Ultra low and slow pork butt.

[thirdeye]

I haven't used the IP yet to finish PP or beef .

I have traditional pressure cookers, not the IP style, but they sound like there are a lot of options.

My canner is a 21 quart model with a pressure gauge. So when I use it for meats I can pick my pressure. At my altitude, water boils at 203°, but a pressure cooker can be up to 250° with 15# of pressure. And since it's a closed system all the flavors stay inside.

 

[bill1]

... I used less pellets...

You mean less pellets per hour, not less pellet TOTAL?!?!?!

 

[Coreymacc]

You mean less pellets per hour, not less pellet TOTAL?!?!?!

I mean less pellets total. At 275f i have to fill the hopper at 7 or 8 hrs. I went 16hrs and probably had 1/3 of my hopper left. Its was way less. My old camp chef smoker is pretty efficient with pellets, but it was just idling at 200f.

Corey

 

[bill1]

Glad to see these fundamental questions of best cooking temperature still getting discussed!
Since the rate of cooking is a function of the DIFFERENCE in temperature between what you dial into the thermostat, and the current meat temperature (with some subtle added physics at stall), it always seemed to me a fixed cooking temperature (constant throughout the cook) is the worst possible choice. Your cooking temperature probably should increase as your meat temperature gets hotter (cooks.) It was just the easy choice for ovens when all you had were bimetallic mechanical thermostats. I occasionally (manually) increase my temperature as I cook, but if I want a good night's sleep, I can't really do this properly. Maybe programming a "cook profile" on the typical pellet grill front-panel user interface wouldn't catch on, but those that have a high degree of iPhone interface could certainly implement this fairly easily.
Maybe some do???

 

[bill1]

I mean less pellets total. At 275f i have to fill the hopper at 7 or 8 hrs. I went 16hrs and probably had 1/3 of my hopper left. Its was way less. My old camp chef smoker is pretty efficient with pellets, but it was just idling at 200f.

Corey

Thanks Corey. Proof the pellet machines are more efficient at low temps. I think a lot of that is all the fan action keeping the fire hot in the crucible. That fan blows a lot of thermal energy out the chimney. I suspect the fan is on a lot less (and at lower speeds) at a 200F set point than at 225F so you're "wasting" less energy.

 

[schlotz]

I have tried lighting tubes of pellets as well, but for some reason they never stay lit. I there must be weird airflow in the grill or something, i figured they would stay lit easy, but they snuff out. Kettle or offset is the only way to really cook meat for smoke flavor.

Corey

Not familiar with your smoker but the tubes need a constant air supply. On my MAK when I just had to have more smoke (hardly ever do these days) I placed the tube so the burning end was facing towards me and then placed a nickel to keep the lid open just a tad. This little gap provided enough air flow.

 

[Boris1]

I have a double hopper set up on a custom build… two smoke daddy pellet hoppers…. The only way you get more smoke is by adding a Bella cold Smoke generator (or similar cold Smoke generator)and running it full blast the entire time …. There is a huge difference using the cold Smoke generator …. And ill
Run the smoke mode which is around 160-170 for a few hours right around the stall then wrap…. My pellet hoppers never goes above 250f as I’ve ventured in the hotter temp and didn’t really like the result past 275…But yeah too long and it starts drying out