Pellet Fan
Accessories & Essentials => Pellets -- comments & questions => Topic started by: reubenray on June 04, 2018, 09:50:18 PM
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Now that I have a Lumberjack dealer close by what pellets would give me the most smoke taste?
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I think you will find that Hickory is the pellet of choice for max smoky flavor. Seems to be the one I hear people mention most anyhow.
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Mesquite
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I like the Lumberjack 100% Hickory, but cannot usually find a buy. Bear Mtn. Hickory mixed with Bear Mtn. Mesquite gets the job done for me most of the time.
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Mesquite and hickory are the strongest that I know about. Mesquite can be very strong to down right over powering, so experiments are helpful.
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I've become a big fan of mixing 2 bags of Lumberjack 100% hickory with 1 bag of the Lumberjack Char blend pellets.
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I have been using mainly Lumberjack Hickory as my go to pellet. In the past I used Mesquite in my smoke tube, but it was not the LJ brand.
Are there still issues with the Char-blend pellets? I read reports of them jamming up the augers.
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I have been using mainly Lumberjack Hickory as my go to pellet. In the past I used Mesquite in my smoke tube, but it was not the LJ brand.
Are there still issues with the Char-blend pellets? I read reports of them jamming up the augers.
I've been using them regularly for about a year now with no trouble at all.
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Years ago a Kristin’s house we did pellet testing to see if anyone could tell the difference. If my memory doesn’t fail me , only the strong woods like mesquite and pure hickory the judges could tell from the other flavors.
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Jim,
I found the testing, but can't seem to download the result charts. Did you do those and do you still have them? I see we did not test mesquite.
WOOD SMOKE TESTING 101 -- 2010 Session
These are the results of our wood smoke testing. The tester was Kristin Meredith. Date of testing August 2010. The cooks were Bentley, Jimsbarbeque and Stone Dude, all Pelletheads.
I. THE PROCEDURE
We tested four (4) different pellets: Black Walnut by BBQr’s Delight; The Other Outdoor Store’s 100% Cherry; Bear Mountain Maple; and Cookingpellets.com 100% Hickory. We also used one gas grill for control purposes. The taste testing was a blind system with the testers not knowing which of the five samples they tested was cooked on what wood. They were told that all samples had been cooked on wood pellets to see if they could distinguish between the smoked samples and the gas grilled sample.
We had nine (9) judges. Five (5) were KCBS Certified Barbeque Judges (CBJ) and competition cooks. Six (6) were pelletheads. Two were “civilians.â€
We tested four sample products: Fish (dover sole); hamburger patties; chicken (breasts, boneless and skinless); and ribs (St. Louis style). The meats were not marinaded or brined. No rubs or sauces were used. Simple seasoning of salt and pepper was added.
The pits used were: the Louisiana Whole Hog by Danson,; the Memphis Pro by Hearthland; the Two Star General by MAK; the Traeger Jr. by Traeger; and a gas grill. The longest cook was the ribs at about 6 hours. We tried to give the samples as much “smoke time†as possible without overcooking them.
The samples were each placed in a styrofoam container with a number. The judges were asked to take a piece of the sample. They were to then asked to taste the sample and answer the questions set forth below. This procedure was repeated five times for each of the four samples.
II. THE QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Do you taste smoke in this sample?
Yes_____ No______
2. If so, can you identify what flavor wood the smoke is from? (list the flavor you taste)
3. Is the smoke taste:
Pleasant ___
Unpleasant ____
No opinion ____
4. Is the smoke taste:
Mild ___
Medium ___
Strong ___
No flavor ___
5. Rank the sample (1 highest to 5 lowest
III. SELECTED COMMENTS
The following are a few comments and observations based on the results, which are set forth in Section IV below:
Fish – the least favorite wood flavor on the fish was hickory; the most favorite wood flavor was maple. Maple also was ranked as the strongest smoke flavor and cherry the mildest. The gas grill was also one of the least liked, but surprisingly 7 out of 9 of the testers said they tasted smoke in the sample. No one was able to correctly identify any of the woods cooked on.
Hamburger – again, the maple pellets fared well in this category. Once again, the testers tasted smoke in the gas grill burger, but that is not surprising since he gas grill did impart a nice char on the burgers. Cherry was again the mildest with Hickory being ranked one of the stronger in smoke. Maple was selected as the most favorite on the burger and Hickory the least favorite. Two testers correctly identified Cherry and one correctly identified Hickory.
Chicken – all four pellets did well in imparting a smoke flavor to the chicken with all 9 testers saying they tasted smoke with the Black Walnut. Black Walnut was also the flavor select as the most favorite, and Cherry was liked the least on chicken. Both Black Walnut and Hickory had a high percent of medium smoke flavor responses. One person correctly identified Black Walnut, one correctly identified Cherry and two correctly identified Hickory.
Ribs – again, all four woods did a good job of importing smoke flavor, although Maple was viewed as the most pleasant with 9 votes. In the ribs, the difference between the wood pellets and the gas grill was very pronounced with the gas grill consistently being ranked as no flavor. Eight of the 9 testers rated the gas grilled ribs as last. Maple and Cherry were the best liked on the ribs. Two testers correctly identified Hickory.
General comments – although all the wood pellets did a good job of imparting smoke to a variety of meats, there did seem to be a correlation between certain meats/fish and certain pellets with some types of wood obviously paring better with some meats than others.
III. THE RESULTS
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Very good information. Thanks Kristin!
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Hmmm, I may have to get some Maple for my ribs and pork butt.
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Hmmm, I may have to get some Maple for my ribs and pork butt.
cookinpellets is supposed to be coming out with a 100% maple soon
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I can't get CookinPellets without paying a lot for them from Amazon. I have a Lumberjack dealer about 30 minutes away, but I don't know if he has 100% Maple. He does have 100% Cherry and a combination of Cherry, Hickory and Maple.
We like our ribs and pork butts sweet.
Edit: My LJ dealer has 100% maple and 100% cherry. Which would be best?
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I can't get CookinPellets without paying a lot for them from Amazon. I have a Lumberjack dealer about 30 minutes away, but I don't know if he has 100% Maple. He does have 100% Cherry and a combination of Cherry, Hickory and Maple.
We like our ribs and pork butts sweet.
Edit: My LJ dealer has 100% maple and 100% cherry. Which would be best?
I sent you a PM.
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Maple pellets:"Sugar Maple" is one thing... "Maple", could be almost any species of ,or combination of the many Maple species..Pay attention to the wording.
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I do not have the end results sorry
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From what I have been reading in this thread I have been using the wrong pellets for pork butts and ribs. i have been using Hickory, but I guess I need to try some Maple or Cherry.
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Ctrl & + is how I am able to make them big enough to read!
I was always interested with the panels responses when it came to the food cooked on gas. I always wondered if the yes votes on burger, chicken & fish was a confusion on the difference between "smoke" and "char". They sure knew the ribs weren't cooked on wood.
These results also showed me wood species means Richard when it comes to BBQ, and I guaranteed with the exception of Mesquite, it would be the same with sticks!
(http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n90/lwnna/Pellethead/Burger.jpg)
(http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n90/lwnna/Pellethead/chicken.jpg)
(http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n90/lwnna/Pellethead/Ribs.jpg)
(http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n90/lwnna/Pellethead/testfish.jpg)
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I would have to say that mesquite has the strongest profile, and I don't like it.
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I'm waiting for my Pitts & Spitts Maverick 850 to arrive, and I'm aware that many say pellet smokers are a bit short on delivering the smoke flavor; but here's what I DO know. In the world of "strong," mesquite and hickory are the top two. I've always used in order of preference, oak, apple, and cherry. If I find that a brisket at 250F for 12 hours or so comes up short on smoke flavor using only oak; then I'll mix in no more than 25% hickory or mesquite to oak for starters and increase if necessary as needed.
Hickory and mesquite are STRONG; but if pellet smokers are lacking in their ability to impart smoke flavor to the cook; then I'll increase the ratio until I'm where I want to be. FWIW; I've always been a strong proponent of straight oak. I'm with Aaron Franklin in that view.
I'll report back.
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Flavor is subjective but for me, 100% hickory and mesquite have the strongest flavor. However I’m not a big fan of mesquite. I can’t really taste Cherry, Apple or Maple.
Blends do almost nothing for my taste buds.
I use 100% hickory on nearly every cook.
I’ve also found that keeping the surface of the meat moist increases the smoke flavor.
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Flavor is subjective but for me, 100% hickory and mesquite have the strongest flavor. However I’m not a big fan of mesquite. I can’t really taste Cherry, Apple or Maple.
Blends do almost nothing for my taste buds.
I use 100% hickory on nearly every cook.
I’ve also found that keeping the surface of the meat moist increases the smoke flavor.
That last sentence has definitely been my experience too.
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Flavor is subjective but for me, 100% hickory and mesquite have the strongest flavor. However I’m not a big fan of mesquite. I can’t really taste Cherry, Apple or Maple.
Blends do almost nothing for my taste buds.
I use 100% hickory on nearly every cook.
I’ve also found that keeping the surface of the meat moist increases the smoke flavor.
Same here, LJ hickory is all that I use although I just got 1 bag of MHC with my last order to try. I like the color that cherry gives so I'm hoping it will give some flavor but I don't expect it will be enough. It's nice just having one pellet container and not worrying about which wood to use for a particular cook :)