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Considering taking the grill-pill: Does anyone here have any experience or recommendations on pellet smokers? I've had some success in the past smoking meat on a basic kettle grill with charcoal, but it's a bit of a pain to setup and baby sit all day. I'm thinking it'd be interesting to get something a bit more turn-key to make it easier to do more frequently, and pellet smokers (Traeger, et al) seem frequently recommended these days for both traditional low-and-slow barbecue and occasionally for other outdoor cooking (pizzas? burgers?). Are they actually as good as advertised? There are tons of models at different price ranges, but which features (and sizes) are actually useful?
I already commented, but I personally took the grill-pill recently, so I am interested in what you end up doing. If you have enough room, I don't really see why you couldn't do both the pellet smoker and also something else. A portable Weber Jumbo Joe would be very cheap used, wouldn't take up much space, and would still be big enough to do indirect cooking as well as searing and also be able to put out an appreciable amount of food but you may be cooking in batches more than you would with a full-size one. Plus you can more easily take it to a relative's house or out in the woods if you want to take the battle to the enemy.
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A family member recently discussed pellet smokers with me; he recommends the Weber Searwood 600 for $999 (Weber is known for its quality), and he also listed the Green Mountain Grills Trek Prime 2.0 Wifi Pellet Grill for $399 (it is pretty small). I think Pit Bosses are considered okay, similar to Blackstone. They may not have existed long enough to have a whole lot of sentiment on forums. Check Amazing Ribs to get good reviews on smokers.
They can get pretty pricey, compared to a charcoal grill, but maybe worth it, if you like to cook a lot of briskets. Briskets are hard to do well on regular smokers or grills, but apparently a pellet grill can nail them consistently, and it's automated, so you can set it before going to work and then come back and have tasty brisket, whereas other smokers would require a free weekend. On the other hand, I wouldn't trust a pellet grill to "grill" anything.
Personally, I'm just going to stick with stuff I can do on the Weber 22 inch kettle grill for now. I did a pork butt on one a couple weeks ago. My uncle took the Weber Smokey Mountain approach, which is much better at smoking, and he claims you can take out one of the grates and just use it as a regular kettle grill if you want; he got the larger of the two models. Check Facebook Marketplace for both because they're both significantly discounted when used, and they're big hunks of metal that typically outlast their owners, so used is basically as good as new in most cases. If you want to smoke with a kettle grill, definitely pick up the Slow N' Sear.
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Man achieved barbecue perfection with the invention of the Weber Kettle in 1952. If it ain't broke, don't fix it
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One of my coworkers got one of them and was pretty happy with it for low-and-slow -- while there's still some setup, he was able to set up ribs or a side of brisket and just leave the cooker for 4+ hours. And at least by my (admittedly low) standards, the output was fantastic and impressively tender even with some lower-grade cuts, if a bit subtle on the smoke side.
More marginal for anything that needs a lot of heat. Burgers were cooked enough to be safe, but I've gotten better sears on a 110v electric. He let my try a kabob recipe and had similar problems. Either never tried anything doughy, hasn't mentioned it. So probably can't replace a normal grill entirely.
Big complaints he's mentioned so far were maintenance being a little obnoxious, especially if not cleaned out properly, and the dependence on outside electric. Losing shore power while he was away from the cooker definitely lost half a day of cooking and would have ruined the food if he hadn't gotten a notification. Not sure how much the maintenance issue is standard, his model, or his tendency to leave pellets loaded for some of the most humid months.
I'll have to flag him down to see if I can get the exact model; he mentioned that pellet capacity varies a lot, and that he went for one of the bigger ones specifically to because of that.
I'd never considered that you could smoke bread. This is going in my culinary bucket list next to pickled cheese.
Wait until you get to the endgame: pickled sausages. Pure lard, vinegar, and salt, absolutely nothing redeeming and absolutely delicious. Bonus points if they come out firecracker red.
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I got a 199 electric smoker
I love it
One day I will upgrade it when I own a home but I use it two times a week for all kinds of meats and fish
I add wood chips every 45 minutes
Comes out awesome
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