How NOT to Use a Pellet Smoker #BBQPitMasterSecrets

in today's video we're going to cover the top five mistakes to avoid on your pellet smoker and if you stay to the end of this video we're also going to cover the five best tips and tricks to get you started on your backyard Pit Master Journey when a man turns 35 he has two life choices to make either get really into World War history or get into Backyard Barbecue now because our YouTube algorithm overlords know you to a t I'm gonna assume you just like me are really into Backyard Barbecue hit that like button if I was right now I made this video for you because I don't want your pellet smoker to explode or catch fire on your Pit Master Journey so let's get started on what not to do now let's quickly go over how a pellet smoker works and because all pellet smokers work the same regardless of make or model this information is going to be Universal this is a hopper it holds your fuel source which is wooden pill pellets no fuel source no heat next is the auger and the auger transports your fuel source which is pellets into the burn pot now in the burn pot and this is where all your heat and Smoky goodness come from lastly you have your cooking chamber and this is where your large chunks of protein are gonna sit now if you've never used your pellet smoker before you do have to do a smoker burn off and I will link a video up here and down below in the description but in short all you have to do is put some pellets in the hopper turn your smoker to 400 degrees and let the smoker run for about one hour after it cools down your smoker is ready to rock and roll mistake number one this mistake is huge costly and so easy to avoid now I'm going to show you a series of videos try to see what they all have in common foreign now if you guess they all exploded you're correct but the one thing you missed is all of them had the lid closed now you might be thinking Grill Sergeant I can't close the lid to my smoker well yes you can but you have to avoid mistake number one and it's turning on the smoker with the lid closed now I know what you're thinking girl sergeant that seems so counter-intuitive I don't preheat my oven with the oven door open but you have to understand how a pellet smoker works when you first turn it on what it's doing is dumping fresh pellets into your burn pot and there's an igniter in there that's heating up and it's heating up those pellets and a lot of smoke is being produced and once those pellets are hot enough they actually ignite and then your fire is started so why does a pellet smoker explode the issue is when you have your lid closed there's a ton of smoke there's a small ignition and all all that smoke in there combusts and all that pressure causes a smoker lid to fly off or the smoker to blow up if you actually read the manual it will tell you to do this so how do you avoid this all you have to do is open the lid turn the power button on you're going to see a ton of smoke come out once that smoke dissipates you're going to hear almost like a jet engine sound and that's when you're hearing the fire actually roaring in your burn pot once that smoke dissipates close the lid turn up the temperature and you will be good to go for the rest of your cook mistake number two now the second mistake actually comes at the end of the cook and is just as dangerous as mistake number one at the end of the cook when your protein is done you take it off you admire how beautiful it looks and how much you want to dig into it and then you turn off your smoker and guess what it doesn't turn off it's almost like your smoker completely ignored you so you do this unplug you your smoker that's the most dangerous thing you can do and here's why when you hit the power button and you don't hear your pellet smoker turn off what it's entering is in the shut down cycle that's when the smoker is helping put out the Raging Fire that you have in the center of the smoker it's slowly feeding less and less pellets into the burn pot and that fire gets less and less and less till the fire is extinguished the issue is if you unplug your smoker you still have a raging fire in the center of your smoker but now the smoker is not helping you put it out so what happens is you have a raging fire and you have an auger full of pellets well that fire does what a fire does and it starts consuming the fuel source which is in your auger and guess where it leads back up into your Hopper and what's in your Hopper a lot of fuel and if that Hopper catches fire your smoker will catch fire so how do you avoid this when you hit the power button and you hear it still going and the fan kick on do not worry just let it do its thing and in 15 to 20 minutes your smoker will safely turn off mistake number three some people do this sometimes some people don't do it at all and then some people do it every single time and the mistake is not emptying out your burn pot after you're done cooking now your burn pot is where it stores all your pellets and when you're done with the cook all that fire goes out but you're left with a bed of Ash in your burn pot and the issue of not cleaning out your burn pot is your bed of Ash acts as the new floor for where the pellets land so if you have a raging fire and now that Raging Fire is an inch higher because of all that Ash it's now closer to the auger tube there will be a fire working its way through the auger tube and trying to get in your Hopper so how do you avoid this mistake clean out your burn pop before you start cooking and you will be good good to go now what I like specifically about this Pit Boss competition series 1600 is you actually have access to the burn pot from underneath the smoker no need to get your hands all greasy and dirty all you have to do is go under there flip the latch remove the burn pot you can dump the contents put it right back in and you're ready to go other smokers you pretty much have to disassemble all the grates and stuff and deflectors just to get to the burn pot it is a pain in the butt but it is worth it to clean out your burnt pot mistake number four this one is such a pain in the and I'll admit this has happened to me a few times and it's when you run out of pellets during your cook see the cool thing about these smokers is for those long overnight Cooks fill up your Hopper you can go inside and get a beautiful night's sleep you can't do that on a stick burner can you Checkmate all joking aside there is an issue though if your Hopper runs out of pellets it's uh-uh that is a bad thing because now there is no more fuel for your burn pot and you don't solve this by just putting in more pellets because your auger tube is completely empty so if you are doing an overnight cook top off your Hopper and you'll be good to avoid that mistake mistake number five and this deals with actually cleaning your smoker there was one week where I was testing out different chicken recipes and if you're doing chicken you're at high temperatures and there is a lot of grease and fat that gets everywhere in your side your smoker there was so much grease buildup and junk inside my smoker that right when I opened up the sear plate to actually sear something all that grease and fire literally ignite it now if this does happen the number one thing is do not panic close the smoker lid and then you can either get a spritzer bottle full of water or get baking powder come back out to the smoker open the lid Spritz it down and actually extinguish the fire that way pain in the butt but how do you avoid this about every month or so it's time to get on some gloves and actually start getting that smoker clean a good tool that I use is literally like a paint scraper and you can literally scrape that grease and junk off of the heat deflector and just make sure you give a good wipe down to your grates and you'll be good to go so if you're wondering how I got the thumbnail to this video it was literally after this chicken video So to avoid that make sure to clean your smoker at least once a month or if you've been doing a lot of greasy Foods at high temps it's good to clean it sooner than that all right now that we covered what not to do now to jump in to five tips and tricks that will help level up your backyard Pit Master journey and the first one is actually subscribing to this channel but all joking aside if you're actually looking at how to do brisket ribs pulled pork jerky anything you can smoke it's pretty much on this channel so it actually is a good idea if you want to subscribe for awesome barbecue tricks tips and ideas you're gonna find it here all right Pro tip number one priming your burn pot before you turn your smoker on now remember when I said cleaning out your burn pot was a good idea once your burn pot is clean the pro tip is actually scooping up a handful of pellets and putting it in your burn pot and then turning your smoker on what that's doing is already having a fresh batch of pellets at the bottom of the burn pot and that actually helps your smoker get started in about half the time so you're definitely going to want to Prime the burn pot before you use your smoker Pro tip number two using a water pan Now using a water pan has so many advantages to your smoker but here are my top three one it helps stabilize the internal temperature inside your smoker two if the water pan and is underneath your protein it also acts as a grease and drip tray and three even if the pan is next to your protein all that steam helps the smoke bind to your meat that's a beautiful thing Pro tip number three so this tip is actually a combo one and it's to cook your meat to an internal temperature and it's to let that meat rest so the number one question I usually get in the comment section on my cooking videos is how long did this take and I usually don't suggest times because every smoker is different and every hunk of protein is going to be different for how much marbling and how much fat to meat ratios inside so it's best to actually go off an internal temperature on your protein and not by time you will get so much more consistent results actually putting a meat thermometer inside your meat and letting it tell you what the internal temperature is and the other second important thing is letting your meat rest it means when you take your brisket out of the smoker you're letting it rest to two to three to four heck some people even let their briskets rest for eight hours before slicing into it well why do they do this well as the meat's cooling it's taking all that moisture and pulling it back to the center of the meat why is that a good thing well when you slice into your brisket and you see it just dripping and so juicy and full of flavor that's because that brisket had rested minimum two to four hours of resting just let it rest and then dig in it will be worth it pro tip number four use different Hardwoods the first mistake when I got a pellet smoker is well what bag of pellets do I get and a lot of times you'll see oh this is a competition mix or this is a backyard mix and you look at the back of the bag and says huh this can pretty much smoke everything from brisket to Pork to Seafood to Wild game came to desserts this since it does everything this must be good right so the mistake is if you're just getting a bag of pellets as a jack of all trades you are really missing out at certain flavors to really dial in your barbecue do you like your smoke strong or subtle do you like your smoke sweet or savory these all play a factor into dialing in your perfect Backyard Barbecue that's fit to your taste do you like a really strong Smoky flavor hey try out Hickory or Mesquite if you like it dialed back but still kind of like a woodsy smoke try oh so for me if I'm doing you know Texas style barbecue I'm mixing Post Oak pellets with pecan pellets but the best tip you can do is start experimenting with different Hardwoods and do not stick with one bag for the entire time you're using your smoker Pro tip and number five so this tip really helps you understand the inside side of your smoker really well and it's called the biscuit test so what it is is you're actually putting biscuits all over the inside of your smoker and letting your smoker run for about 15-20 minutes at 250 to 300 degrees and then what you're doing is checking the undersides of the biscuits there are some that are going to be cooked more and there's some that are going to be cooked less and it helps you visually see the hot and cool zones of your smoker how this is Handy and knowing is if say you're cooking two pork butts and one's cooking a little faster well during the cook you can actually swap pork butts one on the cooler side one on the hotter side because trust me at the end of your barbecue you kind of want all the food to come off at the same time you don't want to say well I have to wait another three hours because it was on the cool side the whole time so to avoid that know the hot and cool sides of your smoker and you can get that done with the biscuit test let me know in the comments what tip you enjoyed the best and I'll catch you guys in the next one Grill Sergeant out

Channel: Grill Sergeant

Views: 165,825

Keywords: how not to use a pellet smoker, pellet smoker mistakes, how to use a pellet smoker, bbq tips and tricks, how to bbq, how to uise a pellet grill smoker, how to turn on a smoker, how to turn off a smoker, how to make a pellet smoker work, how to, how to use a smoker, pellet smoker 101, pellet smoker tips and tricks, how to basic

Id: 1USRYb6emn4

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 25 2023