really unimpressed

What's the best motor oil? ;)
TBH, I don't notice much difference between brands...
I use the blends which usually have hickory, cherry, maple and or oak.
I get whatever I find at the best price, been using Kirkland @ $12.99 for a 40# bag.
I'm with you on pellets. I know some swear by pellet brands. I think for the price differences you see per lb., I don't see the extra value with some. For example, i saw some Traeger "reserve" pellets selling for $27.99 for 20 lbs. at Ace Hardware the other way. To me, someone would be committed paying that price but that's me. As you can see above, Pungo pays less than half of that for 40 lbs.

I like Lumber Jack but they stopped selling them at my Rural King. I switched to the Rural King brand which sells for $7.88 for 20 lbs. I try to stay around 50 cents a lb or less when buying pellets. I was using Cookingpellets for awhile I would get from a dealer who was selling me 40 lb bags for $20 cash but he told me cookinpellets found out about his prices and told him to raise them. Idk what the truth is but I decided at the time to go back to lumber jack and now using Rural King brand. While I liked the cookinpellets a lot, the price just didn't seem worth it to me with him raising his prices.

The one exception I have is I buy Royal Oak Charcoal pellets which are about $1 a lb but I only use in my pellet tube so one bag can last me a whole season.
 
The one exception I have is I buy Royal Oak Charcoal pellets which are about $1 a lb but I only use in my pellet tube so one bag can last me a whole season.
Can you try explain what that gives you flavor wise? And I mean in terms of does it emulate a flavor from another cooker like a drum, a kamado, a kettle?
 
These are my go to pellets!
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Can you try explain what that gives you flavor wise? And I mean in terms of does it emulate a flavor from another cooker like a drum, a kamado, a kettle?
It does give a charcoal taste. I ran through a full bag on my Bullseye. My wife definitely noticed the difference so it definitely bridges the gap somewhat but still not to the extent of lump or brisquette charcoal like on a Weber or whatever you use. To me, it isn't worth the $1 a lb for them but I would say if someone doesn't have access to good priced pellets and most are around $1 a lb, I would definitely pick these over anything else.

So to summarize, they do make a difference and you can taste it but still doesn't completely bridge the gap. I personally like a strong (clean) smoke flavor. I'm mostly a pellet guy now but I did pick up a Weber this past spring when I have time and really would like some stronger flavor and yes, I can tell the difference between the Weber and Royal Oak charcoal pellets in a pellet smoker.
 
Have been on BGE for more than a decade, bought recteq to see what the hype is. I have done 2 pork butts, turkey, burgers, chicken breasts and a ham. I would say on 10 hour pork butt cook smoke flavor is a 1/10 and the meat is overall not as tender as Egg. What are your suggestions? I used the recteq comp blend pellets.

The grill is really well made but the flavor is lacking...
I am going to stick my neck out here. Sounds like you know what you are doing but now you have a pellet grill. A little background here. I have an old egg I bought in Japan(1970), a Weber kettle , 2 brinkman barrels, and a Texas smoker my wife got me 30 yrs ago. I cook/smoke/grill and love it. Got my 590 last year and was at first very dissatisfied with the "smoke" flavor. Can't even make myself think of using anything but it now. Change you style a bit. Add a couple hours of "Low" ( you won't believe the smoke}. Don't bring your meat to room temp. Season the night before and from the fridge straight to the grill! You will be amazed at how much smoke flavor you get.
 
This was a pretty good conversation so far; I'm starting to think this is like the one guy who keeps a 590 in his garage just so he can come here and complain about it or the firmware guy. Good times....
 
This was a pretty good conversation so far; I'm starting to think this is like the one guy who keeps a 590 in his garage just so he can come here and complain about it or the firmware guy. Good times....
I only complain when updating the firmware, thank you very much ;)
 
I use only the Ultimate blend pellets on my 590, have cooked multiple Tenderloins, Briskets, Ribs and Butts on the 590. Honestly it is hard to mess it up. It is very easy and the food is all very, very good to the point I wont eat at most BBQ restaurants as mine is as good as and honestly better than most.

That being said I am not a competition cooker and I am very happy with the ease of using my 590. It has not let me down!
 
Have been on BGE for more than a decade, bought recteq to see what the hype is. I have done 2 pork butts, turkey, burgers, chicken breasts and a ham. I would say on 10 hour pork butt cook smoke flavor is a 1/10 and the meat is overall not as tender as Egg. What are your suggestions? I used the recteq comp blend pellets.

The grill is really well made but the flavor is lacking...
I think you should give some other pellets a try. From all of my research Knotty Wood pellets give some of the best smoke. I think you can order them from Lowes. Good luck and lets us know if things get better.
 
Just wanted to update on something about pork shoulder times.

I did 8 pork butts on my Bull the other day for a friend who does catering. Needless to say, 8 pork butts is a grill fully packed! I've done this before.

I think last time I did something like this, I ran at 180 overnight.

This time I ran at 225 the whole way and started around 7pm. I was expecting around 24 hours for the cook time. Well, since it is colder here now in Chicagoland, at 225, I wasn't seeing much smoke(big reason is so much meat in there "catching the smoke" but also the fan would stay on instead like in the summer heat, the fan will turn off and on. I think that speed up the cook.

When I woke up the next day, around 8am, 3 of them were already done. The bark wasn't good at all really but they were probe tender. The meat is going into tamales anyways so the bark isn't too important.

Point of the story is you can cook and finish a pork shoulder at 225 in 12 to 13 hours. When you are only doing 1 or 2 pork shoulders, I think they cook slower because more empty space in the grill chamber. Also, when I'm doing just 2, I always put them on a rack with a water pan below to catch the drippings for later so elevating them slows down the time also.

The ones that finished around 13 hours were on the right hand side of the grill which makes sense b/c that's the way the smoke is pulled/pushed out the chamber. The remaining ones I pulled off over time. I think I pulled my last pork butt off at 3pm which is still under the 24 hours it usually takes to cook a pork butt for me but 20 to 24 hours is usually what it takes me to cook 2 pork butts.
 
Might have something to do with putting 60 lbs of cold meat in the grill too.

The last cold weather butts I did it was in the teens at night, 3 for a day time high. 2 bone in 8+ lb’ers took 16 hrs @225. On at 9pm.
 
I quit smoking pork butts on my 590 because there wasn’t enough smoke flavor . Briskets have enough smoke flavor but still not like my offset smoker. It’s a trade off for convenience.
 

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