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Oct 25, 2023

Why You Need A Pellet Smoker For Outdoor Cooking, Grilling And BBQ

BBQ Brisket, whole pork butt and three racks of ribs - all cooked perfectly with no fuss and little ... [+] need for attention. Outdoor cooking season is just getting fired up in much of the country,

BBQ Brisket, whole pork butt and three racks of ribs - all cooked perfectly with no fuss and little ... [+] need for attention.

Outdoor cooking season is just getting fired up in much of the country, and traditionally kicks off in a big way around Memorial Day. That’s why you should be thinking about how to prepare for a great summer of outdoor cooking right now - especially if you need a new grill.

In a perfect world we wouldn’t have to choose just one backyard cooking device, and personally I have more than dozen, including pellet smokers, propane grills, wood fired grills, a pig cooking box, an Argentinian asado grill, a Brazilian rodizio grill, a South African brai grill, a table with inset propane grills for Korean style group cooking, a pizza oven and firepit designed for cooking. But most people are not as crazy about backyard cookery as I am, and many of us have space and budgetary constraints, with capacity for just one grill. In recent years, technology and appetites have evolved, and it’s become increasingly clear that if you want just one first-rate grill to do it all, it should probably be a pellet grill.

Pellet grills began as a “one trick pony” and came on the scene in order to make it easier to cook traditional slow smoked BBQ. This was tied to a coast-to-coast explosion in the popularity of barbecue, the opening of hundreds of BBQ eateries outside of the traditional regions in the South and West the cooking style was long associated with, and further fueled by multiple BBQ-focused TV shows. The pellet smoker suddenly allowed anyone to make great pro level barbecue by precisely controlling the temperature needed for low and slow cooking for many, many hours without fussing with vents, thermometers, fans or adding and adjusting fuel. The digital “set and forget” technology lets me put in a rack of ribs in the morning with a 6-plus hour cook time, and go for a 40-mile bike ride or play 18 holes of golf without having to do another thing for hours.

Many pellet smokers can't grill or sear well, but that's not an issue with the innovative Yoder ... [+] Smokers lineup.

When I attended the 3-day BBQ University, an annual outdoor cookery camp put on by the world’s foremost expert in all things cooking with fire, bestselling author and longtime TV show host Steven Raichlen (and named “the #1 cooking experience in America” by the Food Network), he told me about the pushback from longtime BBQ purists used to manual wood or coal burning smokers - because pellet smokers “made it too easy to cook great BBQ.”

I know he’s right because I graduated from a classic Weber Smokey Mountain smoker I used to fuss and sweat and fret over to a pellet grill and now have been using them for years, several different brands and styles, and my cooking is absolutely better. It is much easier, but it is also more consistent, and that means the food always comes out great, not just when I get everything right, and it’s also much easier to clean up, and faster to get going at the beginning. When it comes to smoking BBQ, the pellet grill hits it out of the park in every way. But they have also gotten much better at doing all sorts of other kinds of cooking.

“Pellet grills can turn any home cook into a BBQer - the learning curve is very small,” said Shawn Hill, creator of cooking blog TheGrillingDad and its related Facebook community discussion group, Grilling, Smoking and Backyard BBQ. “For me, I’m able to throw something on before work, and check back at the end of my workday and have a smoked meal ready to serve for my family. You really can’t beat the convenience. You don’t have to tend a grill or smoker for hours on end, but you get all the smoky goodness. Win-win.”

What’s changed dramatically in the roughly two decades since pellet smokers came on the scene has been their versatility. Once meant mainly for smoking meats, they have become increasingly adept at roasting, baking and even grilling, which has long been the weak link, since by their nature they typically do not directly expose the grill to flame. But design, technology and materials have kept getting better, and today’s best pellet grills (there are also cheap poorly made ones), really can do it all, hence the subtle name change over the years from pellet smokers to pellet grills. While a pellet grill still can’t quite match a high-end multi-burner gas grill for frequent grilling, it does a better job at grilling than most grills - regardless of price - do at smoking.

The super-consistent temps - regardless of outside conditions - also make them better for baking, roasting or braising. The lack of flare up makes something like roasting a whole chicken or pieces a breeze too, something many backyard grillers struggle mightily with. That’s why a pellet grill that can grill well is a top all around choice for anyone whose outdoor cooking repertoire goes beyond burgers and dogs - and a must for those who love traditional barbecue.

This expert author loves pellet grills.

Meathead Goldwyn is the author of Meathead: The Science of Great BBQ And Grilling, a New York Times Bestseller that was ranked “One of the 100 Best Cookbooks of All Time" by Southern Living Magazine. He told me that, “Pellet cookers are incredible. They are the future of smoking. Set it, forget it. Precision temperature control. Better than my indoor oven. They hold temperature rock solid in all weather and recover rapidly after you open the lid. No more sitting by the smoker all day monitoring the temperature while adjusting the dampers and adding logs for that 12-hour brisket cook. No moldy bug riddled logs. The system is highly efficient producing clean smoke and little ash.”

“But there are some issues. Although they are often billed as grills, only a few can produce a proper sear.”

This is a high-stakes dealmaker or dealbreaker if you are looking for a do-it-all backyard cooker and one of the reasons why, partly at the suggestion of Hill, The Grilling Dad, I gravitated to the Yoder lineup. I just started using a Yoder YS640S competition pellet grill, and I’ve been blown away. Yoder is a company known best for manufacturing very heavy duty, high-end, wood fired steel smokers in Kansas, models that have long been popular with commercial chefs and the top pros on the competition BBQ circuit. The company’s history in BBQ was rich before they jumped into pellet grills, and they have brought that same ultra heavy duty made in the USA ethic, plus cutting-edge technology and design. How heavy duty? The YS640S has 1,070 square inches of cooking space and weighs 335 pounds. Two models close in size at Home Depot at 1,008 square inches (Nexgrill) and 1,068 (ZGrills) weigh in at 159 and 192 pounds respectively.

The "Best Pellet Grill of 2023" according to People Magazine, the Yoder YS640S.

It’s pricier than entry level pellet grills for sure, but you need both the heavy-duty construction and uniquely flexible design of their smokebox to produce that high temp searing steak lovers require. But at $2,400 it’s also far from the highest end - you can spend more on a pellet grill at Home Depot and well stocked e-tailer BBQGuys.com lists two dozen different models that cost more, often much more, with 10 in the $5-$11,000 range. In addition, you get a lot of cooking bang for the buck, as the 1,070 square inch YS640 is at the large end of the pellet grill spectrum and can cook far more at once. Home Depot defines Small Pellet Grills as under 400, Medium 401-520 and Large 521 or more. However, if the price still gives you sticker shock, I have previously written on the best budget grills and smokers, and I think that ZGrills, with most of its models well under $1000, is a strong choice, and in the $800-$1500 range I like Reqteq.

Because of the size and weight, the entire Yoder lineup features heavy duty wheels for easy rolling, and all models come with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, two integrated food probes, a slide out second shelf for extra cooking capacity, and a generous warranty of 10 years on the body and 3 years on the ceramic ignition system and digital controller.

Hill told me that, “The one downside of pellet grills is some of the lower end models leak smoke, don’t hold their temp well, or just don’t last through years of use. That’s where Yoder stands out. You get the heavy-duty quality with the convenience of a pellet grill. The built-in app that communicates with the built-in temp probes are the most reliable and accurate that I’ve found. They use a different type of controller that more closely mimics an offset smoker so you can get a heavy smoke flavor profile. Also, they have direct flame access that I’ve measured just north of 700° so searing is not only possible, it’s easy, so now you can cook a steak and sear it without having to have a pellet grill and a gas grill. I can’t stress it enough, with a Yoder, you’re getting top of the line quality.”

He's not the only one who thinks this. For years, AmazingRibs.com has been the gold standard of grill reviews, like Consumer Reports for all things outdoor cooking. The lengths and technical precision to which they go in testing every kind of grill amazes me, and it’s the guidance site to which I direct anyone who contacts me with gear questions. Amazing Ribs gave it their coveted Gold Medal for Best Value and wrote “Yoder is a brand revered by competition cooks for well-designed high-end charcoal and wood fired smokers and BBQ grills made in the USA.”

Because pellet grills have traditionally been sub-par at actual grilling, searing or cooking steaks, this has been the most intense area of research and improvement and the same Gold Medal review notes that, “A unique feature is Yoder’s Variable Displacement Damper, a metal plate that may be moved from left to right along the lower smoke box. Positioned all the way left, it concentrates heat directly over the fire pot for conductive searing with optional aluminum GrillGrates. Move it back to the right for even heat across the entire smokebox.”

People Magazine’s experiments resulted in their roundup, “The 8 Best Pellet Grills of 2023, Tested and Reviewed.” The winner and Best Overall was the same YS640s: “If you’re looking for a pellet grill that can do it all, the Yoder Smokers YS640 is worth its high price tag.” They do make a slightly smaller model, the 800 square inch YS480S at $2,139 but the savings don’t justify the downsizing. However, if you need even more space there’s the 1,500 square inch YS1500S at $4,995 and the massive 2,225 square inch CimarronS at $8,099.