by the smoke. That's my conclusion anyway. I gotta tell ya that those early days of experimentation and learning, while dealing with black sticky creosote dripping nearly resulted in me throwing the SD over the fence in frustration!
I'm telling you all of this because you won't be able to just fill it, light it and come back 3+ hours later to refill. What I've found that gives me the most reliable results are to fill it with chips at the bottom inch or so then fill the rest of the way up with small chunks so in essence, it turns a pellet cooker into a prototypical offset stick burning pellet cooker with two fire sources, one big, one small.
Turn the airpump on full blast and never EVER turn it down!
When loaded properly and lit, my Kahuna will burn for about 25-30 mins unattended then I need to come back, stir the embers and refill then repeat that however long I'm cooking. Doing it this way results in a very hot clean burn with blue smoke and zero tar buildup. My friend down the street (smokeslinger) owns the Magnum which is about twice the size of my Kahuna so he gets longer burns between reloading.
Put simply, even learning through all the trials I had in the beginning, I would do it again in a heartbeat and would not own a pellet cooker without an SD giving me the options to add more smoke flavor in the areas where pellet cookers seem to be weaker.
I have the Big Kahuna model attached to my 2 Star. The areas of dramatic improvement in smoke flavor have been in items cooked under 3 hours or when I'm cooking at temps over 300F where pellet cookers are not kicking out as much smoke as they do at lower temps. I've not detected a dramatic improvement in smoke flavor on long cooks like brisket or butts.
What the SD gives you is options. It sits outside your smoker so you can check it, stir the wood, add more wood chunks etc all without taking up any space inside your pit as other smoke generators do or require you to lift your cooker lid to check or add more wood like other smoke generators do.
The hardest part about owning one is the psychological barrier you may face when it comes time to drill out the 7/8" hole in the side of your cooker. Once you're through, it's all smoking bliss from there on.
The other thing I've had to work through is the application of a SD on a pellet cooker and not a "smoker". When I bought it, Dennis (SD INC owner) had not done much testing at all with his units on pellet cookers. Some of us on another pellet cooker forum were the first (that I know of) to try an SD on a pellet cooker and blog about it for others to learn. What attracted me to the unit was Dennis' claim that you fill it, start it and it will run for 3 hours or more. Well, when I got my Kahuna I filled it with chips and pellets and got it going on a big cook for the people at work. I did a brisket and ribs for them using the Kahuna the whole time (Should have never experimented with new equipment during an important gig). What I found that first use was that while it was kicking out smoke, it was the dreaded white smoke and it was coating the inside of my cooker, including the brisket and ribs, with tar. It literally dripped sticky creosote/tar from the bottom of the SD and from a couple of the output vents on the MAK down onto my redwood deck! I could taste the tar on the brisket and ribs and I had to cover them heavily with bbq sauce to make them edible! Lesson learned, never experiment with a new accessory on an important cook! What happens is the pellet cooker fan is creating enough back pressure on the SD that it is in effect starving it of air and the pellets take up so much available space inside the SD that airflow through the SD is also inhibited. Starve a fire of air and you'll get creosote/tar as a byproduct carried off by the smoke. That's my conclusion anyway. I gotta tell ya that those early days of experimentation and learning, while dealing with black sticky creosote dripping nearly resulted in me throwing the SD over the fence in frustration!
I'm telling you all of this because you won't be able to just fill it, light it and come back 3+ hours later to refill. What I've found that gives me the most reliable results are to fill it with chips at the bottom inch or so then fill the rest of the way up with small chunks so in essence, it turns a pellet cooker into a prototypical offset stick burning pellet cooker with two fire sources, one big, one small.
Turn the airpump on full blast and never EVER turn it down!When loaded properly and lit, my Kahuna will burn for about 25-30 mins unattended then I need to come back, stir the embers and refill then repeat that however long I'm cooking. Doing it this way results in a very hot clean burn with blue smoke and zero tar buildup. My friend down the street (smokeslinger) owns the Magnum which is about twice the size of my Kahuna so he gets longer burns between reloading.
Put simply, even learning through all the trials I had in the beginning, I would do it again in a heartbeat and would not own a pellet cooker without an SD giving me the options to add more smoke flavor in the areas where pellet cookers seem to be weaker.
Last edited: