The Major Benefit Of Using A Pellet Smoker

Smoking meat can be both time-consuming and labor-intensive, depending on the cut of meat you've selected. While smaller pieces like individual pork chops, seafood, or burgers don't spend inordinate amounts of time in the smoker, pork shoulder or a brisket might require hours to properly soak up all the fragrant smoke. The mantra for cooking meat is typically "low and slow," but that's where the work comes in. 

While some smoking gurus are so in tune with their smokers that temperature regulation seems to happen as if it's magic, the rest of us may find ourselves fiddling with the smoker's temperature all day. Add wood, and the temperature goes up. Close the vents a bit, and the temperature may drop too low. If you've ever emerged from a smoking session with reddened eyes and reeking of woodsmoke, frustrated by the difficulty of regulating temperature, you may want to consider a pellet smoker. While most smokers aren't "set it and forget it" operations, pellet smokers make things much easier.

Pellet smokers — popular brands include Traeger, Yoder, Weber, and Camp Chef — are unique, high-tech versions of smokers that allow you to set a temperature on your smoker, which the smoker maintains by auto-feeding pellets of compressed sawdust fuel. It's pretty much the opposite of watching the temperature of a traditional smoker and reacting to fluctuations. With a pellet smoker, you determine the temperature and the smoker does the rest of the work.

Really, the only drawback of pellet smokers is the fact that they're relatively expensive compared to other models of smokers, but there's no doubt that they make the smoking process much easier. And there are even different varieties of pellets available that allow you to select a specific wood for the flavor it imparts. Whether you choose hickory, pecan, alder, maple, or fragrant apple wood pellets, it's a luxury to be able to trust a pellet smoker to do the heavy lifting for a long smoke time.