Great vid,,,
thanks for posting,,,,
Im a live fire guy,,,,cuz I have lotsa time !!!!
thanks for posting,,,,
Im a live fire guy,,,,cuz I have lotsa time !!!!
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Great thread. I have to admit that though I like to manage the fire, I can't do long cooks every weekend. It's tiring. Cooking on a WSM with an ATC cuts down the babysitting, but I still get better smoke from my Jambo offset.
That is where the KBQ comes in. It is an offset, cooks with wood and provides clean smoke. Since it's a convection oven, it cooks faster (babyback ribs last weekend in 3 hrs.), has an ATC (though the range is approximately 30d.) and all you have to do is toss the wood in the firebox when it gets low and keep a good coal bed. Don't have to keep an eye on the temp gauge, check the color of the smoke, open the firebox to check on the fire. You can even put in a kill switch so that when you open the cook chamber to check the food, you don't get a face full of smoke.
To me, the real difference between a pellet smoker and an offset is not the smoke flavor, but the convenience. And a KBQ helps dramatically to provide a bridge between the two.Last edited by TripleB; May 19, 2022, 09:41 AM.Comment
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Wow, no way I can pick a favorite. It all depends on how much time I have and what I'm cooking. For sure I use gas the least but that doesn't mean I don't like it. Charcoal, Pellets, Wood, and Gas for me in no special order.Comment
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A few members touched on it, the answer is "it depends". Stick burners are fun but are high maintenance, especially a cheap one like my OKJ. It’s not just the smoke, it’s the gases that the fuel produces that impact the overall flavor. My OKJ produces a sweeter smoke flavor than my charcoal cookers with wood chunks. But not everyone has time to babysit. Most times if I’m using mine after about three hours I move the meat to my kettle to finish. But I have that luxury. If I could only have one smoker it would need to have at least three hour clips of set and forget. I get that with my WSM, kettle and PBC. But if I could only have one and had to choose between pellet or offset I’d choose pellet.Comment
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So, I have Covid again and decided to do a little test. I have a Bullseye pellet grill and a 55g Gateway drum. I had two nearly identical butts that I did a cook off with. I trimmed the same, used same rub, same drip pan to produce indirect heat and cooked both at 250 degrees. I used B&B Comp pellets on the Bullseye and KBB with a few chunks of Hickory on the Gateway. The Gateway cooked the butt about 50 minutes faster, but that doesn't really mean anything. The bark was slightly better on the pellet grill. Rested both for two hrs and the moisture and tenderness seemed identical.Bone pulled out clean with juices abundant throughout both. I tried each one and tried to be as objective as possible knowing which butt was which and felt I knew the winner. I had my official blind taste tester that has a very good taste pallet and is the magic behind all my sauce and rub tweaks take shot.
The winner was? You guessed it. The Gateway, but it was barely a win. If not for that nice bit of hickory smoke from the chunks I'm not sure if either of us could've picked which was which. I think If you served it in large gathering most people would never know the difference.
I think more testing is in order. Next I may honor the true "hot and fast" method that Gateway just won a Grand Championship with and compare. I've given it a go a few times without much success, but I started with the wrong mindset...
I'll post a few pictures and videos from the cook. The picture with the text is the drum and no text is the pelletsAttached FilesLast edited by ILMsmoke; May 20, 2022, 07:43 AM.Comment
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ILMsmoke Just curious, but if you had used hickory pellets or hickory pellets mixed in, the pellet cooked butt might have matched the flavor profile that had you pick the Gateway? The B&B does not use hickory in their mix, so that could have influenced the choice IMHO.
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GolfGeezer, You've got a valid point. The difference in the two was subtle so I don't think a change in pellets would produce any over the top changes making one of the two the superior cooker in anything other than opinion. I will add that the Gateway, Smoke X and billows is 3x the cost of the of Bullseye.Comment
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I’m in the whatever makes the food you like camp. I have pellet, stick, charcoal and gas cookers and use them all (except prefer to avoid the gasser mostly). As someone that geeks out on the differences between different cookers of the same fuel source, I pretty much discount any videos like this saying one fuel is better than another. I could take a Traeger and a SmokeFire and make foods you think came off two different fuel sources. I can take my MAK and my WSCG and make foods you might think came off the same smoker.
I didn’t watch the whole video. What pellets is he using? Are they 80% Oak? Recteqs are nice pellet smokers, but that solid pan and side exhaust are going to be a lighter smoke than other designs. Keeping the same temps on both? Major unfair advantage to the stick burner. Different cookers run better at different temps. He should be running the pellet at 200 for 2-4 hours on a brisket then bumping to 250 or 275. The stick burner should probably be running 275 all the time. Neither cooker is really being run in it’s optimal zone, most likely. Most stick burners seem to like 275, but every design has a sweet spot. That alone was enough for me to quit watching. Compare optimal results from each to start with.
The best cooker and/or fuel source is any one you’ll use and makes food you, or more importantly your significant other, likes (if you have one of those).Comment
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