I did 2 small Tri-Tips Sunday. I don't mean to brag, but seriously, they were the best 2 I have ever done by far. The Pappy's Rub was perfect and the amount of smoke was really perfect. Even my wife said so and she doesn't like Mesquite smoke too well, but she loved it this time. The rub and smoke taste was perfect. My wife said I "hit it out of the park this time".
After a half dozen tries give or take 1 or 2, I think I have finally "got it down" on using the Pellets successfully.
Today, I took the Tri-Tips out of the refrigerator @ 11:00 AM and let sit on counter, then @ 12:30 PM, I put some Olive Oil on them in place of mustard, and applied Pappy's Rub to them.
I nuked the pellets three times @ 2 minutes at a time. At 1:15 PM, I put some Mesquite Pellets in the Maze and lit it. At 1:35, it was ready to be put into The Smoker, so I came in the house and got the Tri-Tips and put them in the Smoker. I then put the Maze with the Pellets into the Smoker and closed Door. After everything was in the Smoker, I then turned the Smoker on and set the temp @ 245*@ 1:40 PM. At 2:00 it hit 245* and I raised it to 250*. This gave me a shelf Temperature of 230* - 235* with the Tri-Tips in Smoker.
At 3:40 PM, my 2 Maverick probes said the internal meat temperature was 155*, so I took the Tri-Tips into the house and let them sit 20 minutes before slicing them against the grain. The color of the meat was dark pink and just shy of having a red tint to it. Juice was red, but not dark red like blood.
Up until my last 2 Smokes, I was beginning to feel sorry that I had chosen to switch to Pellets and thinking about returning to wood chips, but now with some changes on using them, I am more than happy with them and providing all future smokes are as successful as the past 2 smokes, I will never go back to chips.
One last thing and that is .... The Pellets don't stain the window nearly as bad as the wood chips do. Probably because wood chips contain/make creosote and deposits it on the window and the walls of the Smoker. When I clean it, I only have to spray some Weber Grill Cleaner on it and the stain just melts before your eyes. Wipe it off, spray with some clean water and wipe it off again and that's it. Also a Magic Eraser works well also, but the Weber Grill Cleaner is cheaper.
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