Was dead set against pellet grills until a buddy proved me wrong at his cookout last June

I've always been a stick burner guy, charcoal and wood chunks only. Thought pellets were just overpriced Easy-Bake ovens for people who didn't want to learn fire management. Then my friend Mike fired up his Traeger at his backyard party in Nashville and threw on a brisket flat he'd dry brined for 12 hours. Eight hours later that thing came off with a bark so deep and smoky I had to eat my words along with three slices. He didn't tend it once the whole time we were drinking beer and talking football. Has anyone else here had an eye-opening moment with a cooker you swore you'd never use?

3 comments

3 Comments

samk771mo ago

That exact same thing happened to me at my buddy Tyler's place in Austin two years ago. He ran a Recteq for a pork shoulder that went 14 hours untouched while we played cornhole, and the flavor was legitimately on par with my WSM. I still keep my offset for weekend cooks when I want to babysit a fire, but that pellet grill gets used every Tuesday for chicken thighs after work. The convenience factor is real and the smoke ring is good enough that my neighbors can't tell the difference.

nancyjones1mo ago

My brother in law sent me a video from a barbecue competition last year where a guy won a whole hog category with a Yoder pellet smoker. I had always read online that pellets couldn't produce enough smoke flavor for a competition entry, but that video showed me I was wrong. The guy even said he used a smoke tube for extra flavor on long cooks, which made sense to me. It stuck in my head because I used to think pellet grills were only for people who didn't care about real barbecue taste. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe there's room for both types in a backyard setup.

the_drew1mo agoMost Upvoted

A similar thing happened to me with air fryers last year. I spent years thinking they were just tiny convection ovens that couldn't really crisp anything up, then my sister made wings in hers that were better than my deep fried ones. It made me realize a lot of my strong opinions on gear come from reading old forum posts from 2015 instead of actually trying stuff.