For food enthusiasts who are always on the lookout for that great, smoky flavor on their meats, the trend nowadays is the use of pellet grills, also known as pellet smokers. Pellet grills use wood for grilling, smoking, and baking meat.
Due to food-grade compressed wood, food is charred more slowly and at lower temperatures. Your choice of fish, brisket, turkey, ribs, and others are made even better with the pellet grill’s user-friendly features, which help rotate, flip, or braise the meat to perfection.
In this article, we provide tips on how to get more of that pronounced smoke flavor from the pellet grill. If, by any chance, you do not know what pellet grills are yet, check out grilla grills silverbac.
How Pellet Grills Contribute to Great Cooking
Expect delectable food whenever you work with pellet grills. This smoker heats food via convection through a unique cooking chamber.
Pellet grills use hardwood and charcoal pellets placed underneath the food on the grill grates. The temperature control settings of the smoker help cook any piece of meat evenly.
Furthermore, what sets pellet grills apart from ordinary smokers is the use of custom blends of hardwoods. This feature elevates the taste of food.
Check out the tips below to work your way around wood-pellet grilling for more smoke flavor.
5 Tips to Get More Smoke Flavor From Your Pellet Grill
Tip No. 1: For starters, use vegetable oil.
Some pellets on the market are labeled as batch gourmet products, claiming to have been infused with wine, special oils, and other substances. These products are a waste of your resources.
Keep in mind that the smoke flavor is generated right from the wood of the pellet grill itself. That wood creates the primary spice needed in getting your desired smoke taste.
If you’re only starting to get used to your pellet grill, using small amounts of vegetable oil does the trick. The said oil is helpful in the extrusion process.
Tip No. 2: Make sure you get the correct type of pellets.
New users of pellet grills tend to confuse two types of pellets: Heating and smoker pellets. Note that heating pellets are designed for wood-burning stoves and not for consuming food.
Heating pellets tend to produce unpleasant flavors because they are made from softwood, like pine. For that great smoke flavor, what you need are smoker pellets.
Smoker pellets are specifically designed for the essential purpose of adding delicious flavor to meals.
Tip No. 3: Complement food with the right type of wood.
Assuming that you purchased the suitable smoker pellets, the next step is how to use their unique taste to complement certain types of food. Note that the flavors of wood pellets range from mild to intense.
With that knowledge, it pays to know that alder can work with almost all foods and apple pellets are great with chicken. On the other hand, traditional barbecue meats like pork shoulder and brisket bode well with hickory pellets.
Pizza and baked goods, as well as vegetables and fish, can be paired with oak. Nutty flavors are expected.
Then, the most popular wood pellets are apple and cherry. These fruitwoods are suitable for vegetables, seafood, and meats that are not too gamey.
Use maple for its mild, sweet flavor for cold-smoking fish, vegetables, and cheese. Pecan is the popular bet for chicken, pork, salmon, and steak.
Lastly, for Texas-style barbecue, opt to get mesquite wood pellets. However, use mesquite only after mastering the basics of pellet grilling, given that a careful hand is needed to get correct flavor results.
Tip No. 4: Use 100% natural hardwood all the time.
Though some pellet grill users have experimented with softwood and hardwood pellets, seasoned smokers recommend using 100% natural hardwood pellets to achieve better flavors.
Even if softwood burns faster, the rate at which hardwood burns slower makes it an ideal choice for a good roast. The slow process is the secret behind integrating wonderful smoky flavors into the meats.
Tip No. 5: Choose the proper meat cut.
The last piece of advice to ensure getting more smoke flavor is to choose the correct meat cuts. Your meat should not be too fatty or too lean.
Learn the correct fat-to-meat ratio. For significant meat cuts, avoid thick layers of fat.
A good rule of thumb is that any piece of meat with fat layers thicker by a quarter-inch or more is expected to lack smoky flavors. Note that fat insulates the meat core.
Fine Flavors Forward
We hope you now consider yourself more equipped to handle your pellet grill and get more of that famous smoke flavor with the tips mentioned above.
Just as long as you remember other basics such as managing your temperature, smoking, and keeping your food away from direct heat, you should be okay. Refined flavors are coming your way!