December 31st, 2018, 11:35 am
#1
* Abilene ** Abilene *
  • Joined: December 30th, 2018, 8:21 pm
  • Posts: 6

Just completed my first cook on the 480 last night. Cooked a 4 lbs pork loin coated with maple syrup and seasoned with Suckle Busters Competition Rub. And I used Lumber Jack Competition pellets. First off, I never got any visible smoke from the unit during the entire cook. I could hear the fan blowing and could hear a few pellets dropping into the burner occasionally. Cooked at 225-230 on the top rack to an internal temp of 145 (about 3 hours). Never peaked during the entire cook. When I finally opened the lid I was disappointed with the appearance of the loin. It was a light tan color and jiggly to the touch despite my ThermPro probe telling me it was 145 in the thickest part. I used an insta-read thermometer to check in a different spot and got a reading of 133. So I moved it to the bottom shelf, cranked up the temp to 350 and let it go another 30 min. End result, it was juicy and and tender, but the only flavor I got was from the seasoning and absolutely zero smoke flavor at all! I did have the heat diffuser in place and it was foil lined.

Any suggestions or tips from the experts out there? I'm certain I'm either overlooking something or needing to accept what is going on. Also, what are your "go to" web sites for pellet grill recipes?

Thanks a bunch folks!

December 31st, 2018, 2:16 pm
#2
* Abilene ** Abilene *
  • Joined: December 6th, 2018, 1:48 pm
  • Posts: 6

There's a significant difference in temp and the amount of smoke you get between the upper and lower grates. There's a thread around here somewhere called Yoder Smokers 101 that does a good job of outlining these differences.

I'd be willing to bet that if you'd done that entire cook on the lower grate your results would have been much different.

Check out HowToBBQRight for great recipes, tips, tricks's etc. Malcolm is the man. Checkout AmazingRibs as well.

December 31st, 2018, 3:26 pm
#3
* Abilene ** Abilene *
  • Joined: December 30th, 2018, 8:21 pm
  • Posts: 6

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