New to the grilling game and don’t know what outdoor smoker to choose? Or maybe you’re a seasoned chef, already wielding an outdoor kitchen with a pellet grill and smoker, but now you’re looking to upgrade your hardware… Either way, we’re here to help you find the best outdoor grill for gourmet grilling and smoking.
Outdoor Smokers and Grills
First off, what sets smokers apart from your typical outdoor grill?
Just like any grill, barbecue smokers need fuel for that heat. But in the case of smokers, your fuel isn’t directly cooking your meat and veggies – it’s burning in a separate chamber that then moves heat into the cooking compartment of your grill. The heat is trapped by an insulated grill-top, allowing you a thorough slow-cooking experience. Otherwise, if your coals are directly heating your food, then you’re simply grilling instead of smoking.
Speaking of smoking, the most important element of smoking meat is, well, smoke!
Hardwood chips or chunks of different wood types are used to give off flavored smoke that permeates and flavors the meats and veggies you place inside your grill.
There are plenty of wood types to choose from for particular types of meats and cuts, including:
- Oak: a good wood for beginners, giving strong flavor without easily overpowering your meats. Best with lamb, beef, brisket, and sausage.
- Hickory: more of an all-purpose wood with a sweet and savory flavor (very bacon-esque), but can be bitter if you overdo it. Best with most red meat and poultry, as well as large rib cuts and pork shoulders.
- Maple: sweet and light, it adds a subtle flavor to your meats. Best with poultry, pork, and game foul.
- Mesquite: a bold flavor, where a little goes a long way (use smaller quantities). Best with red meat.
- Pecan: nutty with a very rich sweetness, recommended to be mixed with another wood for balance. Best with brisket, roast, and ribs.
- Apple: mild, mellow, and sweet, used for longer smoking (at least several hours). Best with chicken, wild foul, and pork.
- Alder: light, sweet, and delicate. Best with fish.
- Cherry: a fruity, mild flavor that does well to be mixed with other wood like hickory. Best with chicken, turkey, and pork (especially ham).
5 Reasons to Get an Outdoor Smoker or Grill
So, what’s so good about smoking meat?
The art of using an outdoor smoker is also the art of slow-cooking, which has plenty of delicious benefits to be enjoyed by you, the cook, as well as your guests.
- Diversity and Depth of Flavor
You go to the store, buy yourself a good cut of meat, marinade and season it, and toss it on a grill to your heart’s desire. Well, smoking allows you another layer of flavor given the vast array of wood flavors you can choose from, including acacia, ash, blackberry, sugar apple, peach, pair, walnut, pimento, apricot, and citrus.
With so many options for flavor, there’s plenty of room for experimentation when it comes to spicing up your favorite recipes.
- Tender and Juicier BBQ
All that tough connective tissue, gelatin, and collagen in even the toughest meat cuts break down when slow-cooked at low temperatures for a good, long time, tenderizing and retaining moisture from all those delicious fats soaking up that flavor and waiting to be tasted.
- Easy to Use
As outdoor smoker technologies advance, so does their ease of use! Even beginners can cook outdoor dishes at a quality not far from that of the well-seasoned smoker. For instance, some smokers utilize WiFi technology, allowing you to monitor and adjust temperature and smoke levels from an app on your smartphone, even alerting you when going above or below your set parameters.
And as smoking gets simpler, the quicker they are to learn, becoming a straight-forward process that eventually comes down to the limits of your imagination.
- Feed All Your Friends
Slow-cooking allows you to cook cuts of meat as big as your grill can fit, making those holiday dinners a mouthwatering wonder for all your guests to enjoy – even all those extended relatives you might forget.
- It’s Fun!
Smoking is longform grilling, and if you enjoy grilling, you’ll be pleased with all the options that await you when you buy your first smoker. Given all the ways you can experiment with wood flavoring, as well as all those hunky cuts of meat you’ve been otherwise hesitant to cook, there’s so much room for creativity and so many delicious dishes that await you and your friends, it’s no wonder you didn’t start smoking sooner!
Conclusion
We welcome you to the worldwide community of outdoor smokers. You won’t regret it.
We’re here to get you started on your journey, offering you a range of top quality, state-of-the-art pellet smokers.
Contact us today and we’ll be sure to find the right one for you and your outdoor grilling goals.
