Goodbye Pellet Smoker Tube!

craigp

Active member
Messages
41
Location
East Texas
Grill(s) owned
  1. RT-1250
I’ve been using my RT-1250 for about six months now. I quickly learned that I no longer need my pellet smoker tube, like I did with my Traeger. The recteq puts out more than enough smoke for my taste. Any of you folks still use one?

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I use it sporadically. Especially when the cook temps are above 280F and the Bull’s smoke levels begin to decrease. An example is chicken wings, pork-n-beans and mac-n-cheese, where optimum smoke penetration is desired.
 
I don't use a smoke tube as often as I thought I would. I am thinking about using it on a brisket this weekend as my last brisket didn't take on a lot of smoke even though it was one of the best I've cooked. More often than not, I've been very happy with the smoke output when I'm at around 225 or lower.
 
Good ole creosote from a dirty burning smoke tube!!!!
What are you burning in your smoke tube to get “creosote.” Why would burning cooking pellets or hardwood chunks designed for cooking produce any more creosote than burning pellets in the grill?
 
Jim6820,
Great question. I wondered the same thing and I can’t wait to hear the answer.
 
So since I was cooking this weekend anyway, I dusted off the smoke tube. I crammed it with cut down hickory chunks surrounded by pellets and torched it until the metal glowed. This was a couple hours ago.
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Great looking chunk of protein. Interesting technique with the additional flame. I hope it went out at some time. How did it affect your ambient temp probe?
 
Interesting technique with the additional flame. I hope it went out at some time.
Yeah, I was screwing around and torched the smoke tube one last time once it was on it's side in the pit. I blew it out and it happily smoked away for several hours.
 
What are you burning in your smoke tube to get “creosote.” Why would burning cooking pellets or hardwood chunks designed for cooking produce any more creosote than burning pellets in the grill?
Because a smoke tube isn't burning clean, it is basically smoldering. Again when you see real pit BBQ masters doing their thing, you see hardly any smoke at all coming out of their cookers most the time. Have quite the legit BBQ place down the road from me "Ray Rays BBQ", there is hardly any discernable smoke coming out of their hickory wood smokers.
 
Because a smoke tube isn't burning clean, it is basically smoldering. Again when you see real pit BBQ masters doing their thing, you see hardly any smoke at all coming out of their cookers most the time. Have quite the legit BBQ place down the road from me "Ray Rays BBQ", there is hardly any discernable smoke coming out of their hickory wood smokers.
Moto…,
I agree some places have the ”light blue line” of smoke wafting from their chimneys. It is picturesque and fits a particular narrative, especially that of some manufacturers that can’t produce more smoke content. However, there is more to the science of smoke than just the quantity, color, and type. I have been around pitmasters since before the term was coined and many smoke houses in the Carolinas where my family still has them spew higher levels of smoke than your corner restaurant. This is especially true when they/we do hams. We load the smoke house with 40 or 50 and throw in a couple sides of beef and a half dozen pigs and let ‘er rip. Even when I do a small pregame cook (see pics below), I tend to have plenty of smoke present. Interestingly many “new school” masters are retreating from their light smoke positions because they now know the value of true smoking versus commercial smoking and also understand the compression levels of smoke on your backyard grill isn’t uniform. I think it’s why the offset people laugh at the pellet crowd. It’s like going to a Creole or Cajun restaurant in NYC. Do you really think that toned down level of spice in the chain restaurant is authentic and tastes original? What about eating at an Indian restaurant in the US versus one in Mumbai or Chennai? Or a Thai restaurant in Phuket vs. Canada? When I travel to places like India, the curries and spices are completely different in each region of India and none of it tastes like the “alleged” US, weakened, versions. I was especially enthused with Yoder of Mad Scientist BBQ’s “I Made this Mistake About BBQ for Years” episode (
) when he “walked back” his theories and said he was looking at smoke completely wrong. So many people “drink the kool-aid” without truly experiencing the original product, which is a shame but typical of American-European culture. I feel we should always calibrate our thoughts by any limits or biases we may have and remember that what we think we are doing may not be a good facsimile of the original. The pics are one of my small road cooks and if you were to see the smoke levels I use it would make you grimmace. What you don’t see is that 1 log of mesquite can be more potent and offensive than 5 hickory logs, but the mesquite can have the light blue smoke versus the hickory‘s smoke machine look.

I look forward to our continued dialogue on this topic and also the thoughts of others and any real world observations during your/their cooks.

Just my thoughts.

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If you do use your smoke tube again, use pellets and wood chips also. I alternate pellets, some wood chips, pellets, wood chips, etc. Usually around 2 to 3 sections of wood chips. I get great smoke flavor this way if I'm doing some long like brisket, ribs(beef and pork) or chicken.

But if you are getting enough smoke flavor for you own taste just from the grill/smoker itself, that is great! I've made this point several times, everyone has different level of the kind of smoke flavor they like. Smoke tube is a good cheap option if you want some more smoke flavor however I've found the smoke tube with just pellets, does little to nothing from my experience.
 
I still use a smoke tube for fish, jerky and cold smoking cheese. It is just another tool in the bag around my smoker.
 
I'll still use my smoke maze. My previous cook with the 1250 was three racks of St. Louis cut ribs and I chose to try without. I noticed that the smoke flavor was barely there after smoking at 250 degrees.
 

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