Torrefied pellets

[browneyesvictim]

Has anyone ever tried torrefied pellets in their smoker?

You are probably asking yourself what torrefied means. A quick google search will fill you in the details, but essentially it is basically making a manmade coal and/or pellet out of a biomass. There are many advantages environmentally as well as many others for the energy sector. So just imagine a pellet made out of charcoal instead of the size of a briquette.

It so happens the company I work for manufactures the equipment that is used for the whole wood processing and torrefication, and pelletizing from raw wood to pellet. I have never seen a torrefied pellet made for a BBQ or smoker as they are typically made of other things of "lesser" value for simply BTU production. But I cant help but imagine there may be value and benefit for the BBQ world. In my mind they could possibly work in a pellet pooper grill, charcoal smoker, or even in a smoke generator like the A-Maze-N products. Maybe they would burn too hot, or maybe not have enough smoke or flavor, I don't know. I have just been very curious to try it if I can get ahold of some made from something that's a typical smoke wood. So, here in lies my question- if anyone knows of this being tried before?

(Mods- Please move this if there is a more appropriate location for this thread.)

Erik

 

[tropics]

Erik I think if they are made out of Charcoal,you could just add your smoke flavor pellets to it
Richie

 

[tallbm]

Erik I think it would be worth a try for curiosity sake.

With my simple understanding of how smoke flavoring works I would be curious to see if the fact that the wood has been turned to charcoal means that most of the flavoring components have been burned off therefore you don't get the specific wood flavor like hickory or apple or cherry flavor.

That doesn't mean there is NO flavor but I would imagine the flavor then turns to more of a "charcoal" flavor which people love on their food but I'm not sure it offers much variation in flavoring. So hickory charcoal pellets may produce the same flavor as alder charcoal pellets.

I'm hoping my thought process is on this may make some kind of sense.

Maybe someone from another country than the US who uses these biomass pellets for cooking stoves can chime in on what to expect from them. Biomass stoves and cooking seems to be a thing in some other countries.