SweaT-rex
Well-known member
One of the commonly stated shortcomings of pellet grills is the lack of smoke flavor compared to offset stick burners. I've previously tried a smoke tube-like device with wood chips or chunks with satisfactory results but wanted to try another method that had a longer "burn time". I had recently seen a video where a 50-50 mixture of pellets & wood chips was used in a Lone Star pellet grill with good results with the admonition that this was only suitable for Lone Star grills. Nonetheless I ordered 40 lbs of hickory chips from Lone Star & mixed them 50-50 by volume with RecTeq Ultimate Blend pellets & did a baby back rib cook on my Bullseye Deluxe today.
The chips are very finely chipped & mixed easily with the pellets. Here are a few observations: 1) the smoke production was noticeably more at 225-250 degrees than with any brand of pellets used alone ( Recteq, Lumberjack, Traeger) in my experience. 2) the grill operated as usual with one outlier- there was a flame out 4.5 hours into the cook with the grill running at 225 degrees with the temp falling to 150 degrees. It took the grill 18 minutes to recover back to baseline & I could hear the auger functioning normally. I made no adjustments during this time. It took the grill 9 minutes to again reach 225 & then it overshot to a high of 275 degrees for 9 minutes before settling back in at 225. 3) the smoke flavor was more than with a smoke tube, but not bitter or obnoxious. 4) the overall volume of consumption of chips/ pellets was more than with pellets alone.
I will continue to experiment with this process on other cooks both hot & slow. I don't think the auger jammed during the flameout but I did note the hopper was almost empty when it happened, so it may be that more weight on the chips/pellets entering the auger is beneficial to prevent voids in feeding the firepot.
The chips are very finely chipped & mixed easily with the pellets. Here are a few observations: 1) the smoke production was noticeably more at 225-250 degrees than with any brand of pellets used alone ( Recteq, Lumberjack, Traeger) in my experience. 2) the grill operated as usual with one outlier- there was a flame out 4.5 hours into the cook with the grill running at 225 degrees with the temp falling to 150 degrees. It took the grill 18 minutes to recover back to baseline & I could hear the auger functioning normally. I made no adjustments during this time. It took the grill 9 minutes to again reach 225 & then it overshot to a high of 275 degrees for 9 minutes before settling back in at 225. 3) the smoke flavor was more than with a smoke tube, but not bitter or obnoxious. 4) the overall volume of consumption of chips/ pellets was more than with pellets alone.
I will continue to experiment with this process on other cooks both hot & slow. I don't think the auger jammed during the flameout but I did note the hopper was almost empty when it happened, so it may be that more weight on the chips/pellets entering the auger is beneficial to prevent voids in feeding the firepot.