When people in the Pit ask about the best pellets, BBQ'ers Delight is always the top (or close to it). It also seems like most people say something like, "If you're buying hickory, make sure it's ALL hickory, and not mixed with any other wood." But I can't help but notice that all of BBQ'ers Delight 20 pound bags like Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, etc are mixed with oak (I think I read because oak burns very consistently). So with that in mind, why are they most people's top choice? Not trying to disparage, just asking the question. I have their hickory, apple, and a small bag of black walnut. Thanks.
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I think the point about mixing is whether you are getting what you are paying for. Are they charging you a lot when half of the pellets are not what you are wanting? Personally that kind of mix is what I want. Cleaning out the last pellet is a pain, so I run a mix all the time. -
JCGrill Thanks for the response. I'm new to the pellet world. I'm assuming that the BBQ'ers Delight bag of Hickory has mostly hickory and only some oak (although I could e-mail them and ask for specifics). Do you think a bag that was just hickory would give off a much different flavor profile?Comment
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CandySueQ Is VP of Sales & Marketing there, I'll see if she can share some specifics for you.... I know they have a VERY good rep!
Personally I only have experience with Grilla's pellets. They're 20lb bags for $20, pretty good price (buy 3 and shipping is free). Their cherry is 100% cherry, their other types are a blend.Comment
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I think for a lot of people it’s price and availability. I haven’t tried BBQ’ers delight because I’ve never seen them. I always see Traege, Lumberjack, and Green Mountain pellets in the stores I shop. I’ll be interested in what we hear for info on these.Comment
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I've used the hickory, apple and mesquite pellets on my Weber Spirit with grill grates and using pouches. They were all very distinctive aromas, so I don't think there are many filler materials. I ran tests first with just the individual pellets in aluminum pouches and then used them on the grill. The hickory is very close to what I smell with hickory chunks.
If you want a blend, I would suggest experimenting yourself. Your nose and taste buds are unique to you.Comment
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CandySueQ has a very informative post (or 10) on this somewhere but I'm not having any luck in finding it this morning. What it boils down to is consistency from flavor to flavor and bag to bag. The oak does burn consistently giving you consistent BTU and ash characteristics regardless of flavor while single species pellets will vary wildly in those two things across flavors.Comment
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I use BBQer's delight all the time. My understanding is that they are a mix because the oak burn hot and well. Each pellet is, I beleive 70% oak and 30% the flavor wood labeled. Except for the oak, which is of course 100%. I could be wrong (just ask my wife!).
Hopefully CandySueQ chimes in.Comment
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This is all helpful information, thanks. Next time I order pellets, I'll try 100% hickory from somewhere and see how that compares to the BBQ'ers Delights hickory/oak blend.Comment
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Sorry I'm late, folks!
I hate to say this, but I doubt that many of the labeled 100% Hickory pellets truly are comprised of 100% hickory sawdust.
If these pellets are 100% specie, you need to dig deeper as to where they source their raw material. Manufacturers that use whole trees, chew up everything to go in the pellet maker. Roots, bark and everything goes into the mix. Problem with that is bark just doesn't taste good. Tends to be bitter and it's the tree's skin so it gets dirt and stuff in it.
I hear a stick burner now -- "I don't take the bark off my wood and my que is great!" Bet it is, but the bark burns off first leaving the sweet smoke from the core wood. When bark is mixed throughout, it will flavor though the whole cook.
More later, got to run to the post office!Comment
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Lumber Jack pellet manufacturers claim they leave the bark on since 'it's flavor', and the internal wood is 'flavorless' heat (not a direct quote, but a summary) and most flavor comes from the cambium layer, just beneath the bark, which is why they leave it on. Lol. Lotta conflicting thoughts and explanations out there. As a stickburner, I don't believe bark is flavor (but also not bad), nor do I believe internal wood is flavorless. On a 1/4 split chunk of firewood, a small portion is bark, the greater surface area burning is internal wood. How this all (bark, internal wood, roots) translates to pellets I don't know. I look forward to more form you, Candy.Comment
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I just bought a bag of Pit Boss stuff (because I wanted a mesquite for a cook, and because it was in stock at WalMart). Smoked ok, but man, there were at least 1.5 cups of sawdust in that 20lb bag. The B&B stuff I've tried had maybe a tablespoon max of dust and smoked really nice. I haven't tried Lumberjack, but have done Trager, RecTec and Camp Chef brands as well as what I use most often, the stuff at Sams Club, Smokehouse I think. This time of year it goes down to sometimes less than 10 bucks for a 40lb bag. It's low dust but ash production is enough that you need to clean out the burn pot even between shorter cooks. I wish I had more stores that carried pellets because I'd definitely use B&B or other quality brands for flavor specific cooks, but day to day the Sams stuff is local, cheap, and works.
The Trager and Pit Boss are the only brands I won't try again. Just not really happy with the amount of sawdust in the bags nor the ash left over.
I've been using my pellet cooker at LEAST 3 times a week, and most of those are long 14+ hour cooks so cheap wins the day. If you do cheaper stuff, make sure you find a way to filter the dust out. I use a large slotted spoon thing from my Instant Pot to scoop pellets out. Another thing to consider is adding a charcoal pellet to your most used budget blend. A 5 lb bag of B&B's charcoal stuff bumps up the heat without sacrificing smoke when mixed in with a 40lb bag of comp blend.Comment
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I would not put too much weight on the amount of dust in the bags. It seems to me that the retailer, and their handling in getting it to the store, would contribute the most to sawdust in the bags. If they throw it around, as may happen with multiple location changes, it is beyond the control of the manufacturers. -
LDimick I would agree for bags placed on shelves, but the stuff I've bought except for the RecTec and Camp Chef stuff has come direct from a store straight off a pallet. The mail order stuff wasn't too full of saw dust, but the Pit Boss stuff was saturated with it. The pellets could be old I suppose and shed easily,
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Personally I run CookinPellets Perfect Mix. I can't say that I've done a ton of experimentation. They claim to be "100%" of whatever species you pick, but how would I know? I definitely think hickory and mesquite are stronger flavors than fruit wood, but if you mixed a lot of oak in with hickory and mesquite, would I know? Probably not.Comment
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I’ve been told that CookinPellets used 100% bark free hardwood and that’s why I’ve stuck with them. Very little dust in the bag, less ash in my grill, better flavor on my food.Comment
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I know a lot of people swear by CookinPellets and the best place for me to order them would be Amazon. When I read the reviews (Perfect Mix), about 20% of them are 3 stars and below. N=1300.Originally posted by glitchy View Post
The low rated reviews typically report lots of dust and some flameouts. Are these folks who may have a pellet grill that doesn't support third party pellets?
The other issue I'm reading about is that blue plastic scraps got mixed in with the pellets recently. I don't know if that's true or not - just what I'm reading in the reviews.Last edited by MtView; October 31, 2019, 05:08 PM.Comment
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