Made a Boston Butt yesterday... Had the whole neighbor gathered round waiting for a bite. But it was for an exclusive club...had to have beer to share.
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Wood and then charcoal? Charcoal is a starter, wood is a finisher. Are pellet smokers different?
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Oh man, I misread, you're not using pellets. In fact, it appears you don't like them very much. :-)

So back to the question - why wood then charcoal? Are you finishing on high heat?
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Depends,

Not a fan of pellet cooked meat over being cooked over real wood. Some pellet smokers are taking all the love out of smoked meats and letting simi trained circus animals to put out decent butt roasts and briskets.

On a pellet unit you burn pellets for heat so you are putting smoke to the food 100% of the unless you wrap it. (steam it) and I don't do that. With a stick burner, you can add, pull, or reduce the wood to get the smoke, the sweetness or bitterness. you prefer and let the charcoal or gas provide clean heat.

Pellet smokers have a place but I'm old school when it comes to putting out some great BBQ, pellet smokers IMHO take the love of mopping and maintaining a fire with the best mix of heat and flavor that's real BBQ. Pellet smokers are technologies way of saying "**** you"to the pitmasters of hundreds of years of BBQ history.

I own a tailgate smoker unit that runs on wifi controls and yes it's a pellet burner. It is like the only option for an RV as I fire it off as a main method of cooking as rv overs suck ass. It is used as an oven as much or more than a smoker.

It is lightweight, has a small footprint (stores under the bus) and can be set on a tailgate, table, or can use its handles as legs and be set up anywhere. My granddaughter (11) can move it and set it up herself, and the power usage is very little which is very important to RV'ers. I don't have to deal with what to do with hot coals and ashes as there are almost none from the Davy Crocket. I don't have to empty it to store it I can pull the food, fold up the grill and store it immediately after cooking.

Pros burn logs fired off with propane for heat, after the logs burn out the food cooks using just the gas for heat. This allows them to get great smoke flavor, of their liking, followed by consistent heat and being able to sleep through the night.



My friends and family have been BTT (blind taste tested) and they choose real wood followed by charcoal over pellet smoked every time. Sometimes my local craft BBQ/ smoked meat emporium cooks on one of their pellet pits and not only I buy many other catch it right away.

I am not a pussy, I learned how to control fire, smoke, and heat, and consider it a call of duty to get up twice during the night to check on my smoker. If I had a bad ass 1/4 plate smoker, I could make it overnight or a one tripper but my $1300 stick burner and I have a unique relationship where I get a nice Bourbon for checking on the fire at 3 am and my SO rewards me for coming back to bed. If I used a pellet smoker overnight I'd check on it just for the benefits:-):-):-)

That tell you where I stand?






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Ribs are on the smoker, rolling at ~250... One half sweet, one half with some (a little) heat.

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Putting a kiss of smoke on some potatoes I'm using for potato salad.

Roughly 1 hour at <100F


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Picked up two 9 lb grass fed briskets yesterday. Will start about 4 am Sunday.
Salt and Pepper rub. Light the chuck charcoal, lay in some oak logs let the dirty smoke clear, set the egg at 225 and smoke for 12 or 13 hours. Pull it off, wrap in paper and then bath towels ( while the wife is not looking) and put it in the insulated box (beer cooler) for 2 or 3 hours.

F1 in Monza is on at 7 am so that will keep me occupied for 3 hours while the egg is smoking out the neighborhood.
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Nice!!!
Eggs are great. Got the 2xl a couple of years ago. can smoke a dozen chickens on it. Smoked seven 7-8 lb. briskets on it (had to put 3 on a riser) last year for a party. I bake pizza on it as well.

Got rid of my smoker and gas grill after a couple of months.The egg turned grilling/smoking back into a hobby for me.
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Heck yeah.

I bought a large after relocating to a condo in Chicago years ago and needed something that could both smoke and grill and live outside year round on a limited sized deck. Now that I have a proper outdoor space (by city standards) I'm looking to upgrade to at least an XL.
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Also, I implore everyone to give this smoked potato salad a go. I cut and boiled the potatoes as normal then put them on for a hit of smoke at low temps. Proceed to construct as you normally do.

Shit is like crack and might not make it to dinnertime and I actually prefer it the next day.
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Anyone done cheeze its? Doing ribs tomorrow and figured I could throw some on tossed with a bit of olive oil and rub. Seen it before online but times seem to be all over the place. Was thinking an hour.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
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I've topped some smoked mac n cheese with some broken up cheez its and thought they turned out nice. Only on for like 30 minutes though.

I do like the idea of a smoked pub mix though.
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My kids used to ask me to smoke huge bakers when they had sleepovers. Smoked bakers and a tater bar of goodies was a great way to feed a dozen plus teenagers at 2 AM.
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Not my best work, the wife liked it. So did the dogs (they got my share).


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