Pellet vs. Electric

[troutman]

It has been said many times around here about the MES that using wood chips the conventional way as designed is vastly inferior to using pellets in a tray such as an A-Maze-N in so many ways. But when using a pellet tray in an MES is vastly superior to the smoke of a pellet pooper. Any claims of ash taste or creosote taste from the MES are simply the results of mismanaged burning of the chips or other aspects of the smoker such as leaving vents closed or partially closed. I can also understand however, if a person chooses not to take the time to learn their smoker (no mater what kind it is) that a pellet grill would suit them better because they are more forgiving in that sense.

The real main drawback of the MES as I see it is the 275' limit. But if you have a grill, this is a non-issue. Now if you go with charcoal with a bullet or other vertical smoker you can get the best of all worlds. But as pointed out requires a little more work and tending to. If you add a controller such a cyber-q to one of them, then I would argue the benefits vs effort is a notch above about any other method out there.

The first part of your statement is spot on, you need to master your cooker, I don't care what it is. Looking at your bio I would venture to say that you do a lot of sausage making, jerky, that sort of thing. If so low and cold smoking are your thing and that best suits the MES. On the other hand if you cook at higher temperature, say 325* or there about, then a grill is better suited. Pellet grills (and I agree they are better called grills) try and achieve the best of both worlds. In an MES you use AMNPS trays to achieve your smoke level, pellet grills the same. I can set mine as low as about 170* and with a tray or a tube you can smoke quit nicely. If I want to cook a steak and achieve a good sear I can do that at 400* as well. Are smoking and grilling the best ways to use a pellet grill? NO. To me its a great low and slow cooker from about 225-300* range. And of course the convenience of having a controlled temperature environment.

So that gets to my point about my MCS addiction. If I want to smoke below 200*, its a vertical smoker. If I want to cook low and slow its my stick burner or my pellet pooper or my WSM. And if I just want to quickly grill off some steaks its my gasser. Of course a lot of folks don't have the luxury of owning or dealing with multiple cookers.

OK well now I feel better and have just exited my soap box. Happy New Year to all !!!

 

[browneyesvictim]

The first part of your statement is spot on, you need to master your cooker, I don't care what it is. Looking at your bio I would venture to say that you do a lot of sausage making, jerky, that sort of thing. If so low and cold smoking are your thing and that best suits the MES. On the other hand if you cook at higher temperature, say 325* or there about, then a grill is better suited. Pellet grills (and I agree they are better called grills) try and achieve the best of both worlds. In an MES you use AMNPS trays to achieve your smoke level, pellet grills the same. I can set mine as low as about 170* and with a tray or a tube you can smoke quit nicely. If I want to cook a steak and achieve a good sear I can do that at 400* as well. Are smoking and grilling the best ways to use a pellet grill? NO. To me its a great low and slow cooker from about 225-300* range. And of course the convenience of having a controlled temperature environment.

So that gets to my point about my MCS addiction. If I want to smoke below 200*, its a vertical smoker. If I want to cook low and slow its my stick burner or my pellet pooper or my WSM. And if I just want to quickly grill off some steaks its my gasser. Of course a lot of folks don't have the luxury of owning or dealing with multiple cookers.

OK well now I feel better and have just exited my soap box. Happy New Year to all !!!

Smoke on Brotha!
My experience with Treagers and other pellet grills weren't bad and in fact I can see the draw for many folks. The Achilles heel in them is that the pellets are used for generating BTU's and thusly the amount of smoke produced is invariably related. Especially at higher temps, you simply will not get much smoke like when you cook a steak. Since you brought it up, my preference for higher temps is using charcoal with or without wood chunks. Ill come over to your place and challenge you in a steak cookoff: I will take the upper off your WSM and use it as a grill and you can use your pellet grill. We will both have a good steak and have a cold beverage. Cheers!
Happy New Year

 

[troutman]

That's dirty pool. My WSM is my go to smoker, can't touch that !!! But hey, come on over and I'll buy you a beer. We can have that cook off any day. We can also argue over who is better or worse, Texas Longhorns or the Oregon Ducks ..... quack !

 

[Bearcarver]

I have an MES and a pellet smoker. The mes works good for pulled pork sausage bacon cheese things like that pellet smoker works best for turkeys chickens prime ribs because it gets hotter. Like both

Turkeys & Chicken, Yes, But, But----
But, But, But, Prime Rib comes out Much better at Temps around 220°. Nice Pink Med-Rare from Bark to Bark.

Like These---All done in an MES (Electric) with about a 220° Smoker Temp:
Prime Rib Calendar (14 Smoked Prime Ribs)


Bear

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

Turkeys & Chicken, Yes, But, But----
But, But, But, Prime Rib comes out Much better at Temps around 220°. Nice Pink Med-Rare from Bark to Bark.

Like These---All done in an MES (Electric) with about a 220° Smoker Temp:
Prime Rib Calendar (14 Smoked Prime Ribs)

Bear

Very nice! Your prime rib photos made me hungry. What's the highest temp your MES gets to?

 

[Bearcarver]

Very nice! Your prime rib photos made me hungry. What's the highest temp your MES gets to?

Thanks!
The highest temp it will hold is 275°, but I only ever set it that high for the last hour of a Chicken smoke.

Bear

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

Thanks!
The highest temp it will hold is 275°, but I only ever set it that high for the last hour of a Chicken smoke.

Bear

Thanks Bear! Leaning towards an electric smoker now. Seems like I can smoke what I want (chicken and ribs) using it. Thanks for all of the great info.

 

[hank2000]

You can do that and so much more.

 

[browneyesvictim]

Good call Derek. That's the right choice in my opinion. The Masterbuilt is a good starting place, but there are better electric smokers out there (albeit more expensive) that will go higher than 275*. When my MES craps out, a Smokin-It will be in my future.

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

Decided to go with the smoker below:

http://www.cabelas.com/product/MASTERBUILT-SE-ELCTR-BLK-PROB/2583054.uts?slotId=0

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Bearcarver]

Decided to go with the smoker below:

http://www.cabelas.com/product/MASTERBUILT-SE-ELCTR-BLK-PROB/2583054.uts?slotId=0

Thanks for all your help!

That's an old Stand-by, loved by many!!
It's also the one I started with 9 years ago, except mine had the older "Square cornered" control box.

Enjoy!!

Bear

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

If it comes by this weekend, I'm doing ribs. And if it comes by next weekend, I'm doing ribs.

 

[johnmeyer]

You made the right decision. I've never owned a Traeger (or similar pellet smoker), but I repaired one recently and have had demos. IMHO, pellet smokers are neither fish nor fowl. What I mean is that they are somewhat like an oven in that you can set temperatures fairly accurately and do "roasting," but you can't get them anywhere near as hot as a traditional indoor oven, and certainly not hot enough to do pizza, something that might possibly be interesting if you could get a wood-fired oven taste to your pizzas.

You can't sear on them, so they have none of the characteristics of a gas or charcoal grill.

But the biggest issue is that, from my limited experience, they don't really do a very good job of imparting smoke to the food, and because they use "heating pellets" rather than "smoking pellets," the taste of what little smoke they put onto the food is not quite right. I have never gone past a Traeger and thought, "man, that sure smells good." By contrast, when I go past someone's traditional smoker or grill, I want to hang around and see if I get offered a nibble.

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

You made the right decision. I've never owned a Traeger (or similar pellet smoker), but I repaired one recently and have had demos. IMHO, pellet smokers are neither fish nor fowl. What I mean is that they are somewhat like an oven in that you can set temperatures fairly accurately and do "roasting," but you can't get them anywhere near as hot as a traditional indoor oven, and certainly not hot enough to do pizza, something that might possibly be interesting if you could get a wood-fired oven taste to your pizzas.

You can't sear on them, so they have none of the characteristics of a gas or charcoal grill.

But the biggest issue is that, from my limited experience, they don't really do a very good job of imparting smoke to the food, and because they use "heating pellets" rather than "smoking pellets," the taste of what little smoke they put onto the food is not quite right. I have never gone past a Traeger and thought, "man, that sure smells good." By contrast, when I go past someone's traditional smoker or grill, I want to hang around and see if I get offered a nibble.

John Meyer? The singer or the smoker?

P.S. Thanks for the extra info.

 

[ross77]

I can sear and smoke on my RecTec pellet grill. The temp range is 180 to 500+. I’ve had it to up to 550. And with Grill Grates I get excellent sear on my steaks. Pizza? No problem.

Not sure what you mean by “smoking pellets vs heating pellets”? The smoke from Lumberjack 100% hickory pellets smells delicious to me when I’m using mine. And I have owned a Weber charcoal smoker and a MES. I also haven’t touched my Weber gas grill since I got my pellet grill.

I’ve cooked plenty of delicious food on it and many have enjoyed it. Of course people have different tastes but no smell from mine has turned me off from wanting to eat food from it.

With that said, no you won’t get a ton of smoke flavor when cooking at temps over 275 but you can always supplement with a tube if need be.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

With that said, no you won’t get a ton of smoke flavor when cooking at temps over 275 but you can always supplement with a tube if need be.

Just my 2 cents.

This is why I went Electric. I wanted a deeper, richer smoke flavor for my meats. Everything I've read tells me pellet smokers are more like a grill than a smoker. I already have a grill and worse case scenario, I can add my smoker box to it to give meats a hint of smoke.

 

[troutman]

....and the pellet debate goes on, and on, and on ........ just do what I do guys, get one of everything, its Multiple Cooker Syndrome. We all get it or will have it to some degree within this hobby. o_O

 

[ross77]

This is why I went Electric. I wanted a deeper, richer smoke flavor for my meats. Everything I've read tells me pellet smokers are more like a grill than a smoker. I already have a grill and worse case scenario, I can add my smoker box to it to give meats a hint of smoke.

Well to be fair the electric won’t go above 275... From 180 to 250 I get plenty of smoke flavor with 100% hickory on my pellet smoker.

This is where the different tastes come in. I got rid of my electric because I didn’t like the smoke profile. It was more acrid and bitter to me compared to the charcoal smoker I had prior.

Yes it’s all up for debate and different folks prefer different tastes. But I’ve smoked with all three types and I have no issue with the smoke flavor on the pellet smoker.

Maybe one day I’ll get a stick burner but I just don’t have the time to tend to a fire. Nor the space...

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

Well to be fair the electric won’t go above 275... From 180 to 250 I get plenty of smoke flavor with 100% hickory on my pellet smoker.

This is where the different tastes come in. I got rid of my electric because I didn’t like the smoke profile. It was more acrid and bitter to me compared to the charcoal smoker I had prior.

Yes it’s all up for debate and different folks prefer different tastes. But I’ve smoked with all three types and I have no issue with the smoke flavor on the pellet smoker.

Maybe one day I’ll get a stick burner but I just don’t have the time to tend to a fire. Nor the space...

I have a Masterbuilt charcoal smoker right now. Loved using it besides the heat only getting to like 175°. I wanted to drill holes in the charcoal bowl, but figured might as well save the trouble and get something bigger and easier to use.

 

[johnmeyer]

As for temps on pellet smokers, I only have some brief experience fixing someone's Traeger, and that unit maxed out at 375. Also, in that Traeger pellet oven there is no direct, radiant heat source which I would think would be needed for searing.