What are your favorite pellets and why?

[Greg Jones]

@Greg Jones, I know several fellow members don't care for the Pit Boss charcoal flavor, but, you know stubborn me, just have to find out for my damn self. Got me a bag and going to grill baby back ribs for Thanksgiving on my Bullseye. I learned from bad experience that I need to use a drip pan. Since I have to use one should I go ahead and put some water in it for a little moisture cooking the ribs.? Thanks for your help.

I absolutely would. It’s probably not needed, but it can’t hurt either.

 

[Greg Jones]

Wow, didn't expect that. Kinda glad I have just the one bag of them. Wondering if the hopper on the RT-700 would be as susceptible to bridging. It's not an issue I've seen yet despite some long pellets.

I’m using up in my Bull, although I’m mixing in recteq pellets with them. I’ve had no bridging issue in the Bull.

 

[charlesrshell]

I absolutely would. It’s probably not needed, but it can’t hurt either.

Thanks. I got to thinking water in the drip pan sitting on the flame defector probably won't last very long. Going to cook ribs on 225 so maybe they won't dry out. Probably will skip the water.

 

[timelinex]

I see all the brands have a "competition" type of pellet. What makes a blend "competition"? Is it just marketing or are they higher quality or what?

 

[TheRicker]

Wonder why Recteq only recommends Kingsford pellets now!

My guess...$$$

 

[TheRicker]

My guess...$$$

...and what's with RecTeq not selling pellets online except with a purchase?

 

[TheRicker]

Our son has a 700 and only uses Pit Boss and he does a lot of long cooks. I just started using Pit Boss so can't comment yet.

Being an old "Home Improvement" fan, I love your avatar.

 

[TheRicker]

I just bought a bag of Grilla Grills "competition" pellets, a bag of Traeger "gourmet blend" pellets, RecTeq "ultimate" blend pellets, and CookinPellets "perfect" blend. So I generally want to see how these different brands and blends smell and taste...as well as how they burn. I'll report back in a few months my thoughts on how that goes.

That said, for many years I had gotten the BBQ'rs Delight pellets. I used to buy separate bags of oak, hickory, apple, cherry, and mesquite. I think I tried a pecan once. But I liked those pellets better than the Traegers (I had an old Traeger BBQ075 for many years). Traeger allegedly used alder wood as a filler. That said, the flavor wood smoke / flavor was plenty adequate so alder wasn't necessarily noticeable. With the BBQ'rs Delight, they advertised that they used oak as their filler. The storyline was that pure flavor wood would be too strong. But what I found was that these pellets burned nicely...a little less ash as well. I used to buy 1/2 pallets of pellets (yes, I did say that) to get the best price. But eventually, the price went up and I had difficulty calling and ordering the larger quantity.

I ended up going back to Traeger pellets because I could still get the separate flavor 20lb bags at a local pool supplies store and got a good discount there. I really like mixing my own blends. I like a bit more apple and cherry when I do poultry...with a hint of hickory.

Paul Kirk, BBQ professional in years past, always preached the hickory, apple, and oak combination. And I did that for a long time. I used mesquite pellets, or mesquite/oak blend, for beef cooks and grilling steaks. Problem with buying all the separate flavored pellets is I sometimes end up with too much of something I don't use so much...like pecan.

So, here I am on Thanksgiving Eve thinking about what blend I'm going to use tomorrow. These different blends I purchased appear to have some similarities and others a bit different (maple anyone?). The CookinPellets say they use nothing but flavor wood in their pellets. I'm very intrigued about how that's going to smell/taste. The other blends I bought don't appear to be too different from what I used to do with the separate flavors I used to mix together on my own. I'll figure out, by morning, what blend I'll use on my spatchcocked turkey tomorrow...and report back. And, oh, I have never spatchcocked a turkey before but it doesn't look hard and I'm excited about it may turn out. I've watched several YT vids on the topic recently and will use as many of the good tips I picked up on watching them.

My apologies for the long diatribe. Just wanted to share what I've done with flavors and brands of pellets in the past and what I'm about to embark on. Best wishes for a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving to all. And good luck to those that are going to try new things on a Thanksgiving cook. (Yikes)

 

[DenStinett]

We've settled on Alder for everything
Mainly because it looks like switching from one type, to another type of Pellet, seem like a real pain in the Hooper !
Looked all around and found that Cabela's (Bass Pro) had the best deal on Pellets
100 lbs, shipped to the House for under $60.00

 

[Snook]

Sam’s club brand. Cheap and easy to get.

 

[hallsofmontezuma]

Sam’s club brand. Cheap and easy to get.

Strangely my Sam's doesn't seem to carry them according to their website, nor can I find them to order online.

 

[JTeje]

No expert on this I just got my stampede. I got two 40 pound bags off Amazon to use. Rec tec blend and bear mountain hickory. I am new to this pellet game and sometimes there is a little bit of temperature weirdness or sometimes all of a sudden I am getting a ton of smoke in the middle of a cook which does not seem right. However for the most part the grill has maintained temps well, gets to temp in a decent amount of time and does seem to recover quickly from when I open the door. Flavor has been really good with the rec tec pellets so far, very different from the lump charcoal I am used to but still really good. I used the pellets in a smoke tube too and results have been really good. I didn’t know rec tec brand are cookin pellets. I was going to get a bag of them too but there were a lot of complaints on Amazon about getting plastic or painted wood in the chips. One thing I will say is I got a few pellets in this rec tec back that were really long. I thought the auger would break them up hopefully I don’t have issues. I am very concerned with getting fake stuff on Amazon or sometimes it seems like you get factory seconds or something. So far though as far as I can tell they work great and I got the grill to like 526 to sear a steak. Not too much ash either, about halfway through the rec tec bag.

 

[Bytor]

I have been using LJ and CP since I finished up my RT bags. I mainly use Hickory from both, but will throw in a blend from time to time. I too noticed the Charhickory burnt on the dirty side and I also noticed the size irregularities with the pellets. I see my local Lowe's has PB bags for less than $10/20# bag, so I will be trying these. I mainly have been getting bags for Dicks and Amazon.

 

[TheMeaterator]

Lumberjack 100% Hickory . Consistent burn and temps . Great but not overpowering flavor on Beef
I also use Pit Boss Competition blend on Chicken
one of the thing I have learned on dust in pellets, it will relates to how the pellets were handled (how many times it was moved and how) Walmart seems to be very bad for lots of dust in pellet bags. Excessive manual moving/throwing stack to stack. Our area Lowes moves in a pallet at a time no manual handling. Much much less dust last 40 lb bag did not have 2 tablespoons of dust

 

[VanBull]

Title says it all. What do you like best and, and why? Flavor? Low ash? High/accurate temp?
What would you stay away from?

In my RT-700 I've only used the RecTeq Ultimate Blend, Lumber Jack Competition Blend, and Lumber Jack Pecan. I honestly don't know that I could tell you the difference between any of them.

It was turkey season so I happened to still have my Traeger Turkey Blend Pellets with Rosemary and brine kits. As always my turkeys turned out perfect and even better this time on my new RT-700 (got to love the better temp control and WiFi). I did receive the RecTeq pellet bundle and will start using them on a variety of meats and I’m sure they will be great as many have stated

 

[icemanrrc]

To my understanding, Recteq has specifically stated not to use the char hickory. They are causing issues. I’m sure someone has a bit more details, but I’ve seen it posted quite a number of times. I guess it would be fine to use them in a tube if you wanted.

 

[JGouvisis20]

@Greg Jones, I know several fellow members don't care for the Pit Boss charcoal flavor, but, you know stubborn me, just have to find out for my damn self. Got me a bag and going to grill baby back ribs for Thanksgiving on my Bullseye. I learned from bad experience that I need to use a drip pan. Since I have to use one should I go ahead and put some water in it for a little moisture cooking the ribs.? Thanks for your help.

Hi Greg,

Did you end up going with the Pit Boss charcoal pellets on Thanksgiving? If so, whats your opinion on them? I bought 4 bags a couple weeks ago because they were only $8 each at walmart. Thinking of taking them back if theyre trash lol! you mentioned that others dont care for them either. Curious to know so i can decide to keep them or not.

Josh

 

[charlesrshell]

@JGouvisis20 my wife says our Thanksgiving baby back ribs were awesome. She wants me to use Pit Boss Charcoal pellets from now on. I only buy one bag at a time now when I try out different pellet flavors. When I first got my RT I got four bags of LJ hickory and didn't care for them. Now I have three bags I will have to give away. I still want to try out LJ's Char Hickory flavor. If wife doesn't like that flavor we will probably stick with Pit Boss charcoal from now on. She really liked the charcoal flavor. Go figure. LOL

 

[Greg Jones]

Hi Greg,

Did you end up going with the Pit Boss charcoal pellets on Thanksgiving?...

That was @charlesrshell tagging me in his post-sorry but I’ve never tried Pit Boss.

 

[Redeye]

Title says it all. What do you like best and, and why? Flavor? Low ash? High/accurate temp?
What would you stay away from?

In my RT-700 I've only used the RecTeq Ultimate Blend, Lumber Jack Competition Blend, and Lumber Jack Pecan. I honestly don't know that I could tell you the difference between any of them.