Just got my first smoker

[*michaelsean*]

(02-19-2021, 12:16 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: Not bothering at all!  Ask away :) 

Charcoal pellets don't really make sense to me.  Charcoal is just wood that's treated at high heat to remove moisture.  As a result, it burns easily and at high temperatures.  What most people associate as a "charcoal" flavor is largely a result of how the food reacts to the heat, because charcoal doesn't (or shouldn't, at least!) impart much smoke.  Even when smoking, the best smoke flavor doesn't come from a billowing white cloud of smoke inside the smoker, but from the compounds released from the wood (so really, the flavor from "smoking" doesn't even really come from smoke at all).  This is the reason a lot of people don't like using pellets and prefer to stick burn; they pellets sometimes have filler and just don't burn the same as a log, producing all of the same reactions for the deepest flavors.  

So I guess to answer question number one, I don't really know what flavor those pellets are supposed to impart, so I don't really see a lot of appeal.  Just my opinion, though.  

For number 2, it depends on the size of the firebox and smoker.  If you're running on a small stick burner, you probably can't put full splits in the fire box (they likely won't fit, and if they do, the temp would get too hot).  So for the smaller smokers, it's more common to use a bed of charcoal and wood chunks instead of splits/logs.  My smoker is mid-sized so I usually halve a typical split on harder woods that burn hotter and use the normal splits for softer woods that burn a little cooler.  I just use charcoal to get an initial bed to light the fire and that's it.  My friends who are using big offsets/counterflows will often light the wood directly with a propane torch.  They're basically just making their coal bed from the smoke wood.  They're also putting in 4-6 splits at a time, so they'd need a high enough volume of charcoal to get it started that it ceases to be practical.  

Because charcoal is cheaper than wood (unless you've got your own supply of seasoned wood on your property), if I'm wrapping something in foil and keeping it on the smoker, I'll switch to charcoal to keep the heat but it's not contributing to flavor.  I wouldn't do that on a big smoker, but on mine it works just fine and saves my wood for when the meat is actually exposed.

Alright so no need to bother with the charcoal pellets.  As far as filler, it seems the major brands use all hardwood, their "filler" being oak or alder.  Seems like it's about 30% advertised wood, and 70% filler hardwood.  Lumberjack offers a 100% but it's expensive.  I have I feeling I'd have a hard time differentiating much between say 100% apple or an apple blend anyway.  

So for the offset smokers it seems like charcoal is more a tool. There's a good chance I will never get a stick burner, but it doesn't hurt to at least start understanding how it's done.