Pellet smoker in competition barbecue

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irishboy209

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Have any of you used a pellet smoker in a competition? I've heard of people asking getting pretty good placement with pellet cookers i tried one for the first time yesterday and I couldn't really tastes a smoke flavor. Just curious on some tips and strategies you guys use in competition to get more smoke flavor to compete with the stick burners?

I really hate to add aftermarket products like a smoke tube when I just spend money on a pellet cooker.
 
I compete occasionally with the pelletheads team. They use pellet cookers exclusively. We have finished well many times. Whenever I have competed no one uses any supplemental smoke. I personally don't even cook low first then go higher, but that is usually the first advice that you will get. Start as low as it will go for a couple hours, then go up to your cook temp.

Smoke is subjective, and I think pellet cookers do a fine job. My theory on competition is that after you eat several pieces of meat, it's going to be hard to pick out the smokiness of a particular bite. Lots of flavors, heat levels, etc to deal with. By the end of the day, I would imagine it all kind of runs together.

Alot of teams will have a pellet cooker as their backup, or for a dedicated chicken cooker. Most teams braise the chicken rather than smoke anyways, and you can ramp them up in temp easier than some other cookers.
 
I've never competed... but I do cook on a MAK pellet pooper. The smoke flavor is definitely lighter than a stick burner. If I want to add smoke, I do use a tube... haven't figured out a way to get around that. Sure you can run it on "smoke" for a couple of hours, then kick it up a bit... but I'd rather just use the smoke tube and move the cooking process along. But not matter what you do, you are NOT going to get the same flavor as you would from lump charcoal and/or wood. And I don't mean that as a negative... because I really like the flavor profile that my MAK lays down on meat. Light and clean.

BTW, short term memory... but what make/model of pellet smoker did you just buy?
 
In 8 years competing with a Cookshack FEC-100 pellet cooker we have never receive a comment from the judges that our food lack-caked smoke flavor. In addition, I have no one, friend, family, Stanger's and other BBQers have not made that comment either.

If you present perfectly cooked meat with a balance of sweet, savory and heat, you will score well, regardless of the cooker type.
 
I have done one kcbs comp and out of 35 of us, 33 used pellet poopers. I was shocked at the number of people who came up to me and sympathetically commented on my use of a stick burner. The poopers took the top prizes.
 
In competition BBQ, that "smoke flavor" is, in my opinion, a non-essential component to great food. Like Ron said, cook it well and make it balanced, and you'll do fine. When we first started (using a stick burner), we probably had a tendency to over smoke our food in comparison to what we should have really set for our target. That was a rookie move. Now, if I accidentally put too much wood in my gravity fed, my scores suffer big time (easy to over smoke there) because the flavor is no longer balanced.

Long story short, I wouldn't worry about it :).
 
Funny how things change about smoking meat now I guess it's not about the smoke it's seems to b more about the rub the sauce and everything else so I think it's time to get a electric smoker lol
 
I started competing in 2015 with one Rec Tec RT-680 pellet grill and I loved it. I moved to a larger gravity feed because of vending but I now have a Rec Tec Mini that I use in my comps as well. Awesome units!
 
bucko said:
Funny how things change about smoking meat now I guess it's not about the smoke it's seems to b more about the rub the sauce and everything else so I think it's time to get a electric smoker lol
Click to expand...

It's much easier to oversmoke in an electric :tape:

But, I do have to disagree slightly. It's not about just the rub and sauce. It's about putting out a well balanced, less offensive product. And by balance I include the meat, rub, sauce, smoke, and cook. If you balance all of those, and no one or two stands out as offensive, you will do well. If you were able to compare the product from the top cookes on all cooker types (and I have had a chance to do this for a lot of types), you'll find that they are very similar. Even the top stick burners, like the Jambo guys, are producing a lighter smoke flavor because they cook hotter. The drum guys are cooking very hot, and the wood burns more efficiently so the smoke flavor is lighter. Yes, there are differences, but if you nail the cook, and have a good balance of flavors, you can win, regardless of cooker.
 
I cook on drums and a Yoder ys1500. I don't get anymore smoke flavor in my food from my drums than I do my pellet cooker. Why? Because they all are running a clean hot fire and nice thin blue smoke. That extra "smoke flavor" from them stick burners isn't smoke, it's creosote. I've tasted BBQ cooked off of offsets that were cooked by teams that have their fair share of wins and have never tasted more smoke flavor in those samples.
 
I've never understood the need to put a smoldering tube of pellets in mine to lay down creosote er um smoke on my food.
 
We have been competing with MAK Grills & BBQr's Delight pellets for years...we do just fine! :cool:
 
Ron_L said:
It's much easier to oversmoke in an electric :tape:

But, I do have to disagree slightly. It's not about just the rub and sauce. It's about putting out a well balanced, less offensive product. And by balance I include the meat, rub, sauce, smoke, and cook. If you balance all of those, and no one or two stands out as offensive, you will do well. If you were able to compare the product from the top cookes on all cooker types (and I have had a chance to do this for a lot of types), you'll find that they are very similar. Even the top stick burners, like the Jambo guys, are producing a lighter smoke flavor because they cook hotter. The drum guys are cooking very hot, and the wood burns more efficiently so the smoke flavor is lighter. Yes, there are differences, but if you nail the cook, and have a good balance of flavors, you can win, regardless of cooker.
Click to expand...
Bingo...:cool:
 
I know I did, and everyone I know that first gets a "smoker", is they take the word "smoke" to be the gospel.
 
JeffR said:
I know I did, and everyone I know that first gets a "smoker", is they take the word "smoke" to be the gospel.
Click to expand...

Yup I was in that camp when brisket was .29 a pound and we convinced ourselves that is was GREAT. LOL
 
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