Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

My new one is an all in one thing... though I haven't gotten rid of any of my others LOL

My Copperhead 5 has served me well.. but it's a vertical smoker with a 60 pound hopper.. that thing could run for days without refilling

 

I want to stay with the horizontal but man I have to tell you a lot of these things have tiny hoppers on them and it drives me nut. I don't want to refill during a smoke, and I don't want to have to worry about the fact of it running out and me not knowing. That was one of things about my OG Traeger that drove me nuts. A lot of cooking area, ran (still runs) like a champ after I gave it to my in-laws but sometimes on long smokes especially in the winter I would run out of pellets because of the small hopper and no pellet notifications.

I like the PB Pro I saw at Lowes but it's $1400, not sure I want to drop that now.

 

I think my Copperhead 5 was around $400 .. the new KC Combo retails for $800 but I got it for $600. The smaller hopper does worry me.. but I haven't done any longer cooks on it yet. I think the new ones all have PID controllers which make them more efficient, but that 60 pound hopper spoiled me LOL I could dump a whole 4o pound bag in and still have room and not have to worry about storing a partial bag of pellets.

 

That's what I want is to be able to dump a bag or more in it. During the winter here the burn rate increases a lot and the less I have to babysit in the cold the better things are.

 

Totally understand!

https://pitboss-grills.com/grills/vertical-smokers/pro-series-elite-6-series-wood-pellet-smoker

This one has a 70 pound hopper!

 

Thanks, I will head back up to Lowes or something soon and check them out. Got to replace some other things taken out during a storm though lol

 

The one I linked is a Lowes Exclusive.. the two that I have are Walmart Exclusive .. just FYI

 

https://pitboss-grills.com/grills/wood-pellet/pit-boss-pro-series-ii-850-wood-pellet-grill

This is the newest version of the one I have. It may only have a 20 lbs hopper, but it lasts me a while--even with semi-regular use. A full hopper can easily handle a low and slow brisket or multi butt/shoulder cook. For the colder months, you could consider an

$95 Pit Boss 67343 1000 Series Insulated Blanket Grills, Grey

insulation blanket and/or something like

$16 Fireblack® Hi Temp BBQ Smoker Gasket Self Stick 15 ft High Heat 1/2 x 1/8 Black

this smoker gasket to seal up the gaps in the lid to increase efficiency.

The larger units with the huge hoppers are nice, but unless you're utilizing all that space during cooks, you're wasting pellets heating all that empty space--especially during the colder months.

 

Usually when I'm doing a lot of my cooks it's a good amount of food. We host gatherings for family/friends a lot. I had the large Traeger for years and and it was filled up quite often. I also had the thermal blanket for my Traeger, helped some with pellets used.

Update: Just looked at the Pro Series II 1150 online. Lowes seems to have it for like $699 and it has a 32lb Hopper. May run up to Lowes after work today and take a look at it.

 

Hard to go wrong with that model. I’d love to find an excuse to replace my older version but the damn thing won’t die. I like the versatility of these more than the vertical models because it’s got the ability to do the hot and fast stuff where as it doesn’t seem like the vertical models offer much for that.

 

Ya I use my current one and used my Traeger as a straight up grill a lot also. Hoping to make it up there after work to check it out.

 

Damn, it's been a while since I posted in here. I hadn't been doing much smoking for a bit but I've been on a roll lately.

4th of July brisket point with the unicorn rub.


Experimented with some bacon wrapped, stuffed pork grenades. Bought a pork loin, sliced into some thin chops, pounded them flat, seasoned some with meat massage and tried honey hog on others. Stuffed with cream cheese and jalapeño in some and cheddar and green onion in others. Wrapped in bacon and smoked. I tried a few with bbq sauce and some without. I'm still not sure which version I liked best.


Classic alder smoked sockeye salmon.


And tonight I used what was left of the pork loin and made my first attempt at a pinwheel with cream cheese, bacon, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes.

 

This was my 4th of July flat. 8 hours on cherry wood. Was amazing.

 

Damn! Getting after it. Looks great!

 

Outstanding looking food. May have to try the pork grenades idea.

 

They turned out pretty good, the cream cheese and jalapeno was definitely more of a crowd pleaser, kind of an extra meaty jalapeno popper. I diced the jalapeno but in the future I want to try maybe just halving or quartering the pepper, stuff it with cream cheese and then roll it up.

 

Threw some ribs on the smoker to take camping over the weekend. All 3 racks dusted in the Honey Hog from Meat Church. Each rack will get its own sauce treatment. I found the pineapple glaze at Costco and have been putting that sh*t on everything. Figured why not throw it on some ribs.

 

And done…

 

Baby back ribs, beef short ribs, chicken thighs and wings.

 

Yesterday I saw a BBQ store on the way to somewhere else. I didn't have time to stop but the kid and I went and checked it out today. It turns out they're a wood store, not a full BBQ store. That said, they have everything from pellets to chips to chunks all the way up to pallet or cord sizes of just about any wood you can think of. My daughter really wanted to get some walnut to smoke with but I had to explain to her that I have no idea what it's good for so we just got some alder for salmon. Considering how much trouble I was having finding anything outside of a bag of wood here and there at Lowe's, I think this is a pretty good find!

Anyhow if you're in the Houston area, check out Terry Meuhr firewood on E Main St in League City.