About 30 years ago I was working on a movie in Texas and purchased my first smoker. It was a hand built beautiful off set smoker. Not coming from a family or area where smoking was popular the learning curve was very steep. However, after many attempts and reading cook books I finally started putting out decent food.
Anybody that has had one knows that an off set smoker takes a little bit of watching which can become exhausting and time consuming. So, when I found out about the ease of using a Stump gravity feed smoker I quickly switched over. Very satisfied with it for 15 years. The time came when I wanted something smaller that could also be a grill so switched to a Big Green Egg. Not quite as easy to use as the Stump and used more charcoal but, in general I was satisfied.
Then I moved from the mountains to the coast and consolidated my belongings to make the move easier. Sold the BGE.
My new home came with a great built in gas grill so now I was back to only wanting a smoker. Would love another Stump but, now living on a retirement income so that is out of the question.
After some research I purchased a pellet grill. Liked the idea of ease of use. It works as advertised. Decent job of temp control, no need to baby sit. Seems rugged enough to stay outside with a cover on it. I see lots of smoke when I use it. However, to me, the meat that I have cooked on it tastes no different than if I had used an indoor kitchen oven. I really don't get the flavor that I had from my previous smokers. Is it just me or do pellets not produce much flavor?
Anybody that has had one knows that an off set smoker takes a little bit of watching which can become exhausting and time consuming. So, when I found out about the ease of using a Stump gravity feed smoker I quickly switched over. Very satisfied with it for 15 years. The time came when I wanted something smaller that could also be a grill so switched to a Big Green Egg. Not quite as easy to use as the Stump and used more charcoal but, in general I was satisfied.
Then I moved from the mountains to the coast and consolidated my belongings to make the move easier. Sold the BGE.
My new home came with a great built in gas grill so now I was back to only wanting a smoker. Would love another Stump but, now living on a retirement income so that is out of the question.
After some research I purchased a pellet grill. Liked the idea of ease of use. It works as advertised. Decent job of temp control, no need to baby sit. Seems rugged enough to stay outside with a cover on it. I see lots of smoke when I use it. However, to me, the meat that I have cooked on it tastes no different than if I had used an indoor kitchen oven. I really don't get the flavor that I had from my previous smokers. Is it just me or do pellets not produce much flavor?
Last edited: