Pellet grill vs. Weber 22"

[jwilliamson1000]

I was in Costco and saw prime briskets for $2.99 per lb. I started twitching wanting to get one. I had to remember why I was there...pork belly.
So I got a nice slab of pork belly and went home to prepare the Weber and the meat for smoking.
I cut the belly into cubes and seasoned with my own SPG rub and some Killer Hogs BBQ rub.
I put the cubes on the Weber but there were too many. So, I fired up my pellet grill too. I have a Pit Boss PB1000T2.
I had both running 300 degrees and right after I put the meat on a light rain started.
The Pit Boss showed 290 and the Weber stayed right at 300 though I did slightly adjust the vents once the rain started.
I used Red Oak lump with Pecan wood chunks on the Weber. The pellet grill was using LJ pecan pellets.
When all was said and done I much preferred the flavor from the Weber and I gave my wife a blind taste test and she did too.
The good news is that today I got to have meat candy and home-made cole slaw for breakfast.
Meat candy breakfast

 

[long haired hippie]

not into pellets

 

[ttkt57]

Don't give up on pellet cookers. None produce much smoke at 300°F, and some not even at 225°F. Others with firebasket designs that diverge from the origianl Traeger template (Yoder, Outlaw, Louisiana) can produce very satisfying smoke flavor when run low and slow.

 

[gtsum]

None will provide the flavor of a kettle with charcoal and chunks. That’s a much heavier smoke profile than even the heaviest of pellet cookers. I bet they were both very good though!

I went through a pellet phase for a few years and really enjoyed it and cranked out fantastic food...but then one day I was tailgating and had some food grilled on my little kamado and things changed for me. I had been missing that lump fire grilled taste. Then I got a stick burner and for bbq, there is just no comparison for me. I think my tastes changed and are getting more dull and I’m liking more smoke flavor in my food these days. Sometimes I miss my pellets for convenience though..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[4ever3]

Yull have to pry my pellet grill from my cold dead hands...

 

[Dweverett]

I like the food off both but need to run them differently. I tend to run the kettle around 275 but prefer the Rectec down at 225. In your case it made total sense to run both at the same temp since you were doing it to solve the space issue

 

[Lynn Dollar]

Gravity feed charcoal chunk is the compromise.

 

[KevinJ]

I can turnout great food on both but for some reason I really enjoy cooking on the Kettle with the Vortex and SnS, going to pickup a 26er and SnS in the near future. If I think I can handle all my capacity needs on the 26" the pellet grill is going up for sale.

 

[jwilliamson1000]

That's kind of where I am at. I still love the food from the pellet grill but miss the control other methods offer.

 

[jham0077]

Yull have to pry my pellet grill from my cold dead hands...

Ditto. But you'll have to pry my Weber kettle from my other hand. They both have their place and time.

 

[4ever3]

Ditto. But you'll have to pry my Weber kettle from my other hand. They both have their place and time.

Oh no argument here...

 

[Dweverett]

I can turnout great food on both but for some reason I really enjoy cooking on the Kettle with the Vortex and SnS, going to pickup a 26er and SnS in the near future. If I think I can handle all my capacity needs on the 26" the pellet grill is going up for sale.

The 26 with S&S is awesome. It does make a lot of difference on closing the capacity gap but at least vs my RT680, not completely. I still need the pellet grill’s capacity sometimes for larger cooks. Those are also often times when I have less time to spend watching the kettle — e.g., I have a houseful of guests.

They really do make a great pair.

 

[SlowmotionQue]

I’ve gotten good results with prime briskets on both my Rec Tec RT 590 and my 22in WSM running either my BBQ Guru Cyber Q, or as of late, my FireBoard 2 Drive running the BBQ Guru Pit Viper fan.

I can get just as accurate temperature control over an entire brisket cook with my WSM set up this way, running Jealous Devil lump charcoal and hickory chunks as I can on my PID controlled Rec Tec RT 590.

The smoke flavor is of course a little more pronounced on the WSM.

But a smoke tube in the RT 590 brings it closer.