Wife: "What are you doing?" Me: "Watching a 50 minute movie on smoker combustion that included a fireman geeking out on wood combustion. You'll appreciate me one day."
This test is totally necessary, it is nearly impossible for us to do a controlled side by side on pellet flavors with the same meat, smoker, and temperature. Thank you.
@@RyTrapp0 I've been told that the pellets don't make a big difference, but based on the results you can get after a strong bark or strong smoke flavor depending on which brand you are going for.
@@bubblewhip382 One note is that this test didn't include smoke tubes either. In my experience pellets in the hopper matter far less if you are adding a smoke tube. If I was assigning numbers I would say it's 70% (tube flavor) to 30% (hopper flavor) on my smoker. Different smokers are different as well with the amount of smoke they will impart.
Agreed but I was hoping they might do something more like, run the whole line of lumberjack or whatever and see if the woods make any difference. For example the MHC vs the OHC vs the fruitwood blend or something
I always notice when I smoke something that I barely taste the smoke taste after inhaling the smoke for hours. However, the next day when I smell and eat the leftover meat it is really good and smoky. Inhaling the smoke while cooking definitely desensitizes your nose/pallet for hours.
Mr. Mitchell, I always find that the smoke flavor has more development after a day or so wrapped or sealed tightly. I think this is a chemical reaction and not necessarily a desensitization of your olfactory or palette. Just my two cents, and when I smoke jerky or sausage, I vacuum seal for several days prior to service.
I agree. I think my ability to taste the smoke flavor is dulled after being in the smoke while cooking. I also agree that the smoke flavor develops after a night in the refrigerator. Could be a chemical reaction, or perhaps the flavor compounds distributing from the bark through the meat like with pasta how the herbs continue to add flavor to the sauce overnight in the fridge.
I feel like a year ago if we would have asked for this video it would have never happened. Cool to see you’re running pellet grill tests and providing honest feedback.
What I wish would have been covered by this video (or any other) is how loud these things are. If you enjoy a nice quiet afternoon on your porch, don't plan on doing it while one of these jet engines is running. Compared to an offset or a WSM which are silent, offer lots of smoke flavor, these things are expensive to run and produce pretty lame smoke flavor relative to real smokers. They really need to be more clear on this so people know what they are getting into.
@@bobf5360 I don't have a ledge but I have a davy crocket and a daniel boone. They aren't loud at all. The Davy Crockett is basically silent after it gets up to temp with only the auger moving as needed. the boone has a louder "whirr" to it that's constant, but it's not like you can't have a quiet conversation with it going 5 feet away. Why do you say they're expensive to run? Wood and charcoal are expensive too.
In the last 10 months I’ve tried at least 12 different pellets, that being said, I can honestly say that Knotty Wood pellets blew them all away. A combination of plum and almond just did it for me, to the point that it’s the only thing I’ll use for beef in the future. Fruit wood pellets, apple, cherry and maybe pecan for pork. It’s so great to find pellets that really float my boat rather than feeling like I just have to make due. Thanks for your effort on our behalf, it’s greatly appreciated.
I knew right away #5 was Lumberjack just by the amount it burned compared to all others. LJ are of a smaller diameter therefore will burn more to maintain set temp. All in all, great video and test. I'd be more curious in a 100% wood species test. Apple vs Cherry vs Oak vs Maple vs Mesquite and see if the general public notices the difference. Cheers!
I thought at the beginning of the vid Jeremy said he'd prepare the briskets the EXACT SAME WAY in order to reduce the variables? If you watch closely at 26:36, you can see that he doesn't sing to the 3rd brisket while wrapping in tallow. The first and second briskets, however, were blessed with his angelic voice, thus skewing the results. Very disappointed in this gross abandonment of the scientific method. All conclusions must be thrown out and the test repeated. At my house.
Thanks for the comparison. A few things are certain after seeing it. The debate over what's the best pellet is no closer to being answered today than is was before this test. Of course we'll have a bunch of people chiming in that their pellets weren't tested so it we didn't get the best results. I guess the most important takeaway from this is that, just like beer, everyone has their own taste. I may not like Budweiser beer or Traeger pellets, but if you do, the more power to you! Keep on smokin'!
I applaud you for doing this test and doing it in a double blind manner, and controlling for most variables. This is super helpful and something most people wouldn’t be able to do themselves!
It was fantastic meeting you and your wife. The pellet taste test was so much fun. Thank you for having us in your video, and letting us be taste testers. That was a great experiment. Cheers!
the irony of tasting less smoke as u went down from 1 to 6 is probably because your not doing a pallet clense between each one so your muting your own taste buds.
Been using Pit Boss Competition Blend in my Camp Chef since day 1. It has a consistent burn and flavor across all my different cooks. Glad to see it was represented as well as it could be for a large box, commodity product.
Same here, I've always used Pit Boss Comp Blend for Everything. And, I've always had a quiet happy table. Although, I May have to try the number one pellet winner. Knotty woods plum, I believe. Might be fun.
One thing also to consider in my opinion is the price of the pellets. I’m very fortunate that my local Rural King has almost all the varieties of Lumberjack for only $8.88 for a 20lb bag. It’s a no brainer to use Lumberjack at that price. Plus their quality is top shelf. Thanks for doing all these videos. They are very enjoyable and informative.
I agree, price is a big factor. I've been paying $7.50 to $9 for 20 pounds of Pit Boss, so I'm happy to see that it landed in the middle and wasn't the least efficient.
When blind tasting whiskey, they recommend you go left to right and then right to left to see if your taste was affected by the previous sample. Have to wonder if the first two stood out more because they were up front prior to any taste.
The reality is, there are so many factors you can't control in tests like this, like did sample one have more salt and less pepper? At the end of the day, getting these things scientifically perfect isn't really an option, so having 2 groups give results should give you more of an indication than an absolute result. I was genuinely surprised that the traeger pellets did better than the lumberjack for example, given how many people trash traeger pellets and rave about lumberjack. I myself swapped hoping for better smoke flavour and not sure I am convinced it's better, but unless you do it side by side each time, so long as it tastes ok, that's good enough for most people.
I thought the same thing. I've also noticed that the flavors change after resting longer or warming later. Wonder if they tasted samples again when they did taste testing.
Many people don’t really know what a good smoke flavor is. They just know what they are used to. The comment at the end about them being exposed to smoke for an extended period of time matters. It’s basic sensory science, and is known as sensory fatigue. But I give kudos to these gents for being open and honestly discussing the results.
THANK YOU so much for bringing to my husband and mine's attention that a little company in our neck of the woods is producing the best pellets. We ordered 4 bags of plum, 4 bags of almond that came one day later, due to our close proximity. Thank you for being so transparent in everything that you do. I really appreciate your integrity.
I think the first bite had the biggest impression due to having a clean pallet (trying it first). You should have went back to number one after the last bite to see if it would still taste as good. Great test though! Thank you for the effort!
You've GOT to know that the first bite will always taste the smokiest! Did all the other taste-testers try the samples in exact order from 1 through 6?
I was almost yelling out loud as they got to number six “now go back and taste number one and number two again!“ Would they have been as impressed after the taste buds were inundated with all the others? Taste and smell sensitivityBoth diminish as the clock ticks after first exposure.
I appreciate your candor in the results, knowing neither of you liked Traeger pellets. Even in your tests, you liked it and that’s interesting for me too. I’ve had good luck with the Traeger pellets, but I’m trying several others just to see. Like y’all, I might get surprised! Thanks for this, as it was the best overall comparison I’ve found, and shows that you can find out a lot when you set biases aside.
I must say - I know you don't love making pellet videos, but these latest ones are incredible. Thank you so much for doing them and taking your approach to pellet smokers. Very cool.
So I have a traeger pro 34 that has a temp swing that I love. It isn't tight in warm weather, and cold it gets finicky. I just bought a blanket for the cold. That being said, this grill make smoke rings for days and the meat that comes off it is amazing. At first I was concerned about the range of temp, but I simply adjusted the timing and have had great results.
Love your comparison and very informative. I’m 18 year plus Treager owner (non PID) So I get those temp swings some don’t like but I think it add to the smoke flavors. I recently picked up both Knotty Wood pellets and did a comparison with similar seasoned chicken and I really liked both. Good smoke but not overwhelming. Surprisingly the Plum was smokier than the almond and I liked it better. My Pitt did run a bit hotter than other pellets and I did get lots more ash and even abit of their Klinckers in my fire pot. Thanks again for the great video and keep them coming. One of the best channels on UA-cam by far!!!
Are the klinkers terribly inconvenient? The only info out there is a disaster review by one guy. I’d love to try it but I don’t want to stress out my Pitt
Best of both worlds for me. I would love to see more opinions of stick burner veterans on this. They do take a little bit of learning, nothing compared to a stick burner.
Great test, really appreciated it. The winner is totally not what I expected. Love these tests. I have used B&B and Bear Mountain, would have liked to see them maybe added to future pellet reviews. There are so many brands and I have no issue letting you do my due diligence for me...LOL
I really wonder about Bear Mountain as well, because I enjoy them and have heard lots of good things. However they're never in these types of comparisons, so maybe they're not as popular? Idk.
It's crazy to me Bear Mountain wasn't on this list! Curious where it would have placed. I haven't tried B&B yet but their popularity is heating up (hard to find lately).
Ive been getting B&B championship blend at Ace and love it. LJ has been much harder to find but used to be my go to. A 40lb bag of B&B is about $40 at Ace.
Thank you for the test. I personally own a Pit Boss Lexington 550 and have had it for just a little over two years now. I started with Pit Boss pellets and didn’t care for them. I switched to Lumberjack pellets because of two things, cheaper than Pit Boss pellets and secondly they seem to be packaged better, efficient, and better flavor and appearance of the protein overall. Just my opinion. Looking to get an offset smoker though soon to test for myself the difference
First season with my Pitt Boss and still experimenting. I don’t like the hot spot right in the middle, so If I’m smoking, I place it to one side or the other , even up top. The hot spot is great for steaks though. I’ll have to keep an eye out for those lumberjack pellets, I’ve only used the PB so far. I wish the thermometer on the lid was the same as the electronic, I’m still not sure which to trust, though I think it’s the digital. Waiting on spring…
@@nmaddog4689 great info for me I finally know why my briskets don’t pull apart like I want them to I always put it on the hot stop thinking it’s ok because the temperature is low, I also add a very small water tray. Now I can’t wait to try another brisket once the prices go down 😅
Remember that Traeger just changed packaging a few months ago. New packaging have no holes poked in them like the old bag. I’ve also noticed less wood dust in the bags. I also noticed I use less pellets with the new packaging on Traeger.
Very entertaining experiment. Really enjoyed watching it from start to finish. It was interesting seeing the similarities (bark) and the disparities (smoke flavor) in your analysis. Thank you guys for taking the time to show your audience a true unbiased experiment and being transparent about it. If you guys do decide to run it back for a second test, y’all should do tri tips instead. Just a suggestion. Keep up the good work, Jeremy.
A lot to be said for changing the taste buds after cooking. I have noticed it before with all types of cooks. But last weekend I cooked 6 pork butts. I tasted it, the first bite was awesome. I had a couple more bites with my NC vinegar base sauce, awesome. My Wife came in and loved it. After pulling all 6 butts, everyone made their plates and went on and on about how good the BBQ and sauce was. I didn't even eat, I completely lost the taste for BBQ that day.
@@JamesTKirk-wk5ut I completely agree. I cook on a stick burner, and staying away for 12 hours helps refresh my sense of smell. A reason why I am considering a pellet smoker or a gravity smoker, so I can walk away from the smoke most of the time.
@@CoolJay77 - My go to for several years has been a Kamada Joe stick burner. Last year I purchased a Recteq 700 just to be able to cook more at a time. That butt cook was on the pellet grill, I only went to grill every 2 hours to spritz, then wrapped butts at 180 degrees. I really noticed losing the taste for it after unwrapping and pulling all six butts. Just standing over them for 30 minutes. Don't know about other pellet smokers but mine does hold the temp, if I didn't spritz, I wouldn't have to go out there until time to wrap.
Love the Jealous Devil Pellets. Recently picked up 2 more boxes. Yesterday cooked a plethora of food using Traeger Meat Church pellets and everything turned out great with color and smoke flavor.
I think this was great and interesting. I wonder though if when you experts did your initial taste if there was some taste fatigue as you moved from 1 to 6? I would have found it interesting if you had gone back to 1 & 2 and confirmed they still seemed like the most flavorful after tying all 6.
if thats true, wouldnt the other testers have chosen #1 or 2 or if they started reverse #5 or 6? yet they all chose the middle #3 which you know they didnt start with!
Love my pellet grill. Loved the video. I've found that the pellets matter less than how I cook/smoke the meat. I've tried several brands used in this video. So for example. I get really good smoke flavor on a pork butt by cooking it at a very low temp for about 4 hours before turning up the temp to actually start cooking the meat. So I'll run it about 170 to 180 during that time then move it up to 275/300 to finish the cook. It's produced a nice smoky flavor no matter what pellets I had in the hopper.
Man this is awesome! I just did a Porter Road full packer brisket on a year old GMG with Knotty Wood Plum Wood pellets this past weekend. BEST BRISKET EVER!!!!!. SMOKEY SAVORY!! Thank you both for your hard work informing us to help is make awesome food!
@@here_weego Yeah I have no problem with that if it ends up being a better product overall, I was just worried that my budget CampChef that over the course of an all night brisket that a clinker will fill the firebox and steep back into the auguer/hopper. Not trying to wake up to a fire, ya know? haha
Fascinating video. I love these comparisons - especially as I have a pellet smoker(Recteq FTW). I think it would be handy to see a chart of your findings, rankings, opinions, etc. at the end of the video for ease of viewing. Great stuff!
Well it's nice to see that most folks (including you guys) agree with my thoughts on pellets after using a pellet smoker for like 7 years. I'm still a bigger fan of Lumberjack just from a pure cost stand-point alone - 9.99/20 lbs at Runnings vs 18.99 for Traeger. I know costs can vary depending on where you're from for different brands - even B&B is a super value buy if you have an Academy Sports near you (14.99/40 lbs); Thanks for sharing Jeremy!
@@DancerOfClouds It's a farming/outdoor type store in the Northeast/Midwest. Lumberjack is centrally located so shipping costs are way down. However, online, brands like lumberjack will always be more expensive than Traeger just solely because Traeger has product in warehouses throughout the country for Amazon and the like. This also leads to issues they mentioned in the video in regards to having to do maintenance on pellet grills where the pellets are the primary problem due to messing with the auger - pellets sitting idle in warehouses with moisture ingress and poor handling are bound to cause problems.
Always wondered if the order that we taste them in affects outcome. Would be interesting to see if it changed results if the blind taste testers all started on a different brisket
Could it be that because the two of you were standing around in the smoke all day you were somewhat desensitized to the smoke flavor and the test panel were not. This might lead the panel to choose the less smoke intense brisket and you to choose the opposite. I know that there have been times when I've just loved the meat the day I cooked it but found the smoke flavor a little to strong when eating leftovers the next night.
Agree, there has been many times where I had to ask others if they could even taste the smoke, because I couldn't. The next day though, it was spot on.
@@the_indie_army That makes sense. However the fellow in the group who happens to cook mostly on offset smokers agreed with Jeremy on both the most favorite as well as on least favorite.
Well, that is exactly what they said in the video. One thing I heard was that it is a good idea to shower and (obviously) put on fresh clothes when done with the cook and that lessens this effect.
My dad likes ribs that are tender,(fall off the bone) that's his #1for judging, mine is smoke, people have different taste, I'm smoking something I want to taste the smoke (WSM), if you are an eater you may want to remember your 1st bbq. My work had a chilli contest the winner was the recipe on the packet.
This video was super cool! I looked at the results and noticed that it is using a 1-10 scale. I would have loved to additionally see a ranked choice voting system, particularly for what the tasters thought about each of the briskets overall. Using a 1-10 scale can provide more granularity, but the drawback is that from one tester to another, what they call a “1”, “5”, or “10” can vary greatly! Really love and appreciate the effort that goes into these comparison videos. Can’t wait for more! I think it would be really cool to see one where one brand is selected and several different 100% wood pellets are compared (100% plum, white oak, hickory, etc.). Thanks again!
Experimenting with B&B Comp blend and Post oak right now and so far I'm very impressed with the results. I've tried Treger, Pit Boss, Bear Mountain, and Kingsford. I've been wanting to try Lumberjack but cant get them locally. Right now I have no reason to switch from B&B
I think there should be a palate cleanser per each brisket. Flavor profiles absorbing into the tongue can modify your taste perception from beginning to last.
Yes! This is absolutely necessary when doing taste testing. With all the trouble they took to try to make the testing fair they neglected one of the most important things. This immediately threw the whole thing into doubt for me.
When I want a lazy cook that requires less babysitting I use my pellet grill and use a water pan like in this video, I also add two big smoker tubes, one on each end on the bottom rack. I fill each tube with a mixture of pellets and big wood chips . The one on the left side of my GMG gets more air flow due to the fan flow. They add a much better layer of smoke that bumps up the smoked flavor.
Long video but worth it. I personally have, and cook on a Traeger and use their pellets. Used to use an offset in my younger years. I personally weigh out taste versus ease of use and now a straight up Traeger cooker…..but want to experiment with different pellets. Nice work guys👍
Fantastic video guys. Questions: Could it be there's a higher % of problems with Traeger or Pitt Boss pellets due to more people using them &/or; could it be that people not into smoking that much (seriously rank amateur pellet grill users) are more apt to be using them as they just buy a name they recognize or that correlates to the grill brand they have? I've been using Lumberjack, Traeger, Camp Chef, & Pitt Boss pellets so far & haven't had an issue with any of them in regard to clogging up the auger, not burning correctly etc.
It was stated near the end that some of the preconceptions on Traeger and Pit Boss pellets could have come from service calls related to using those brands. Something to consider is that those 2 brands easily consist of more than half of the total pellets being used by consumers. I would even venture to say it could be as high as 70 to 80%. That alone means that you are more likely to respond to service calls for people using those brands. It's also more likely that the casual griller, someone who may not take care of their grill as well, may be drawn to those brands simply because of availability. So that too could result in a higher rate if user error. Like maybe pellets not being stored properly or hoppers/grills not being covered to help keep ambient moisture out. So there could be nothing wrong with the quality of the pellets at all, just the law of percentages.
Awesome vid! I bought a bunch of different pellets recently and had a less controlled environment, but came to a rough conclusion that I'll share: GMG Gold Blend Cookin Pellets Hickory Lumberjack 100% Oak Lumberjack 100% Hickory GMG Gold Blend was my least favorite, tried it on chicken and pork butt. I tasted no smoke flavor. Whatever I have left I'm only using as fuel for once I wrap, as I did not particularly enjoy this. The 2 Lumberjack flavors were my favorite by far - they produced the best taste of any pellet I've ever used. I tried Oak on chicken, ribs, pork butt, and steak; Hickory on ribs, pork butt, and prime rib. Great smoke flavor. Cookin Pellets I used on ribs and pork butt and was really good. I was impressed at the time I tried it, haven't tried them after trying the LJ ones; I want to try this again, but I found it to be more efficient than the LJ brands; based on Jeremy's conclusion of less efficient might produce more flavor, maybe this is why I thought LJ was better?
In my experience the Jealous Devil pellets gave me the best color and flavor and also burned pretty clean. The Traeger performs ok overall but definitely not worth the price imo. I didn't like the Pit Boss pellets I tried, they burned really dirty and lacked flavor. I use a smoke tube with pellets and chips in it to add flavor so I really don't notice the difference in smoke flavor between brands. Jealous Devil is my go to brand right now.
I’ve used several pellet brands including bear mountain and lumberjack and for the most part I only taste the smoke flavor with 100% mesquite. Hoping the knotty wood changes that!!
So much information in this episode, thank you so much!! For the Next episode , blend the pellets that gave you best smoke, bark, and taste, and see if they give you the ultimate pellet brisket!
I'm all about making our own pellet mixes. I wish more companies would sell just bags of 100% wood X. I prefer to control the smoke variable myself. I don't mind paying extra or having all the extra pellets either. As long as a brand is transparent and honest and tells me what % is of what wood type... I can then adjust accordingly and make a killer meal with any pellet so long as we know what's in it. Cheers to us guys who like to mix!
I would LOVE to see this but different *flavor* pellets. NO ONE has done a true blind pellet flavor test on UA-cam. So many people swear by certain flavors, yet I'm convinced that MAYBE with the exception of mesquite, they taste exactly the same on a pellet grill, and no one can tell via an A/B test. Which means that whole "use this pellet on this kind of food only" chart can be thrown out the window.
@ff eater I did enjoy this test quite a bit. It was pretty interesting to see that Traeger took the popular vote. I've been able to tell differences between brands somewhat. But differences between flavors?(assuming the same brand)- Not really. I think that's all just a lot of marketing and probably why some companies only carried one single blend for so many years. Perhaps they take knottywood (or traeger) and then blind test 6 of their flavors. That would be really cool.
@ff eater It certainly matters in traditional smoking with wood chunks. But on these pellet grills - there's a lot of talk about the flavor of the pellet itself just not making it to the food (with perhaps the weber smokefire as they were discussing in one of their previous videos.) Right? Wrong? Who knows which is why I'd like to see a test. It could also be the case of manufacturer - it looks like some of these brands didn't impart any smoke flavor. Perhaps those using one of those brands (lets use pit-boss as an example) aren't seeing any difference between flavor, because there isn't much to begin with, but had they used something like a knottywood they would have?! Sadly from this video I seem to be in the camp of brands with little smoke taste - which might be attributing to why I haven't been able to taste much difference between flavors. A test comparing two of the extreme brands here (perhaps knottywood and cookin'pellets (or pitboss) - IE one with strong smoke taste and one without) - then compare flavors within those brands. We might find that, on some brands, flavor then matters. Others less so, or not at all.
Feel kinda silly saying this, but that was one of my favorite movies lately. Prob classified as a chick flick, but oh well. A Star is Born. Awesome test By the way! You are answering all the questions I’ve had in the back of my mind lately. So good! I do wish you would’ve tested GM Gold and BBQrs Delight
Would love to see a test of the most popular charcoal pellets. Loved this video, very informative for someone who only got into smoking thanks to the convenience of using a pellet grill! I’ve definitely found my favorite pellets so far, but this has me wanting to try a couple of tests myself 😄.
@@jonathoncatterson8901 so far I prefer lumberjack’s char-hickory as my favorite charcoal pellets! I tried camp chef, but the ashes caked up in my firebox and my fire went out while I was smoking a brisket once. Only time that’s happened to me, and I cleaned out the ashes before I started my cook. I also really liked the pitboss charcoal blend. I only ever found those at my local Walmart though, and then I moved 😭. I still want to try the knotty wood pellets (not charcoal) sometime, but they’re just so expensive… I’ve looked into Royal oak pellets and have read reviews that they don’t give off much flavor. I also haven’t tried Jack Daniel’s whiskey charcoal pellets or whatever. May try them out sometime, but also more expensive for me than lumber Jack P.s. if you can find a local vendor of lumber Jack pellets, you can possibly buy them for $9/20lbs instead of paying extra for shipping. Ona separate note, after watching Jeremy’s review of the camp chef woodwind pro pellet smoker, I think I want to go for that one as my next smoker. Love the idea of adding some wood chips to my smokes for a little more og smoker flavors
This is a great test/comparison. I was skeptical of pellets making that big of a difference when I got my grill a couple of years ago. I picked up a Recteq at their HQ and got some of their Ultimate blend pellets with the grill. I cooked 2 flats (first attempt at briskets) and then a whole brisket with those before I ran out. All 3 where great. After that I picked up Pit Boss competition blend pellets as they were on sale and eventually did another brisket with those. It was completely different, with barely any smoke flavor. I later did another brisket with Kingsford Hickory pellets. It turned out good, but not as good as that first full one. Since then I have gotten more Ultimate Blend pellets and cooked one brisket with them and again, it tasted better than the Pit Boss and Kingsford. I'd love to see y'alls perspective on these one day as I know I don't have the taste palette to discern how much of a difference. I've come to be a firm believer that if I'm cooking beef for a long cook, it can't be a blend of anything with a "sweet" wood. I like the Red Oak, White Oak, and Hickory blend very much for beef. Prefer Cherry wood or a apple/pecan blended for pork cooks.
I know I’m late to the party in comments, but I have to say, I think the issues with jamming up augers is the way the owner is taking care of the pellets, ie uncovered smoker etc. I’ve tried them all in my camp chef, and haven’t had any issues, but I dump the pellets after each cook, and keep my smoker covered all the time. Just my 2 cents.
Judging by the results MK, Traeger and LJ were rated with the best bark, best smoke flavor and also were the two most favorited. I think Bark is the winner based off of this test and their results. Good luck with your business!
I think this was extremely well done the manner in which the test was conducted. Hats off! Just my personal observation, when l cook l find myself tasting and smelling the wood smoke predominantly where as l have a hard time smelling the meat cooking. Then when l finally eat the protein the taste is great but l feel l need others to be my barometer as to the smokiness. As he mentioned in the video l do believe after ingesting smoke for so many hours l trust others feedback truer than my own a lot of the time. I love and learn a lot from your videos. Keep up the great work 👍
I really appreciate the work and preparation you went to keeping this fare!! I do believe there should be something like water, beer, vodka or other cleansing of the pallet to give each sample a first time chance! I mentioned alcohol to breakdown the greases in the meat. I agree with others to go 1 to 6, take a break, cleansing the pallet then go 6 to 1 in testing. I also agree smelling the smoke has a huge effect on taste. I would also like more common folks like my self with the trained experts. Maybe 30 or 35 total tasters.
I’m shocked at that outcome! The trouble for me is Traeger pellets don’t give enough smoke flavour and the only other option I have (in England) is Cookinpellets.
Yeah I use mainly Bear Mountain, have tried a bunch of others also. Can't get LJ (bear mountain bought them out) or Jealous Devil around here (32$ on Amazon 🤣)
I use a pit boss Lockhart grill/smoker, and ash is non-existent during a smoke session. I love it. I love this test, because I want to optimize my pellet use. Thanks!
1. You have to do a palate cleanse between bites. Of course things are going to taste less and less strong if you don't cleanse in between bites. 2. I would be interested in pure pellets competition instead of blends. I've tried most brands here and I've settled on cookin pellets 100% hickory. I'm sure it's personal preference, but I just don't like blends as much. I don't blend when I cook on offsets so I don't know why I would blend when I'm cooking on a pellet.
This is crazy. I use cookin pellets the most and they’ve given the best smoke flavor of all of the brands I’ve tried. Also, the bark looks so much more pale than I’m used to. I don’t use a water pan so maybe that’s the difference. Interesting results though.
I’ve used CP myself with a water pan and my first time brisket ever looked about 10x better than that one. Not sure what went wrong with that cook on grill 6.
100% agree with you. The newer affordable gravity smokers (Masterbuilt and Char-Griller) are leaps and bounds ahead of pellet. Literally the best if both worlds in my opinion
Pellet smokers have their place. They are good in the sense that you set it and forget it. Some applications sure but I'd prefer a traditional smoker where I can manually manage the fire itself. Cut down and chop my own smoking wood. Although I now have both eletric and traditional I find myself using traditional a good 90% of the time. If you're going to do it you might as well do it right! Sure it's dedication but make a day or more out of it. Enjoy the process. I personally enjoy the fruits of my labor! Happy smoking everyone 🇨🇦🍻
Wow, your bias against Traeger is incredible. Glad to see them get the W in the blind taste test. Seeing how quickly lumberjack burned through pellets made me see dollars burning in the process. Sure it’s cheap to buy up front but man they burnt too quick! But with how efficiently the traeger burned and how it performed I am definitely giving them my money from here on out!
Do you know that for a fact or are you making a speculation like Jeremy does? Price point aside, all I see based off this video is a blind taste test voting the traeger pellets as the winner. Does that make them definitively the best on the market? No, but as far as accessibility, variety, consistency, efficiency and (based off this video) flavor I will stick with Traeger. But you do you since you know better than me.
I purchased a bunch of Oak Lumberjack pellets based on your past review and gotta tell ya….. underwhelmed! Smoke flavor was weak. I own a Traeger Ironwood 885 and the temps are steady and have yet to experience any issues. Auger has yet to jam up with Traeger pellets… Don’t underestimate Traeger products fellas!
I just got the Ironwood 885, but haven’t been able to use it. What’s your favorite pellets to use? Any tips/techniques for using it? How’s super smoke setting?
Best brisket I ever did was on bottom shelf of a RecTec, no water pan, fat side down, placed a chunk of wood under the middle so juices run off and don't pool on top, and took 21 hours. 12 hours @ 180, 6 hours @ 200 and set to 225 to finish it off after wrapping in paper and drenched in beef tallow. Used Lumberjack pellets.
Those were interesting results. I've used Jealous Devil lump charcoal, and I've been impressed with the product. I'm not surprised that it would produce a high quality pellet.
Glad to hear Pitmasters like Knottywood pellets. I use all of their products. Have not used the Cabernet / Almond wood blend yet, but will soon. Jeremy was very positive on the Knottywood pellets in a comparo between pellet meat and side box meat. I enjoy the ease of use of my GMG Daniel Boone. My Weber kettle has a place, too.
Great experiment Jeremy. Looks like a lot of work went into it. Glad to see my go to Lumberjack pellets are a crowd pleaser elsewhere not just my home. Happy New Year!
From what I hear, if you want more smoke flavor from a pellet grill, try cooking with the pellets at 200 to 225 for the first half of the cook, then wrap at the stall, and you can cook at a higher temp say 275 to 300 to finish the brisket.
I don't have a pellet smoker. That being said I am planning on getting one. My first hurdle is finding one that does the job well. Then the Pellet. I enjoy cooking with splits. So thanks for the test.
Ok, so i bought the Plum pellets and used them on a very large & thick brisket. Long cook but the flavor was really good. Sweeter smoke, less acidic, a very nice change. Also was good on chicken thighs. Lots of leftover ash at the burner which almost covered the pellet dispenser tube chingadera. Thanks for the reviews.
I purchased one of the earliest Traeger Junior pellet smokers, hoping for that "set it and forget it" cooking. One of the happiest days of my life was when I gave it to my neighbor in exchange for a Jet Bandsaw, I was the winner here folks!!!! It originally had the original 3 setting, high, low, smoke, settings. I upgraded to the new, (at that time), variable temp controller when they were still made in USA. It didn't make much difference, it was better, but not much. Thru-out the entire time I had it, I could only expect to keep a fire for no more than 4 hours before the the fire pot would plug up and burn out. Traeger pellets create a LOT of ash. I eventually used Bear Mountain pellets which was a slight improvement. I have an old, very burnt out stick burner offset, that I was hoping the pellet smoker would supplement, WRONG! Before I gave it away, we had some side by side taste tests against my stick burner, the stick burner won every time! My stick burner is in some rather "used up" condition, {it's at least 25++ years old}, and has seen the business end of my wire feed welder a few times. The ONLY positive comment I will give to the Traeger Junior pellet smoker is this,,,, it was great when I smoked a 3 1/2 lb can of mixed nuts,, before the fire pot plugged up and burned out. Keep the smoke temp below 160 deg's, {you don't want to overcook the oils in the nuts}, you will enjoy the tastiest, smoked, mixed nuts to pass across your front teeth! For me, I'm going back to my Little Chief top loader for my smoked nuts! DO NOT let your imagination run amok, keep your comments clean!!!!!!!
Same reason some pick checvy and some pic ford.Its all a matter of preference. Also you 2 have a more advanced pallet per say. I better after a little more experience their choices will change. But I will admit you had me staying as far away from traeger pellets as I could.. But in a pinch I don't think I will avoid them as hard..we have little choice in AK so I usebear mountain from sportsmans... love em.
Amazing video, I really enjoyed the science and comparative nature of this exercise. I have a Traeger Timberline 1300 and noticed sometimes I get a strong Smokey flavour and sometimes none at all when cooking the same protein. This video has really opened my eyes to other pellet brands outside Traeger and BBQrs Delight. Please keep doing more of these videos. Great job guys!
Awesome. Amazing science and expertise. What did we do before the internet and You Tube. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. And the Lady Gaga Tallow song was hysterical.
As a professional coffee taster, I’ve noticed that folks who are experts tend to look for slightly different things and are less wowed by certain types of coffees compared to average tasters because we have *so much* more experience and have tasted tens of thousands of coffees. Not surprising to see y’all getting different results than the average folks. There’s a reason I include the influence of experts in my purchase decisions - I want to evaluate what you’re pointing out and see why they stand out to you.
Most people haven't really tasted really good BBQ. Being from Texas, we grew up cooking on open pits or offset smokers. Most people now who go out to eat BBQ get served BBQ cooked on stainless steel commercial cookers that produce no or very little smoke ring on the meat. At home, they use pellet grills that produce very little smoke taste because if they do there is something wrong and they change pellets. Nothing wrong with that, it's just that is what they think it's supposed to taste like. When I invite others over for the first time it's always fun to see their eyes when they taste some real BBQ for the first time in their lives.
This was a very enjoyable video to watch. I will say I started on a cheap Masterbuilt vertical propane smoker. Moderately modified to include smoking wood chunks over chips and insulating the smoke box. I have recently moved into the pellet game with a Louisiana Grills Pellet smoker I bought on clearance from Costco at a ridiculous price of $150. I am currently trying three different brands of similar pellet blends. There are so many factors in smoking meat and of course the personal preference of the taste testers. I guess my point is you don't need to invest a ton of money into a smoker or the wood/pellets to have a great time experimenting and delivering a great result to your guests. Great videos and keep up the good work!
Wife: "What are you doing?"
Me: "Watching a 50 minute movie on smoker combustion that included a fireman geeking out on wood combustion. You'll appreciate me one day."
This test is totally necessary, it is nearly impossible for us to do a controlled side by side on pellet flavors with the same meat, smoker, and temperature. Thank you.
Yea, but it didn't provide much guidance considering the way the results went lol
@@RyTrapp0 I've been told that the pellets don't make a big difference, but based on the results you can get after a strong bark or strong smoke flavor depending on which brand you are going for.
@@bubblewhip382 One note is that this test didn't include smoke tubes either. In my experience pellets in the hopper matter far less if you are adding a smoke tube. If I was assigning numbers I would say it's 70% (tube flavor) to 30% (hopper flavor) on my smoker. Different smokers are different as well with the amount of smoke they will impart.
@@drucius42 yes, I would have liked him to add one with a tube as well. Plus, if he had used straight hickory you'd prob get more smoke flavor?
Agreed but I was hoping they might do something more like, run the whole line of lumberjack or whatever and see if the woods make any difference. For example the MHC vs the OHC vs the fruitwood blend or something
I always notice when I smoke something that I barely taste the smoke taste after inhaling the smoke for hours.
However, the next day when I smell and eat the leftover meat it is really good and smoky.
Inhaling the smoke while cooking definitely desensitizes your nose/pallet for hours.
I try to shower and change before I eat. Makes a difference.
yes! dude I've noticed that too! I usually try n at least change clothes and wash my face b4 I eat. makes a difference
100% agree
Mr. Mitchell, I always find that the smoke flavor has more development after a day or so wrapped or sealed tightly. I think this is a chemical reaction and not necessarily a desensitization of your olfactory or palette. Just my two cents, and when I smoke jerky or sausage, I vacuum seal for several days prior to service.
I agree. I think my ability to taste the smoke flavor is dulled after being in the smoke while cooking. I also agree that the smoke flavor develops after a night in the refrigerator. Could be a chemical reaction, or perhaps the flavor compounds distributing from the bark through the meat like with pasta how the herbs continue to add flavor to the sauce overnight in the fridge.
I feel like a year ago if we would have asked for this video it would have never happened. Cool to see you’re running pellet grill tests and providing honest feedback.
What I wish would have been covered by this video (or any other) is how loud these things are. If you enjoy a nice quiet afternoon on your porch, don't plan on doing it while one of these jet engines is running. Compared to an offset or a WSM which are silent, offer lots of smoke flavor, these things are expensive to run and produce pretty lame smoke flavor relative to real smokers. They really need to be more clear on this so people know what they are getting into.
@@bobf5360 lol yeah mine is a bit loud. I do enjoy the soft crackling of oak wood a lot more
@@bobf5360 I don't have a ledge but I have a davy crocket and a daniel boone. They aren't loud at all. The Davy Crockett is basically silent after it gets up to temp with only the auger moving as needed. the boone has a louder "whirr" to it that's constant, but it's not like you can't have a quiet conversation with it going 5 feet away.
Why do you say they're expensive to run? Wood and charcoal are expensive too.
Now they need one using a smoker tube.
In the last 10 months I’ve tried at least 12 different pellets, that being said, I can honestly say that Knotty Wood pellets blew them all away. A combination of plum and almond just did it for me, to the point that it’s the only thing I’ll use for beef in the future. Fruit wood pellets, apple, cherry and maybe pecan for pork. It’s so great to find pellets that really float my boat rather than feeling like I just have to make due. Thanks for your effort on our behalf, it’s greatly appreciated.
I knew right away #5 was Lumberjack just by the amount it burned compared to all others. LJ are of a smaller diameter therefore will burn more to maintain set temp. All in all, great video and test. I'd be more curious in a 100% wood species test. Apple vs Cherry vs Oak vs Maple vs Mesquite and see if the general public notices the difference. Cheers!
I thought at the beginning of the vid Jeremy said he'd prepare the briskets the EXACT SAME WAY in order to reduce the variables?
If you watch closely at 26:36, you can see that he doesn't sing to the 3rd brisket while wrapping in tallow. The first and second briskets, however, were blessed with his angelic voice, thus skewing the results.
Very disappointed in this gross abandonment of the scientific method. All conclusions must be thrown out and the test repeated. At my house.
This needs to be pinned.
Could it be your reading a little too much into this....
@@mikelastpass689 Could it be his joke went over your head…
truly debunked. Singing is the key :)
Absolutely agree and I need to be there to be one of the official taste tester ...
Thanks for the comparison. A few things are certain after seeing it. The debate over what's the best pellet is no closer to being answered today than is was before this test. Of course we'll have a bunch of people chiming in that their pellets weren't tested so it we didn't get the best results. I guess the most important takeaway from this is that, just like beer, everyone has their own taste. I may not like Budweiser beer or Traeger pellets, but if you do, the more power to you! Keep on smokin'!
I applaud you for doing this test and doing it in a double blind manner, and controlling for most variables. This is super helpful and something most people wouldn’t be able to do themselves!
It was fantastic meeting you and your wife. The pellet taste test was so much fun. Thank you for having us in your video, and letting us be taste testers. That was a great experiment. Cheers!
A really nice surprise seeing you and Babe in the taster's group. Being forced to eat wagyu brisket? Heck yes!
@@brianveestrom6784 It was a lot of fun. All the briskets were very good! 🎉🎉🎉
the irony of tasting less smoke as u went down from 1 to 6 is probably because your not doing a pallet clense between each one so your muting your own taste buds.
Spot on observation! as so called pro’s you would think they would have considered that!!!!
I was going to say the same thing about cleaning their pallets. I feel like they did a good job though, regardless of that.
@@rubberband7341 probably not pro judges though! 😁
*you’re
That’s why ginger is served with sushi. Cleanse the palate after each piece.
Been using Pit Boss Competition Blend in my Camp Chef since day 1. It has a consistent burn and flavor across all my different cooks. Glad to see it was represented as well as it could be for a large box, commodity product.
Same here, I've always used Pit Boss Comp Blend for Everything. And, I've always had a quiet happy table. Although, I May have to try the number one pellet winner. Knotty woods plum, I believe. Might be fun.
Same. I feel I can control the smoke profile in a variety of meats I cook with it very well.
Same here. I really like the Pit Boss Competition Blend in my Rec Teq smokers. Everyone I feed with what I cook with them like them too.
Aye. Super reliable
One thing also to consider in my opinion is the price of the pellets. I’m very fortunate that my local Rural King has almost all the varieties of Lumberjack for only $8.88 for a 20lb bag. It’s a no brainer to use Lumberjack at that price. Plus their quality is top shelf.
Thanks for doing all these videos. They are very enjoyable and informative.
I agree, price is a big factor. I've been paying $7.50 to $9 for 20 pounds of Pit Boss, so I'm happy to see that it landed in the middle and wasn't the least efficient.
You guys are lucky, nowhere near me in so cal sells Lumberjack.
When blind tasting whiskey, they recommend you go left to right and then right to left to see if your taste was affected by the previous sample. Have to wonder if the first two stood out more because they were up front prior to any taste.
The reality is, there are so many factors you can't control in tests like this, like did sample one have more salt and less pepper? At the end of the day, getting these things scientifically perfect isn't really an option, so having 2 groups give results should give you more of an indication than an absolute result. I was genuinely surprised that the traeger pellets did better than the lumberjack for example, given how many people trash traeger pellets and rave about lumberjack. I myself swapped hoping for better smoke flavour and not sure I am convinced it's better, but unless you do it side by side each time, so long as it tastes ok, that's good enough for most people.
I thought the same thing. I've also noticed that the flavors change after resting longer or warming later. Wonder if they tasted samples again when they did taste testing.
Many people don’t really know what a good smoke flavor is. They just know what they are used to.
The comment at the end about them being exposed to smoke for an extended period of time matters. It’s basic sensory science, and is known as sensory fatigue. But I give kudos to these gents for being open and honestly discussing the results.
THANK YOU so much for bringing to my husband and mine's attention that a little company in our neck of the woods is producing the best pellets. We ordered 4 bags of plum, 4 bags of almond that came one day later, due to our close proximity. Thank you for being so transparent in everything that you do. I really appreciate your integrity.
I think the first bite had the biggest impression due to having a clean pallet (trying it first).
You should have went back to number one after the last bite to see if it would still taste as good.
Great test though!
Thank you for the effort!
Completely agree on this!
I thought this too
yeah me too
and clean Ur pallet between bites. water!!!! the test tasting needed more attention considering the time to cook them.
Completely agree. A few swigs of water and a few bites of white bread should do the trick.
You've GOT to know that the first bite will always taste the smokiest! Did all the other taste-testers try the samples in exact order from 1 through 6?
Exactly
I said this in the pellet tube vs no pellet tube video. The first sample is the baseline for how everything else is judged.
If so, all smoking competitions are garbage as 1st taste sets benchmark.
Great point. Multiple round taste tests always help, for the reason that you have mentioned, but also in general.
I was almost yelling out loud as they got to number six “now go back and taste number one and number two again!“ Would they have been as impressed after the taste buds were inundated with all the others? Taste and smell sensitivityBoth diminish as the clock ticks after first exposure.
I appreciate your candor in the results, knowing neither of you liked Traeger pellets. Even in your tests, you liked it and that’s interesting for me too. I’ve had good luck with the Traeger pellets, but I’m trying several others just to see. Like y’all, I might get surprised! Thanks for this, as it was the best overall comparison I’ve found, and shows that you can find out a lot when you set biases aside.
I could listen to this guy talk about fire and combustion all day. He's so damn knowledgeable!! Also, super big props to him for being a fire fighter!
I must say - I know you don't love making pellet videos, but these latest ones are incredible. Thank you so much for doing them and taking your approach to pellet smokers. Very cool.
He needs new content anyway. We need a more accurate pellet comparison and from other flavors not just the ones he did
@@melissavanhoven7390yes because he didn’t cleanse his pallet
This was so fun, thank you for having us!!
Thanks for doing it! It was something I had been wanting to do for a long time 👍🏻
So I have a traeger pro 34 that has a temp swing that I love. It isn't tight in warm weather, and cold it gets finicky. I just bought a blanket for the cold. That being said, this grill make smoke rings for days and the meat that comes off it is amazing. At first I was concerned about the range of temp, but I simply adjusted the timing and have had great results.
Love your comparison and very informative.
I’m 18 year plus Treager owner (non PID)
So I get those temp swings some don’t like but I think it add to the smoke flavors.
I recently picked up both Knotty Wood pellets and did a comparison with similar seasoned chicken and I really liked both. Good smoke but not overwhelming. Surprisingly the Plum was smokier than the almond and I liked it better.
My Pitt did run a bit hotter than other pellets and I did get lots more ash and even abit of their Klinckers in my fire pot.
Thanks again for the great video and keep them coming.
One of the best channels on UA-cam by far!!!
Are the klinkers terribly inconvenient? The only info out there is a disaster review by one guy. I’d love to try it but I don’t want to stress out my Pitt
Love to see u do a segment on the master built gravity fed smokers. Interested to see how they perform
I agree. He can also compare it to the Char-Griller gravity as well.
Best of both worlds for me. I would love to see more opinions of stick burner veterans on this.
They do take a little bit of learning, nothing compared to a stick burner.
Great test, really appreciated it. The winner is totally not what I expected. Love these tests. I have used B&B and Bear Mountain, would have liked to see them maybe added to future pellet reviews. There are so many brands and I have no issue letting you do my due diligence for me...LOL
I really wonder about Bear Mountain as well, because I enjoy them and have heard lots of good things. However they're never in these types of comparisons, so maybe they're not as popular? Idk.
I use bear mountain as well, I love using them!
It's crazy to me Bear Mountain wasn't on this list! Curious where it would have placed.
I haven't tried B&B yet but their popularity is heating up (hard to find lately).
Ive been getting B&B championship blend at Ace and love it. LJ has been much harder to find but used to be my go to. A 40lb bag of B&B is about $40 at Ace.
Thank you for the test. I personally own a Pit Boss Lexington 550 and have had it for just a little over two years now. I started with Pit Boss pellets and didn’t care for them. I switched to Lumberjack pellets because of two things, cheaper than Pit Boss pellets and secondly they seem to be packaged better, efficient, and better flavor and appearance of the protein overall. Just my opinion. Looking to get an offset smoker though soon to test for myself the difference
First season with my Pitt Boss and still experimenting. I don’t like the hot spot right in the middle, so If I’m smoking, I place it to one side or the other , even up top. The hot spot is great for steaks though. I’ll have to keep an eye out for those lumberjack pellets, I’ve only used the PB so far. I wish the thermometer on the lid was the same as the electronic, I’m still not sure which to trust, though I think it’s the digital. Waiting on spring…
@@nmaddog4689 great info for me I finally know why my briskets don’t pull apart like I want them to I always put it on the hot stop thinking it’s ok because the temperature is low, I also add a very small water tray. Now I can’t wait to try another brisket once the prices go down 😅
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Remember that Traeger just changed packaging a few months ago. New packaging have no holes poked in them like the old bag. I’ve also noticed less wood dust in the bags. I also noticed I use less pellets with the new packaging on Traeger.
You ever think about having a control brisket? One cooked without smoke that all the testers try 1st to set a benchmark
I would have liked to see Jeremy and Eric taste and rate separately instead of together.
clever idea
Fantastic test guys, really appreciate you putting this together!
This dude is super knowledgeable. He spoke for 10 minutes and didn't repeat himself.
This makes sense as to why people say they can taste smoke on the meat but I can’t at all. Never even thought of “smoke desensitization”.
Very entertaining experiment. Really enjoyed watching it from start to finish. It was interesting seeing the similarities (bark) and the disparities (smoke flavor) in your analysis. Thank you guys for taking the time to show your audience a true unbiased experiment and being transparent about it. If you guys do decide to run it back for a second test, y’all should do tri tips instead. Just a suggestion. Keep up the good work, Jeremy.
A lot to be said for changing the taste buds after cooking. I have noticed it before with all types of cooks. But last weekend I cooked 6 pork butts. I tasted it, the first bite was awesome. I had a couple more bites with my NC vinegar base sauce, awesome. My Wife came in and loved it. After pulling all 6 butts, everyone made their plates and went on and on about how good the BBQ and sauce was. I didn't even eat, I completely lost the taste for BBQ that day.
Worked on sausage sizzles for my old baseball club which would run all day. By the end I couldn’t stand the smell and definitely couldn’t eat one
@@JamesTKirk-wk5ut I completely agree. I cook on a stick burner, and staying away for 12 hours helps refresh my sense of smell. A reason why I am considering
a pellet smoker or a gravity smoker, so I can walk away from the smoke most of the time.
Need more msg. That’ll keep you coming back all day long baby.
I’ve noticed that as well. When I cook for several hours I only eat a small plate. But When I eat and don’t cook I eat several plates.
@@CoolJay77 - My go to for several years has been a Kamada Joe stick burner. Last year I purchased a Recteq 700 just to be able to cook more at a time. That butt cook was on the pellet grill, I only went to grill every 2 hours to spritz, then wrapped butts at 180 degrees. I really noticed losing the taste for it after unwrapping and pulling all six butts. Just standing over them for 30 minutes. Don't know about other pellet smokers but mine does hold the temp, if I didn't spritz, I wouldn't have to go out there until time to wrap.
You nailed it when you said the panel chose what they are used to cooking with.
Love the Jealous Devil Pellets. Recently picked up 2 more boxes. Yesterday cooked a plethora of food using Traeger Meat Church pellets and everything turned out great with color and smoke flavor.
I think this was great and interesting. I wonder though if when you experts did your initial taste if there was some taste fatigue as you moved from 1 to 6? I would have found it interesting if you had gone back to 1 & 2 and confirmed they still seemed like the most flavorful after tying all 6.
Yes, I wondered that too and if they were cleansing their pallet between briskets?
Exactly! I too also wondered about the pallet cleanser
Probably should've used a palette cleanser before trying each one. Hard judge food accordingly without doing that.
These guys are obviously not professional food judges 🤣
if thats true, wouldnt the other testers have chosen #1 or 2 or if they started reverse #5 or 6? yet they all chose the middle #3 which you know they didnt start with!
The 2 Traeger haters get thumped!! BOOOOOOOOOM 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Love my pellet grill. Loved the video. I've found that the pellets matter less than how I cook/smoke the meat. I've tried several brands used in this video.
So for example. I get really good smoke flavor on a pork butt by cooking it at a very low temp for about 4 hours before turning up the temp to actually start cooking the meat. So I'll run it about 170 to 180 during that time then move it up to 275/300 to finish the cook. It's produced a nice smoky flavor no matter what pellets I had in the hopper.
Man this is awesome! I just did a Porter Road full packer brisket on a year old GMG with Knotty Wood Plum Wood pellets this past weekend. BEST BRISKET EVER!!!!!. SMOKEY SAVORY!! Thank you both for your hard work informing us to help is make awesome food!
Did your knotty wood plum pellets clump in your firebox? I want to try them but I have been reading bad reviews.
@@joshboyd6570 they do make more klinkers. Need to clean out after every cook. But very worth it.
@@here_weego Yeah I have no problem with that if it ends up being a better product overall, I was just worried that my budget CampChef that over the course of an all night brisket that a clinker will fill the firebox and steep back into the auguer/hopper. Not trying to wake up to a fire, ya know? haha
Fascinating video. I love these comparisons - especially as I have a pellet smoker(Recteq FTW). I think it would be handy to see a chart of your findings, rankings, opinions, etc. at the end of the video for ease of viewing. Great stuff!
I really wanna see you do the Lonestar grillz pellet smoker. That thing looks like a beast.
Well it's nice to see that most folks (including you guys) agree with my thoughts on pellets after using a pellet smoker for like 7 years. I'm still a bigger fan of Lumberjack just from a pure cost stand-point alone - 9.99/20 lbs at Runnings vs 18.99 for Traeger. I know costs can vary depending on where you're from for different brands - even B&B is a super value buy if you have an Academy Sports near you (14.99/40 lbs); Thanks for sharing Jeremy!
If you have a Home Depot near you they do a multi bag discount which makes it 14.99 a bag for Traeger.
Great point, cost vs convenience. I buy Traeger because it is always available at Costco. We don't have a "Runnings"
@@DancerOfClouds It's a farming/outdoor type store in the Northeast/Midwest. Lumberjack is centrally located so shipping costs are way down. However, online, brands like lumberjack will always be more expensive than Traeger just solely because Traeger has product in warehouses throughout the country for Amazon and the like. This also leads to issues they mentioned in the video in regards to having to do maintenance on pellet grills where the pellets are the primary problem due to messing with the auger - pellets sitting idle in warehouses with moisture ingress and poor handling are bound to cause problems.
Extremely interesting and useful. A lot of good information on different issues that people experience when smoking.
Always wondered if the order that we taste them in affects outcome. Would be interesting to see if it changed results if the blind taste testers all started on a different brisket
Could it be that because the two of you were standing around in the smoke all day you were somewhat desensitized to the smoke flavor and the test panel were not. This might lead the panel to choose the less smoke intense brisket and you to choose the opposite. I know that there have been times when I've just loved the meat the day I cooked it but found the smoke flavor a little to strong when eating leftovers the next night.
Agree, there has been many times where I had to ask others if they could even taste the smoke, because I couldn't. The next day though, it was spot on.
Well they did mention that themselves in the video. So they think it's a possibility.
@@the_indie_army That makes sense. However the fellow in the group who happens to cook mostly on offset smokers agreed with Jeremy on both the most favorite as well as
on least favorite.
Well, that is exactly what they said in the video. One thing I heard was that it is a good idea to shower and (obviously) put on fresh clothes when done with the cook and that lessens this effect.
My dad likes ribs that are tender,(fall off the bone) that's his #1for judging, mine is smoke, people have different taste, I'm smoking something I want to taste the smoke (WSM), if you are an eater you may want to remember your 1st bbq. My work had a chilli contest the winner was the recipe on the packet.
This is great. All the pellet grill stuff lately is awesome. A lot of people have them and love them.
This video was super cool! I looked at the results and noticed that it is using a 1-10 scale. I would have loved to additionally see a ranked choice voting system, particularly for what the tasters thought about each of the briskets overall. Using a 1-10 scale can provide more granularity, but the drawback is that from one tester to another, what they call a “1”, “5”, or “10” can vary greatly! Really love and appreciate the effort that goes into these comparison videos. Can’t wait for more! I think it would be really cool to see one where one brand is selected and several different 100% wood pellets are compared (100% plum, white oak, hickory, etc.). Thanks again!
Experimenting with B&B Comp blend and Post oak right now and so far I'm very impressed with the results. I've tried Treger, Pit Boss, Bear Mountain, and Kingsford. I've been wanting to try Lumberjack but cant get them locally. Right now I have no reason to switch from B&B
Love my B&B. Six years. Great food. I agree with you. No need to switch.
B&B post oak is fantastic. I've just started using Costco Kirkland blend and it's a nice change of pace. I've got a bag of B&B hickory to try too.
I think there should be a palate cleanser per each brisket. Flavor profiles absorbing into the tongue can modify your taste perception from beginning to last.
Yes! This is absolutely necessary when doing taste testing. With all the trouble they took to try to make the testing fair they neglected one of the most important things. This immediately threw the whole thing into doubt for me.
When I want a lazy cook that requires less babysitting I use my pellet grill and use a water pan like in this video, I also add two big smoker tubes, one on each end on the bottom rack. I fill each tube with a mixture of pellets and big wood chips . The one on the left side of my GMG gets more air flow due to the fan flow. They add a much better layer of smoke that bumps up the smoked flavor.
Long video but worth it. I personally have, and cook on a Traeger and use their pellets. Used to use an offset in my younger years. I personally weigh out taste versus ease of use and now a straight up Traeger cooker…..but want to experiment with different pellets. Nice work guys👍
Fantastic video guys. Questions: Could it be there's a higher % of problems with Traeger or Pitt Boss pellets due to more people using them &/or; could it be that people not into smoking that much (seriously rank amateur pellet grill users) are more apt to be using them as they just buy a name they recognize or that correlates to the grill brand they have?
I've been using Lumberjack, Traeger, Camp Chef, & Pitt Boss pellets so far & haven't had an issue with any of them in regard to clogging up the auger, not burning correctly etc.
EXactly what I was thinking. Don't blame the pellet if somebody washes down their smoker/grill with a hose.
Should you clean your pallet in between bites?
It was stated near the end that some of the preconceptions on Traeger and Pit Boss pellets could have come from service calls related to using those brands. Something to consider is that those 2 brands easily consist of more than half of the total pellets being used by consumers. I would even venture to say it could be as high as 70 to 80%. That alone means that you are more likely to respond to service calls for people using those brands. It's also more likely that the casual griller, someone who may not take care of their grill as well, may be drawn to those brands simply because of availability. So that too could result in a higher rate if user error. Like maybe pellets not being stored properly or hoppers/grills not being covered to help keep ambient moisture out. So there could be nothing wrong with the quality of the pellets at all, just the law of percentages.
Good comment
Awesome vid!
I bought a bunch of different pellets recently and had a less controlled environment, but came to a rough conclusion that I'll share:
GMG Gold Blend
Cookin Pellets Hickory
Lumberjack 100% Oak
Lumberjack 100% Hickory
GMG Gold Blend was my least favorite, tried it on chicken and pork butt. I tasted no smoke flavor. Whatever I have left I'm only using as fuel for once I wrap, as I did not particularly enjoy this.
The 2 Lumberjack flavors were my favorite by far - they produced the best taste of any pellet I've ever used. I tried Oak on chicken, ribs, pork butt, and steak; Hickory on ribs, pork butt, and prime rib. Great smoke flavor.
Cookin Pellets I used on ribs and pork butt and was really good. I was impressed at the time I tried it, haven't tried them after trying the LJ ones; I want to try this again, but I found it to be more efficient than the LJ brands; based on Jeremy's conclusion of less efficient might produce more flavor, maybe this is why I thought LJ was better?
In my experience the Jealous Devil pellets gave me the best color and flavor and also burned pretty clean.
The Traeger performs ok overall but definitely not worth the price imo.
I didn't like the Pit Boss pellets I tried, they burned really dirty and lacked flavor. I use a smoke tube with pellets and chips in it to add flavor so I really don't notice the difference in smoke flavor between brands. Jealous Devil is my go to brand right now.
100% agree on Traeger.
I’ve used several pellet brands including bear mountain and lumberjack and for the most part I only taste the smoke flavor with 100% mesquite. Hoping the knotty wood changes that!!
Same here, but I'm going to try the almond. Heard it's a little more pronounced than the plum.
So much information in this episode, thank you so much!! For the Next episode , blend the pellets that gave you best smoke, bark, and taste, and see if they give you the ultimate pellet brisket!
I'm all about making our own pellet mixes. I wish more companies would sell just bags of 100% wood X. I prefer to control the smoke variable myself. I don't mind paying extra or having all the extra pellets either. As long as a brand is transparent and honest and tells me what % is of what wood type... I can then adjust accordingly and make a killer meal with any pellet so long as we know what's in it. Cheers to us guys who like to mix!
I would LOVE to see this but different *flavor* pellets. NO ONE has done a true blind pellet flavor test on UA-cam. So many people swear by certain flavors, yet I'm convinced that MAYBE with the exception of mesquite, they taste exactly the same on a pellet grill, and no one can tell via an A/B test. Which means that whole "use this pellet on this kind of food only" chart can be thrown out the window.
@ff eater I did enjoy this test quite a bit. It was pretty interesting to see that Traeger took the popular vote. I've been able to tell differences between brands somewhat. But differences between flavors?(assuming the same brand)- Not really. I think that's all just a lot of marketing and probably why some companies only carried one single blend for so many years. Perhaps they take knottywood (or traeger) and then blind test 6 of their flavors. That would be really cool.
@ff eater It certainly matters in traditional smoking with wood chunks. But on these pellet grills - there's a lot of talk about the flavor of the pellet itself just not making it to the food (with perhaps the weber smokefire as they were discussing in one of their previous videos.) Right? Wrong? Who knows which is why I'd like to see a test. It could also be the case of manufacturer - it looks like some of these brands didn't impart any smoke flavor. Perhaps those using one of those brands (lets use pit-boss as an example) aren't seeing any difference between flavor, because there isn't much to begin with, but had they used something like a knottywood they would have?! Sadly from this video I seem to be in the camp of brands with little smoke taste - which might be attributing to why I haven't been able to taste much difference between flavors. A test comparing two of the extreme brands here (perhaps knottywood and cookin'pellets (or pitboss) - IE one with strong smoke taste and one without) - then compare flavors within those brands. We might find that, on some brands, flavor then matters. Others less so, or not at all.
Feel kinda silly saying this, but that was one of my favorite movies lately. Prob classified as a chick flick, but oh well. A Star is Born. Awesome test By the way! You are answering all the questions I’ve had in the back of my mind lately. So good! I do wish you would’ve tested GM Gold and BBQrs Delight
Would love to see a test of the most popular charcoal pellets. Loved this video, very informative for someone who only got into smoking thanks to the convenience of using a pellet grill! I’ve definitely found my favorite pellets so far, but this has me wanting to try a couple of tests myself 😄.
Whats your fav charcoal.pellets?? I love charcoal
@@jonathoncatterson8901 so far I prefer lumberjack’s char-hickory as my favorite charcoal pellets! I tried camp chef, but the ashes caked up in my firebox and my fire went out while I was smoking a brisket once. Only time that’s happened to me, and I cleaned out the ashes before I started my cook. I also really liked the pitboss charcoal blend. I only ever found those at my local Walmart though, and then I moved 😭. I still want to try the knotty wood pellets (not charcoal) sometime, but they’re just so expensive…
I’ve looked into Royal oak pellets and have read reviews that they don’t give off much flavor. I also haven’t tried Jack Daniel’s whiskey charcoal pellets or whatever. May try them out sometime, but also more expensive for me than lumber Jack
P.s. if you can find a local vendor of lumber Jack pellets, you can possibly buy them for $9/20lbs instead of paying extra for shipping.
Ona separate note, after watching Jeremy’s review of the camp chef woodwind pro pellet smoker, I think I want to go for that one as my next smoker. Love the idea of adding some wood chips to my smokes for a little more og smoker flavors
This is a great test/comparison. I was skeptical of pellets making that big of a difference when I got my grill a couple of years ago. I picked up a Recteq at their HQ and got some of their Ultimate blend pellets with the grill. I cooked 2 flats (first attempt at briskets) and then a whole brisket with those before I ran out. All 3 where great.
After that I picked up Pit Boss competition blend pellets as they were on sale and eventually did another brisket with those. It was completely different, with barely any smoke flavor. I later did another brisket with Kingsford Hickory pellets. It turned out good, but not as good as that first full one.
Since then I have gotten more Ultimate Blend pellets and cooked one brisket with them and again, it tasted better than the Pit Boss and Kingsford. I'd love to see y'alls perspective on these one day as I know I don't have the taste palette to discern how much of a difference. I've come to be a firm believer that if I'm cooking beef for a long cook, it can't be a blend of anything with a "sweet" wood. I like the Red Oak, White Oak, and Hickory blend very much for beef. Prefer Cherry wood or a apple/pecan blended for pork cooks.
I know I’m late to the party in comments, but I have to say, I think the issues with jamming up augers is the way the owner is taking care of the pellets, ie uncovered smoker etc. I’ve tried them all in my camp chef, and haven’t had any issues, but I dump the pellets after each cook, and keep my smoker covered all the time. Just my 2 cents.
I’d love to see a bark vs no bark flavor difference on the splits. I’m opening a bbq joint and that’ll help me a ton.
Judging by the results MK, Traeger and LJ were rated with the best bark, best smoke flavor and also were the two most favorited. I think Bark is the winner based off of this test and their results. Good luck with your business!
Please cook on a master built 1050.
Im dying to know your thoughts on it
I think this was extremely well done the manner in which the test was conducted. Hats off! Just my personal observation, when l cook l find myself tasting and smelling the wood smoke predominantly where as l have a hard time smelling the meat cooking. Then when l finally eat the protein the taste is great but l feel l need others to be my barometer as to the smokiness. As he mentioned in the video l do believe after ingesting smoke for so many hours l trust others feedback truer than my own a lot of the time. I love and learn a lot from your videos. Keep up the great work 👍
I really appreciate the work and preparation you went to keeping this fare!! I do believe there should be something like water, beer, vodka or other cleansing of the pallet to give each sample a first time chance! I mentioned alcohol to breakdown the greases in the meat. I agree with others to go 1 to 6, take a break, cleansing the pallet then go 6 to 1 in testing. I also agree smelling the smoke has a huge effect on taste. I would also like more common folks like my self with the trained experts. Maybe 30 or 35 total tasters.
I’ve been waiting for this one 👍
We all have!
I’m shocked at that outcome! The trouble for me is Traeger pellets don’t give enough smoke flavour and the only other option I have (in England) is Cookinpellets.
you should try bear moutain pelletts as well...ive been very impressed with them!
I use them as well
I like Bear Mountain pellets. They also work well in a tube smoker, with mostly thin blue smoke instead of acrid white smoke.
Yeah I use mainly Bear Mountain, have tried a bunch of others also. Can't get LJ (bear mountain bought them out) or Jealous Devil around here (32$ on Amazon 🤣)
@@matts7883 luckily i can find bear mountain at my local resturant supply store for like $11 a bag!
I use a pit boss Lockhart grill/smoker, and ash is non-existent during a smoke session. I love it. I love this test, because I want to optimize my pellet use. Thanks!
1. You have to do a palate cleanse between bites. Of course things are going to taste less and less strong if you don't cleanse in between bites.
2. I would be interested in pure pellets competition instead of blends. I've tried most brands here and I've settled on cookin pellets 100% hickory. I'm sure it's personal preference, but I just don't like blends as much. I don't blend when I cook on offsets so I don't know why I would blend when I'm cooking on a pellet.
This is crazy. I use cookin pellets the most and they’ve given the best smoke flavor of all of the brands I’ve tried. Also, the bark looks so much more pale than I’m used to. I don’t use a water pan so maybe that’s the difference. Interesting results though.
I’ve used CP myself with a water pan and my first time brisket ever looked about 10x better than that one. Not sure what went wrong with that cook on grill 6.
I think the Masterbuilt gravity smokers are superior to pellet. I'd love to see you do a comparison.
100% agree with you. The newer affordable gravity smokers (Masterbuilt and Char-Griller) are leaps and bounds ahead of pellet.
Literally the best if both worlds in my opinion
I cooked a brisket for christmas using knottywood plum pellets and I can say it made an absolutely delicious brisket. will be buying again.
Pellet smokers have their place. They are good in the sense that you set it and forget it. Some applications sure but I'd prefer a traditional smoker where I can manually manage the fire itself. Cut down and chop my own smoking wood. Although I now have both eletric and traditional I find myself using traditional a good 90% of the time. If you're going to do it you might as well do it right! Sure it's dedication but make a day or more out of it. Enjoy the process. I personally enjoy the fruits of my labor! Happy smoking everyone 🇨🇦🍻
Wow, your bias against Traeger is incredible. Glad to see them get the W in the blind taste test. Seeing how quickly lumberjack burned through pellets made me see dollars burning in the process. Sure it’s cheap to buy up front but man they burnt too quick! But with how efficiently the traeger burned and how it performed I am definitely giving them my money from here on out!
Why? They put out a product with lesser ingredients than the competition at one of the highest price points in the industry. I won't ever touch them.
Do you know that for a fact or are you making a speculation like Jeremy does? Price point aside, all I see based off this video is a blind taste test voting the traeger pellets as the winner. Does that make them definitively the best on the market? No, but as far as accessibility, variety, consistency, efficiency and (based off this video) flavor I will stick with Traeger. But you do you since you know better than me.
I purchased a bunch of Oak Lumberjack pellets based on your past review and gotta tell ya….. underwhelmed! Smoke flavor was weak. I own a Traeger Ironwood 885 and the temps are steady and have yet to experience any issues. Auger has yet to jam up with Traeger pellets… Don’t underestimate Traeger products fellas!
Least smoke ever from the LJ Oak! Agreed. Very disappointing.
I just got the Ironwood 885, but haven’t been able to use it. What’s your favorite pellets to use? Any tips/techniques for using it? How’s super smoke setting?
Best brisket I ever did was on bottom shelf of a RecTec, no water pan, fat side down, placed a chunk of wood under the middle so juices run off and don't pool on top, and took 21 hours. 12 hours @ 180, 6 hours @ 200 and set to 225 to finish it off after wrapping in paper and drenched in beef tallow. Used Lumberjack pellets.
On the Knotty, plum was used. Would be interested to see how their Almond fairs ;-)
Those were interesting results. I've used Jealous Devil lump charcoal, and I've been impressed with the product. I'm not surprised that it would produce a high quality pellet.
Jealous Devil lump is awesome
Glad to hear Pitmasters like Knottywood pellets. I use all of their products. Have not used the Cabernet / Almond wood blend yet, but will soon. Jeremy was very positive on the Knottywood pellets in a comparo between pellet meat and side box meat. I enjoy the ease of use of my GMG Daniel Boone. My Weber kettle has a place, too.
I never realized Aaron Rodgers knew so much about grill pellets🤔😎
I have another test for ya. Fresh ground vs pre ground pepper.
Great video btw
Great experiment Jeremy. Looks like a lot of work went into it. Glad to see my go to Lumberjack pellets are a crowd pleaser elsewhere not just my home. Happy New Year!
Same here. But, I'm going to have to search out a bag each of the first two to try.
I have found cooking pellets to be the best the last the longest and give me the most flavor.
From what I hear, if you want more smoke flavor from a pellet grill, try cooking with the pellets at 200 to 225 for the first half of the cook, then wrap at the stall, and you can cook at a higher temp say 275 to 300 to finish the brisket.
I don't have a pellet smoker. That being said I am planning on getting one. My first hurdle is finding one that does the job well. Then the Pellet. I enjoy cooking with splits. So thanks for the test.
Ok, so i bought the Plum pellets and used them on a very large & thick brisket. Long cook but the flavor was really good. Sweeter smoke, less acidic, a very nice change. Also was good on chicken thighs. Lots of leftover ash at the burner which almost covered the pellet dispenser tube chingadera. Thanks for the reviews.
I purchased one of the earliest Traeger Junior pellet smokers, hoping for that "set it and forget it" cooking. One of the happiest days of my life was when I gave it to my neighbor in exchange for a Jet Bandsaw, I was the winner here folks!!!! It originally had the original 3 setting, high, low, smoke, settings. I upgraded to the new, (at that time), variable temp controller when they were still made in USA. It didn't make much difference, it was better, but not much. Thru-out the entire time I had it, I could only expect to keep a fire for no more than 4 hours before the the fire pot would plug up and burn out. Traeger pellets create a LOT of ash. I eventually used Bear Mountain pellets which was a slight improvement. I have an old, very burnt out stick burner offset, that I was hoping the pellet smoker would supplement, WRONG! Before I gave it away, we had some side by side taste tests against my stick burner, the stick burner won every time! My stick burner is in some rather "used up" condition, {it's at least 25++ years old}, and has seen the business end of my wire feed welder a few times. The ONLY positive comment I will give to the Traeger Junior pellet smoker is this,,,, it was great when I smoked a 3 1/2 lb can of mixed nuts,, before the fire pot plugged up and burned out. Keep the smoke temp below 160 deg's, {you don't want to overcook the oils in the nuts}, you will enjoy the tastiest, smoked, mixed nuts to pass across your front teeth! For me, I'm going back to my Little Chief top loader for my smoked nuts! DO NOT let your imagination run amok, keep your comments clean!!!!!!!
I've seen a lot of your videos, but this one is by far the most helpful and appreciated--thank you!
Same reason some pick checvy and some pic ford.Its all a matter of preference. Also you 2 have a more advanced pallet per say.
I better after a little more experience their choices will change.
But I will admit you had me staying as far away from traeger pellets as I could.. But in a pinch I don't think I will avoid them as hard..we have little choice in AK so I usebear mountain from sportsmans... love em.
Amazing video, I really enjoyed the science and comparative nature of this exercise. I have a Traeger Timberline 1300 and noticed sometimes I get a strong Smokey flavour and sometimes none at all when cooking the same protein. This video has really opened my eyes to other pellet brands outside Traeger and BBQrs Delight.
Please keep doing more of these videos. Great job guys!
I would recommend that next time you use a pallet cleanser in between each bite because previous bites could affect each subsequent bite.
Awesome. Amazing science and expertise. What did we do before the internet and You Tube. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. And the Lady Gaga Tallow song was hysterical.
Thank you for this experience. This really upped my brisket game a whole lot
Awesome test! i like the objectivity and range of the BBQrs as well as the input of the subjects of the test!
As a professional coffee taster, I’ve noticed that folks who are experts tend to look for slightly different things and are less wowed by certain types of coffees compared to average tasters because we have *so much* more experience and have tasted tens of thousands of coffees.
Not surprising to see y’all getting different results than the average folks. There’s a reason I include the influence of experts in my purchase decisions - I want to evaluate what you’re pointing out and see why they stand out to you.
Most people haven't really tasted really good BBQ. Being from Texas, we grew up cooking on open pits or offset smokers. Most people now who go out to eat BBQ get served BBQ cooked on stainless steel commercial cookers that produce no or very little smoke ring on the meat. At home, they use pellet grills that produce very little smoke taste because if they do there is something wrong and they change pellets. Nothing wrong with that, it's just that is what they think it's supposed to taste like. When I invite others over for the first time it's always fun to see their eyes when they taste some real BBQ for the first time in their lives.
This was a very enjoyable video to watch. I will say I started on a cheap Masterbuilt vertical propane smoker. Moderately modified to include smoking wood chunks over chips and insulating the smoke box. I have recently moved into the pellet game with a Louisiana Grills Pellet smoker I bought on clearance from Costco at a ridiculous price of $150. I am currently trying three different brands of similar pellet blends. There are so many factors in smoking meat and of course the personal preference of the taste testers. I guess my point is you don't need to invest a ton of money into a smoker or the wood/pellets to have a great time experimenting and delivering a great result to your guests. Great videos and keep up the good work!