How To Use Wood Pellets For Smoking BBQ
People prefer charcoal grills as they use accessible fuel, and they provide authentic smoky flavor, which is better than any other grill machine. You can also use wood pellets, small shaped wood pieces of compressed hardwood made from wood shavings and sawdust, as fuel for charcoal grills that are able to elicit a variety of flavors to our meat. The article is a little guide for how to use wood pellets in a charcoal grill.
There Are Two Types Of Wood Pellets, And You Can Choose Any Of Them
Barbecue Pellets: The name implies what is the purpose of using these pellets. These pellets are specially made for BBQ and grills. They give the exact fragrance and taste of wood-fired flavor on the meat.
Heating Pellets: Heating pellets are used for fueling up home heaters. Paint residue and other elements are certain ingredients of heating pellets, which can be very toxic and harmful for health. So, they cannot be used as fuel for cooking in a grill or smoker.
How To Use Wood Pellets
If you know how to use wood pellets for the grill, you can do it properly. Before starting the process, make sure that your wood pellets are BBQ pellets that are designed to use for humans but not for heating pellets that could bring harm to health. Let’s start doing it.
1. Mix The Pellet With Charcoal
Using BBQ pellets in a charcoal grill is a safe thing to do. After finding the preferred type of wood pellets, mix these with some charcoal. You are going to use the mixture as the fuel for your charcoal grill.
2. Bring Out Your Chimney Starter
First, remove the grilling gate and tuck some crumpled newspaper into the bottom of the chimney starter. Then set the chimney starter in the base of the grill and ignite the newspaper with a match or stick lighter. Make sure that the coals are ignited and wait till the coals are coated with gray ash. Then transfer the hot coals into the cooking chamber carefully from the chimney starter. Remember to use heatproof gloves as precaution. After that, replace the grilling gate and wait so that the grill can reach its desired temperature.
3. Add The Pellets And Fire Them Up
Once your grill has reached the desired temperature, bring natural wood pellets and scatter them across the coals so that the pellets can burn at the same rate. Then close the grilling gate and wait for the ignition of the pellets. ½ a cup of pellets will be available for 30 minutes of smoke flavor. Once the coal flames up, your charcoal grill is ready to cook.
4. Open The Vent Of The Grill
Close the lid to keep the smoke in, and the vent of the grill will remain half-open to keep the temperature ideal for cooking. If you are cooking for too long, you may need to add more pellets. In that case, open the grill’s lid and add more wood pellets.
5. Try To Use A Pellet Tube Smoker
Pellets tube smokers are small tubes that are filled with pellets and set on top of a charcoal fire which is designed to convey a more powerful and strong smoke flavor. Therefore, if you want a unique smoky flavor, you can try it. Moreover, these pellet tube smokers are not so expensive and easy to find.
Benefits Of Using Wood Pellets
There are a few benefits of using wood pellets, which convey why you should use wood pellets with charcoal. The benefits are-
- Using wood pellets is an eco-friendly operation as these wood pellets are modified leftover sawdust from lumberyards.
- Wood pellets bring up different sorts of flavors in grilled meat such as Hickory, Mesquite, Apple, Cherry, Oak, Alder, Pecan, etc.
- Wood pellets are more efficient than any other fuel.
- Wood pellets are easy to work with.
- The cleanup process after using wood pellets is pretty easy, unlike charcoal.
- Controlling the temperature of the grill is easier while using wood pellets as fuel.
- Wood pellets are relatively inexpensive than charcoal. So, using wood pellets is actually helps to save your money.
FAQ:
Question: Are wood pellets safe to cook with?
Answer: Only human-friendly BBQ wood pellets are easy to cook with.
Question: Are wood pellets better than charcoals?
Answer: Wood pellets are less expensive than charcoal, and also they leave minimal ash and residue compared with charcoal. So wood pellet’s dust and the residue is easy to clean up.
Question: How many pellets do you need?
Answer: It depends on which food you are going to grill and on the quantity of food. ½ cups of wood pellets are enough for 40-45 minutes of grilling. If you are cooking brisket, ribs, or full chicken that needs a long time to be cooked, you have to burn more pellets. On the other hand, steaks, burgers, veggies, fish need 30 minutes or less time to be cooked. In that case, you won’t need to burn a ton of pellets.
Learning how to use wood pellets in a charcoal grill is not so troublesome. If you have enough idea about it, you can complete the grilling process with more perfection and can enjoy the mouthwatering smoke flavor.
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