I had a BGE, loved it for searing steaks, but smoking brisket was a pain, I'd like to have something like a pellet smoker that is set it and forget it for smoking but can also sear a steak at 900 deg. Does this grill exist?
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Welcome to the pit. What was so challenging about smoking a brisket on your BGE? In my experience a kamado (Weber Kamado in my case) is the closest I’ve seen to your desires. That or something like a Hasty Bake or M-Grills cooker. With my fan setup I can smoke for 24 hours not having to touch anything.
Most pellet grills get to about 600° max and have a limited intense heat zone that really cannot compete with a charcoal grill or infrared burner. If you want a pellet grill, you’ll probably want a kettle for cooking steaks if you like that about your BGE. The other option is a cast iron pan and butane side burner. Searing a smoked steak in cast iron after smoking can produce amazing results, but a nice extra mess to go with it. If I’m cooking steaks or chops on my pellet grill I usually fire up the gasser to give them a quick sear at the end. -
As long as you're aware of the flavor difference you'll get when going from a BGE (with charcoal and wood chunks, I'm assuming?) to a pellet cooker, yes, they're available.
Our own Clint Cantwell has been impressed with the high heat sear on one of the Louisiana Grills pellet cookers, but I forget which model...hang tight and I'll update this when I find out.
Camp Chef Woodwind and Weber SmokeFire 2nd gen are some reputedly good pellet cookers at searing.
Yoder Smokers' YS640 has the option of a 1- or 2-piece diffuser--the large tray that sits above the firepot and under the grates, to help create an indirect environment and reduce flareup-- the 2-piece one has a trap door that you can remove that opens up to the firepot so you can have direct over-the-flame grilling. It also has a unique movable damper that allows you to focus the heat up primarily overtop that searing area (on the left), or move it over to the far right to allow more heat to waft over to the rest of the cook chamber for more indirect heat throughout.
Lotsa options.
EDIT: The Louisiana Grills I referenced above is their new Founders Legacy series: https://louisiana-grills.com/collect...ounders-legacyComment
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The Woodwind itself or a searbox attached to it? My Woodwind itself couldn’t sear worth much of anything. I thought about mentioning the SmokeFire, but I think it still has some issues and while it sears well doesn’t compare with a pile of coals a couple inches under the grate. I always compared it to a Weber Spirit for searing. I don’t want to build false expectations when the OP will be comparing to coals. A MAK with a sear grate does well too.
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Have you heard of this thing called the Hasty-Bake with Grill Grates? :-)
Seriously, I have a Hasty-Bake Gourmet … I can do everything on it. I’ve cooked briskets, pork butts, ribs, pork belly, etc at low and slow. I’ve done whole turkeys and chickens on the rotisserie. And I’ve done big rib roasts. And burgers, chicken thighs, steaks, and more. Everything you can imagine. It’s an amazing cooker that can do everything.
A few pics of me cooking on it … and my fam clearly loves it, too :-)
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To add to my above comment, I went with your question about a pellet cooker. If your heart's not necessarily set on a pellet cooker, there are some great charcoal options, as ecowper mentions above. Even a Weber Kettle will do you very well on the cheap, especially if you add a Slow 'N Sear to it. Heck, your BGE can easily be dialed in for a relatively hands-free low & slow smoking experience, there are many who do this on kamados. It's a great cooker for all day low & slow cooks, maybe you just need advice as to how to do it. You might not even need a new cooker (but I'd never talk someone out of new gear!)Comment
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As Huskee mentions, a kettle with an SnS insert is amazing. For about $400 you can get a really nice Kettle set up … that will do an amazing job of low and slow to medium heat to high end searing. It’s somewhat size limited, though.
how much can you spend?
Edit: If you add the Drip n Griddle Deluxe (and you absolutely should) then you are at $500. Add a decent thermometer, cover, etc and you are probably talking $750. A Hasty-Bake Legacy, with cover and griddle, is going to be $1650. Both of these, and a number of other grills, can do everything .... low n slow, medium hot cooks, and high temp sears. I can flat out say that both the Hasty-Bake and the SnS Kettle are superb cookers and are about as set it and forget it as you can get without going to a pellet cooker.Last edited by ecowper; June 13, 2023, 04:22 PM.Comment
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If I could only have one grill, either the Weber Kettle or the SnS Kettle would be it.Comment
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Tecumseh what was challenging about brisket on the BGE? Fitting it on there, or managing a charcoal fire that can burn for 18 hours?
A kamado style grill like the BGE is about the most hands off during a cook of any cooker I own - I can run mine for 18-20 hours, maybe 24+, on a load of lump and wood chunks, and smoke anything I want. However, if you have the smaller BGE, I can see physically fitting a large brisket on there being a challenge...Comment
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Wow! 1st off; thank you everyone for the great replies and recommendations! I need to elaborate a little more on my post, I no longer have the BGE, sold with my house last year.. along with a divorce. Just bought a new house.. rates suck.. whatever, money will be tight, so looking for the best all around on a budget.. under $750. Pretty sure I don't want a pellet grill, Convenience is one thing, but I like the smoke flavor. Seems like a Weber kettle or hasty bake is the way to go, I'll do some reading. Fingers crossed Costco has a sale
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If you're leaning toward kettle, and you know you want to do full briskets- look at Weber's 26" kettle, and a Slow 'N Sear (SnS) or SnS XL, to go with it. If you don't want the larger kettle, you can do a full packer on a 22" kettle, I've done it and it can be done although it's cramped. If that's the case, I strongly urge you to look at SnSGrills' Slow 'N Sear Kettle, it's better than the 22" Weber Kettle IMO. -
26 kettle is your ticket, and if you want to fine tune things a bit, add a FireBoard drive and fan. I love my 26!
I cook also with wood splits on my webers, and nothing like a wood fire to sear hard and fast,
I will be the one person that tells you to not buy a slow and sear option, put that money to the temp monitor like FireBoard, and buy yourself a few fire bricks instead, you have even more zone control.
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A good option might be a Weber Performer and a Slow N Sear. That table is hard to beat. I like my Kamado a lot, but miss the table on the Performer. Don’t need a whole lot more than a chimney, tongs, and a thermometer to get rockin’ and should be able to get it all within budget.Comment
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I second the Performer - I love the propane ignitor on my Performer Deluxe, and the storage shelf underneath lets me stow the SNS and Vortex underneath when not in use, and its compatible with the zillion and one accessories made for Weber 22" kettles. That table is great for food prep and even serving and such on a patio. And I've never had charcoal go bad sitting in the storage bin underneath. And you can fit a LOT of food on a 22" kettle if you use expansion grates and rib racks.
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Don't forget the SnS Deluxe kettle. Comes with the stainless spinnable grate and Slow n Sear insert. Has all the vents and ports in the right places, runs low and slow very stably for a long time, and you can sear anything on it naturally. Has four instead of three legs, a fold-out small work table on one side. $400 base, before accessories like Drip & Griddle etc. I've got that, a vertical pellet smoker, and a gas grill, and my waterfront is pretty well fully covered by those. Good luck!Comment
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I agree on using the SNS Kettle. I have used it for both searing a steak and for smoking a brisket. For low and slow, it will easily run 8+ hours with little to no attention once you get the temp dialed in. Yesterday I smoked a brisket point on it. It ran at 230 for six straight hours with no attention other than me monitoring the temps. It formed a perfect bark. At that point, I wrapped it and finished in the oven. (About half the charcoal was still left in the grill, so I could have finished it on the grill, but rain was coming so the oven made sense.)
The only down side of a 22" kettle grill is that you can only do on brisket at a time and the brisket should not be larger than 15 lbs. If I need to do more than one brisket, I switch to my offset.
The SNS excels for searing steaks. The spinning great is more useful than I thought it would be.Comment
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