Smoke tube in a rec Tec a must?

Definitely not a must.  I use a tube for some of my smokes (bacon, butts), but it's the minority of my cooking.  If I really want a stronger smokier flavor - I use one.

I use a amnts every time a do a low and slow in my pellet muncher. For my tastes, it's a must. My brother never uses one though.

It pretty much depends on individual tastes.  How heavy a smoke flavor do you like?  If you're already using your RT, and you've been happy with the smoke flavor, then no, the tube is definitely not a must-have for you.  For my personal tastes, I've found that I like putting the extra smoke on most beef and pork cuts, but I don't use it when smoking poultry.

IMO the tube is a useful accessory, but the RT turns out tasty que without it too.

Red

bigb831 im glad you asked this question, as I am putting together my rec tec 680 this weekend and was wondering about pellets and smoking myself.

Here are my thoughts and please correct me if I am off because i am very new at this.

1. I am planning on buying a mass pallet of pellets to heat the rec tec

2, I am planning on using a "specialty" flavored pellet in the tube to get the smoke.

Does the heating pellets have to be a specialty flavor or can they be something simple just to heat with?

If you use two different types of flavor pellets (auger vs tube)  does that affect the meat?

Does the Tube Provide enough smoke on its on to taste it in the meat?

Sorry for so many questions, im trying to put this all together in my mind so I can get started off right,

Thanks

chad

cosmo4u said:

 
bigb831 im glad you asked this question, as I am putting together my rec tec 680 this weekend and was wondering about pellets and smoking myself.

Here are my thoughts and please correct me if I am off because i am very new at this.

1. I am planning on buying a mass pallet of pellets to heat the rec tec

2, I am planning on using a "specialty" flavored pellet in the tube to get the smoke.

Does the heating pellets have to be a specialty flavor or can they be something simple just to heat with?

If you use two different types of flavor pellets (auger vs tube)  does that affect the meat?

Does the Tube Provide enough smoke on its on to taste it in the meat?

Sorry for so many questions, im trying to put this all together in my mind so I can get started off right,

Thanks

chad

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I would recommend buying a ton of Lumberjack pellets through bbqpelletsonline.  They run $495 plus shipping and you can mix your pellets.  They have an exhaustive list of pellets available, but I get MHC (maple, hickory, cherry), OHC (oak, hickory, cherry), and 100% hickory.  I run the same pellets in my tube as I'm running in my smoker.  No need to buy "specialty" pellets in my opinion.

>Does the heating pellets have to be a specialty flavor

>or can they be something simple just to heat with?

Are you asking if you can use heating pellets? Other than heating pellets, aren't all pellets marketed for pellet grills 'specialty' pellets? They all are labelled with a particular flavor or blend. 

>If you use two different types of flavor pellets

>(auger vs tube)  does that affect the meat?

Consider that many folks, even certified KCBS judges, can't distinguish between different pellet types and just use one type.  I stick with 3 pellets. 100% hickory is the strongest for smoke flavor so I use that most of the time. But I also use a little cherry on some cooks because it adds nice color. I use oak for higher temps when grilling. But I could easily live with only hickory.

>Does the Tube Provide enough smoke on its on to taste it in the meat?

Only you can answer that after you try. For some folks, pellet grills don't put out enough smoke flavor even when used with a tube. Some say they couldn't detect any difference when using a tube. Still, many think the tube works fine. I stopped using mine because I did not like the smoke profile it gave to meats.