British BBQ Society Forums

I am sure that a reed stylus was comforting to the Ancient Sumarians when they were were carving their first stone tablets. If they were still around they would probably consider the Internet soulless.

Just my opinion like

Just to throw into the mix ceramics, the Ribman uses 4 Monolith le chef units every weekend for his. Obviously a cabinet will have a higher capacity but it's real fire and good food

YetiDave wrote:There seems something very soulless about a smoker with no fire or actual lumps of wood in it... But damn they do sound convenient

Heh. You should see my GMG Davy Crockett going with the temperature set to 550℉, with the drip tray louvre set to the open position. Or my old Traeger in its (unofficial) grill configuration. Plenty of fire there!

YetiDave wrote:There seems something very soulless about a smoker with no fire or actual lumps of wood in it... But damn they do sound convenient

I Have to say I feel the same. Bearing in mind this is a BBQ forum I'm surprised so many have pellet smokers.

Having said that I can see for a business it's the way to go.
Although I think I would feel a bit cheated if I knew it was produced in what is essentially a smokey oven.

I am not sure that I can see the difference between a smoke chamber that is heated by chunks of burning wood and one that is heated by smaller chunks of burning wood. OK the size of the wood "chunks" is smaller with the pellets, as the sawdust has been compressed into managable size chunks, but it is still just pure burning wood that is providing the wood and the smoke.

If burning wood sawdust in the form of pellets does not constitute a real BBQ then is the same true for burning charcoal dust in the form of briquettes?

essexsmoker wrote: I Have to say I feel the same. Bearing in mind this is a BBQ forum I'm surprised so many have pellet smokers.

"BBQ is not a verb; and BBQ is not a grill. BBQ is meat prepared in a very special way, which varies on where you go." - Rhett & Link.

wade wrote:I am not sure that I can see the difference between a smoke chamber that is heated by chunks of burning wood and one that is heated by smaller chunks of burning wood. OK the size of the wood "chunks" is smaller with the pellets, as the sawdust has been compressed into managable size chunks, but it is still just pure burning wood that is providing the wood and the smoke.

If burning wood sawdust in the form of pellets does not constitute a real BBQ then is the same true for burning charcoal dust in the form of briquettes?

The Cookshack units are electric with a chunk of wood or pellets chucked in for smoke AFAIK?


Anyway, each to their own!

The Fast Eddy ones are are not though. They only use pellets. The power is only there for the temperature controller and to initially light the pellets. This is no different to using an electric BBQ lighter for charcoal and something like an IQ-110 to manage the temperature.

The same is true for the Davy Crockett and the Daniel Boone. They just used wood (in the form of pellets) to provide the cooking heat and smoke.

I would agree with your comments about the Cookshack units though.

I kind of felt the same about pellet smokers until I looked more closely at the FECs.

As Wade has said, they are producing the heat and the smoke from the pellets only. ie. no electric bar element, no gas heating.

That to me is where the line is. I feel that using my Bradley is cheating because is uses a bar element but the FEC uses only wood. In fact, as it is all done with wood, maybe it is more authentic than my UDS which uses charcoal...?

Whatever your feelings are about them, it's really about the food. If it tastes great, then you're winning.

I would be keen to see a blind taste test against the different methods though!