Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Traegers, Green Mountain, Smokin Tex and all other Pellet and Wood Chip Smokers

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Slapshot
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Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby Slapshot » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:00 pm

I'm in the process of researching what new grill to purchase. I love smoked meat, so a good, well made pellet grill seems like a natural. My question is whether you can also effectively grill burgers, sausages, steaks on a pellet grill? Again, I loved the flavor of smoke so if it's possible to directly cook all of those things, I'm on my way to a pellet grill.

Your thoughts, expertise and recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks.

JC
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby Papa Tom » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:01 pm

Slapshot wrote:I'm in the process of researching what new grill to purchase. I love smoked meat, so a good, well made pellet grill seems like a natural. My question is whether you can also effectively grill burgers, sausages, steaks on a pellet grill? Again, I loved the flavor of smoke so if it's possible to directly cook all of those things, I'm on my way to a pellet grill.

Your thoughts, expertise and recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks.

JC


The answer is yes if you pick the right cooker.
For your typical Traeger style cooker the answer is no since the design is indirect cooking you cannot do a good sear on the meat.
There are some that tend to be a bit more costly that have the direct cook feature. I have a Cookshack Fast Eddy PG 500 that works well both direct and indirect.
There are others but I am not familiar with any of them save for maybe the Englander that is very similar to the PG 500.

I think most of the pellet cookers do a pretty good job on indirect cooking. I have a Traeger 075 and a Cabelas Pit Boss.
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby OldUsedParts » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:38 pm

Papa Tom has nailed it :tup:
As for me I would never do Burgers or Steaks on my Pit Boss Pellet Grill.
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby bondobill » Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:10 pm

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Got to agree with comments above
My RecTec works awesome for set and forget on low and slow.
It don't get hot enough to make a crisby burger or sear a steak.
If you be looking for a combo pellet smoker that does both ok maybe look at a Yoder but don't take my word on that.
I have found for my needs....a pellet smoker for low and slow....and a 22" Weber kettle for hot and fast. The best of both worlds :cheers: :D

Bill

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PapaT knows his stuff when it comes to pellet cookers
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby Swamp Donkeyz BBQ » Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:14 pm

I have an Englander, and it has a searing grill that works great for burgers, steaks or whatever else you want to grill with high heat.

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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby Slapshot » Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:21 pm

Papa Tom wrote:
Slapshot wrote:I'm in the process of researching what new grill to purchase. I love smoked meat, so a good, well made pellet grill seems like a natural. My question is whether you can also effectively grill burgers, sausages, steaks on a pellet grill? Again, I loved the flavor of smoke so if it's possible to directly cook all of those things, I'm on my way to a pellet grill.

Your thoughts, expertise and recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks.

JC


The answer is yes if you pick the right cooker.
For your typical Traeger style cooker the answer is no since the design is indirect cooking you cannot do a good sear on the meat.
There are some that tend to be a bit more costly that have the direct cook feature. I have a Cookshack Fast Eddy PG 500 that works well both direct and indirect.
There are others but I am not familiar with any of them save for maybe the Englander that is very similar to the PG 500.

I think most of the pellet cookers do a pretty good job on indirect cooking. I have a Traeger 075 and a Cabelas Pit Boss.


Thanks for your thoughts, Papa Tom. I was considering the Yoder 480, and was hoping it could handle both smoking and direct cooking of burgers, etc.

JC
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby Okie Sawbones » Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:19 am

Yoder states:

With the direct grate system in place you can sear a steak and achieve the cooking time, color, texture and grill marks previously associated with cooking over gas or charcoal.

Myself, I prefer to have dedicated cookers for different functions.
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby spacetrucker » Sat Oct 01, 2016 9:49 am

I tend to lean toward what Okie said...
I have a traeger and high temps can be achieved, to me the taste is just not the same as a piece of meat cooked over charcoal, so that being my $.02 I have two briskets smoking in the FEC-100 right now, and for burgers, steaks and grilled chicken, its the webber kettle, for the preseasoned fajitas and other pre marinated meats usually the webber gasser nothing smokes like a pellet cooker, they are set and forget once you are familiar with the individual cooker and get em dialed in. I guess that is why I have an electric smoker, two pellet cookers, one gasser and one kettle, I would like a wood burning smoker just do not have the room or need the grill space, and cutting wood is a pain in the lower back so I will continue to allow UPS to bring the wood, in the form of (little logs) pellets. :salut:
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby Slapshot » Sun Oct 02, 2016 1:13 pm

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. Based on the majority opinions, and some people I've spoken to, I am simply going to add a basic Weber Kettle to my arsenal strictly for grilling burgers, sausages, steaks, etc. The smoker I purchase will be used strictly for it's intended purpose, smoking!

JC
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Re: Flexibility of Pellet Grills?

Postby mlee » Sun Oct 30, 2016 8:12 am

Slapshot wrote:Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. Based on the majority opinions, and some people I've spoken to, I am simply going to add a basic Weber Kettle to my arsenal strictly for grilling burgers, sausages, steaks, etc. The smoker I purchase will be used strictly for it's intended purpose, smoking!

JC
Late to the thread... but I love my Yoder for direct cooking steaks and burgers. I purchased the extra heat deflector that has a door you open up right over the firebox which makes it real easy to go back and forth between smoke and direct heat.
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