How Does a Pellet Smoker Work – Easy Guide

Pellet smokers are usually pretty easy to use for the beginners. However, they can be a bit expensive for some people. I am sure the you are interested to know more about the working of the pellet smoker before you decide to purchase a pellet smoker for yourself. Take a look at the article to know more about it.

What Is a Pellet Smoker?

A pellet smoker is a wood-burning cooker that can smoke, grill, or bake meat. The pellets are actually made from the compressed wood dust. They are available in a variety of flavors that you can try out. A pellet smoker is perfect for smoking brisket, racks of ribs, turkey, fish, and more. The temperature that the pellets burn at is lower than the wood chips so they will provide much more of a smoky flavor than the normal chips.

A pellet smoker comes in various different shapes and sizes and there are a lot of differences in the models in terms of features, cooking area, temperature control options, warming racks, and accouterments. It can become quite confusing to know about the different types of pellet smokers and choosing the one for yourself.

Mechanism

A pellet smoker has a cooking chamber where air circulates, heating food via convection. The pellets usually burn at the bottom of the cooking chamber and they produce the heat and smoke that is needed for the smoking process. The wood is dispensed from the pellet hopper which is located at the top of the cooking chamber. The auger pushes the pellets down and a chute and into the heart of the chamber. The temperature controller is there to control the temperature of the smoker. The heat is escaped from the top lid if it is opened.

Once you are done with smoking, you need to clean the smoker for later use. The pellet smokers are also sometimes referred to as pellet grills and you can easily confuse the two. However, they are both more or less the same. The temperature of the pellet smoker is supposed to be low and slow. It ranges from around 180 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The things that you can cook in an oven can be cooked in a pellet grill. So the bottom line is that the pellet smokers are actually larger and more like an outdoor oven.

How Are The Pellets Made?

Wood pellets are made with compressed sawdust and they look like chicken feed. Do not be ashamed to admit it because we all thought that the first time we actually saw a pellet. However, these pellets are generally made of 100% all-natural hardwood. They do not use softwoord trees for the purpose. The sawdust is pressurized at extreme heat to create the compact pellets. The wood’s natural lignin holds the pellet together. They are very useful because they create only 1% of ash. This ash is easily disposed after the smoking is done. You do not need to babysit the fuel either because they will burn low and slow.

Why Pellet Smokers?

Now you must be thinking why we are talking about pellet smokers and grills at the same time and why do people buy it in the first place? The answer is because they are great options for beginners. Smoking is a long process and if you are using a charcoal smoker then you need to spare a lot of time to the better part of your day to complete a batch of smoked food. The pellet smokers use use an automated fuel and air delivery system which makes it much easier to control the temperature of the smoker. This is why a lot of people are interested in buying the pellet smoker. They make life a lot easier than the other smokers. We are sure that if you are looking for an easy way out then you will love it.

Tips to Use a Pellet Smoker to Smoke Meat

Using a pellet smoker is pretty easy if you know what you are doing. All you need to do is follow the steps properly and have a bit of patience. You are going to be able to enjoy sweet food when you are done with the smoking. Take a look at some tips to know better.
You have to keep your smoker clean. This is one of the major things that can affect the taste of your food. If you are not being clean about the smoker then it will also cause health hazards and reduce the life of the smoker. The pellet smokers are much easier to clean than the other kinds because the pellets burn clean and does not leave a lot of charred remains behind. Take some time to clean the smoker after every use. You do not need to deep clean after each use but you can obviously deep clean it once in a while. Clean by scraping grill grates and removing all of the unused pellets from the hopper.
The next thing is that you need to buy your own temperature probe. We know that most of the pellet smokers come with the meat probe of their own but they are usually made with the worst kind of materials and they are very unreliable in readings. If you want to get a proper reading then you are going to need to buy a temperature probe of good quality. The desired temperature and reading can be maintained in that way only.
We know that there are many pellet flavors that you can try out. You can also make a custom blend if you want. If you are unsure about it then you can first start with a base wood like hickory, alder, or mesquite. Then you can add on to some of the fruitwood such as apple or cherry. If you are someone who does not like to mix the wood then you can go ahead with only one kind of wood pellets. In case you are not a person who likes to experiment then you can go ahead and go with the general rules for the smoking.
Beef smokes well with all woods except for apple. Chicken tastes great when it is smoked but you should not use oak and maple. Fish smokes well with alder, oak, or mesquite. Veggies can taste well smoked with hickory, pecan, and maple wood. Pork works well with many wood pellets but other than mesquite and oak.
You need to have a lot of cooking space so that you can move around and cook accordingly. It is important to note that the more space you get, the better you will feel cooking. No one likes to cook in a cramped area. A good pellet grill can range from 200 square inches to well over 800 square inches. At the end of the day it is better to have a grill that is a bit to large than the one that is small and you do not have the space to fit one more cut. Pellet smokers are well known for their size and they are not very portable.
There is also one problem with pellet smokers that a lot of people hate. Since they are meant for smoking they do not reach very high temperatures. There is no way to sear meat on the pellet smoker. There are some new models that are implementing a different portion of the smoker with a burner so that you can directly sear the meat in the smoker.
This is only available in a few models and they are all very expensive. I am sure that if you want to buy one and have the budget for it then you can go with this kind of smokers. However, we do not think that it is an essential option for a pellet smoker. That is all that we have to say about it.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for giving this article here a read. We do hope that we have made it easy enough for you to understand. The pellet smokers do not follow any complicated system to cook the good food and they are pretty straightforward. I am sure that you understand the workings of the pellet smoker much better now. If you are planning to buy one then make sure that you are researching it properly and seeing if it meets your requirements or not. They are pretty expensive so you are not going to like it if you buy a smoker and then regret it. That all that we have to say. Also share it with your friends and family. Good food tastes better when shared with people.