New Owner: Clean Burn?

[burri]

Hello!

New Flagship 1100 owner here, and new to pellet smokers in general. I've done the initial burn off, and cooked wings, thighs, and most recently a pork shoulder. I've cleaned it up after the shoulder, but curious if people do a clean burn on pellet smokers? ie, as you would on a kamado after a long smoke to burn off all the grease. Get temps up to around 500+ and hold for awhile to burn it all off.

Right now I've replaced the foil on the drip pan, wiped away any grease elsewhere (just a little bottom of the barrel on the right), and cleaned the fire pot. But was curious if people to clean burns as well.

So far, enjoying the Recteq!

 

[v1per95]

I've done it plenty of times, no issues. I don't foil, however.

 

[Pacman]

I clean out the ash, re-foil, and reprime the firepot pretty regularly. I mostly cook low and slow so that seems to do the trick. If I'm going to make pizzas or something else on high heat, I will run the cooker at high heat for a while before putting any food in it to burn off the accumulated gunk from slow cooking. I found that if I did not do that, the first couple of pizzas have a distinct "burnt grease" taste.

I honestly spend more effort cleaning the outside of the grill for cosmetics and even that's just a regular wipe down with stainless steel cleaner.

 

[burri]

Thanks. Good to know. I will be doing a mix of low/slow and grilling at higher temps, and that was my thought. ...residual grease impacting the taste of the next cook.

I've been a kamado guy for the last 10yrs, and always burned everything off regularly after long smokes.