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Hello from North Carolina!

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    Hello from North Carolina!

    Hi,

    I recently joined the Pitmaster Club after purchasing my first pellet grill and buying Meathead's self-titled book. I've NEVER actually READ a cook book before, but Meathead's has me hooked!

    Regarding my grilling experience: I've been grilling for over 40 years, but never doing more than your typical burgers, steaks, chicken and chops (well, I do occasionally use my rotisserie with pretty good results).

    For my first 10-15 years, I grilled over charcoal (a Weber kettle) and for the past 25 years or so, I've been using a gas grill. My current gas grill is a Weber Genesis II with a rotisserie and the iGrill sensor unit. I love the grill and have been pretty versatile with it. My only complaint is that is is NOT varmint proof -- I will start a different thread on that, 'cause I have some decent tips to pass along on how to squirrel- and mouse-proof one of these grills :-)

    As I mentioned above, I recently bought a pellet grill to get into smoking. It's a PitBoss 600 Pro Series. It's small, but plenty big for just my wife and me. I've cooked on it four times so far: Two Boston Butt cooks, One cook with 2 spatchcock chickens, and just last night, a single rack of baby back ribs. All the pork cooks produced great results, but the chickens didn't brown real well.

    My main struggle so far has been with the cook time -- everything has taken at least twice as long as the recipes called for. I've decided that the heat in my Pit Boss must not be consistent throughout the whole grill. I did use additional thermometers/probes to prove that the built-in temp sensor was pretty accurate, but I have not taken measurements in other parts of the grill (opposite side, middle, etc). I plan to do that tomorrow and I fully expect that I'll find the main part of the grill is significantly cooler than the side where the sensor is.

    One last bit - I do have an itch to get another Weber kettle grill -- for some things, there's no better answer than charcoal!

    Including a pic of my current grills just for fun.

    Looking forward to learning from all of you!

    Chris
    Attached Files

    #2
    Salutations from Hays, Kansas! Good luck on your journey! Looking forward to seeing your cooks!

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome to The Pit.

      If you tell us how you prepped and cooked the chicken, we might be able to help. In general, chicken seems to cook better at higher temps - not low and slow.

      Comment


      • MeyerCinNC
        MeyerCinNC commented
        Editing a comment
        So at those temperatures, do you get the chicken to absorb much smoke? If not, I might just stick to my existing methods over my gas grill.

      • RonB
        RonB commented
        Editing a comment
        Everyone's tolerance for smoke it different. I'm happy with what I get. Try it once so see if it works for you. If it doesn't, start at a lower temp for 30 to 60 min and then ramp the temp up.

      • MeyerCinNC
        MeyerCinNC commented
        Editing a comment
        Sounds like a good approach - I'll have to give it a try. I was also thinking about basting with a butter-based concoction to help it brown a bit more. I often use a butter-lemon juice based for halved chickens on the regular grill. Will be interesting to see if that works out on the smoker or if I'll need to swap out the lemon juice for something a little sweeter. Looking forward to experimenting :-)

      #4
      Welcome from Western Massachusetts.

      Comment


        #5
        Howdy from Kansas Territory, Welcome to Th Pit!

        Lookin forward to learnin along with, an from ya!

        Kinda likeys me some kettles, as well...
        Last edited by Mr. Bones; February 16, 2022, 09:56 PM.

        Comment


          #6
          Greetings and welcome from North Carolina, Neighbor.

          Comment


          • MeyerCinNC
            MeyerCinNC commented
            Editing a comment
            Thanks! I'm in Cary (right outside of Raleigh). I envy your proximity to both Lexington (lots of great barbecue there) and the Midwood Smokehouse in Charlotte! :-D

          #7
          Well what a wonderful room you just stepped into. And those are two mighty fine cookers ya got there. Be prepared to let ‘er rip, yer gonna love it! Welcome, eat good and have fun!

          Comment


          • MeyerCinNC
            MeyerCinNC commented
            Editing a comment
            Thanks!

          #8
          Welcome from Oz, you will like it here.

          Comment


            #9
            Welcome from Cary, NC! Get another kettle, you'll be glad you did! 😁

            Comment


            • MeyerCinNC
              MeyerCinNC commented
              Editing a comment
              Thanks... I agree! Looks like we're neighbors (I'm in Cary too)!

            #10
            Welcome to the Pit!
            Cheers from Norway

            Comment


            • MeyerCinNC
              MeyerCinNC commented
              Editing a comment
              Hei! :-) My college roomate was from Asker, Norway! You live in a beautiful country.

            #11
            Welcome to the Pit from southwest Florida. I'll echo RonB Chicken usually cooks better at a higher temp.

            A good way to see temp variations in your smoker is to d a toast test. Take white bread and place it on the grates. It will cook faster in hotter spots.

            Comment


            • MeyerCinNC
              MeyerCinNC commented
              Editing a comment
              Thanks... great tip! I just did a test yesterday with 4 temperature probes, which was enlightening (I'll post about that in another thread), but I really like the "toast test" approach. Thanks for passing this along.

            #12
            Welcome from Wisconsin. Glad you could join us!

            To find the hot and cold areas of your Pit Boss, I highly recommend running a biscuit test.

            Get yourself a couple of "pop cans" of cheap biscuits, then set your smoker for 250 degrees. Once it is up to temp, pop the cans and spread the biscuits around on the cooking grate. In 25 min or so, you will have a very good visual reference of the hot and cold spots.

            Comment


            • MeyerCinNC
              MeyerCinNC commented
              Editing a comment
              Ha, this is a cool variation on the toast test that Draznnl mentioned above. Yes, I really like the visual aspect of both of these tests. Plus, with the biscuit test, I'll have 6-8 biscuits as an added bonus :-D

            #13
            Welcome from Virginia!

            Comment


              #14
              Welcome to the Pit from Dallas, Texas!

              Comment


                #15
                Welcome from Minnesota.

                Comment

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