Energex Ol’ Hick Cooking Pellets For Sale
We approach our Ol Hick pellet manufacturing the same way we do our heating pellets. Our team quality tests every product based on in-house standards that go far beyond the industry requirements. When you purchase Ol Hick 100% Hickory or Apple pellets, you get a product featuring only the best moisture, ash, and clean virgin wood fiber levels for the given wood species we expect no less. Thats the Energex Standard.
Get in touch with a customer service team member today to learn more about our BBQ pellets. Youll soon see why Ol Hick smoke aint no joke!
Traeger Vs Other Pellet Smokers
Traeger has shown longevity in a market they created, and kudos to them for bringing us pellet smoking technology. Their products work and last well. They should because you do pay for the name. And the big advertising budget. Like most people, getting value is a large part of our purchase decision. Having used both Traeger and their competition, the value equation lies more with the other brands. That being said, we will give you our pick of the Traeger line with the why behind our decision.
Features Pro Series 575 And 780
- WIFIRE technology
There are several differences between the Ironwood and the Pro Series. Here are the main upgrades.
Downdraft Exhaust System
One of the key features of the Ironwood is the downdraft exhaust system. Most pellet grills have a chimney or smokestack on top, but the downdraft exhaust system in the Ironwood pushes the smoke through the exhaust out the back of the grill, producing better smoke for your meat.
Double Side Wall Insulation
Another upgrade from the Pro Series is the Ironwoods double side walls for better insulation. Smokers and grills constructed with solid metal can hold in heat, which makes them more efficient when cooking in the colder months. Pellet grills with thinner metal have to work twice as hard in the cold and burn through twice as many wood pellets.
Super Smoke Mode
The Ironwood also has a Super Smoke mode which gives you three times more smoke. Super Smoke lowers the temperature of your grill into the 165°F to 225°F range. By slowing down the grill, the meat will have more time to sit in the smoke and absorb more smoke flavor.
Bigger Pellet Hopper
The Ironwood holds 20 pounds of wood pellets, an upgrade from the Pro Series which only holds 18 pounds. The extra pellets allow you to cook longer without having to worry about topping up the hopper halfway through a long cook.
Pellet Sensor for Remote Monitoring
Higher Temps
Probe Storage
Larger Digital Control
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How To Use Pellet Grill Pellets In Recipes
With so many flavors of barbecue pellets to choose from and so many delicious meals you can grill, you may want to know how to pair flavored wood pellets with different foods and recipes. Start by considering the type of pellets youd like to use:
- Apple: Pair the sweet and smoky flavor of applewood with pork, poultry or vegetables for unbeatable combinations. Add a bit of unique flavor to your grilled corn for the perfect side at your next barbecue or make applewood smoked baby back ribs for a mouthwatering meal.
- Hickory: This classic flavor goes with just about any kind of meat you grill up, from beef to pork or poultry. Make flavorful grilled chicken or use these pellets for prime rib. You can even make amazing smoked lamb t-bones with these flavored wood pellets.
- Bourbon: Seafood, beef, pork, poultry, vegetables and even desserts go great with these versatile barbecue pellets. Give grilled corn a kick by using bourbon-flavored wood pellets, adding Cajun spices and wrapping it in bacon.
In general, many foods go well with various flavored pellets. Your options of pellets for smoking turkey or pellets for prime rib, for example, can include any of the three varieties above. Still, particular recipes may pair better with particular flavors. Consider what other flavors youre adding to your meal to create the best combinations or take some tips from these recipes:
Brisket
Bacon
Pulled Pork
Beef Ribs
Dessert
Pizza
Are Pellet Grills Considered Grills Or Smokers
Pellet grill manufacturers will tell you they are both. But they have more in common with convection ovens than the offset wood-burning smokers they resemble when viewed in profile. A fan circulates heat and smoke through the cook chamber, which exit via vents or a chimney. The heat generated by the combustion of wood pellets is of the indirect variety, meaning the food is not directly exposed to the fire. Smoke is produced by the smoldering pellets in the burn pot and is most prolific at low and slow temperatures .
If its really smoky flavors that you love, you might be disappointed by the subtlety of food barbecued on a pellet grill. There are ways around this, though. You can add foil pouches of wood chips or pellets to the cook chamber, invest in a smoking tube, or even put chunks of hardwood directly on the diffuser plate.
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When It Comes To Pellet Grills Size Does Matter
Grills cook food, and in order to do that they need to get hot, which takes fuel. If it takes a certain amount of fuel to heat one particular grill, you would generally expect a larger amount of fuel to be needed to heat a larger grill the same amount. And this is true, but only to a very small extent.
Small grills will be easier to fill when you are cooking, but larger grills will allow you to cook or smoke more food at once.
Many potential pellet grill buyers are concerned with price, but they rarely give much thought to how much more they are going to want to grill with something as enjoyable as a pellet grill.
Pellet grill size is a crucial factor to consider when shopping for pellet grills. Having more cooking space on a pellet grill is never a problem but not having enough cooking space to fit an extra rack of ribs, a brisket, or even a side dish can be problematic.
Once you start smoking food, do not be surprised when you need more space than you think when smoking food for others or deciding to smoke extra food for leftovers.
Its certainly a challenge to find any pellet grill reviews for any of the major manufacturers that laments buying too large of a grill. On the other hand, reviews and ratings that bemoan not buying the next size up when they had the chance are plentiful.
What Is Better Traeger Or Weber
In a competition between Traeger and Weber, Traeger will almost always win. The charcoal smokers from Weber often impart a strong flavor that completely overpowers the meat, but the hardwood pellets that Traeger smokers use will impart a much more subtle flavor. Traeger also gives you the choice of smoking or grilling.
Also Check: How Long To Cook Pork Tenderloin On Charcoal Grill
Series Pellet Grill 513 Square Inches
The 700 series wood pellet grill is our high-performance grill that is well-suited for grill master extraordinaires. While it isnt the largest model in our fleet, it still has an impressive food capacity. The total rack surface area is 513 square inches. The smoking and warming racks take up 187 square inches inside our 700 series pellet grill. You can cook four birds, 5 racks of ribs, or 30 burgers!
Are There Different Types Of Charcoal
There are different types of charcoal. The two most common types of charcoal are briquets and hardwood lump charcoal.
Briquets are the most common and readily available type of charcoal on the market. Considered the gold standard of grilling fuel, Kingsfords original charcoal briquet uses 100% natural ingredients.
Kingsfords briquets have a unique shape resembling a square brick with rounded corners. The shape promotes an unobstructed airflow, allowing the fuel to ignite quicker and burn more evenly.
Hardwood lump charcoal is made by building a fire with hardwoods and then snuffing out the oxygen from the fire. The hardwood continues to smolder until carbonized. What youre left with looks like the charcoal remaining after a campfire burns out.
Many people enjoy using hardwood lump charcoal as an alternative to briquets and as a fuel source for Kamado-style ceramic grills.
Kamado grills have a distinctive egg shape. Theyre also heavier than other charcoal grills because theyre made from engineered ceramic materials.
These ceramic grills take up to an hour to be properly heated up, or heat soaked. But once preheated, the grills are incredibly efficient. Loaded with charcoal, they can cook for many hours if not overnight without much concern for running out of fuel. This efficiency means youre burning less charcoal over time.
Read Also: Grilled Pork Temperature Chart
What Is A Pellet Smoker
A Pellet smoker is a machine that is capable of maintaining temperatures at both low and slow levels. This outdoor cooker tends to combine elements of kitchen ovens, charcoal smokers, and gas grills. It garners its fuel from wood pellets. A pellet smoker uses an electronic control panel for feeding fuel plants automatically, maintaining consistent cooking temperatures, and regulating the grill’s airflow. You can use it to carry out various works such as grilling, smoking, baking, etc.
Calculate Grill Surface Area
When deciding what size grill you need, its better to pay attention to the grill surface area rather than any abstract measuring factors.
Measuring by other factors, such as the number of burgers that can fit on a grill, is very dependent on external factors and should be avoided.
Instead, you would want to pay attention to the cooking surface area.
Cooking surface area
The cooking surface area is equal to the width of the grilling area multiplied by the length. This gives you the measurement in square inches.
Most gas grills will measure in between 400 and 500 square inches. This is a common size for the average household.
For those with a large family or want to host guests, choosing a larger grill up to at least 600 square inches is a good idea.
What about half shelves?
When calculating or reading grill surface areas, make sure to check if the number includes any half or top shelves in the calculation.
These shelves add extra cooking space, but they grill much differently than the lower shelf. In short, they are incredibly useful for two-heat cooking or indirect cooking.
Since most people will use each area of the grill for different things, you should know how much space is devoted to each section.
Without this knowledge, you might accidentally plan to cook too much at once on direct heat even though the space is unavailable.
If you need a grill with 400 square inches of active, hot grilling space, models with a top-shelf might not be ideal unless you go bigger.
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Pellet Grill Pid Controllers
After years of relying on imprecise technology, pellet grill manufacturers experienced a major breakthrough with the introduction of proportional integral derivative controllers. There wont be a test at the end, so its OK to immediately forget those big words and just remember what they mean: These controllers constantly run calculations based on factors like fan speed and pellet rate to maintain constant temperatures within 5 degrees of your setting. PID controllers are necessary for pellet cookers with variable-speed fans and augers, making them a standard feature for Practical Pellet Grills and a notable inclusion on the Entry-Level Victory pellet grill.
Still Considering A Bigger Grill Instead Of A Small Smoker Do The Math Before Your Final Decision
Gravitating away from small pellet smokers because you want a bigger version? No hurt feelings. We know and appreciate all kinds of smoker grills at Grilla Grills.
First, letâs compare brands. You might be a Rec Tec or Traeger griller by nature, but why would you not consider the Silverbac in that mix? The Silverbac has a great size vs. cost equation and is covered by a nice warranty. And not to mention, it cooks fantastic.
Comparatively, if youâre looking at a small pellet grill like the Rec Tec RT340, based on about 300-400 square inches of cooking surface, itâs going to ring in at $599. Youll have to add on a second cooking rack to bump up the available surface to just over 500 square inches. For another $50, the Silverbac is delivered to your door for free and comes with 507 square inches of cooking surface on the bottom rack and another 185 on the upper rack.
When looking at Traeger, thereâs the Junior Elite 20/Tailgater for around $450, and while it offers some value for your dollar, itâs not a very feature-rich unit. Itll also only give you 300 square inches of cooking space to work with. To get something in the Traeger line that compares size-wise to the Silverbac, you would have to move up to the Elite 34, which rings in around $750, plus the additional cost of shipping.
Also Check: Internal Temp For Pork Chops On Grill
Traeger Pro Series 575 & 780
The New Grills are Larger
The new Pro Series is a bigger grill than its predecessor, its two inches higher for a more comfortable grilling height and has a larger barrel which increases the cooking space.
Wi-Fi Controller
One of the biggest differences is WIFIRE, the built-in Wi-Fi digital controller that allows you to monitor and adjust the temperature from your mobile device. The controller allows you to adjust the temperature in 5 degree increments.
Traeger App and Cloud
The digital controller operates through the Traeger App. The Traeger App contains hundreds of recipes through GRILLGUIDE which gives you the ability to download recipes directly to the WIFIRE grill controller so your grill can walk you through the entire cook with step-by-step guides.
More Powerful
The old and the new Pro Series have the same temperature range, however, the new Pro Series is more powerful and able to reach the maximum temperature faster than the old model.
Temperature Probes
The 1st Gen Pro Series comes with two temperature probes that allow you to monitor the grill temperature and the meat internal temperature. The new Pro Series comes with a single probe for measuring meat, while you can monitor the grill temperature through the Traeger App.
Wood Pellet Hopper Capacity
More Expensive
Expect to pay $200- $300 more for the new 575 and 780 models. Check the latest price on the Traeger website.
Grilla Grills Chimp Alpha Connect
First off, these guys are fans of stainless steel, and incorporate lots of it into their build quality. For a portable grill that creates a small conundrum, resulting in a 90 pound unit. Part of their weight is a double wall construction for temperature insulation and more efficient use of pellets, and a main cooking surface of 340 square inches, with another 120 on the upper rack.
Grilla gears their product somewhat more to an RV style camping and boating experience. But they have some travel features we like, such as top and bottom pegs for your rack suspension and small legs on the heat shield to keep the components in place, and a clasp on the pellet hopper to contain them while on the road.
Their tech is top of the line. With user programmable high and low alerts, monitoring including a meat temp probe, and timer systems, all integrating PID specifications. Add these features to a build that you would expect from an industrial designer and a metal smith buddy, it all comes together for this product.
Specs to know
- Requires 120v connection
Read Also: How Long Is The Traeger Shutdown Cycle
Bring Your Outdoor Kitchen Dreams To Life
Now that you have the know-what, get the know-how! Take a look at our Outdoor Kitchen Planning & Designs page for more information on building the kitchen of your dreams. Need a helping hand? The experts behind our Free Outdoor Kitchen 3D Design Services make an incredible support network, helping you through every step of the process with high-quality renderings.
Can Pellet Grills Be Used In Barbecue Competitions
Yes, pellet grills are sanctioned in contests sponsored by the Kansas City Barbecue Society and have been winning big in recent years. They are also popular among competition cooks as ideal places to hold smoked meats until turn-in time. If entering a contest, be sure to review local rules and find out if electricity is provided or if youll need to supply your own power.
Read Also: Traeger Tri Tip 450
What Are Some Features To Look For When Buying A Pellet Grill
Like many other home appliances, the internet of things has made its way into many of the current pellet grill offerings. What this means is a more fun and convenient experience for pellet grill owners.
Most pellet grills now come with at least one but as many as four separate ports for connecting a temperature probe. This is a convenient way to monitor multiple foods temperatures simultaneously. This is a feature that was overlooked just a few years ago.
Some pellet grills also will connect to your homes Wi-Fi and broadcast directly to the cloud. This allows you to monitor what youre cooking from a connected smartphone or tablet device. The connected features vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but, for the most part, they allow you to adjust your grills temperature remotely while monitoring the foods internal temperature for doneness.
Some brands have even taken the guesswork out of cooking with recipes that connect with your pellet grill. They are as simple as choosing a recipe, following seasoning directions and inserting a thermometer probe in the food before putting the food on a hot grill. The recipe app will monitor the cooking and tell you when its time to eat.
Do I Need A 3 Or 4 Burner Grill
Not everyone will need a grill with more than two burners, but many will find that having more burners is helpful. The more burners that a grill has, the more versatility you can get out of it.
Of course, having more burners means that you also have to get used to working them there is a learning curve to grilling.
With three and four burners, you will be able to create low, medium, and hot zones.
Having all of these zones allows you to cook things in very specific ways, even when cooking various items.
Three or four burners are great for many people, but they are not necessary.
Do you want to be able to create a beautifully grilled meal of meat, veggies, and more? What about kabobs for five or six people?
If so, you will want to look for grills with three or more burners to ensure you have the necessary flexibility to do just that.
Plus, having more burners makes it easier to implement healthy grilling tactics!
What about side burners?
Speaking of added burners, many people wonder if they need side burners or not. You can find these on some grills, and they are useful for heating sauces, side dishes, cheeses, and more.
Very detailed BBQ masters will love having this added burner, but not everyone will make use of it.
If you find a grill that you like without a side burner, you can always use a portable side burner instead.
Side burners are by no means a requirement for good grilling, but many find them to be a useful benefit.
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