with grill cold

7 (28%)

with grill hot

18 (72%)

Total Members Voted: 25

I've always started the grill and let it get up to temp before putting the meat in.
Got to thinking about that this morning and asked myself, why ?
By the time you get out there, you've gone through some pellets, and it's a pain putting probes in when it's hot.
So I thought why not put the meat in, put the probes in, then turn on the grill.

I don't see any issues from a health/safety standpoint doing it either way.

Only thing I though of was grills get cleaned off when pre-heating.
Simply wiping with a paper towel should take care of that.

I just put two pork butts and a meatloaf in the grill cold this morning.

So, anybody put meat in when grill is cold ?


I selected "when cold", because I did it this time.

 Never tried it. Will I ? perhaps not. We'll see.

 Cleaning the grill: I always brush/scrape the grates hot, let it cool & clean.  Ready to go for the next time on a moments notice.

 The in cold while heating parallels several energy saving procedures  such as not idling a car to warm it up. Turning down the A/C  & heat while away. Water saving devices & so on. All good for the

 environment.

 Waiting to see how your cook evolves.

Hmmmm.  Good question.

I always wait until the pit is at set point and stable.  It appears to me that the Fast Eddy PG500 makes too much heavy white smoke when coming up to temperature.  Other pits may not.

I start the P&S with the lid up and put the meat on after it quits the initial smoke of start up.  Then close the lid and set the desired temp.  I'll check it a few minutes later and then go about my business.  I've never had any problems doing that.  It takes about the same amount of time to get to the set temp with the meat in as without it and being a cheap screw I don't want to waste pellets.  I clean at the end of the cook and scrub the grates with old foil before I start it up.  I voted cold.

Cleaning the grill: I always brush/scrape the grates hot, let it cool & clean.  Ready to go for the next time on a moments notice.

I do the same, my though was that after it sits for a while dust can get in there and that is why I thought pre-heating would take care of it,
and just a wipe with a paper towel would take care of it if not pre-heating.
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  I voted cold.

I think you voted hot.   

Hmmmm.  Good question.

I always wait until the pit is at set point and stable.  It appears to me that the Fast Eddy PG500 makes too much heavy white smoke when coming up to temperature.  Other pits may not.

Good point. My old lazy brain didn't kick in until I read this. Guaranteed to impart nastiness would be cooking from cold on kamado ( lump charcoal ). Food should never put on until good smoke is evident.

 Pellet pits tend to have a cleaner smoke once warmed up, I find.

I've always started the grill and let it get up to temp before putting the meat in.
Got to thinking about that this morning and asked myself, why ?
By the time you get out there, you've gone through some pellets, and it's a pain putting probes in when it's hot.
So I thought why not put the meat in, put the probes in, then turn on the grill.

I don't see any issues from a health/safety standpoint doing it either way.

Only thing I though of was grills get cleaned off when pre-heating.
Simply wiping with a paper towel should take care of that.

I just put two pork butts and a meatloaf in the grill cold this morning.

So, anybody put meat in when grill is cold ?


I selected "when cold", because I did it this time.

When smoking items I typically put it in when cold unless doing a large volume. I was trying to smoke 8 pork butts at a time once because my church had asked me to produce pulled pork for an event and the other guy that was suppose to do half of it ended up not being available so I had a total of 16 butts to do and it was the middle of winter and 8 didn't really want to fit on the smoker at once, but I ran into an issue because my Mak 2 Star at the time was looking to hit a specific temperature during the ignition time rather then just seeing the temperature go up a set number of degrees so I ended up having to pull them all off because it couldn't get up to the temp it needed to in the allotted time with the butts on there. After that I found out they had an upgrade to the controller logic and was able to update it so it doesn't have that problem anymore, but it was kind of a perfect storm with it being like 10 degrees out at the time and all those butts keeping it from warming enough.

Hmmmm.  Good question.

I always wait until the pit is at set point and stable.  It appears to me that the Fast Eddy PG500 makes too much heavy white smoke when coming up to temperature.  Other pits may not.

Good point. My old lazy brain didn't kick in until I read this. Guaranteed to impart nastiness would be cooking from cold on kamado ( lump charcoal ). Food should never put on until good smoke is evident.

 Pellet pits tend to have a cleaner smoke once warmed up, I find.

When I started the CampChef this morning, after a few minutes a lot of smoke was rolling out of it, but it didn't last long 4-5 minutes maybe.

I also voted for putting the meat in while the grill was cold.  I usually start my Yoder, and then give it a few minutes for the fire to get started.  Then I close the lid, and within a few minutes (10 - 15) there is thin blue smoke coming from the smokestack.  The temperature reading on the controller at this point is usually lower then 100.  A this point I go inside and bring the meat outside.  The meat goes in and the temperature is still well below the set point.

I do it both ways. With the GMG when it goes through the second step I think, the temp displays, and I will put things in then sometimes. usually by the time I get things actually ready to go, I am slow, it is up to temp.