Pellet Grills and Smokers

Pellet grills are great. They give an outdoor wood cooked flavour to whatever you decide to prepare, and you can cook anything it's possible to cook in a conventional convection oven and you have the additional option of smoking your food.

If you haven't yet tasted pellet smoker grill cooking, you're missing a wonderful flavour experience.

Wood pellet grills and smokers operate in much the same way as a pellet stove. An auger takes the pellets to the burn pot at a rate designed to produce the required heat output.

These pellet smokers are fuelled by food grade wood pellets and each different species of tree the pellets are processed from has a different flavour. Imagine baking an apple pie while using apple wood pellets to fire your grill. For baking, it's not recommended that the smoker setting is used, but whatever's being baked picks up a subtle flavour from the fuel being used.

The smoker setting is usually used for meat and fish, but doesn't have to be. When the uncooked meat is put into a pre-heated grill, the smoke setting can be turned on to infuse the cut with the required flavour. The heat is then turned up to sear the meat and seal in the juices and flavour.

Pellet smoker grills are designed to avoid flare ups associated with barbecuing. The heat is indirect and grease is funnelled off. They are temperature controlled, and once the initial set up for the food is set, they can be left alone until the meal is ready.

Pellets for Pellet Grills

Only hardwood pellets should be used in pellet smoker grills, and they should be food grade. Pellets for pellet stoves can be either hardwood or softwood, and can contain impurities from recycled lumber that makes them unsuitable for cooking.

Many wood types are available, each giving a different flavour to the food and some grillers like to experiment with the flavour by adding small quantities of different flavour pellets.

Only mild flavoured pellets should be used for cooking fish, chicken and baking to avoid overpowering the flavour of the food some examples of suitable mild flavoured wood pellets are apple, mesquite and alder.

Pellets that will give a strong flavour suitable for beef, pork and robust poultry such as turkey are hickory, oak and black walnut.

Pellet Grill Manufacturers

Probably the best known manufacturer of pellet grills and smokers is Traeger, who were also the first. Traeger make a large range of grills in varying sizes to suit most situations from the "Junior" with a grill area of 19.5 inches by 15 inches to large mobile grills built onto a road trailer.

Louisiana grills are made by the Danson group who manufacture "Pelpro" pellet stoves. The Danson group started by producing wood pellets before they got into stove and grill manufacturing. They produce two ranges: - The Country Smokers series, and Colonial BBQ Grills. The starter grill is "Little Louie" with a cooking area of 17.5 by 11.5 inches.

Green Mountain Grills produce two grill/smokers which are highly thought of and good value for money.

For an amazing source of recipes for smoker cooking, it's well worth having a look at Smoker Cooking .com

All pellet smoker grills are deigned to be used out of doors and require a mains power supply to operate.

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