I bought the Recteq bullseye 360 and have been using it for about 3-4 months with various brands of hardwood pellets. About a week after I first used it, I decided to do a temperature test. The grill is advertised as 1000 degree capability and I've seen some RUclips reviews where it did achieve the temp. Mine did as well after about 15-20 minutes. I hadn't tried to go over 650 for any cooking since. I decided to buy the Royal Oak pellets because I really liked the flavor the charcoal gave my steaks in a small weber I was using prior to the Recteq. Cranked it to MAX and let it burn. Got up to 875 degrees and stalled.... So as for the claims of burning hotter.. I'm not seeing it. But no matter because I don't really cook over that temp anyway. Flavor is good. Burns hot enough for my needs and the one thing they don't seem to mention is that the pellet dust is almost nonexistent. Pellets are super clean which will reduce the maintenance time cleaning the hopper and auger. Overall I will add these to my other pellet types for flavor variations.
I guess I’ve been living under a rock for waaaaay too long! I didn’t even know charcoal pellets existed until I saw a bag at Tractor Supply the other day. I’m excited to buy them and try them, just had to watch the reviews first. I believe I’m sold on trying them!
Lol, same story. I'm new to pellet grills as of a couple months ago. I've seen all the other blends and whatnot, but I just happened to be in tractor supply yesterday and saw these and thought, "that's genius!!" Grabbed a bag and gonna try them this weekend.
I just got my Chargrill 980 and it’s all charcoal… I’m going to check these pellets out and compare… thanks for the review good sir. And your grill is clean enough… people be hating 😂
Nice. You should enjoy them! I just finished my first regular bag of maple pellets after using these and am ready for my next Royal Oak bag. Just monitor if they’re burning too hot to adjust accordingly. - Sam
Curious about the "do they burn hotter" evaluation. You have a computer that regulates the feed of pellets into the burn box to maintain an average temperature that you program in. So I am not sure how burning hotter is really determined if the computer is regulating the temperature. Perhaps if they burn hotter you may feed less pellets in/use less. But that was never discussed. Just seemed an odd and perhaps poorly evaluated test.
I probably should have explained it a little hit more in hindsight. I did the test at the max the grill is calibrated to run. Just because the screen says 600 degrees doesn’t mean it can’t get hotter on the inside. It’s programmed to hold 600 but anything above doesn’t show. That’s just what it’s calibrated to read. So taking what I know the grill runs at with regular wood pellets at the 600 setting and then using these, I found they do burn hotter as the grates ran much hotter. I used a less advanced pellet grill because more people own something more similar to this than premium pellet grills with more advanced controllers. This just shows at the highest setting, the computer isn’t choking down on the feed to bring my grate level temps closer to 600. The DNA of these pellets is different than wood pellets. Think of lump charcoal. If lump charcoal is just lump charcoal, why do they all not burn equally in heat output with some put off more heat when lit? It’s not a super scientific analysis into it. The goal was to do it in a way that most people could get a bag and determine for themselves too. I understand what you’re saying. There’s another comment similar asking same thing. - Sam
Pellets left to burn/ smolder in a smoke tube will not get hot enough to create blue smoke... A smoldering fire does not have enough oxygen to get the fire hot enough to create blue smoke. Then you have the moisture content of your pellets to deal with because water will not get any hotter than 220° Fahrenheit. But my pellets had a moisture content of 41% as registered by my hygrometer in a tupperware container where the pellets are stored. manufacturers try to keep the moisture content from 10 to 15%. But does that moisture content increase well they're laying on a shelf in a warehouse for nobody knows how long. Then an order is put in for an order of pellets and those are loaded into a truck and put into somebody else's Warehouse to sit there and wait and wait and wait until they are used but meanwhile the pellets are gradually absorbing moisture. There is a point where a pellet will absorb moisture and still have that shiny look on the outside and will snap between your fingers but but go beyond that to a point of which I don't know then the best you can do is create white smoke and I have some pellets that look shiny and snap between your fingers but the moisture content is way too high to create blue smoke. Putting split wood on top of a firebox for a stick burner will preheat the wood but not ignite it so when you put the wood in the fire you're not throwing a cold piece of wood in the fire to create heat what you're actually doing is like throwing an iceberg in there and cooling the fire off so now what do we do we're starting to adjust the dampers and events and he got to try to get the temperature adjusted again. Trick the fire by bypassing the white smoke stage of a fire so when you throw a piece of hot wood into the fire it's 30 seconds before the wood starts to burn you'll get a tiny bit of white smoke that just stand back and you'll quickly see the white smoke disappear and the blue smoke will take over because the fire is hot enough 650° up to 750° f... Build a fire one day in your smoker without no food and see how easy it is to control. Fire naturally wants to raise so angle your wood in an upwards direction so when the fire catches near the bottom of your wood it will climb up the wood and create an evenly burnt piece of wood and meanwhile the log that was on fire that you leaned your new wood up against is still creating coals to keep the fire bed supplied with heat it's kind of like a give and take situation. The fire says give me wood and I will give you coals...
They do seem to burn hotter but are they more efficient? Less expensive to run on a typical smoke on a low temp? How does the flavour compare to wood pellets?
Enjoyed the two videos and anxious to try the Royal Oak pellets on my Silverbac. It cooks great but I struggle to get smoke flavor, even when I use a smoke tube.
Have you tried a variety of pellet flavors or only using a specific flavor and feel that way? The smoke flavor is subtle. Like I said, took me a few bites to notice it but once I picked it up, was hard not to get notes of it in subsequent bites. My next bag of pellets afterwards was maple (the lightest of smoke) and felt there was a stark contrast. Smoke flavor from charcoal is always superior to what you’ll get on a pellet grill, IMO. If you’re struggling to get smoke flavor already, I don’t see what’s the harm in testing out a bag? Can only get better to me it sounds like. - Sam
@@brucerogers3253 white smoke. I’m ready to give up on pellet grills. I’ve tried everything. They are easy to use and cook great. But I enjoy more smoke flavor and just can’t get it. For those looking for just a hint of smoke, they are great. I did try the Royal Oak. But they don’t give me the flavor I’m looking for.
@@michaeltolbert5666 sometimes that’s the way it ends up. Only other suggestion I can offer is to cook at a lower temperature than you typically would to let the food sit in smoke longer. The lower you are on a pellet grill more smoke is typically generated. If you normally do your brisket at 225, try 200 for a few hours then bump it back up. Maybe that will make enough of a difference to you flavor wise? - Sam
It would. But the goal is to do it towards the peak of the temperature range where it’s not as heavy to see how much flavor it gives off. Probably should have done both ways but you live and learn with these types of videos. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and watching. - Sam
@@ozarad6263 with other pellets? Nothing. Should be fine. It’s an oak base flavor and most pellets use oak as a base mixed with whatever flavor is advertised on the label.
Why would you want more heat though? It’s a smoker meant to manage your temperatures at a low number. If it’s set to 600 degrees yet reads 700..that’s horrible. Am I missing something?
Buddy. I don't make the products. I just stand up there and make a fool of myself talking about them!!! In all seriousness, there's pros and cons to it. Most starter/basic pellet grills are designed to only go up to 450° F. So in that scenario, it could help someone looking for more heat. Or in the case of the grill I use in this video, having more heat to sear a steak is nice because it's not a direct flame that I'm getting. But the downside obviously is you need to adjust your cooking set temp to avoid higher temps than you want on lower cooks. Others have asked the same thing. The grill is programmed to only go up to 600° F as a set point. It might not be programmed to "get hotter" but that doesn't mean it can't through a factor such as fuel. Same concept as lump charcoal. Some burn hotter than others based on the DNA (for simplicity) of the lump. I am not the coder of the program for the grill but to my knowledge, the grill is going to make sure it's reading 600 and feeding pellets to make the grill "600 degrees." If the pellets burn hotter, it's going to create a hotter environment inside the grill. The ambient probe is only coded to read up to 600 degrees so it cuts off reading beyond that. It doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with the grill. It's more of a programming/coding design preventing from seeing above the temperature on this particular model. Does that make sense? Some pellet grills are smart enough to adapt and learn and others are just programmed/coded to do specific things and nothing outside of them. That's more of diving down a rabbit hole conversation. This particular pellet smokers is designed to be used as a smoker but also a grill. In general, no two grills (unless the same exact grill) really cook exactly alike so there's always a learning curve with every grill and fuel is a varying factor that can create inconsistencies one way or the other. - Sam
@@justgrillin absolutely. Thanks, I wouldn’t ever feel the need to do it, I’d just use my kettle with royal oak lump charcoal, but nice to have options I suppose. Anyways, thanks for the response and video. Sure helped learn something. Nice edits too.
@@Texasguy316 of course. A lot of people have switched to pellet grills for the convenience that comes with it. Charcoal flavor on a charcoal grill is still king when it comes to flavor. These pellets are trying to close the flavor gap a little bit. Appreciate the kind words. Always means a lot and our goal is to make it worth your time to watch when we put a video together. - Sam
Yes, absolutely. The purpose of doing things at a higher heat is because the smoke flavor is less noticeable so the goal was to see if you could still taste it at a higher heat.
You definitely could. Blending pellets is pretty common and this is just another type of pellet. I haven’t tried it myself with these so couldn’t say for sure if other flavor comes through or what blending tastes like. Good idea for another video though! - Sam
Lot of folks mix differ types of pellets in their pellet grill. I've also mixed pellets (like pecan) with lump charcoal briquettes in a regular charcoal grill. That was the best bbq I ever had. The closet you can get with a pellet grill is a properly placed smoker tube. Some people even put cut-up briquettes in the tube, which would give you the best you can do with a pellet grill other than just lighting actual charcoal briquettes inside/beneath the food.
I'm not a hater, but I believe your evaluation that these pellets burn hotter makes no sense. Pellet grills have a closed loop controller that controls the temp to the set point. In other words, if you set it to 600 deg. , it would stop adding pellets and slow the fan as the grills temp sensor approaches 600 degrees. Then add more pellets only as needed to hold that 600 set point. Some pellet grills hold a set point better than others, but it would not run at 700 degrees when set to 600 if it is operating properly. If these pellets actually burn hotter as claimed, it would show by using less pellets on a given burn. Or a 20# bag would last longer than a 20# bag of wood pellets. I have a bag of these I have yet to use, and hope they provide a charcoal flavor. If they last longer, so much the better, as they cost more than wood pellets.
I appreciate all feedback. It’s the internet. Can’t take things personally. I try not to overthink or complicate a test like this. The best way to relate is through how most of us at home would test this, using a heat gun and just by regular feel. I don’t disagree with the point you’re making but I think there’s more to it when you get into the natural differences of coal burning hotter than wood. It’s almost too scientific to try and bring into this conversation. Yes, the grill is calibrated to 600 degrees but that doesn’t mean it can’t get above that because of a variance in the fuel heat output. If these pellets put out more heat (because of the DNA of the pellet) compared to a regular wood pellet, yes the grill will hold at 600 degrees but the computer isn’t calibrated to work/read above that (at least on the grill I used in the video) so the grill can get a little hotter though the grill screen reading might not say so. Try out your bag and see if you feel they burn hotter. That’s best way to know for yourself. If you don’t think so, come back and tell me about. - Sam
Haven’t tried them with that. Royal Oak claims they’re safe for all pellet grills. Should be fine unless your grill is very finicky on what pellets it will accept. - Sam
I more so grilled the chicken in this video. Only for about 10 minutes. Most people aren't smoking chicken breast so I wanted to test it out as a typically weeknight cook. I tend to get decent flavor from quick grilling with the SmokeFire. If I smoked it, I def would have gotten (and noticed) more flavor. - Sam
Does charcoal use less pellets than wood? I would assume so. Can anyone answer that question? I feel like the charcoal would burn longer and hotter so the system would use less. Any thoughts?
There’s so many variances with cooking with pellets from pellet grill to pellet grill that makes your question tough to answer. The answer to your question, I think, pertains more to ash content. I like to think of pellets more like briquettes than as lump charcoal. Briquettes are supposed to be uniform in size to help ensure consistent heat. But what separates good quality briquettes versus bad quality? It comes down to the carbon content that cleanly burns the charcoal producing more thermal heat than ash. Think of that same concept with pellets. What would make a pellet last longer? If the contents are true wood, or pelletized charcoal in this case. A pellet is just compressed wood dust. Some brands of wood pellets use oils and fillers to cheaply mass produce the product. I have not tested these charcoal pellets against some of those brands of pellets to see if these last longer. I would assume these pellets do to some degree and here’s my reasoning. I am accustomed to cooking with BBQr’s Delight. They make a fantastic wood pellet. Those typically give a little more life than cheaper wood pellets. I have not noticed a difference in the pellet consumption of Royal Oak and BBQr’s Delight when cooking so that’s where I am making just an educated assumption. Can’t say for fact though. Overall, I think there are more factors involved. Things that can affect pellet consumption can be as trivial as the outside air temperature, how well the pellet grill holds temperatures and so on. Sorry for my long drawn out thoughts. Just trying to answer as best as I can. - Sam
I work on multiple things/plan ahead. I was working on videos about grill brushes and grate cleaners in the coming weeks so I let my grates get dirty on purpose for better effect. Our company used to offer grill detailing services. This really isn’t bad compared to what’s out there. What one person finds dirty, another does not. - Sam
There are no aromatic polymers released from burning charcoal. Burning wood does release these as well as acids, organic alcohols, as well as the creosote. I would wager if you used a brand new grill, you'd have tasted zero smoke flavour, because charcoal (especially pellets where theres no chance for there to be un-pyrolised wood elements) simply does not undergo the chemical reaction that produces these componds, but increasing your grill 100° above normal might have reawakened deposits inside the grill which imparted some flavour. Experimentally, this would be a "contaminant" - but not harmful to anything more than the outcome, during your temp test it was clear the grill area was not as pristine as the hopper. Cooking _over_ charcoal is the only way to impart the flavour, because anything that comes down off of the meat will float back up to impart those flavours from vaporising rendered fat or any other liquid the contraction of protein wrings out. These pellets are a great fuel source for high heat requirements, nothing more.
@@togetunthemood43 it was hard to taste because I grilled at a higher temp. That was the purpose. If you can taste it at a higher temp, you’ll for sure taste it at a lower temp
@@togetunthemood43 I’m not disagreeing with you on the better flavor at a lower temp over a longer period of time. I’m just explaining I took a different approach to it in the video. I’m glad to hear you’ve been cooking a long time. It’s a great skill and I hope my kids take interest in learning from me how to grill.
Thank you! I purposely was letting them get dirty for another video but I appreciate it. RUclips community has my back! Or at least holds me accountable for my cleaning duties haha! - Sam
Certainly could have. Will clean it up soon. I like to let it get a little out of shape and then use our specialty cleaner on it. The transformation is always so satisfying. - Sam
@@michaeltolbert5666 The outside is fairly easy for up keep. The enameled coating can be cleaned up pretty much with some warm and sudsy water. The grates and inside, I use this: justgrillinflorida.com/product/just-grillin-outdoor-living-pure-clean-grill-cleaner-spray-32-oz/ The spray can be corrosive to painted surfaces and aluminum though so if your grill is either, I'd stick with warm and sudsy water. - Sam
I bought the Recteq bullseye 360 and have been using it for about 3-4 months with various brands of hardwood pellets. About a week after I first used it, I decided to do a temperature test. The grill is advertised as 1000 degree capability and I've seen some RUclips reviews where it did achieve the temp. Mine did as well after about 15-20 minutes. I hadn't tried to go over 650 for any cooking since. I decided to buy the Royal Oak pellets because I really liked the flavor the charcoal gave my steaks in a small weber I was using prior to the Recteq. Cranked it to MAX and let it burn. Got up to 875 degrees and stalled.... So as for the claims of burning hotter.. I'm not seeing it. But no matter because I don't really cook over that temp anyway. Flavor is good. Burns hot enough for my needs and the one thing they don't seem to mention is that the pellet dust is almost nonexistent. Pellets are super clean which will reduce the maintenance time cleaning the hopper and auger. Overall I will add these to my other pellet types for flavor variations.
I guess I’ve been living under a rock for waaaaay too long! I didn’t even know charcoal pellets existed until I saw a bag at Tractor Supply the other day. I’m excited to buy them and try them, just had to watch the reviews first. I believe I’m sold on trying them!
Lol, same story. I'm new to pellet grills as of a couple months ago. I've seen all the other blends and whatnot, but I just happened to be in tractor supply yesterday and saw these and thought, "that's genius!!" Grabbed a bag and gonna try them this weekend.
I bought a bag and then I looked up reviews lol. Oops!
haha. I'm a year behind you!
Thanks!! Hopefully I can find this locally now.
I just got my Chargrill 980 and it’s all charcoal… I’m going to check these pellets out and compare… thanks for the review good sir. And your grill is clean enough… people be hating 😂
how do you like it?
S we can ooooo
Ssleowowowowwo
Good luck. Took a sledgehammer to mine. Nothing but breakdowns. Delicious flavor when it worked. Not made for everyday use.
Thank you for labeling and numbering the bites
🫡 Just doing our service.
- Sam
I run the Jack Daniels charcoal pellets and the are great.
Those are also good.
Great review! Thanks
It is. Just so funny that even for testing, he needed plants (pepper and garlic) to make meat edible. Humans aren't meant to eat meat.
Can you do a flavor test doing a longer smoke like for ribs or a brisket ?
Yeah. That’s the plan soon. Will be a week or two. Most likely doing a pork butt.
- Sam
I just bought 2 bags. My work have it on markdown gor $1.99
Video was well done and very objective.
Thanks! Appreciate it.
- Sam
Thanks for posting this review
You’re welcome.
- Sam
Just picked up my first bag today. 🔥
Nice. You should enjoy them! I just finished my first regular bag of maple pellets after using these and am ready for my next Royal Oak bag. Just monitor if they’re burning too hot to adjust accordingly.
- Sam
Have you had a chance to try them yet Gene? I'm interested in other observations.
I really like royal oak but hard to find . Oh yeah get a grill brush ! Lol
Just found these on sale at my local Kroger. $18.95 on sale for $6.99 for 20lb bag. Had to buy all of them. Lol
New subscriber! Great video
Thanks for the follow. I try to reply to all comments so feel free to ask questions or engage with the topic if you want.
- Sam
Curious about the "do they burn hotter" evaluation. You have a computer that regulates the feed of pellets into the burn box to maintain an average temperature that you program in. So I am not sure how burning hotter is really determined if the computer is regulating the temperature. Perhaps if they burn hotter you may feed less pellets in/use less. But that was never discussed. Just seemed an odd and perhaps poorly evaluated test.
I probably should have explained it a little hit more in hindsight. I did the test at the max the grill is calibrated to run. Just because the screen says 600 degrees doesn’t mean it can’t get hotter on the inside. It’s programmed to hold 600 but anything above doesn’t show. That’s just what it’s calibrated to read. So taking what I know the grill runs at with regular wood pellets at the 600 setting and then using these, I found they do burn hotter as the grates ran much hotter.
I used a less advanced pellet grill because more people own something more similar to this than premium pellet grills with more advanced controllers. This just shows at the highest setting, the computer isn’t choking down on the feed to bring my grate level temps closer to 600.
The DNA of these pellets is different than wood pellets. Think of lump charcoal. If lump charcoal is just lump charcoal, why do they all not burn equally in heat output with some put off more heat when lit?
It’s not a super scientific analysis into it. The goal was to do it in a way that most people could get a bag and determine for themselves too. I understand what you’re saying. There’s another comment similar asking same thing.
- Sam
Pellets left to burn/ smolder in a smoke tube will not get hot enough to create blue smoke... A smoldering fire does not have enough oxygen to get the fire hot enough to create blue smoke. Then you have the moisture content of your pellets to deal with because water will not get any hotter than 220° Fahrenheit. But my pellets had a moisture content of 41% as registered by my hygrometer in a tupperware container where the pellets are stored. manufacturers try to keep the moisture content from 10 to 15%. But does that moisture content increase well they're laying on a shelf in a warehouse for nobody knows how long. Then an order is put in for an order of pellets and those are loaded into a truck and put into somebody else's Warehouse to sit there and wait and wait and wait until they are used but meanwhile the pellets are gradually absorbing moisture. There is a point where a pellet will absorb moisture and still have that shiny look on the outside and will snap between your fingers but but go beyond that to a point of which I don't know then the best you can do is create white smoke and I have some pellets that look shiny and snap between your fingers but the moisture content is way too high to create blue smoke. Putting split wood on top of a firebox for a stick burner will preheat the wood but not ignite it so when you put the wood in the fire you're not throwing a cold piece of wood in the fire to create heat what you're actually doing is like throwing an iceberg in there and cooling the fire off so now what do we do we're starting to adjust the dampers and events and he got to try to get the temperature adjusted again. Trick the fire by bypassing the white smoke stage of a fire so when you throw a piece of hot wood into the fire it's 30 seconds before the wood starts to burn you'll get a tiny bit of white smoke that just stand back and you'll quickly see the white smoke disappear and the blue smoke will take over because the fire is hot enough 650° up to 750° f...
Build a fire one day in your smoker without no food and see how easy it is to control.
Fire naturally wants to raise so angle your wood in an upwards direction so when the fire catches near the bottom of your wood it will climb up the wood and create an evenly burnt piece of wood and meanwhile the log that was on fire that you leaned your new wood up against is still creating coals to keep the fire bed supplied with heat it's kind of like a give and take situation. The fire says give me wood and I will give you coals...
They do seem to burn hotter but are they more efficient? Less expensive to run on a typical smoke on a low temp? How does the flavour compare to wood pellets?
Enjoyed the two videos and anxious to try the Royal Oak pellets on my Silverbac. It cooks great but I struggle to get smoke flavor, even when I use a smoke tube.
Have you tried a variety of pellet flavors or only using a specific flavor and feel that way?
The smoke flavor is subtle. Like I said, took me a few bites to notice it but once I picked it up, was hard not to get notes of it in subsequent bites. My next bag of pellets afterwards was maple (the lightest of smoke) and felt there was a stark contrast.
Smoke flavor from charcoal is always superior to what you’ll get on a pellet grill, IMO. If you’re struggling to get smoke flavor already, I don’t see what’s the harm in testing out a bag? Can only get better to me it sounds like.
- Sam
What color was the smoke coming out of your smoke tube?
@@brucerogers3253 white smoke. I’m ready to give up on pellet grills. I’ve tried everything. They are easy to use and cook great. But I enjoy more smoke flavor and just can’t get it. For those looking for just a hint of smoke, they are great. I did try the Royal Oak. But they don’t give me the flavor I’m looking for.
@@justgrillin I’ve tried everything from a mix to straight mesquite. I guess I’m just a smoke hog.
@@michaeltolbert5666 sometimes that’s the way it ends up. Only other suggestion I can offer is to cook at a lower temperature than you typically would to let the food sit in smoke longer. The lower you are on a pellet grill more smoke is typically generated. If you normally do your brisket at 225, try 200 for a few hours then bump it back up. Maybe that will make enough of a difference to you flavor wise?
- Sam
I would think a lower temp would produce much more flavor than the hot cook.
It would. But the goal is to do it towards the peak of the temperature range where it’s not as heavy to see how much flavor it gives off. Probably should have done both ways but you live and learn with these types of videos. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and watching.
- Sam
Awesome shirt.
What happens if mixed
@@ozarad6263 with other pellets? Nothing. Should be fine. It’s an oak base flavor and most pellets use oak as a base mixed with whatever flavor is advertised on the label.
Why would you want more heat though? It’s a smoker meant to manage your temperatures at a low number. If it’s set to 600 degrees yet reads 700..that’s horrible. Am I missing something?
Buddy. I don't make the products. I just stand up there and make a fool of myself talking about them!!!
In all seriousness, there's pros and cons to it. Most starter/basic pellet grills are designed to only go up to 450° F. So in that scenario, it could help someone looking for more heat. Or in the case of the grill I use in this video, having more heat to sear a steak is nice because it's not a direct flame that I'm getting. But the downside obviously is you need to adjust your cooking set temp to avoid higher temps than you want on lower cooks.
Others have asked the same thing. The grill is programmed to only go up to 600° F as a set point. It might not be programmed to "get hotter" but that doesn't mean it can't through a factor such as fuel. Same concept as lump charcoal. Some burn hotter than others based on the DNA (for simplicity) of the lump.
I am not the coder of the program for the grill but to my knowledge, the grill is going to make sure it's reading 600 and feeding pellets to make the grill "600 degrees." If the pellets burn hotter, it's going to create a hotter environment inside the grill. The ambient probe is only coded to read up to 600 degrees so it cuts off reading beyond that. It doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with the grill. It's more of a programming/coding design preventing from seeing above the temperature on this particular model. Does that make sense?
Some pellet grills are smart enough to adapt and learn and others are just programmed/coded to do specific things and nothing outside of them. That's more of diving down a rabbit hole conversation. This particular pellet smokers is designed to be used as a smoker but also a grill.
In general, no two grills (unless the same exact grill) really cook exactly alike so there's always a learning curve with every grill and fuel is a varying factor that can create inconsistencies one way or the other.
- Sam
@@justgrillin absolutely. Thanks, I wouldn’t ever feel the need to do it, I’d just use my kettle with royal oak lump charcoal, but nice to have options I suppose. Anyways, thanks for the response and video. Sure helped learn something. Nice edits too.
@@Texasguy316 of course. A lot of people have switched to pellet grills for the convenience that comes with it. Charcoal flavor on a charcoal grill is still king when it comes to flavor. These pellets are trying to close the flavor gap a little bit.
Appreciate the kind words. Always means a lot and our goal is to make it worth your time to watch when we put a video together.
- Sam
jesus mate, buy a grill brush and use it every once in a while! other than that, thanks for the useful vid!
That's where the flavor is!
No one who bbq's for real cleans their grill.
How long did you go on 200? Bro u can’t even smoke flavor on meat from a offset if smoke hitting it for 20min!!!
Do you get the smoke flavor is my question
Yes, absolutely. The purpose of doing things at a higher heat is because the smoke flavor is less noticeable so the goal was to see if you could still taste it at a higher heat.
Would you mix coal and wood pellets for flavor as well, or just coal?
You definitely could. Blending pellets is pretty common and this is just another type of pellet. I haven’t tried it myself with these so couldn’t say for sure if other flavor comes through or what blending tastes like. Good idea for another video though!
- Sam
Lot of folks mix differ types of pellets in their pellet grill. I've also mixed pellets (like pecan) with lump charcoal briquettes in a regular charcoal grill. That was the best bbq I ever had. The closet you can get with a pellet grill is a properly placed smoker tube. Some people even put cut-up briquettes in the tube, which would give you the best you can do with a pellet grill other than just lighting actual charcoal briquettes inside/beneath the food.
I'm not a hater, but I believe your evaluation that these pellets burn hotter makes no sense. Pellet grills have a closed loop controller that controls the temp to the set point. In other words, if you set it to 600 deg. , it would stop adding pellets and slow the fan as the grills temp sensor approaches 600 degrees. Then add more pellets only as needed to hold that 600 set point. Some pellet grills hold a set point better than others, but it would not run at 700 degrees when set to 600 if it is operating properly.
If these pellets actually burn hotter as claimed, it would show by using less pellets on a given burn. Or a 20# bag would last longer than a 20# bag of wood pellets. I have a bag of these I have yet to use, and hope they provide a charcoal flavor. If they last longer, so much the better, as they cost more than wood pellets.
I appreciate all feedback. It’s the internet. Can’t take things personally. I try not to overthink or complicate a test like this. The best way to relate is through how most of us at home would test this, using a heat gun and just by regular feel.
I don’t disagree with the point you’re making but I think there’s more to it when you get into the natural differences of coal burning hotter than wood. It’s almost too scientific to try and bring into this conversation. Yes, the grill is calibrated to 600 degrees but that doesn’t mean it can’t get above that because of a variance in the fuel heat output. If these pellets put out more heat (because of the DNA of the pellet) compared to a regular wood pellet, yes the grill will hold at 600 degrees but the computer isn’t calibrated to work/read above that (at least on the grill I used in the video) so the grill can get a little hotter though the grill screen reading might not say so.
Try out your bag and see if you feel they burn hotter. That’s best way to know for yourself. If you don’t think so, come back and tell me about.
- Sam
That’s true…
Go lightning!
Are these safe to use with the recteq 700
Haven’t tried them with that. Royal Oak claims they’re safe for all pellet grills. Should be fine unless your grill is very finicky on what pellets it will accept.
- Sam
Does this ship usps or ups to alaska?
We do not ship to Alaska. Not sure what other retailers use for their shipping.
- Sam
Do you have them available to ship to ny?
Amazon.
How long was your chicken smoked?
I more so grilled the chicken in this video. Only for about 10 minutes. Most people aren't smoking chicken breast so I wanted to test it out as a typically weeknight cook. I tend to get decent flavor from quick grilling with the SmokeFire. If I smoked it, I def would have gotten (and noticed) more flavor.
- Sam
Does charcoal use less pellets than wood? I would assume so. Can anyone answer that question? I feel like the charcoal would burn longer and hotter so the system would use less. Any thoughts?
There’s so many variances with cooking with pellets from pellet grill to pellet grill that makes your question tough to answer. The answer to your question, I think, pertains more to ash content. I like to think of pellets more like briquettes than as lump charcoal. Briquettes are supposed to be uniform in size to help ensure consistent heat.
But what separates good quality briquettes versus bad quality? It comes down to the carbon content that cleanly burns the charcoal producing more thermal heat than ash. Think of that same concept with pellets. What would make a pellet last longer? If the contents are true wood, or pelletized charcoal in this case. A pellet is just compressed wood dust. Some brands of wood pellets use oils and fillers to cheaply mass produce the product.
I have not tested these charcoal pellets against some of those brands of pellets to see if these last longer. I would assume these pellets do to some degree and here’s my reasoning. I am accustomed to cooking with BBQr’s Delight. They make a fantastic wood pellet. Those typically give a little more life than cheaper wood pellets. I have not noticed a difference in the pellet consumption of Royal Oak and BBQr’s Delight when cooking so that’s where I am making just an educated assumption. Can’t say for fact though.
Overall, I think there are more factors involved. Things that can affect pellet consumption can be as trivial as the outside air temperature, how well the pellet grill holds temperatures and so on. Sorry for my long drawn out thoughts. Just trying to answer as best as I can.
- Sam
Don't you clean your grill before a new cooking? Those grates look nasty.
I work on multiple things/plan ahead. I was working on videos about grill brushes and grate cleaners in the coming weeks so I let my grates get dirty on purpose for better effect.
Our company used to offer grill detailing services. This really isn’t bad compared to what’s out there. What one person finds dirty, another does not.
- Sam
There are no aromatic polymers released from burning charcoal. Burning wood does release these as well as acids, organic alcohols, as well as the creosote.
I would wager if you used a brand new grill, you'd have tasted zero smoke flavour, because charcoal (especially pellets where theres no chance for there to be un-pyrolised wood elements) simply does not undergo the chemical reaction that produces these componds, but increasing your grill 100° above normal might have reawakened deposits inside the grill which imparted some flavour. Experimentally, this would be a "contaminant" - but not harmful to anything more than the outcome, during your temp test it was clear the grill area was not as pristine as the hopper.
Cooking _over_ charcoal is the only way to impart the flavour, because anything that comes down off of the meat will float back up to impart those flavours from vaporising rendered fat or any other liquid the contraction of protein wrings out.
These pellets are a great fuel source for high heat requirements, nothing more.
it was hard for you to taste the charcoal flavor because who smokes something for 15 minutes you need at least one hour of smoke
@@togetunthemood43 it was hard to taste because I grilled at a higher temp. That was the purpose. If you can taste it at a higher temp, you’ll for sure taste it at a lower temp
@@justgrillin you just a kid but you are learning...i guess lol i been cooking before you were born i came from the wood pellets only
@@togetunthemood43 I’m not disagreeing with you on the better flavor at a lower temp over a longer period of time. I’m just explaining I took a different approach to it in the video. I’m glad to hear you’ve been cooking a long time. It’s a great skill and I hope my kids take interest in learning from me how to grill.
Yikes, clean the grates dude!
Don’t be a Viking and not clean your grate’s
Great video but man clean your grates lol
Thank you! I purposely was letting them get dirty for another video but I appreciate it. RUclips community has my back! Or at least holds me accountable for my cleaning duties haha!
- Sam
Dirtiest grill grates ever lol… clean ya grates baw! Just joking thanks for the review!
They are dirty for sure but it’s on purpose. You’re welcome. Thanks for watching.
- Sam
That's where all the flavor is. Only amateurs clean their grates. If you know, you know.
nice belly button sweat bruh.
It’s Florida. It’s hot.
Man seeing that grill with all of the crude makes me cringe. Couldn’t you of tried to clean it a little better?
Certainly could have. Will clean it up soon. I like to let it get a little out of shape and then use our specialty cleaner on it. The transformation is always so satisfying.
- Sam
@@justgrillin What do you use to clean your Smokefire in Florida? I'm on the beach and have to Clean my Silverbac regularly to keep rust at bay.
@@michaeltolbert5666 The outside is fairly easy for up keep. The enameled coating can be cleaned up pretty much with some warm and sudsy water.
The grates and inside, I use this: justgrillinflorida.com/product/just-grillin-outdoor-living-pure-clean-grill-cleaner-spray-32-oz/
The spray can be corrosive to painted surfaces and aluminum though so if your grill is either, I'd stick with warm and sudsy water.
- Sam