I bought a pellet smoker a few years ago and it changed my life, not to mention my outlook on smoked meats. For most of my life there was no such thing as a pellet smoker. I was a dedicated offset smoker guy. A stick burner, if you will. Then, according to Wikipedia, in 1985 Joe Traeger developed his first grill, patented it in 1986, and began producing it in 1988. Thanks to it’s patent, Traeger remained the only name in pellet grills for twenty years. After it’s patent expired, other companies began building pellet grills of their own to market. It’s around that time that I first became aware of them.
I thought they were a joke. Every backyard barbecuer and wannabe pit master knows the best smokey flavor comes from real wood, not wood pellets. Long story short, after discovering that the difference in smoke flavor between an offset smoker and a pellet smoker (while definitely there) mattered little to me, I gladly traded in my woodpile for a bucketful of pellets. And now that I’m getting up in years, the ease of use of a pellet grill far and away makes up for any shortcomings in smoke flavor. It’s the best backyard barbecue purchase I’ve made in years.
