Cooked up a couple 4 bone beef plate ribs today on the Pit Boss vertical pellet smoker. S&P rub. Pit Boss hickory oak blend pellets, 270*. Smoked for 3.5 hours to 160 then wrapped in foil to 205. Toweled and into a cooler for an hour until I couldn’t wait any longer. Overall, came out good. Super tender and juicy, but unfortunately, I’m so used to cooking on my kettle and getting unbelievable flavor, that the smoke just wasn’t there for me. Next time I’ll lower the heat and smoke longer, I think that’ll help. Maybe invest in a smoke tube, IDK. It was a lazy Sunday so wanted the convenience of my vertical. Also did a pastrami with my two plate ribs, so kettle was a no go. Either way, they were delicious and got me where I need to be ✌🏻. Be well!
by wulfpak04
36 Comments
I swear by my kettle. And once you get good at fire management, it’s not even that much work. I can leave it for 6 hours at a time and get some sleep overnight.
Try a smoke tube it makes a considerable difference for me especially when mixing your pellets with wood chips, I use mesquite chips in mine for a heartier smoke. Also I’ve noticed out of the brands and blends I’ve tried that lumberjack and bear mountain brand pellets give me the best flavor.
Amen brother. Snake method changed my life.
Which kettle do you have…if I may ask?
Ruined? You mean “cured”….
Damn, those rib plates look cooked to perfection! You have the right idea of just lowering the temp on your smoker to get more smoke flavor. At least for the first 2-3 hours.
I use both charcoal and pellet but I still prefer the flavor from my weber kettle
Get a WSM. It’s the best classic wood and charcoal burning smoker in my opinion. Offsets are awesome and the best for abundance, but for the home smoke, nothing beats a smokey mountain. Take the water bowl out and you can use it as a regular grill, too.
A 22” Weber kettle is still the king of smoking sub like $1,500 offsets. And seeing as how you can regularly get them on marketplace for under $100, not sure why anyone really buys a pellet oven. It takes like 20 minutes to setup a snake method and get your charcoals lit, and is almost as set it and forget it as a pellet grill.
Pellet smokers are amazing for their ease. It’s 10% of the work.
They’re simply lacking in smoke flavor and while a smoke tube helps, it won’t get you to that offset flavor
I get better smoke from my offset but I still use pellet when I don’t want to babysit the cook
Yea once you go coal or wood or coal and wood theres no going back. The flavor is unmatched.
Pellet smokers can get some flack or a negative reputation but they are an excellent tool to have in the tool box. They can often be a gateway…
My unsolicited opinion…
Kettle to offset is an even larger gap.
I think you’ll have this with any smoker until you find “the one”. I started with a 22″ Weber Smokey Mountain. Honestly, I was never impressed with it. Eventually I figured out it was the charcoal. I just don’t like the taste of charcoal smoke. So i bought a small offset off of Facebook marketplace. From my first cook, I knew my days of using the WSM were over. Amazing differences in taste, texture, and fat rendering. Well eventually, after watching Meat ‘n Greet BBQ on YouTube build a smoker, I decided to build one myself. Went with a 330 gallon LP tank and turned it into an offset on a trailer. The thing cooks amazing.
And then something funny happened. I had always planned to sell the WSM and keep the small offset for small cooks. But now they’re both for sale. The bigger, homemade smoker just cooks food that is superior in quality, it’s far easier to run than the small offset (temperature control and having to add wood less often), and it doesn’t really use that much more wood than the small offset.
Everyone has different tastes and will have a smoker that suits their needs/tastes.
Smoke tube is actually essential for the pellet smokers, elevates the smoke flavor 10 fold!
The pellet smoker is just an outdoor oven fired with unnatural processed wood. Charcoal and a kiss of wood satiates the true innate drive for primal smoke flavor.
Don’t ever get an offset, it will ruin your kettle
Wait until you try a traditional stick smoker, buy yeah a kettle is less maintenance.
I would go kettle for plate ribs. Easy to keep temp under control for 6hrs with kettle. Brisket is a different story. Pellet…
Kettle always.
I sold my Traeger. Never used it.
There is no replacement for charcoal and wood chunks. Pellet grills don’t do it for me in the flavor department.
Forgive my ignorance. What exactly is “the kettle”?
Pellets serve a purpose. They are easy and convenient.
But nothing..miss me with the smoke tube BS…. NOTHING..will ever get you the flavor and results of a stick burner.
Bank two bricks to one side and fill it up with coal like a sns. You’ll get way longer burn times.
To all those that have never smoked with rectec I am sorry for your loss👍
You were spot on about the smoke tubes. Get two of them. I mix in a little pellet, then sprinkle some wood chips, then a little pellets, then sprinkle some wood chips, etc. Does a lot of heavy lifting for smoke flavor on my pellet smoker.
“yOu cAn GeT tHe sAmE QuAlItY sMoKe fRoM a PeLlEt SmOkeR tHaN wOoD aNd cHaRcOAl”
Growing up we were a kettle family, I just got my own home last year and went with a Searwood instead of kettle because I’m old and lazy and rather yell at the clouds than manage a fire.
That being said, I’m probably going to get the new Weber 22″ smart performer.
I use a hasty bake legacy and could not agree more. Charcoal grills set up to also be smokers is the way.
I don’t understand how all these comments are so pro charcoal. Usually it’s all about the ez bake ovens.
Pellet smoker will not give you the flavor like a weber kettle can!
There’s really no competition, from the flavor you get to the texture and moisture difference, real fires are king. I like the convenience of a pellet smoker but nothing I’ve done on there comes close to cooking with real fire
I havnt found a way for the snake method to keep continuous lit fire. It seemed when i did it it kept dying every 2 hours or so.
I can agree with this but I am happy I have a pellet. I started smoking meats way back in 1999 and had a baller wood handled top Weber Smokey mountain. Over the years I’ve had many grills. My current line up is my reqtec bull 700 pellet, Weber summit Komodo, camp chef ft900 griddle and a Santa Maria large v shaped Argentinian grill that I built a base for. Having a kids and an autistic son the pellet comes in so handy cause I never have to do anything with it. It replaced a stick burner many years ago just for the ease of use. The Weber is my favorite tho, it was between this and a green egg at the time and I am so happy I chose the summit. It holds temps really good, close to set it and forget it and it also doubles as a grill. Coming from a Weber kettle, this thing is a tank and produces the same results as my old kettle but retains heat much better. I am really looking forward to summer and getting back out to it all. Enjoy the meat!!
Use your smoke setting for an hour , then low and slow
Those look great!
Also, this is why I sold my GMG and went back to the Smokey Mountain.