Pellet smoker and dry meat

[Mike981]

I use a Smoke Daddy vertical smoker and have only had this, or any pellet smoker for a year, so still learning a lot.

I am trying to figure out why almost everything I cook on my pellet smoker, comes out dry. I have meat probes to make sure that the meat is not over cooked and a pan of water in the smoker. I also have a separate temp probe for just the internal temp, to compare to the smokers electronic temp gauge.

I have done chicken, pork butt, pork belly, meat loaf and burgers and they all come out on the dry side. The Smoke Daddy has a convection fan and I have done smokes with it on and with it off and it does not seem to effect the dryness.

Most if not all of my cooks are in the 225-250F range.

Thank you for any ideas.

[captainlee]

I don't notice that issue in my Yoder. I do know that the closer I place the food to the exhaust vent the temps are a bit warmer. Have you tried multiple temp probes to see where you warmer areas are? I don't know the velocity of your fan, maybe quite a bit of air flow. Have you tried spritzing or using a tallow to help keep moisture on your cook. Hopefully somebody here that has your smoker can assist. Welcome to the Pit.

[Michael_in_TX]

This is curious. Brisket I can understand (I certainly cooked my share of ultra-dry brisket flats when I was just starting out), but pork belly?

You're already doing the water pan, which should keep the environment humid (or at least, humider).

What internal temperature are you taking these cuts of meat?

[Mike981]

Thank you for your help.

I have not tried spritzing and I normally cook meat to a safe temp, but certainly not overcooked.

[shify]

What are safe temps to you and how accurate are your probes? Its quite possible if not likely that you overcooked the chicken, burgers, meatloaf and possibly undercooked the pork butt.

Chicken breast I take to no higher than 155. Meatloaf to 160. Pork belly around 150 (for bacon) and pork butt to 190-208 depending on what I want to do with it

Burgers i would not cook on a pellet grill at 225-250 degrees

[J-Melt]

What are the extract temps you are taking different meats to? That will help us understand more!

[DavidNorcross]

Cooked on a pellet cooker for years. Just do not experience this at all. I would also be curious on your temps and methods. Pellet cookers have their downside mainly with smoke flavor, but I have not heard of dry meat. We will get to the bottom of this!

[RonB]

As an example, when you take chicken to the government recommended 165°, there will be some carryover temp rise that could take the chix to 170° or higher. This happens with almost everything you cook.

I cook chicken to 158°. At that temp, it only takes about 20 sec for all the nasty stuff to be killed, and carry over will often take it to 165° or higher anyway.

The hotter you cook, the more carry over rise you will get.

[randy.56]

Last time I used a vertical smoker ( stick burner/charcoal) heat is heat. All the meats on the bottom shelf were a little dry top shelf not so much.
White meat cooks faster than dark and will dry out, leave the white meat out of the smoker 10 min, or remove it sooner. I do white meat to 155, dark 180 -185. Hamburgers 155, pork butt 200,
Don't know much about Smoke Daddy vertical smoker but looks really good on there web site. I did notice on the site a recommendation of a Al drip pan on bottom shelf. For moisture and catching grease.
Keep trying and keep us posted.

[WI Bubba]

Lots of good advise so far. I'll just restate what has been said already. The more detail you provide in term of what you are cooking to what temp, the easier it will be to help you out. I'll also reach out to a buddy of mine that has that exact smoker and see if he has had a similar problem.

[Skip]

I've cooked a lot on a Pellet Grill. Try higher temps. For Chicken 325-350*, Burgers 350-400*, Pork Butt 250-275*. Good luck.

[Jessterr]

Mike981 I’m with Skip, think higher cooking temperatures might be the key here. Would be interested in hearing how long your cooks have been taking to complete. It might at first seem counterintuitive, but low cooking temperatures require significantly longer cooking times, and during that extra time the meat will be drying out. As an example, in my experience if a whole chicken takes longer than 2 hours max, it’s gonna be on the dry side. Maybe do a chicken as your next cook, as a test run?

[Murdy]

Are you brining or dry-brining? How much salt and how are you applying it?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Have you tested your meat probes for accuracy? (Ice water test at minimum) Same question if you're using an external temp probe.

Generally when pellet grills are producing dry foods it's because the grill is cooking much hotter than the grills dial shows.

Best thing to do is use a tested external probe and clamp it to the grills internal thermocouple to verify the grill is displaying the correct temp. You may be off a few degrees but it shouldn't be more than 5 or so averaged out over say 10 minutes. If it is off and the grill is under warranty you can reach out to the manufacturer and ask for a replacement part.

Don't forget also that even at 225, with a long cook you'll have 5-10 degrees of carry over so check when you are pulling the meat. The food temp guide you should have got when joining is VERY helpful.

[jayjordan]

I cooked a HEB store trimmed brisket on my pellet grill, 225 super smoke, wrapped at 170, bumped temp to 275, pulled at 204. It was so dried out and tough ended up throwing it away.

[jayjordan]

In the middle

[randy.56]

jayjordan bet it was the meat, not the cook, or the smoker.

[jayjordan]

randy.56 - that's what I think as well. No more pre-trimmed briskets for me.

[WI Bubba]

I talked to my buddy and he says he doesn't have a problem with stuff drying out, so I think we are going to need more info to get to the root of the problem.

[klflowers]

ItsAllGoneToTheDogs may be on to the problem. The internal thermo on my Chimp malfunctioned and was reading low and was running around 400 but showing 275. Dried out a yard bird pretty badly before I realized what was going on. I ran it empty with an external probe to figure it out. More info on the issue would help us amateur detectives (read busybodies) sniff out the problem.