If pellet smokers cook using convection, what does that mean for cook times and temps?

[BBQBakas]

Wondering if anyone else with a pellet smoker sees any differences between cook times and temps for pellet grills when trying to replicate a recipe cooked on an indirect wood smoker. In an oven, convection cooking takes less time than standard cooking. If the same principal holds true with pellet smokers shouldn't we use lower temps and/or shorter cook times on a pellet grill? If a brisket cooks at 250 for 10 hours on an indirect wood smoker, I'm trying to determine what the conversion is to a pellet smoker? Does it become 10 hours at 225?

 

[mike243]

All of the pellet smokers tend to move air differently and a big difference depending on the food load, so testing is key for each 1 imo

 

[Fueling Around]

Great question.
Just finished up a smoke of venison jerky.
Funny, I went longer than a couple of recent members that use MES.

My last brisket (flat) was done after 6 hours

Mike hit it on the head. It depends
My current avatar is my loved (and hated) cheap Brinkmann offset the day I kicked it to the curb.
That thing leaked so much air it was a baby sitting adventure every cook.
I miss the flavor. A pooper with a smoke tube doesn't come anywhere close.

 

[hawtsauc3]

convection doesn't really reduce cooking times, it just makes the cooking even, so you don't have a hot spot or a cooler one. Aka you don't need to rotate your pizza.

 

[TuckersBarbeque]

convection doesn't really reduce cooking times, it just makes the cooking even, so you don't have a hot spot or a cooler one. Aka you don't need to rotate your pizza.

Baking vs convection on my indoor oven has dramatically different cooking times as well as texture differences. One major bonus of a convection is it eliminates or mitigates the "cold bubble". I tested this with a turkey one year over a gravy pan. The air between the turkey and pan was about 25 degrees cooler than the rest of the oven on bake. During convection it was in line with the rest of the oven.
Ever since I started using the convection feature, my cook times have gone down for the same recipes.

 

[sandyut]

I wouldn't call a pellet smoke a "convection" cooker. not sure these are really comparable. I have a convection oven in the house and the fans blow around pretty good. My smokers fire pot fan doesn't even come close to that...no comparison at all. The fan in a pellet grill is just to control the fire (slight over simplification - I know).

I switched from a charcoal smoker to a pellet smoker. I didn't see a change in cook times when comparing at the same cook temp.

 

[bill1]

Kitchen ovens are vented, otherwise they'd become bombs as interior air and foods expand under heat and pressurize the interior. But in your kitchen you're not burning wood, so there's no noticeable air flow unless you force it around the oven with those convection fans that turn a kitchen oven into a convection oven. Also kitchen ovens tend to be run at higher temps and so a larger portion of the heat transfer to the meat (ie cooking) is via radiative processes.

But when we smoke outside, we set up a draft in our smokers, whether it's a small flow as in a MES all-electric, or large as in an offset or a pellet machine. Either way it's convective flow from bottom, across your meat, to the top, then out a vent or stack. So all smoking is convection cooking, it's just a matter of degree. Your car's radiator cools better at 60mph than 30mph because the convective flow is twice as large.

Personally I'd expect identical meats at identical temps to cook (ie get to a fixed desired internal temp from the same starting point) faster on a pellet machine than a MES just because of this difference in flow...one has more convective heating than the other. But there's so many variables involved in cooking I don't doubt someone's experienced the opposite.

Most commercial smokers used in chain BBQ establishments are more like a MES than traditional pits. They generate most of their thermal energy via gas or utility electricity. They use modest amounts of wood for smoke but use circulating fans in the interior to help that smoke do it's most good by passing over the meat multiple times before it's finally vented and gets replenished from what is often just a single log or split that lasts for hours. That fan inside is basically making the smoke go around in circles, functioning much more like the fan in your kitchen stove that the fan in a pellet machine.

And as others have said, the fan also, by "mixing" the air inside, has the effect of minimizing spatial temperature variations within the cooker. However again the large commercial smokers tend to have elaborate geared carousel rotisseries that would compensate for these temperature gradients. So they're using the fan mostly as a way to increase convective heating, hence reducing the cook time, while increasing the smoke flavoring with less wood consumption.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Pellet grills may be more efficient and consistent at holding temps, but they are not convection ovens. The fire is forged but the system still operates as a draw/draft system in the sense that the exhaust is up high and is a controlled size. They don’t roll air high to low in the chamber. Air only moves from low to high and out. They are just efficient cookers, this may shorten cook times.

 

[JWFokker]

In my experience, the stall tends to be shorter on a pellet burner because of the airflow as compared to a stick burner or kamado, likely due to faster dehydration taking place. Cooking on a kamado shows the opposite effect due to very low airflow and high humidity in the cook chamber.

 

[BBQBakas]

Kitchen ovens are vented, otherwise they'd become bombs as interior air and foods expand under heat and pressurize the interior. But in your kitchen you're not burning wood, so there's no noticeable air flow unless you force it around the oven with those convection fans that turn a kitchen oven into a convection oven. Also kitchen ovens tend to be run at higher temps and so a larger portion of the heat transfer to the meat (ie cooking) is via radiative processes.

But when we smoke outside, we set up a draft in our smokers, whether it's a small flow as in a MES all-electric, or large as in an offset or a pellet machine. Either way it's convective flow from bottom, across your meat, to the top, then out a vent or stack. So all smoking is convection cooking, it's just a matter of degree. Your car's radiator cools better at 60mph than 30mph because the convective flow is twice as large.

Personally I'd expect identical meats at identical temps to cook (ie get to a fixed desired internal temp from the same starting point) faster on a pellet machine than a MES just because of this difference in flow...one has more convective heating than the other. But there's so many variables involved in cooking I don't doubt someone's experienced the opposite.

Most commercial smokers used in chain BBQ establishments are more like a MES than traditional pits. They generate most of their thermal energy via gas or utility electricity. They use modest amounts of wood for smoke but use circulating fans in the interior to help that smoke do it's most good by passing over the meat multiple times before it's finally vented and gets replenished from what is often just a single log or split that lasts for hours. That fan inside is basically making the smoke go around in circles, functioning much more like the fan in your kitchen stove that the fan in a pellet machine.

And as others have said, the fan also, by "mixing" the air inside, has the effect of minimizing spatial temperature variations within the cooker. However again the large commercial smokers tend to have elaborate geared carousel rotisseries that would compensate for these temperature gradients. So they're using the fan mostly as a way to increase convective heating, hence reducing the cook time, while increasing the smoke flavoring with less wood consumption.

Thank you for taking the time to type out a detailed answers. This is exactly what I was wanting to understand. As an 8-yr pellet smoker owner I'm still learning about how to use my tool to create the end result I'm after.