The Grill and BBQ thread

#7,503
#7,503
Question for all you Pellet grillers.

I already have a Kamado Joe and I love it. It handles pretty much anything for me but I am going to build an outdoor kitchen at my new house and am debating about skipping the gas grill and just going for a Pellet Grill instead to pair with the Kamado. The question though: how well does a pellet grill sear a steak in y’all’s experience?

If I have the time I usually like to do it on the Kamado but when pressed for time I still will throw it on the gas grill or pan sear it in a cast iron. I’ve watched videos on searing on Traegars and I just worry it won’t be quite good enough.
 
#7,504
#7,504
Nash_Vol97 said:
Question for all you Pellet grillers.

I already have a Kamado Joe and I love it. It handles pretty much anything for me but I am going to build an outdoor kitchen at my new house and am debating about skipping the gas grill and just going for a Pellet Grill instead to pair with the Kamado. The question though: how well does a pellet grill sear a steak in y’all’s experience?

If I have the time I usually like to do it on the Kamado but when pressed for time I still will throw it on the gas grill or pan sear it in a cast iron. I’ve watched videos on searing on Traegars and I just worry it won’t be quite good enough.
Click to expand...

I have a Recteq RT-590 pellet grill and love it..... for smoking. Personally, when I sear a steak, I do it in a cast iron pan with butter and garlic. I've never tried the pellet grill to sear a steak, but it would take 30 minutes or more to get it up to a sear temp. If I were you, I'd just put in a burner or two and use a cast iron pan to sear if you need to. Also, I usually sous-vide cook my steaks and a hot cast iron pan sear makes them perfect.
 
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#7,505
#7,505
VolStrom said:
I have a Recteq RT-590 pellet grill and love it..... for smoking. Personally, when I sear a steak, I do it in a cast iron pan with butter and garlic. I've never tried the pellet grill to sear a steak, but it would take 30 minutes or more to get it up to a sear temp. If I were you, I'd just put in a burner or two and use a cast iron pan to sear if you need to. Also, I usually sous-vide cook my steaks and a hot cast iron pan sear makes them perfect.
Click to expand...

That’s pretty much what I was worried about that it would take too long to get to temp because it’s the max range most go to and even then not produce a good enough sear. I use the burner off my gas grill fairly often to sear steaks, just depends. The Kamado Joe produces the best sear, and I use that when I have an great quality steak or a nice bone in ribeye, but use the gas grill/cast iron for the more regular cuts.
 
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#7,506
#7,506
VolStrom said:
I have a Recteq RT-590 pellet grill and love it..... for smoking. Personally, when I sear a steak, I do it in a cast iron pan with butter and garlic. I've never tried the pellet grill to sear a steak, but it would take 30 minutes or more to get it up to a sear temp. If I were you, I'd just put in a burner or two and use a cast iron pan to sear if you need to. Also, I usually sous-vide cook my steaks and a hot cast iron pan sear makes them perfect.
Click to expand...

Fellow RecTeq RT-590 owner, here. Glad to see others on here 😎
 
#7,507
#7,507
Nash_Vol97 said:
Question for all you Pellet grillers.

I already have a Kamado Joe and I love it. It handles pretty much anything for me but I am going to build an outdoor kitchen at my new house and am debating about skipping the gas grill and just going for a Pellet Grill instead to pair with the Kamado. The question though: how well does a pellet grill sear a steak in y’all’s experience?

If I have the time I usually like to do it on the Kamado but when pressed for time I still will throw it on the gas grill or pan sear it in a cast iron. I’ve watched videos on searing on Traegars and I just worry it won’t be quite good enough.
Click to expand...

Just to cross all bases there is a PitBoss model that has a reflected shield that you can push to the side to open the steak up to a “searing flame”. And I’ve heard from my 3 friends who have a PitBoss day they love their grill. But I would never use that PitBoss for searing for the same reason VolStrom said. You will blow right through your pellets doing that.
 
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#7,508
#7,508
Nash_Vol97 said:
Question for all you Pellet grillers.

I already have a Kamado Joe and I love it. It handles pretty much anything for me but I am going to build an outdoor kitchen at my new house and am debating about skipping the gas grill and just going for a Pellet Grill instead to pair with the Kamado. The question though: how well does a pellet grill sear a steak in y’all’s experience?

If I have the time I usually like to do it on the Kamado but when pressed for time I still will throw it on the gas grill or pan sear it in a cast iron. I’ve watched videos on searing on Traegars and I just worry it won’t be quite good enough.
Click to expand...
Just to add another thought to this, anytime I’ve tried to grill something on my smoker the flavor has come out too “smokey” for me. When I eat a burger or steak I want their flavors to taste different than smoked. I have the searing grates for my Rec Tec and it just doesn’t work the way I want. When I do a steak or burgers I always use my grill. Anyone else have that same issue?
 
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#7,509
#7,509
Nash_Vol97 said:
Question for all you Pellet grillers.

I already have a Kamado Joe and I love it. It handles pretty much anything for me but I am going to build an outdoor kitchen at my new house and am debating about skipping the gas grill and just going for a Pellet Grill instead to pair with the Kamado. The question though: how well does a pellet grill sear a steak in y’all’s experience?

If I have the time I usually like to do it on the Kamado but when pressed for time I still will throw it on the gas grill or pan sear it in a cast iron. I’ve watched videos on searing on Traegars and I just worry it won’t be quite good enough.
Click to expand...

IMO, and Blackstone type griddle top for searing works great. My pellet smoker does good to get over 450. I have some Grill Grates and they help a little.
 
#7,511
#7,511
ninerplaya57 said:
Just to add another thought to this, anytime I’ve tried to grill something on my smoker the flavor has come out too “smokey” for me. When I eat a burger or steak I want their flavors to taste different than smoked. I have the searing grates for my Rec Tec and it just doesn’t work the way I want. When I do a steak or burgers I always use my grill. Anyone else have that same issue?
Click to expand...

I have never tried grilling on my RecTec because that’s not what a pellet smoker is for. They are made to do one thing and that’s smoke meat. I know some companies like PitBoss (mentioned this in an earlier post) have a reflector shield that says you can sear meat with your pellet smoker but you’ll be “searing” through your pellets doing that which is a waste of good smoking medium. Just trying to ask too much of your pellet smoker, IMO.

Attachments are the way to go if you want your pellet smoker to “do it all”. Camp Chef has a burner attachment that you can attach to the side of your pellet smoker, but it has a pretty hefty price tag to it. For the money you put into that attachment just go buy a Weber Kettle grill. That’s what I did and I love it. Having the Weber for normal grilling while having the pellet smoker for smoked meats gets you basically everything you want.
 
#7,512
#7,512
VolStrom said:
I have a Recteq RT-590 pellet grill and love it..... for smoking. Personally, when I sear a steak, I do it in a cast iron pan with butter and garlic. I've never tried the pellet grill to sear a steak, but it would take 30 minutes or more to get it up to a sear temp. If I were you, I'd just put in a burner or two and use a cast iron pan to sear if you need to. Also, I usually sous-vide cook my steaks and a hot cast iron pan sear makes them perfect.
Click to expand...
Sous-vide and cast iron is great, so is sear then shut the dampers on a kamado joe or egg. Just depends on what kind of flavor you're looking for. I really don't think my pellet smoker is great for steaks.
 
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#7,513
#7,513
Anybody do any cooking on a pit? I've done cooks with several arm-on shoulders, ribs, chickens, brisket, at the same time; but I've never done a whole/half hog. Thinking about it this summer. We've been doing internet research, but any incite is greatly appreciated.
 
#7,515
#7,515
clarksvol00 said:
Anybody do any cooking on a pit? I've done cooks with several arm-on shoulders, ribs, chickens, brisket, at the same time; but I've never done a whole/half hog. Thinking about it this summer. We've been doing internet research, but any incite is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Never done it, but I’ve always thought it would be cool to do. From what I’ve seen you need a team of people to do it since it takes a long time. But if you can do it that’s true bbq pit master status! It’s just really hard because you gotta get the hams, ribs, pork shoulders, loins and tenderloins all cooked to their optimal temp without drying them out.
 
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#7,516
#7,516
clarksvol00 said:
Sous-vide and cast iron is great, so is sear then shut the dampers on a kamado joe or egg. Just depends on what kind of flavor you're looking for. I really don't think my pellet smoker is great for steaks.
Click to expand...
I've tried both ways many times, but reverse sear beats sear and shut hands down for me. You get a more consistent internal finish with a nice external crust that way.
 
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#7,517
#7,517
kiddiedoc said:
I've tried both ways many times, but reverse sear beats sear and shut hands down for me. You get a more consistent internal finish with a nice external crust that way.
Click to expand...
Consistency the greatest thing about the immersion circulator. I love how you can have the same temp all the way the through. Sometimes my caveman instincts want the taste and fun of throwing a big hunk of killed meat on a really hot fire.
 
#7,518
#7,518
We went in on a cow, and I had them include everything they could. I'm giving the tongue to a Hispanic friend, as they love using it for tacos. Looks like cheek meat can cook like brisket for tacos. Thoughts on using liver and (gasp) heart?
 
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#7,519
#7,519
kiddiedoc said:
We went in on a cow, and I had them include everything they could. I'm giving the tongue to a Hispanic friend, as they love using it for tacos. Looks like cheek meat can cook like brisket for tacos. Thoughts on using liver and (gasp) heart?
Click to expand...

Had authentic beef cheek street tacos a little over a month ago. Very solid and would do again.

PS: I will never be able to bring myself to the point where I want to eat an organ that is used to filter out toxins. However if you do it I hope they taste good.
 
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#7,520
#7,520
zhangliao04 said:
Had authentic beef cheek street tacos a little over a month ago. Very solid and would do again.

PS: I will never be able to bring myself to the point where I want to eat an organ that is used to filter out toxins. However if you do it I hope they taste good.
Click to expand...
Technically, the heart is muscle (like steak and most other beef we are "used to"). The liver is my wife's idea. She is a health nut and said it's supposed to be really good for you. She takes pills with liver, kidney, and stuff in them.

Grilled-Beef-Heart.jpg
 
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#7,522
#7,522
kiddiedoc said:
We went in on a cow, and I had them include everything they could. I'm giving the tongue to a Hispanic friend, as they love using it for tacos. Looks like cheek meat can cook like brisket for tacos. Thoughts on using liver and (gasp) heart?
Click to expand...
Dog food not trying to be a jerk. I actually use a lot of "extra's" from our side to make food for my fuzzy buddy. Also, we started prepackaged dog food from a local farmer that includes many of the items people say the don't want. I have a grinder to make sausages and stuff. So the stuff usually includes dog food.
 
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#7,525
#7,525
kiddiedoc said:
We went in on a cow, and I had them include everything they could. I'm giving the tongue to a Hispanic friend, as they love using it for tacos. Looks like cheek meat can cook like brisket for tacos. Thoughts on using liver and (gasp) heart?
Click to expand...
Beef cheeks are very good. Slow braise them for stews, tacos, etc
 
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