Char griller pellet grill

[Malisa Reed]

I am hoping you all can help me. I was a stick burner until I bought the Char griller pellet grill. I have to say I love it. Temp is good at +-10 degrees. We do a few comps a year (backyard) and I am having trouble getting the smoke flavor I am looking for. I have tried different pellets and smoking for different times on the smoke setting. I am trying to get our timeline set for the upcoming season. I feel there is something simple that I am over looking as I am still trying to learn the ways of the pellet grill. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[TentHunter]

First, please don't take any of this as a knock against your grill; I just want to explain some differences in cookers.

With stick burners, if you're not purposely going for a light blueish gray (at times almost transparent) smoke, then you may actually be over-smoking your food and some people get used to it and think that's how all smoked food should taste. I like to say smoke should enhance the flavor, not take it over.

Pellet grills give you a very clean smoke. You will never get a heavy white billowing smoke like stick burners. Therefore you will never get as heavy of a smoke flavor with a pellet grill. There are a few things you need to do differently with a pellet grill versus a stick burner.


Second, understand that the Char Griller pellet grills aren't known for putting out a lot of smoke flavor, so you will have to do everything you can to help it.


A few easy things to get more smoke flavor on a pellet grill:

Numbers 1 & 2 work together:
1) Put the meat on while it's cold (Do NOT let it come to room temp first)...

and this tip goes against conventional wisdom, but follow me for a second:

2) Put the meat on first, then turn the grill on. Keep the temp low & slow (start out in smoke mode). Take advantage of the extra smoke during the warm-up cycle and the fact that the metal in the grill is NOT yet hot enough to start radiating any infrared heat.

Remember the longer it takes for the outside of that meat to reach 140° the longer it can absorb smoke.



3) Keep the moisture/humidity in your pit up, especially during the winter months when moisture tends to be lower! Moisture is key to smoke absorption. Water soluble smoke particulates are carried into the meat through osmosis (water passing through the cell membranes). This also aids in smoke ring development because nitric acid is also carried into the meat through osmosis.

Simply add a small pan or a couple cans of hot water to your grill anywhere you can get them to fit. I swear by this technique!


4) Get as much of that clean smoke into your grill as possible during the beginning of the cook! An easy way to do this is to add one of these:

A-MAZE-N Tube Smoker



Again remember the smoke needs to be applied during the BEGINNING of the cook BEFORE the outside meat temp reaches 140°. At 140° the myoglobin starts to denature and the meat cells tighten and wall up prevent further transference of smoke into the meat.

Hope this makes sense and helps!

 

[jimsbarbecue]

TentHunter nailed it.

 

[Big Poppa]

He shall now be referred to as Professor Tenthunter

 

[Malisa Reed]

Thank you Tent Hunter.


I was letting my meat come up to room temperature and letting the smoker warm up. I don't use the Chargriller pellets as to us they seem to make the meat very sweet tasting for some reason. We use Country Boy brand in pure hickory.

I will add water to the smoker and make all the other above noted changes.

As for the A Maze N Tube I will be ordering a couple of these from BPS.

BPS A big thank you to you and your members for helping newbies like me out. I knew it was simple just didn't know where to start. This forum has a lot of good information on it again Thank you.

 

[Darwin00537]

Professor Tenthunter,

What do you think of the Stoven Pellet grill attachment? I'd not heard of it before seeing it in your signature.

 

[TentHunter]

Search the forum and you'll find an honest review (sorry, don't want to hijack this thread).


P.S. Professor Tenhunter... Geesh!

 

[chaz345]

Again remember the smoke needs to be applied during the BEGINNING of the cook BEFORE the outside meat temp reaches 140°. At 140° the myoglobin starts to denature and the meat cells tighten and wall up prevent further transference of smoke into the meat.

This is a bit of widely accepted conventional wisdom that is not entirely true. It's one of those "everyone knows" things that is so widely accepted in the BBQ world that it's rarely questioned. It's sort of true in that the smoke ring, the visible evidence of something having been smoked, stops around 140. But smoke flavor will continue to be absorbed as long as there is smoke. One example is how ribs that have been boiled first( I know, no real BBQ cook would ever do that) will absorb smoke flavor.

Having said that, the advice to put the meat on cold and onto a cold pellet grill is perfectly on target as, in my experience anyway, a lot more smoke is produced on initial start up. I too fine that my pellet burner, a Traeger, doesn't give me as much smoke flavor as I'd like.

 

[KCChat]

Smoke Flavor

Tenethunter your advice was spot on. Put the ribs on cold grill first and you will have great smoke flavor in your ribs. Thanks for that response.