I can taste the differance, can you? Pellets vs Chips vs Charcoal

[forgiven1]

Hi all,

I was just wondering can you taste a difference when you smoke with wood chunks and charcoal vs using a pellet grill or a smoke generator like Amazn?

I can. I have a MES 30 and use Amazn with dust most of the time and run the mail box mod. However on hot smokes I have also tried using chips in the MES tray. I have found the chips in that hot tray to give a substantially sweeter richer, deeper smoke taste than using the dust in the Amazn.

I am not unhappy with my amazn, but no matter how many hours of smoke I put on something with it ( I've gone up to like 8ish on brisket) the smoke flavor is never as deep in the meat. To me it also has a "flatter" taste, vs the more sweet richness from the chips in tray. The taste from the amazn is not bitter or acrid at all provided I use dust and the mailbox, but it gets that way to me quickly if the mailbox is not used. I am very sensitive to this though.

I don't have a pellet grill and have not done long smokes with charcoal and wood yet, but I am wondering what you guys think. Do you get deeper smoke using one or the other? Do you find that the smoke is sweeter/better using one method over the other?

My only theory on it at this point is that it may have something to do with the temperature at which the wood is being burned or possibly the oxygen/gasses ratio during the coook... Not sure yet.

 

[noboundaries]

As far as deep, rich smoke flavor goes, my experience is wood fired is best, then charcoal/wood, then everything else. I read a while back it has do with how fire individually breaks down the structure and volatiles in the natural wood. Pellets on the other hand are processed wood, and no different than processed food, and do not create the same flavor.

For example, take a Choice grade ribeye steak, season with salt/pepper, and cook/smoke/grill it. It has a distinctive flavor and texture because each of the elements of the steak react to the heat in their unique way.

Now, take another Choice grade ribeye steak, grind it up, season with salt/pepper, and cook/smoke/grill it. Both the flavor and texture experience is totally different, nothing like the steak. That doesn't mean it isn't delicious, but no way is it the same experience.

Natural wood and processed wood each create their own unique results.

Edit addition: In my WSM this past Spring I started using a single 8 inch by 2 or 3 inch wood split buried in the cold charcoal at the center bottom of my WSM. So far I've used mesquite and oak, both abundantly available in my area, and the flavor is a nice improvement over burying fist sized chunks in the cold charcoal. Could all be in my head, but even my wife noticed the change without me telling her what I did.

 

[mike243]

A lot of the pellets are 100% wood, how it burns is the only difference, it is a more efficient smoke and some of the flavoring gets burned up instead of set loose, some of the controlers can get close to stick flavor i have read, mine hasn’t but its a very smooth smoke flavor with no hint of bitterness that I have sometimes gotten from some of my other smokers, maybe less cancer causing agents? Who knows but its all good.

 

[David Halcomb]

Wood only for me, love the flavor.

 

[uncle eddie]

I agree...I actually embed some chips in my AMNPS to improve on the pellet smoke flavor, which isn't bad, but is not as good as using chips or chunks IMO

 

[MikeGug]

I hate to say it, but I am returning my Camp Chef Woodwind Wi-Fi 24. It SO goes against my personality to return something like that. Lowe's is return-friendly, but I cringe at having to do this. Anyway... I am not getting the rich flavors I get with my propane/chips/smoker box.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Pellets have the least flavor. My charcoal pit is way better. My smokehouse that burns smokes with propane burning wood chunks is best to me.

 

[bbqbrett]

I go with a combo of charcoal and wood chunks in an offset. I like it well enough but one of these days I am going to have to try an all wood cook to compare.

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

I had a mes 30 and would use both the chip trey at first then would throw in my Amnps for ease of use. When I bought a traeger I couldn’t get enough flavor from just the frill so also used me amnp. Now i just use charcoal and chunks on my Webber Until I get my WSM. I’ll probably never go back to a pellet cooker. Maybe another MES for the lazy days.

 

[MikeGug]

OK! Today's BBQ - propane with mesquite chips in a foil pouch w/ a small hole in the middle, chicken wings dried over night, baking powder, salt, pepper, paprika, Italian seasoning to 175 degrees monitored with my new 4-probe Inkbird. FREAKING DELICIOUS!!!! Franks Red Hot Sauce, honey and butter. And a Buffalo Bills loss, which made me sad, but no one could stop talking about the wings.