Pellet Fan
Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits => Memphis => Topic started by: old smoker on March 14, 2018, 11:55:21 AM
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ok Memphis pellet fans I need your help. Here is my problem I bought my elite used this winter used it for the first time yesterday. Temp was around 30 degrees, a light breeze. I used lumberjack hickory pellets. the grill started fine I set the temp at 225 prepped three racks of baby back ribs using the 3 2 1 method During the cook my wife came outside and said where is the smoke I like smoke. my answer babe I don't know, I trusted the Memphis, big mistake. the ribs looked good but were the worst ribs I have ever smoked in five years plus of smoking. the ribs were overdone fell apart and the Worst part......... there was NO!!!!! SMOKE FLAVOR. PLEASE HELP ME. My wife thinks I got screwed buying the Memphis I am hoping that I didn't. thank you in advancer your help. One more thing there was no smoke to speak of after it first started up for the first time. I lowered the top to 180 for the last hour to firm up the ribs thinking I was cooking at too high temp at 225. But again little or no smoke. thanks I hope I have made myself clear. sorry didn't mean to write a novel
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thanks for your input I only wish my ribs looked that well. I will use your advice on my next cook. question when cooking at 250 how long was the cook?
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l no I did not use the probe but I will next time thank you for the help Jim
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I don't own a Memphis so I'm speculating here–
1. What have you been smoking on the past five years?
2. Did your ribs from the Memphis have a typical smoke ring?
3. The next time you smoke something, lay something white in there—a ceramic tile or a plate—and see if there's smoke deposited on it.
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good idea with checking with something white I will do that. as for the smoke ring none at all
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thank you everyone I will try Playing with it this week when time allows. I will keep you updated on my search for a smoker ring and flavor on my elite. thanks again Jim
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If it is not putting out the smoke flavor you expected, you did! Whether it can be corrected or not, I guess we will see. You should contact Memphis CS and see if their technical suggestions work first.
Is the Traeger the only pellet unit you have previous experience with? Your wife liked the smoke taste the Traeger put out, is that what you are saying? You seemed to have been happy with the way the Elite cooked a month ago by some of your posts, what has changed your mind? Just this one cook, your wifes comments?
ok Memphis pellet fans I need your help. During the cook my wife came outside and said where is the smoke I like smoke. my answer babe I don't know, I trusted the Memphis, big mistake.......... there was NO!!!!! SMOKE FLAVOR. PLEASE HELP ME. My wife thinks I got screwed buying the Memphis I am hoping that I didn't.
... I bought a used Memphis and am happy with it...
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I did these on my Elite at 275 degrees for about 3.5 hours last week.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4782/40579293522_88db5621fc_z.jpg)
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I am sitting here very nervous about taking delivery of my Memphis.....It has to be a sufficient smoker. I know the good folks on here wouldn’t steer me wrong. Gtsum2....I am assuming you are happy since you sold your Yoder? I have not seen one thing making me doubt the Mak as a smoker.....the evidence keeps piling up against the Memphis :-[
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I don’t expect it to be a stick burner....but when someone is saying “No smoke flavorâ€....that is concerning. Old Smoker is obviously new to operating his Memphis....hopefully he just has to get it figured out.
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And thank you for that nice long response to my question gtsum2....I appreciate you taking the time.
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I have a Memphis, MAK, Traeger, and Blazn and cannot tell a difference in the smoke taste on the food coming off either of them. I have them 1) because I can ;D 2) they each serve different purposes for me 3) and they were all bought at different times for different reasons.
Traeger - didn't know about any other pellet grills at the time and stumbled across Traeger, tested one, and bought a bigger model
Memphis - was concerned about temp swings on Traeger because I didn't know any better, watched a performance review, and bought it because of its tight temps
MAK- thought Memphis was too big for small cooks and bought it after performance reviews
Blazn - all 3 other grills were down for different reasons and got a great deal on a used model.
Bottom line as others have noted, if you want the taste of thick white bellowing smoke, there isn't a pellet grill out there to my knowledge that will replicate that. I have read quite a few stories though of folks who thought they did, didn't like their pellet smoker at first, and then have come to the realization after using it for months that the flavor profile is better for them than what they used to like. It all comes down to individual taste buds.
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Maybe you have already done something like this...
Pro vs Elite, maybe different, the Elite is quite a bit bigger and simply may need that setting, have always thought each unit has its sweet spot...but do this one time and tell me if you see any difference. Run the Elite to 250, let it run for about 5 minutes, then set it at 200°. Leave it for an hour. Come back and watch it for 10 minutes and tell me about the smoke...Will just be curiosity on my part!
Between all the cooks I have done and playing around with it, for my unit...I can say with certainty it does not put out as much visible smoke at 180-200 degrees as it does at 250. There is no debate with my unit on that.
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> the ribs were overdone fell apart
Just a comment for this - the Memphis produces strong convection current, probably stronger than most other pellet grills - so food may cook much faster at a given temp than it did on other smokers you have used. Adjust time and/or temp accordingly.
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Hate to bring this up. My Yoder seems to do fine. Turn it on, set temp, wait till temp and throw food on. Done, great, everyone raved at 4 + years. And a few had been stick smokers and BBQ restaurant eaters.
That said, I don't compete, worry about others. I'm in an isolated town of 2,000,000 folks.
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Hate to bring this up. My Yoder seems to do fine. Turn it on, set temp, wait till temp and throw food on. Done, great, everyone raved at 4 + years. And a few had been stick smokers and BBQ restaurant eaters.
That said, I don't compete, worry about others. I'm in an isolated town of 2,000,000 folks.
Hate to bring this up, but my Memphis Pro also seems to do fine. Turn it on, set temp and throw food on. Done, great, everyone raved for 8+ years. And I do compete. In fact the Pro has helped us take multiple firsts in ribs, pork butt, chicken and brisket including 25th in chicken out of over 500 teams at the 2010 AR in Kansas City (and helped ZCZ take 24th in ribs in 2015 with over 600+ teams) -- a city where quite a few folks who judge also cook on stick burners, own bbq restaurants and compete. And I have also cooked for folks on it in every town we have lived in from L.A. to Vegas to Mayberry and gotten nothing but great compliments.
With that said -- so what? Your Yoder does fine, my Memphis does fine. Neither statement has anything to do with old smoker's personal taste for smoke in bbq.
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I'll add something even though I DO NOT own a Memphis.
First I would definitely skip the 321 method and leave your ribs in the smoke the whole cook. Second, I would drop my temps. 275 is a popular temp with pellet cookers but since the Memphis is so efficient I'd look at 250 or lower. And last, ribs that are a little wet help smoke stick/absorb a little better IMO. I'd give a couple of these changes a try before I got really worried.
One more thing. There is always the chance that you have become used to a very heavy smoke and nothing less will satisfy you. There are smoke tubes and such to help this, but that's adding something to help after paying a relatively LARGE amount of money.......that can really gripe a person. Hopefully this won't be the case, but at times things are just what they are.
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Conumdrum, your comments help the Member with his problem how? To go buy a Yoder? Help or post somewhere else, I am getting complaints about you again from Members about irrelevant post trying to stir things up.
And just so I AM CLEAR I am not in a discussion with you I AM TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO!
I simply don't need the aggravation, and the option to fix the problem is real simple for me...so I really hope you are getting my meaning...because at this point I am almost done with you! I have tried to be patient, tried to give 2nd chances...But if this is all you have to contribute...better to move on!
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250 seems to be the Sweet Spot on my elite, it just works flawless there. Everyone that eats food from it just loves it.
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I did ribs at the 2015 Royal on my Pro and did OK. The judges liked them.
It seems the smoke ebbs and flows on mine.
Here is a video of Phrett's Pro at the Hog & Steer BBQ comp. in 2016. His smokes more than mine yet we both have Pros.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td1EDNv97AY
Z
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Hello everyone Jim here. This is why I love this site so much help, you have given me plenty of good ideas. So I think from what most of you are saying is to try a higher temp and not use the three two one method. Just to be clear I am not disappointed with my purchase just looking for help on how to run it and get the best cook. I will continue to try and with your help I am sure its a me problem and not the product especially after seeing the pictures you have posted. so that being said I keep trying and keep you all posted.
Thanks again for the help Jim
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Looking forward to your future posts off the the Elite.
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Before I purchased my pellet grill, I religiously read a lot of comments and advice from people who had a lot of experience with pellet grills including numerous contributors on Pellet Fan. Everyone agreed that pellet grills produce a lighter smoke profile. Since I like a heavier smoke profile, I use two smoke tubes on every slow cook. They are very easy to use. I also use the 3-2-1 method for cooking ribs. Picture shows the smoke tubes under the ribs. Hope this helps. (Oops, just noticed that an earlier response mentioned smoke tubes.)
(https://i.imgur.com/THNsAMRl.jpg)
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Picture shows the smoke tubes under the ribs. Hope this helps. (Oops, just noticed that an earlier response mentioned smoke tubes.)
(https://i.imgur.com/THNsAMRl.jpg)
What grill is that if you don't mind me asking?
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
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Simple remedy for more smoke. Use a smoke tube or sprinkle some hickory chips onto the drip pan, near one edge. The temp should be enough to make them smoke. Smoke tube works better. Keep in mind that the white smoke you see is not the ideal smoke, it is the blue smoke that is harder to see that renders the wood flavor. I use a hickory pellets (B & B) that are not all hickory. Lumberjacks are 100% and that may work better. I just made ribs on my GS and they were wonderful, and mildly smoky which is the way we like them. I cook em at 260 so I don't see a lot of smoke. With the smoke tube, they are much smokier, but we decided that we were happy without the extra. You have a great pit by history, so I'm sure you can obtain what you like with some manipulation as above.. Good luck.
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I guess I truly do have a suggestion if it is just a more pronounced smoke flavor that your wife may enjoy. Get a Blaz'n Smoker, I think they are $50...It was 6 hours on this bacon, about 5 to many... I say this with all sincerity and best interests at heart. I went to put meat in the 2nd fridge where this bacon was stored for a couple of days after smoking, that was 10 days ago. You open the door and you still smell the smoke.
(https://i.imgur.com/q0Bc27Ah.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6jSFIAGh.jpg)
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ok agin I thank everyone for the input. so here is the latest on my quest for more smoke. today I went to my local Memphis dealer had a nice chat with him he has a Memphis Pro he like all of you gave lots of help, so I went home what I did was give the Memphis a very good cleaning including the fire pot. scraped and vacuumed everything out. it was getting late so I fired it up As Bentley suggested I ran it up to 250 then back to 200 and guess what nice smoke all the up and back. So the only thing I think was wrong was too much ash under the the fire box. I did not put anything on that will come later but there is SMOKE yahoo. I did buy a pellet tube but I don't think I will need it, maybe for smoking cheese, nuts salt things like that. I did put the probe in for a test what I came up was I had the probe set for 190 the grill temp went around 200 then settled down and held temp. All and all I am a happy clam. I would like to thank you all for your help and support it helped and gave me lots and lots of things to try and think about going forward. I will be posting and visiting as time allows.
Thank you all for the pictures and advice Jim
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Glad you were able to figure it out! And yes, please stick around and join the conversations... oh yeah, and don’t forget to post pics of your Memphis and the grub that comes from it :)
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Wonderful! So now the title is not accurate?
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yes Bentley the title is not even close to accurate. Sometimes its the little things that you overlook that make the biggest difference
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yes Bentley the title is not even close to accurate. Sometimes its the little things that you overlook that make the biggest difference
I love easy button fixes, glad to see you will be smiling again and learned something to share with us other Memphis noobs. Memphis mentions the burn pot vents multiple times in the manual and videos, so I guess they mean it.
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You should be able to smoke as low as 180° on the Pro and Elite.
Z