VIDEO- Candy Sue Weaver On Pellet Smoking (1hr:02m)

[Markus_SmokyOWL]

Nice Seminar.
You could tape it a little louder. Or is it just on my End that it is a bit quiet?

Regarding the Types of Pellets, and Pellets made of 100% "Tastewood" can´t be used in Pelletsmokers:
I never use Blends of Oak+Taste. I use 100% Cherry or Apple most of the Time and had never an issue with it.
Also i can´t see a noticeable rise in Consumption wich i would expect if Cherrywood couldn´t deliver enough BTU to keep a certain Temperature. (My Tool is a SmokeDaddy Hopper attached to a WSM).

As said, there is only little Difference in Flavour from one Sort of Wood to another.
Using only 30%-40% Fruitwood and the Rest is Oak, the Difference is even smaller.
A blasphemic thought: May the real Reason just be that Oak is cheaper than Cherry f.E.?

[CandySueQ]

Cherry BTUs not too bad. Apple is one that gives major problems in my experience. Big issue is ASH using 100% flavorwood or tastewood (I've never called it that!). Bet that Smoke Daddy works well on a WSM!

[(mr.brisket)]

I use BBQR's Delight pellets periodically, one strong benefit to using pellets for the flavoring smoke is for repeatable results, I can measure the amounts I use for a given cook and know that I can do it again and again, with chunks and logs it is harder to gauge. I have read the science behind the flavoring capabilities between one wood and another, but just because someone cant taste the difference in the food it doesn't mean they cant smell the difference in the air. For me BBQ is performance art and when I have guests over for dinner they often arrive after my smoking materials have done their job and most times my meat is already wrapped. What I like to do is to uncover my food then use a small amount of either pellets or wood chunks to get the smoke going again and once everyone arrives I open the smoker to the oohs and ahhs of those in attendance, and even if just for that reason alone I love to have a variety of woods at my disposal. I like to have the Jack Daniels pellets going when I take my brisket off the smoker and it is always nice to have a bottle of Jack at the table to complete the effect.

[fuzzydaddy]

Great point on repeatable results. Thanks! With your name (mr.brisket), would like to see some photos of your briskets, or better yet a FedX package!

[oakie smokie]

unable to get the sound for any of your seminar videos. live in canada so not sure if this is a cross border crtc control thing or not. somewhat disappointing and negates one of the main reasons for joining the pitmaster club. can get the sound for the salt seminar on the general amazingribs.com site but not on the pitmaster club site ?????.

[VisQueBBQ]

Hmmmm, looks like I missed an email about this seminar. Are notices still being sent?

[Meathead]

We announced last month that they would no longere be live. Our guests were haveing too much trouble getting online on time, so I am now taping them and posting the date they will be available. Next up: Chris Lilly on Chicken on March 6.

[David Parrish]

I'm not sure if he sent one our or not VQB, but these aren't live events any more, so you didn't miss out on anything.

[David Parrish]

CandySueQ Question about old pellets. We all know that old pellets that have been exposed to humidity are bad for pellet smokers, but I'd like your experience on the following:

1) Is there any way to tell when pellets have "gone bad" from age/humidity?
2) Once this happens, is there any way to dry out the pellets so they can be used in a pellet smoker?

Myself, I save my old pellets for my Amaze-N-Tube smoker, but it'd be nice if there was a way to bring them back to life so they'd work well in my Mak 2 Star.

[CandySueQ]

1) humidity makes pellets mushy. Even if the pellets look solid, likely they've been compromised if exposed to moisture. I was at Memphis in May several years ago and team used bags of pellets to secure an EZ up. It rained. I told them not to use those pellets in the hopper, didn't listen and had to clear out sawdust from the auger. Not good, not fun! If I don't store open pellets in an air-tight bin (prevents moisture and dust), I won't put them in my MAK!

2) I've never tried to "recover" compromised pellets. Because of the density of pellets, I don't think you could dry them out enough to work well. Might work, but not well.

Left over pellets work fine for any smoke augmentation method. Huskee's method below would work too. I would mix with "good" pellets so mush wouldn't happen (hopefully!).

[Huskee]

David Parrish completely unknowing answer here, but I guess what I would try in that situation, if I were in it, is place single-layer panful (or two) next to your meat on your next cook up on the food grate, or w/o meat as a kiln. Let them dry out and heat up (but not burn) then mix 'em in with your sound pellet supply.

I have done similar with logs that were green. It did the trick FWIW.

[David Parrish]

The difference here is the pellets may unbind a little bit when they get humid, even if it's not visibly apparent, and I'm not sure if there's any way to make them good again once that happens.

[gt651]

Nice Seminar.
You could tape it a little louder. Or is it just on my End that it is a bit quiet?

Yes I found the audio a little weak too.

[oakie smokie]

video sound now comming thru loud and clear.

[tongatim]

Thanks for the great informative video. I am one who likes the heavier smoke, but also appreciate the convenience of my RecTec pellet smoker. The information Sue gave on the qualities of the various flavor woods was helpful.

I am continually experimenting with ways to increase the "smokiness" without getting the creosote. I second Doc Smoke J.Y.D.'s comment above, as I too was hoping Sue would answer the question about tube smokers. I am getting in the habit of cold smoking my briskets and butts for 2-4 hours with a tube smoker loaded with hickory pellets before starting the heat. I'm also playing with the new RecTec controller that has the "Xtreme Smoke" function, which cycles the fan on and off at lower temps, though I doubt that it alone will give the smoke that my old stick-burner did.

So hopefully Sue can comment on using the tube smoker. Does it help? Any downsides? Any particular type of pellets she would recommend? Better alternatives for the pellet grill?

Thanks,
Tim
Bellingham, WA

[CandySueQ]

I think Amaz-N-Products are really cool! I use a Maze in the pellet Jambo. My results with the very long tube were not as good as the Maze. My opinion is that the very long tube produces too much smoke for my taste, your tastebuds may vary! I don't have a short one, so I don't have any experience with it. I really don't give opinions when I haven't worked with an item. Wouldn't be fair to you or to the product.

When I cook on one cooker in competition, I had to come up with a smoke that worked on all four competition meats (chicken, ribs, pork and brisket). My choice was a 50/50 mix of pecan and cherry pellet grill fuel. You could easily substitute hickory for pecan if you want a bolder hickory-ish flavor. When I needed to add smoke, I would fill the Maze with pellets and place under the firepot. Sparks shooting out will cause the pellets in the Maze to smolder.

This year (this weekend is contest 1), I'm cooking on two cookers. That means choices for pellet grill fuel. I still believe I'll stick with pecan/cherry for brisket and butts. I'm thinking something completely different for ribs and chicken, like Orange. A friend and customer does really well with orange chicken. I'm also going to plan on adding a burst of smoke at the end of the cook. For pork and chicken, mulberry is really nice. It's only available in 100% specie. I have a stash of wine soaked oak that works for pork butt and brisket.

I'll do this smoke augmentation in my FEC100 because it's so easy to add smoke with a cup of pellets on the side of the firepot. I'll take photos this weekend.

[tongatim]

Thanks for the great detailed response, Candysue. I also noted that a load of pork butts came out too smoky for me with the long tube (and that's hard to do for my smoke-loving tastebuds)...or maybe too much of the wrong type of smoke. It helped when I cut back from 4 hours to 2 hours of pre smoking. With your comments, I'm thinking the Maze tray may work better. Also looking forward to trying different flavor pellet wood types and combos.

So many variables. So little time.....

[CurlingDog]

Candysue, can you tag me on that post? I'm very interested to see if i should mod my Traeger firebox cover to allow for the use of the Maze... Mother said i never leave "well enough" alone!

[CandySueQ]

Will do! Likely will post it on the Competition section.

[Gumby83]

Wow, i remember watching Candy Sue on TV. This site gives me goosebumps with all the heavy hitters on it.. <3

[Quintin "Q"]

Great seminar, I learned a lot. I was hoping for more cooking tips for using a pellet cooker though?

[CandySueQ]

Like what? I'm here and I hear! Ask away. I cook almost everything on a pellet cooker. In Tupelo, I fried catfish with the deep fry attachment for the Backwoods Pellet Chef. It worked beautifully. Set the temp to 320 and the oil stayed at 320!

[Quintin "Q"]

I would love to know your seasoned pellet cooker opinion on quite a few topics...
Do you ever use a water pan?
How can you get the most smoke flavor out of your pellet cooker?
Gasket or no gasket on the door?
Favorite temps for chicken, ribs, brisket and pork butt?
Any favorite mods to a typical pellet cooker?
That's all I can think of right now... Lol

[Ken Goldenberg]

Candy and Craig - So glad I saw this video on pellets! I got a Rec Tec last Oct. 2014 and I love it! A few comments:
First, thank you Candy for really explaining pellets when it comes to the "flavor wood" and "heat wood". That was something I was very confused about. My Rec Tec came with a 40Lb. bag of oak-blend pellets but when that was beginning to run out I really looked around both online and in my area (Orange County, CA). A local patio/BBQ place had Bear Mountain pellets on special so I bought a few bags after which I found out they "only" use 30% "flavor wood" (the other 70 is alder). So I go online in this forum (and others) and asked - did I make a mistake in not getting a brand that is 100% cherry or pecan or whatever. I got a huge variety of answers and seeing all the different brands online (some claiming "we don't use any oak or alder in our pellets!) it got me to wonder. But I took what I had and made my own "blends" using the Bear Mountain pellets and it has worked out fine! (I made an 70% oak 30% hickory blend mainly for beef and a hickory-pecan-cherry blend mainly for pork and chicken, or course this has in all 70% alder and 30% of the flavor woods). And BTW, I find I get a pretty damn decent amount of smoke, maybe not a strong as on a WSM, but close.

Now a couple of things I will somewhat disagree with:

1. Using a pellet smoker for grilling: The first thing I made on my Rec Tec were grilled "porterhouse" lamb chops. I had just finished the initial burn-in at 500 degrees on my Rec Tec and thought why not grill these chops? Since the grates were so hot already a got a nice sear and even though I over cooked the chops to about 145, they were very juicy and wonderful. So, while you can't really stand over the "fire" with tongs in hand a grill a steak, I do think you can indeed get a very impressive result. However I admit, being the I have a Weber Kettle and a huge gaser, the Rec Tec will not usually be used for "grilling". But if this is all that I had, it would work fine.

2. Not easy to clean: Well, I can only speak for my Rec Tec and saying this is the single easiest smoker/grill to clean I have ever used - period! Now I am finicky and clean after each use (as I did my Weber) and it's simply a matter of lifting off the grills and (very heavy) drip pan (that has been lined with HD foil), then taking out the heat deflector plate that straddles over the fire pot and then taking my shop vac and vacuuming out the pellet dust -- how hard was that? Sure I wipe down the grills and inside the hood too, but with all the humidity put out I can honestly clean them off with paper towers. Outside just wipe off the dust with a damp rag. All done in minutes. Maybe other pellet units are harder, but not the Rec Tec.

So - those are my comments and I thank you for a fantastic and very informative video presentation on pellets. Very helpful!!

Ken Goldenberg

[Ken Goldenberg]

Candy - I forgot one more comment, actually a question: Basically the skin on both chicken and my Thanksgiving turkey comes out looking picture-perfect, but sadly chewy and leathery. The poultry is wonderful - the turkey was like what you get in central Texas, slight smoke but still tasting like turkey (not "hammy"). But despite ramping up the temp to 450 at the end the skin never really crisped up. I even tried the baking powder tip that is done by Cooks Illustrated (which dries and crisps the skin). I know it's probably due to the humid environment with pellet smokers. ANY SUGGESTIONS? Thanks!!!!!

[CandySueQ]

Ken, sorry I haven't responded -- just found this. Try this, especially on thick fatty fowl skin. Pierce it with an onion holder (looks like ice pick x 8, you can find on Amazon). Rub and cook at high heat, skin side up. Actually, if you're resting the bird, moisture can rehydrate the skin during the resting process making the skin rubbery. I've gone the route of bite-thru, tender skin instead. You can do this much, much simpler by either saucing (or not) then letting the completely cooked bird steam in a tightly sealed vessel.