Royall Pellet Grills!

We would like to welcome Royall Wood Pellet Grills as an official sponsor of the Meat, Inc. BBQ Team!



The team has been using a wide variety of smokers over the years to cook our competition meats.  We have been using pellet grills since the very beginning - since 2005 - so we know pellet grills.  Some of the issues using pellet grills in the past have been the thin material of the cooking chamber and the quality of the grill itself.  Thin material leads to heat loss and large temperature swings.  Temp swings leads to changes in cooking times and ultimately the quality of the meat turned in to the judges or our families.  The Royall Grills have really thick hulls / cooking chambers which leads to a tighter temperature band and better quality meats.  In fact - all the material used in the construction of this grill is THICK!  Thick material equals a sturdy base, thick skin, and a long lasting unit.  This smoker is built to last!

The Royall Wood Pellet Smokers have a digital controller so you can set the cooking temp and let the controller feed wood pellets with the auger into the cooking chamber as needed.  All the units have a hot rod that automatically starts the pellets and cooking cycle.  You can't beat that!  My wife won't go near a propane grill and forget charcoal - this unit allows her to walk out to the grill, set the temp, and put meat on the grate within minutes.  Since they are all indirect heat, it is perfect for anything from vegetables, pizza, chicken, and even biscuits and pies.  This grill can cook from 400F plus down to 180F - allowing you to cook slow and low to higher temp cooks.  The auger continuously feeds pellets in as needed so you don't have to monitor the cooker as your brisket or pork butt slowly cooks to perfection.

Even though we have used this smoker only a few times, the quality of the pit is evident and we are proud to call the Royall 3000 THE competition meat pit for our team.  I encourage you to check out their web site, take a look at their product line, and then start asking me some questions so I can help you make an educated decision on which BBQ would fit you best.  You can also see this killer smoker in action at any of our competitions.  Please come see us for a full tour and some samples of the incredible food coming off this beast!

You can also visit the Royall web site for more information!

Cooking Tools - Oven Thermometer

Cooking Tools - Oven Thermometer

Typically, people rely on the temp gauge in their BBQ / Smoker hood. This is WRONG - do NOT do this! Get yourself at least two oven thermometers and put one at each back corner of the cooking grate.

Why?

A few reasons:

1. The thermometer that came with your grill is probably low quality
2. The temperature at the hood of your grill is probably different than the temp at the grate
3. Your grill probably has a "hot side"
4. You want to be able to cook based on the recipes and if you use your hood gauge, your recipe will not turn out like they're supposed to.
5. Oven thermometers are inexpensive and will make you cook better!

Here is the gauge on a typical grill / smoker. It is low quality and was often over 100 degrees off from the grate temp. You cook at the grate - NOT at the hood.




Using an oven thermometer at the grate gives you an accurate picture of what the actual temperature you are cooking at - where the food is cooking.




Your food is cooking at the grate - NOT in the hood! The grate temperature can fluctuate from side to side, corner to corner of every BBQ. I have never seen a BBQ / Smoker that has even heat distribution - no matter what the reviews for that grill say.




When you follow a recipe or cook the same meal twice, you want consistency and accuracy. Knowing what the temperature is allows you to accomplish this!



Grate temperatures are NOT the same across the grill. You can see (if you zoom in) that even on this higher quality grill / smoker that there is a severe discrepancy in the grate temp. The far left back corner is at 175 F and the far right back corner is at 300 F. Not pictured is the hood gauge which was at 350 F and the digital temperature probe (thermocouple) which read 290 F. The difference in grate temp from left to right was over 120 F! This is really significant! Knowing how YOUR grill acts and where the "hot spots" are will allow you to fine tune your cooking technique and repeatably cook food better and more efficiently.

So - are you convinced? This is cheap right? RIGHT! I buy these oven gauges at Smart and Final for around $7.00 each. Get two - it will set you back $15 and it will look cool on your grill -making you look cool - particularly after you regurgitate this really important info. Here's a link (no affiliation to these companies - the first ones that showed up in a search):

http://www.chefsresource.com/proaccurate-oven-thermometer-cdn.html

http://www.amazon.com/MIU-90069-Commercial-Oven-Thermometer/dp/B000JO0AHU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1275882600&sr=8-1

Make sure that you purchase thermometers that have a temp range that goes down to 100F and not higher than 550 or 600 F so you have some accuracy in the sweet spot. You want the low range so when you are smoking - or using a gas grill with 1/2 turned off - you can try and hit the 200 F - 250 F zone and be able to determine that accurately.