My Memphis Pro 304 was delivered last Thursday. My dealer delivered the grill already assembled. This included removing the film on the grill! There were a few “residue dots†(not sure what to call them) from the film that I had to wipe down. Also, there were a few stray pieces that were stuck in crevices ect so I felt some of the pain most new owners go through.
My initial impression was this grill has amazing finish quality. I have previously owned/used a Louisiana Grill CS540 and a Cookshack PG500 for reference. The Memphis Grill looks/feels like it is in a different league than these other grills. No sharp edges on the grill and just looks really well put together.
A have had good a few meals in it since recieving (though it has been almost non stop rain in Texas since Saturday night so I have not had a chance for any long smoking sessions). Below are my initial impressions:
The Controller: The controller has a nice large read out that is easy to see. The interface is very intuitive and controlls seem really easy. WIFI set up worked on the first try. I have used WIFI on every cook and so far have not had any troubles with disconnects or the grill not finding the WIFI. My grill came with Grill Firmware 2.8.6 and WIFI Firmware 1.94. Does anyone know if this is the latest firmware?
The WIFI app is pretty basic. Can only set temperatures, probe targets, and turn on/off the grill. Would be great if it had more options (like my Fireboard). That being said, it is very convenient to be able to change temperatures and monitor the temperature without having to hook up external gadgets (like the Fireboard). The recipes in the app are very limited. Would be great if you could add your own recipes to the app.
Cooks: My first cook was steak. I tried the open flame plate option. I tried to follow the instructions that were in the manual. I heated the grill to 500F with the indirect plate in and then switched to the open flame plate and left the hood open. I used OF2 and did not get much heat/sear on the steak. It seems like I would get better results using the indirect plate at 650F? I ended up switching the indirect plate into the grill, lowering the temperature to 500F and finishing it with the hood close. The steaks came out great. For other owners out there, do you keep the hood open when using the open flame plate? Can the open flame plate be used at a temperature (not OF setting) with the hood closed? Do you take the temperature past 500F before going into OF mode?
Next I cooked some hamburgers and hotdogs at 450F. They came out great. Burgers were really juicy and I was really happy with the results.
Next cook was chicken drums and wings. I put EVOO on the chicken and then put some chicken rub on the chicken. I smoked at 180F for 90 minutes. The grill put out a lot of smoke. I am not sure why some people say the Memphis does not smoke. I took a video of the smoke output and it is on youtube if anyone is interested
https://youtu.be/KthmA9hIMmw . I then turned the heat up to 400 for 15ish minutes to finish off the chicken and get the skin crispy. The results were fantastic. My chicken definitely had smoke flavor and tasted great (and was juicy). The family loved it. During the cook, the temperature hardly fluctuated more than +/- 2 degrees according to the grill. Also neat how the fan turns on and off in smoke mode. Non of my previous pellet grills did this. It almost sounds like your grill has turned off when the fan stops running.
The weather forecast is saying rain here until Sunday. If that holds, I plan to do some low and slow on Sunday (either beef plate ribs or a brisket or both). If that plan holds, I will update with that cook.
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Topic: New Memphis Pro Owner (Read 4453 times)