Wood has always been a tried-and-true classic fuel source for outdoor cooking, producing smoke that can perfectly season meat. Hardwood logs have long been the only option for smoking or grilling. However, in today’s barbecue world, the use of wood can mean a variety of different methods, shapes, and sizes.
Today, a good source of wood fuel is wood pellets. As a new fuel source for barbecue games, using wood pellets is a versatile way to get a great smoky flavor for your outdoor kitchen. In this article we will talk about what wood pellets are and how to use them to cook a delicious barbecue with the delicious smoky flavor you are looking for.
What are wood pellets?
Wood pellets are made from a mixture of hardwood shavings and sawdust. This is done by using wood lignin (an all-natural adhesive) to compress and held all together. It is made into thin elongated rods and then divided into smaller pieces. Most wood pellets are about a half inch long.
In the process of compressing the wood shaving and sawdust mixture, most of the air and moisture are removed. In addition, this means that you will not burn bark, dirt, etc that you might find in rough logs. This results in an extremely efficient and clean combustion fuel source. The wood pellets used for smoking are food safe. Therefore, they contain no adhesives or chemicals.
Use high-quality pellets for smoking
Pellets are a versatile fuel and flavor source that is becoming more and more popular.
The use of wood pellets, whether use them alone or in combination with other fuel sources, has great advantages.
Some of these include:
- It burns very clean because it does not contain bark or dirt
- It produces less than 1% ash, making cleaning easier
- Low humidity
- High BTU
- Low carbon dioxide production
- More energy efficient than other fuel sources
- Easier to maintain a constant temperature
Wood pellets can be used in different ways. One way is in the pellet smoker or grill. These smokers quickly became popular in the outdoor cooking world, especially in barbecue competitions. You may be familiar with them or have seen one being used.
Pellet smokers use pellets as the main fuel source for heating and flavoring. For these smokers, the wood pellets are poured into a box on the side called a “hopper.” From this hopper, the pellets are automatically fed into a small burn pot or hot box by an auger. This is where the pellets ignite and generate heat and smoke.
One of the best things about the pellet smokers is that they can be adjusted with a thermostat, so it’s easy to maintain a constant temperature without constantly monitoring your heat source.
Flavors of wood pellets
As mentioned above, wood pellets have a variety of mixtures of oak with other hardwoods or fruit woods. Each of them gives the meat a very different flavor. In addition, using one type of wood pellets when smoking one type of meat will have a different taste from another type of meat.
Here is a breakdown of the most common variations of wood pellets:
The BBQ pellets come in 4 flavors: Apple, Cherry, Charcoal, and Whiskey.
EcoPellets now have a range of BBQ and smoking pellets. Our products have been field-tested by experts in the BBQ’ing and food smoking arena’s and the results have been an overwhelming yes.