Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Just the facts ma'am....

For the last 6 years I have heard just about every ridiculous idea, rumor, etc about barbecuing and/or grilling.

In this world we live in where it feels like integrity and truth have long gone by the wayside, one things is certain, facts are facts.

One of these so called untruths that exist out there is DO WOOD PELLET GRILLS HOLD THEIR TEMPERATURE TO THE DEGREE. The answer is NO. It does not matter whether you spend 100 dollars or ten thousand dollars on a wood pellet grill, they are not designed to nor will they hold their temperatures to the exact degree. In this digital age we live in, there sure are a lot of people trying to force them to. Adding PID controllers, etc. By doing this, you are actually causing more harm than good.

Pellet grills are designed using a pellet hopper to store the pellets that funnels down to an auger that feeds the pellets to a fire pot. There is a igniter that during the start up process gets red hot. That lights your pellets. Once the pellets are lit, the igniter turns off. The fan feeds the fire pot air that keeps the pellets going. As the auger drops more pellets into the fire pot, they ignite and the temperature starts to go up. The digital thermometer starts to read that the grill is getting hotter and slows down the auger to feed less pellets in the firebox. Then the temperature starts to drop some and the process repeats over and over. IT IS PERFECTLY NORMAL FOR A WOOD PELLET GRILL TO HAVE ANYWHERE FROM A 20 TO 30 DEGREE SWING DURING THE COOK.

If you sit and watch a wood pellet grill, you will notice it does not smoke during the entire cook.  One minute you will look out and not even be sure your grill is going as there is not any smoke coming out of it. That is the upswing part of the temperature climbing as the pellets burn more efficiently. Then 10 minutes later you look out and there is smoke coming out of the grill. That is the downswing part of the temperature lowering to adjust the internal temp of the grill and so on and so on.

If you still aren't convinced, just remember that digital controls and thermometer haven't been around that long, yet bbq has been made for hundreds of years. Don't get caught up in the precise digital age when it comes to good barbecue!

I realize we live in a digital age but that doesn't mean everything in life needs to be digital! :)