I've been smoking with a Masterbuilt XL Propane smoker for 2.5 years now, and my first summer smoking was on my 22" Weber kettle. Both had great results, but my first smoke on a pellet smoker was just incredible.
I did 2 butts with Pit Boss hickory pellets, minimal seasoning (little bit of salt, pepper, and just a pinch of paprika and garlic). I let it smoke until 168, then wrapped tightly in foil and finished until tender, which ended up around 201-202. I pulled both and wrapped in several towels and let them rest for an hour before shredding. I was planning to smoke these today, but I'd been waiting long enough damn it! I ended up starting them around 6:45 PM friday night, getting up at 4:00 AM and 168 degrees to wrap them in foil and switch positions, then going back to bed until they hit 198 which happened around 8.
So after 1 uses with the smoker, I have some general notes.
1. The two built in temperature probes are nice to have, however one of them said the meat was 8 degrees hotter than it actually was the entire time. I'm not sure if there's a way to calibrate that or not, but I'd be pretty bummed if it's like that right out of the box and I can't do anything about it.
2. The smoker held the temp I set (225, then 240 when I went to bed) very closely the entire time. If I had the lid open for more than a minute or so, the fan really kicked on trying to keep the heat up, and it would spike +30 or 40 degrees over what I set it to once I closed the lid. Usually only took about 2 minutes to settle right back down to the temp I set it at. I was really impressed with how well it was able to get right back to the temp I set it at!
3. I loved being able to control and monitor temps with my phone. I wasn't sure when I ordered it if I'd ever really use the wifi, but I can already tell it'll be used and appreciated during every single cook.
4. I used my Thermoworks Smoke meat probe and ambient temp probe alongside just until I get used to this thing. I put my ambient temp probe in the middle at grate level and noticed that things measured 20-40 degrees lower than my grill said the temp was at. This was concerning for a while, but I realized 3 things:
4a. The probe on my Smoke got closer and closer to the reading of the pellet grill as the internal temp of the meats rose. I think a lot of the difference was because the cold meat was cooling the surrounding air.
4b. The probe I manually placed was at grate level and the one in the smoker was mid level, so of course it's going to read lower. Also, the one the smoker has built in is in the path of some of the heat.
4c. In the end, my meat cooked just fine, and seemed to cook in an amount of time I'd expect from my other smoker. I typically smoke these with Propane at 275 and they take around 10 hours. I smoked this at 225 for 5 hours, and finished at 240 for the remaining time, giving me a total of 13.5 or so hours, which makes sense to me given the lower temp I smoked at. I think Rec Tec probably takes all of the temp variation across multiple areas into account when they tune their internal probe.
5. I was blown away by the delicious hickory smoke taste, and the beautiful smoke ring. I've seen a lot of people say pellet grills do not produce enough smoke, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Very happy with both the taste of the meat and the evenness of the cook. I did switch positions on the 2 butts when I wrapped them. My smoke ring went nice and deep, and there is a lot of smoke flavor in the meat, but it's much cleaner than I got with my propane smoker.
6. I was impressed with how nicely the grease just flowed to the drip collection bucket with no fuss. I put foil over my drip pan as recommended as well.
7. The unit made a constant fan noise, but it wasn't too loud. The auger was very quiet. I wasn't sure what to expect, but am happy with the noise level.
Anyway, here are the pictures.
I did 2 butts with Pit Boss hickory pellets, minimal seasoning (little bit of salt, pepper, and just a pinch of paprika and garlic). I let it smoke until 168, then wrapped tightly in foil and finished until tender, which ended up around 201-202. I pulled both and wrapped in several towels and let them rest for an hour before shredding. I was planning to smoke these today, but I'd been waiting long enough damn it! I ended up starting them around 6:45 PM friday night, getting up at 4:00 AM and 168 degrees to wrap them in foil and switch positions, then going back to bed until they hit 198 which happened around 8.
So after 1 uses with the smoker, I have some general notes.
1. The two built in temperature probes are nice to have, however one of them said the meat was 8 degrees hotter than it actually was the entire time. I'm not sure if there's a way to calibrate that or not, but I'd be pretty bummed if it's like that right out of the box and I can't do anything about it.
2. The smoker held the temp I set (225, then 240 when I went to bed) very closely the entire time. If I had the lid open for more than a minute or so, the fan really kicked on trying to keep the heat up, and it would spike +30 or 40 degrees over what I set it to once I closed the lid. Usually only took about 2 minutes to settle right back down to the temp I set it at. I was really impressed with how well it was able to get right back to the temp I set it at!
3. I loved being able to control and monitor temps with my phone. I wasn't sure when I ordered it if I'd ever really use the wifi, but I can already tell it'll be used and appreciated during every single cook.
4. I used my Thermoworks Smoke meat probe and ambient temp probe alongside just until I get used to this thing. I put my ambient temp probe in the middle at grate level and noticed that things measured 20-40 degrees lower than my grill said the temp was at. This was concerning for a while, but I realized 3 things:
4a. The probe on my Smoke got closer and closer to the reading of the pellet grill as the internal temp of the meats rose. I think a lot of the difference was because the cold meat was cooling the surrounding air.
4b. The probe I manually placed was at grate level and the one in the smoker was mid level, so of course it's going to read lower. Also, the one the smoker has built in is in the path of some of the heat.
4c. In the end, my meat cooked just fine, and seemed to cook in an amount of time I'd expect from my other smoker. I typically smoke these with Propane at 275 and they take around 10 hours. I smoked this at 225 for 5 hours, and finished at 240 for the remaining time, giving me a total of 13.5 or so hours, which makes sense to me given the lower temp I smoked at. I think Rec Tec probably takes all of the temp variation across multiple areas into account when they tune their internal probe.
5. I was blown away by the delicious hickory smoke taste, and the beautiful smoke ring. I've seen a lot of people say pellet grills do not produce enough smoke, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Very happy with both the taste of the meat and the evenness of the cook. I did switch positions on the 2 butts when I wrapped them. My smoke ring went nice and deep, and there is a lot of smoke flavor in the meat, but it's much cleaner than I got with my propane smoker.
6. I was impressed with how nicely the grease just flowed to the drip collection bucket with no fuss. I put foil over my drip pan as recommended as well.
7. The unit made a constant fan noise, but it wasn't too loud. The auger was very quiet. I wasn't sure what to expect, but am happy with the noise level.
Anyway, here are the pictures.
