Wife complains that my cooking taste like it came out the oven instead of a grill/smoker

bobarue

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I've cooked on my Pro 1100 3 or 4 times now and my wife complains that the food just doesn't taste like it just came off a grill. She says it's more like it came out of an oven. My other grills/smokers are a Weber Spirit gas grill, Weber Smokey Mountain and a Vision Kamado grill. I can't really disagree with her either. I find it also takes a lot longer to cook things.
This last cook I cranked up the heat more than I did the time before. It's not just missing a smokey flavor the picnic style ribs didn't caramelize like on other grills after putting BBQ sauce. I am using the Walmart Competition pellets by Pit Boss which is Maple, Hickory and Apple. I can smell the wood when I'm cooking but I haven't been able to put my finger on why it taste like it came out the oven. We are not looking for it to taste like smoke, just would like things to taste like it had just been BBQ'd with good flavor. Too much smoke makes things bitter.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks
 
I will start off as everyone here knows that I always state that pellet grills are just pellet burning ovens and they are not really smokers in general. Everyone here uses a smoke tube and I saw a video of a guy smoking a huge brisket in his Traeger pellet grill and he had 4 smoke tubes going.

My Yoder s640 produces a little more smoke than my Pro Series 1100, but it still does not produce that smoke flavor like a stick burner. My neighbor uses a stick burner all the time and yes his ribs, pork butts and brisket taste a like it came from a wood smoker.

I would reach out Mike here in this forum about smoke tubes as he uses them and has more experience wit them.
 
This works great, I bought mine at the end of the season last year for 9.99.

A-Mazen Tube at Walmart

With that said, I don't use it all the time. In fact I don't use it much at all unless I want more smoke on a butt or something.

I do ribs 3-2-1. Put them on the smoke setting for 3 hours. Turn up to 225 and wrap for 2 hours then unwrap and continue for one more hour. The last 30 minutes I sauce them and have had some very good ribs with a nice smoke ring.

A vertical Pit Boss pellet smoker is going to give you more smoke than a pellet grill (but still less smoke than a stick burner).

I have cooked turkey and chicken that did not have much smoke flavor but it was still good. I've found that when trying to get more smoke flavor it works out best to use the smoke setting for at least an hour, sometimes longer. I did thick pork chops on Saturday. Normally you can cook a thick chop in a few minutes at high heat. I did mine for about 4 hours. I put them on the smoke setting for about 3 hours and 50 minutes then cranked it to 475 until they hit 145 internal.
 
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Thanks DaveXDm9,

I am starting to learn that in general it's not really a smoker nor a grill but if anything more like a smoker. I purchased a smoke tube and didn't use it because I was trying to grill. Now I will have to try the tube next time. I also found when I smoked some meat it had a tendency to dry out the surface of the meat, so I bought a cheap pan for water next time I smoke something. I see now I will have to combine the water pan and smoke tube next time I smoke.

I cooked a 1" thick Sirloin steak and grilled some vegetables that we cut up to make fajitas and that turned out good. I cranked up the temp and used the sear plate for the steak and kept the temp high for the vegetables and that seemed to work but everything else had a plain taste to it.
 
I think you are also right Mike, to get any caramelization I will need to really crank up the temperature.
 
Yes, and if you do ribs 3-2-1 check on them about every half hour. Touch them. If the dry rub is starting to stick to the meat then spritz them with water or apple juice. Then repeat every 30 minutes. When it comes time to wrap them, put them in heavy duty foil. Add a little brown sugar and some Parkay squirt butter on the top of the ribs. You can make your foil into a "boat" and pour a little apple juice in there (but don't use to much or it will leak out as you carry them back to the grill - trust me I always use too much and it spills out). Then place the wrapped ribs meat side down for the 2 hours. Doing it this way you should not need a water pan. I will use a water pan when cooking turkey or chicken on the grill but my vertical has a built in water pan and I use it with every cook (on the vertical).

here is a video I made last year. I have since gotten even better at the 3-2-1 but practice is the key! Now I do these on the vertical instead of the grill so I don't have to spritz. I did not sauce these, I just wanted dry ribs.


And when you get to the end of your cook, add some sauce and crank it up just make sure not to dry them out. I have sauced them 30 minutes at the end of the cook at 225 and they did turn out very good but I did not want to burn them or dry them out. It just takes some experimenting around.
 
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I do not believe it is even closely a smoker it is a pellet grill/oven to me. The hottest grill out there right now is the masterbuilt gravity series. My Walmart cannot even keep in stock at all as soon as they get 5 in they are sold within hour.

I have someone that is hounding me to buy my Yoder s640 from me and I am thinking about selling it and going with this grill. Nothing can replace that charcoal/Wood taste and I swore I would not go back to charcoal I can never make up my mind.

 
Yeah that gravity is nice and the price came down $50. My Walmart has them in stock. I have been looking at that as well but have seen a lot of videos with people having issues with those just like people have issues with Pit Boss or any pellet grill. I love the concept of it. Put charcoal in the hopper, throw in some wood chunks and let it cook.
 
I've cooked on my Pro 1100 3 or 4 times now and my wife complains that the food just doesn't taste like it just came off a grill. She says it's more like it came out of an oven. My other grills/smokers are a Weber Spirit gas grill, Weber Smokey Mountain and a Vision Kamado grill. I can't really disagree with her either. I find it also takes a lot longer to cook things.
This last cook I cranked up the heat more than I did the time before. It's not just missing a smokey flavor the picnic style ribs didn't caramelize like on other grills after putting BBQ sauce. I am using the Walmart Competition pellets by Pit Boss which is Maple, Hickory and Apple. I can smell the wood when I'm cooking but I haven't been able to put my finger on why it taste like it came out the oven. We are not looking for it to taste like smoke, just would like things to taste like it had just been BBQ'd with good flavor. Too much smoke makes things bitter.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks
I've cooked on my Pro 1100 3 or 4 times now and my wife complains that the food just doesn't taste like it just came off a grill. She says it's more like it came out of an oven. My other grills/smokers are a Weber Spirit gas grill, Weber Smokey Mountain and a Vision Kamado grill. I can't really disagree with her either. I find it also takes a lot longer to cook things.
This last cook I cranked up the heat more than I did the time before. It's not just missing a smokey flavor the picnic style ribs didn't caramelize like on other grills after putting BBQ sauce. I am using the Walmart Competition pellets by Pit Boss which is Maple, Hickory and Apple. I can smell the wood when I'm cooking but I haven't been able to put my finger on why it taste like it came out the oven. We are not looking for it to taste like smoke, just would like things to taste like it had just been BBQ'd with good flavor. Too much smoke makes things bitter.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

I have a KC Combo and I started using the BB Competion blend pellets. They didn’t seem to do the smoke I was looking for. Then I tried Pitboss Charcoal pellets and it helped. Now I am using BB Post Oak pellets and I am getting some smoke flavor but not as much as I would like. I would say a 6-7 On a scale of 1-10. So try using the different pellets. It worked for me some what with the Post oak pellets. And I use a smoke tube also
 
Panzon, sometimes I mix charcoal in with other pellets. I believe you get the best smoke flavor with straight hickory pellets. Right now I havea bag of competition blend, a container of Applewood, a container of charcoal and competition mixed and a bag of Kingsford Cherrywood. When I finally use most of these up I am going to buy a bag or charcoal and a bag of hickory. Might try mixing those two together and if they work well I will only buy those Pit Boss brands. I still want to try the other Kingsford flavors. My local Winn Dixie had a decent selection but when I went last Saturday they were completely sold out of all pellets so I made the drive across town to another Winn Dixie to pick up the only bag they had (which was Cherry).

I have no idea why Walmart doesn't carry Kingsford pellets. I have tried every type that Walmart sells (including the Cuisinart Maple Bourbon pellets) and while all are good there is nothing that gives a stick burner flavor. I am huge on heavy smoke flavor but my family loves what the Pit Boss does, give some smoke but not to much for them. I am the kind of guy who wants mine to taste like I walked into a cloud of smoke.

I also use a smoke tube sometimes but I find that I get the best smoke when using the Smoke setting for at least a couple of hours. It takes much longer to cook anything that way but I find it fun to stretch cooks out.
 
Panzon, sometimes I mix charcoal in with other pellets. I believe you get the best smoke flavor with straight hickory pellets. Right now I havea bag of competition blend, a container of Applewood, a container of charcoal and competition mixed and a bag of Kingsford Cherrywood. When I finally use most of these up I am going to buy a bag or charcoal and a bag of hickory. Might try mixing those two together and if they work well I will only buy those Pit Boss brands. I still want to try the other Kingsford flavors. My local Winn Dixie had a decent selection but when I went last Saturday they were completely sold out of all pellets so I made the drive across town to another Winn Dixie to pick up the only bag they had (which was Cherry).

I have no idea why Walmart doesn't carry Kingsford pellets. I have tried every type that Walmart sells (including the Cuisinart Maple Bourbon pellets) and while all are good there is nothing that gives a stick burner flavor. I am huge on heavy smoke flavor but my family loves what the Pit Boss does, give some smoke but not to much for them. I am the kind of guy who wants mine to taste like I walked into a cloud of smoke.

I also use a smoke tube sometimes but I find that I get the best smoke when using the Smoke setting for at least a couple of hours. It takes much longer to cook anything that way but I find it fun to stretch cooks out.

10-4 . Our local grocery store. H E B is where I found the Post Oak pellets. I’m about to pit in work this morning
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Yeah that gravity is nice and the price came down $50. My Walmart has them in stock. I have been looking at that as well but have seen a lot of videos with people having issues with those just like people have issues with Pit Boss or any pellet grill. I love the concept of it. Put charcoal in the hopper, throw in some wood chunks and let it cook.

Mike,

Walmart has one in stock now and yea the quality is not that great. I think I am going to look at a decent stick burner.
 
I have seen both good and bad videos about the Gravity series. On YouTube Anderson's Smoke Show has a few videos with it and he seems to like it from what I can tell. But others co plain about the metal being too thin or the paint peeling off during burn off.
 
I have seen both good and bad videos about the Gravity series. On YouTube Anderson's Smoke Show has a few videos with it and he seems to like it from what I can tell. But others co plain about the metal being too thin or the paint peeling off during burn off.

It is a great idea for a grill. When I had my Green Egg I had a Pit Master temp regulator on which was a blower.

Rumored that MasterBuilt is working on a Competition version for next spring which will have a price tag around $1200 so curious see that build.
 
I'm going to sell my Pitboss and get another Masterbuilt smoker.
Very disappointing that it can't actually "smoke" meats...and you have to buy an Amazn tube.
I can use my BBQ grill with the Amazn tube and not spend hundreds on a smoker that doesn't smoke...
bummer... :(
 

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