This last week I decided to buy a new Green Mountain Grill Peak Prime 2.0 pellet grill. After not having a proper BBQ for about a year and seeing my fish smoker disintegrate before my eyes after last use, I couldn't handle it anymore and decided to splurge a bit. It helps that a buddy's buddy works for them and got me a 20% discount. I also got the rotisserie for it and hope to get a cover to keep it safe from the elements. For reference, my last grill was a standard propane one. To those of you who use this style of BBQ, what tips, tricks, advice, and words of wisdom do y'all have? Are there better pellets to use than others? Are these good for also smoking salmon? I appreciate your help and thoughts, iFish fam.
New to Pellet Grilling and Need Some Tips and Tricks
Whethole
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Costco pellets are certainly cheap, but low quality. Rumor is they are made by Pit Boss. Bear mountain are better if you want mild pellets. But neither of these are Lumberjack or Knotty Wood quality. My Yoder gets to 600 degrees with these pellets. It barely touches 500 with Costco. That's not the ultimate test, flavour is. The flavour is not as good with the Costco pellets as with quality pellets. But it does indicate differences. It just depends upon what you are doing and what your budget is.
I'm well known for not liking smoke tubes on this site. They are more smolder tubes. Pay attention to the quality of the smoke if you try one. A discerning palate will find they taste like a suffocating camp fire. That's why it takes weeks or even months more aging to have acceptable smoked cheese using them.
Have fun with your exploration. Between my Yoder and a Green Mountain, I've been doing this around 25 years. You'll love it.
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Ohhhh, that's fancy looking! Now you need to get it all smoky and sooty inside.
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I'm gonna try this! What flavor pellets do you like for your desserts? Pecan? Maple? Apple? Thank you.
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......yep, all three. Just depends on what I'm cooking. Apple of course for the apple pie.
I think apple is the most flexible pellet. Great for just about everything. Bear Mountain has a sweet and ballanced blend that is pretty good for $12 at Safeway. The only one I avoid is Lil' Devil ($8 @ Bi-Mart)
I will also (almost) respectfully disagree with Jig. Nothing I cook tastes like campfire. EVER. As far as the "discerning palate" comment, are you calling smoke tube users ignorant? Are we too lower class to know the difference? I am willing to bet a whole dollar and bragging rights that if you tasted my BBQ in a blind tasting you wouldn't know I used a smoke tube. You might even like it. Just sayin'
I will also (almost) respectfully disagree with Jig. Nothing I cook tastes like campfire. EVER. As far as the "discerning palate" comment, are you calling smoke tube users ignorant? Are we too lower class to know the difference? I am willing to bet a whole dollar and bragging rights that if you tasted my BBQ in a blind tasting you wouldn't know I used a smoke tube. You might even like it. Just sayin'
Portland Barbeque shop on Stark is a Lumber Jack dealer. I think the Knotty Wood pellets are the best on the market. Home Depot, among others, sells them. None of the Oregon stores stock them. But you can order them online and have them shipped to the store closest to you. They do this for free. The Knotty Wood pellets are almond wood or plum wood. The closest thing I know to almond is probably pecan. It's great for smoking. They also have a cabernet wine finished almond pellet that is amazing. The plum is not like any other wood at I have used. But I really like it too.
Yeah, we have disagreed about smoke tubes before.
I think you're a little too eager to take exception with my comment about a "discerning palate". There are plenty of people out there who either don't care, don't know, or won't bother with their food and in the process commit sins against it. Your pride in the quality of your barbecue suggest you are not one of those people. But there are plenty of people out there who boil their ribs before slathering them in sauce and throwing them on their gas grill. Another example is buying pellets made from shredded pallets or using heating pellets made from softwoods.
Maybe someday I'll get to taste your barbecue and we can have a conversation about how delicious it is.
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Opportunities are endless now...
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When you were mentioning the wine infused and plum, a little memory popped up in the back of my mind, recalling an episode from the Mad Scientist BBQ. Going back and reviewing, I see these are the ones he reviewed and recommended highly too.
I am really disliking you guys right now. š¤£ I now have to order some of the almond and plum wine wood pellets. Another pellet wood that I'd like to get my hands on is peach wood. I've had peach wood chip smoked ribs before and was really digging on those. I'm super intrigued how almond wood smoked cheese would be, as right now my fave wood I've tried thus far is pecan.
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Pecan wood has become my favorite. Not sure if they have that in pellets though.
They totally do. Both Amazon and my local farm supply store has bear mountain pecan pellets.
Yep, bear mountain has one, Alder base with pecan added. That's the same for all bear mountain pellets.
That's part of why the Knotty Wood and Lumber Jack, and a few others, are so good. It's all flavour wood. Most west coast pellets are alder based. Most east coast pellets are oak based.
Premium pellets definitely cost more. But they bring more to the table. It's a personal decision whether the difference is worth it.
It's the same as many other products, such as wine. At what price point does the marginal difference become small enough that it's not worth it to the individual. But it's still there.
It's the same as many other products, such as wine. At what price point does the marginal difference become small enough that it's not worth it to the individual. But it's still there.
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Not condescending at all. Maybe you should be a little less defensive if you're gonna tell me that my choice of pellets is crap. Just because you've cooked on a pellet grill for 20+ years doesn't make you Obi Wan Kenobi. Opinions are like...
I've been running Traegers for 15 years. Their top end is 450Ā° and the results I get with Costco pellets up to and at max temps works fine for my machine and gets great results and great flavor.
If your running 600Ā° and can't get there because of wood, you're not smoking anyway. You're grilling.
There are garbage pellets out there and you can usually look at the content of the bag and come to that conclusion.
Bear Mt. are out of Cascade Locks. Traeger pellet mill is out of Yoder. The other names you mention, IDK and don't care. I looked up the Kirkland brand of pellets and saw Pit Boss might be the manufacturer, but Kirkland is a PNW company and it would seem weird they weren't using someone closer to home.
All PNW pellets are Alder based pellets, unless you're buying mesquite. They are the strongest tasting smoke.
Any mill that is manufacturing pellets is getting their hardwood within 150-200 miles of their pellet mill because of cost to ship the wood.
Anyway my go to pellets from Costco look no different from either Traeger or Bear Mt in color or substance. They are good quality hardwood.
You would have to have a very soft brain to use softwoods. Softwoods are for heating, not eating. Seriously, who would be that dumb?
PS: Smoke tubes have their place in this is world, too.
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