Buying a pellet grill to replace a Performer and a WSM with a ATC?


 
Rich Dahl said:
Tom, just a reminder the lowest temp on both models is 200 degrees, so if you need like 185 these may not be for you.
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I got really excited about a Weber quality pellet grill, but the more I look into it the more it seems to be designed as a grill and not a bbq. I don't even see how you could do indirect cooking on it, except maybe rigging up something like a pizza stone and elevated grill section or something. It seems like it's designed as a replacement for a gas grill, but even with a gas grill you can turn off one set of burners and cook indirect. They really emphasize how great it sears steak, but I haven't seen anything about how it cooks a brisket. Seems like even at 200° , the meat would be over direct heat and get burned on the bottom. The main thing I would use a pellet grill for would be long cooks, and this doesn't seem like it would fit the bill for doing that.

So, I guess I won't be ordering one on CyberMonday. Maybe if the early adopters report that it is good for long cooks, I'll jump in.
 
Harry Soo has 3 videos about the Smokefire.
Lynn linked them on another thread, this one, I think, shows a brisket cook,

 
At the 2:45 mark of that vid, Kevin Kolman explains the air flow inside the cooker.

It should have good convection.
 
Baby Back Maniac posted at BBQ Brethren, answering some questions

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4247158#post4247158

I found this interesting

Regarding smoking. They talked alot about the things they did to get a better smoke flavor. There were some design things (which frankly I can't remember right now) but alot of what they did was tweak their pellets to include a higher percentage of flavor wood vs BTU wood. They also have at least one blend which includes a limited percentage of bark in an effort to ramp up the smoke profile. In their testing they found it really helped.

The main reason I don't have video on smoking is because we weren't there long enough to do a live cooking demonstration. We spent most of the 4 hours of time at Weber HQ talking about the development of the grill and what all went into it and the hands on time was basically grilling our lunch before we headed back to the airport.

That's why they decided to smoke the brisket the day before we got there so we could at least try it. Obviously, I only tried it once, but I really enjoyed the brisket and I found the smoke profile to be fine. You wouldn't confuse it with a stick burner but nobody would complain that it's missing anything.
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I watched the video and what they showed as a pizza was not what I would describe as a pizza. Being from Europe with part of my family in Italy in the restaurant business a pizza has to be very thin crust. This is how I want my pizza. Thin and crispy. What they had was big glob of dough.... Now I understand why people in the US sometimes use the word pie for pizza. That was not a pizza but a pie. lol
I can make pretty good pizza on the kettle with a pizza stone and a pizza ring. But only one a time. If the pellet grill can do the same quality with 4 the same time I might be interested.
But since I am technology lagger and don't buy anything which has been proven great for some time I will not jump on it until I know how it works, holds up and what it can do.
 
You are correct but that is NOT just a big glob of dough. That is a Lou Malnatti deep dish pizza. The FINEST Chicago style pizza you will ever have the chance to eat if you try one. Also not al pizza in Italy is very thin crust. Sicilians and Naplitans (the two region my mother and family were from) made a variation of the deep (thicker crust) pizza. Not the Chicago style but much thicker crust than what I experienced visiting the north of Italy. Mark Malnatti has even gone as far as to buy his own farms in Italy to grow the San Marzzano tomatoes that are so delicious in this application.
Anyway pizza is like BBQ especially here in the US. It's regional and hard to find "bad" variations
 
Ah Chicago style deep dish pizza, I do miss it dearly. Growing up in the burbs of Chicago we had a little pizza joint on the main drag that made and excellent version of deep dish pizza, it was my favorite place to go.
Here in Arizona they call a deep dish pizza a burrito :p
 
I have always found it interesting that this Florida boy went to grad school in Chicago and learned to love deep dish pizza such as Gino’s East. My wife, a native of the SW suburbs of Chicago, grew up eating and still loving best a thin type pizza that is sold cut up into small pieces rather than slices. So which of us loves Chicago-style pizza?
 
Deep-dish is considered "true Chicago-style" pizza. Course you know that. Thin pizza can be even tastier. But to be considered pizza it should be in pie slices not squares ;)
I worked in several friends places. Can tell you some history and maybe "secret recipes" too. Every few years we have a pizza night at one of the last originals house. I can tell you when word gets out it is quite busy.
 
Tony-Chicago said:
Deep-dish is considered "true Chicago-style" pizza. Course you know that. Thin pizza can be even tastier. But to be considered pizza it should be in pie slices not squares ;)
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This is not true. The pizza that my parents/grandparents brought from their homeland typically was made in a square fashion not circle. Doesn't make either wrong only regional variations. Overall if people think about Chicago pizza they typically consider it to be the deep dish pie type. You will never find that in Italy though. And visiting family and friends in Italy when they made pizza at home it too was in sheet pans in large medium thick square.
There is only one wrong way to do pizza IMO and that is the way Giordano's does it. Very yeasty poorly cooked bread dough, with pasty, very acidic tomato sauce with tons of sugar in it to try to offset all the acid in it because you used too much tomato paste to make it overly thick.
 
Larry, I agree. I was never a big fan of Giordanos when I lived in Chicago. I always like Ginos East, in part because it was a fun place to take out of town visitors.

p.s. My wife will never concede that her southwestern suburban pizza is not “real” Chicago pizza. Joe & Dick’s and later Fasano’s were her extended family’s pizza of choice. She grew up not all that far out in the suburbs pretty much oblivious to deep dish pizza.

https://maps.apple.com/place?addres...785&ll=41.739322,-87.8183445&q=Fasano's Pizza
 
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Jon Tofte said:
Larry, I agree. I was never a big fan of Giordanos when I lived in Chicago. I always like Ginos East, in part because it was a fun place to take out of town visitors.

p.s. My wife will never concede that her southwestern suburban pizza is not “real” Chicago pizza. Joe & Dick’s and later Fasano’s were her extended family’s pizza of choice. She grew up not all that far out in the suburbs pretty much oblivious to deep dish pizza.

https://maps.apple.com/place?addres...785&ll=41.739322,-87.8183445&q=Fasano's Pizza
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Fasano's is the real deal, tavern sliced or pie sliced by request.
My BIL lives close by (87th and Roberts RD) and we always enjoy it.
Pizza in Chicago is like the MLB sports team's, you pick your side, either north or south side.

Tim
 
Tony-Chicago said:
Deep-dish is considered "true Chicago-style" pizza. Course you know that. Thin pizza can be even tastier. But to be considered pizza it should be in pie slices not squares ;)
I worked in several friends places. Can tell you some history and maybe "secret recipes" too. Every few years we have a pizza night at one of the last originals house. I can tell you when word gets out it is quite busy.
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Personally ( and I grew up on the southside, back of the yards) deep dish is for the tourists. Great pizza ya, but a thin crust tavern sliced is more what I call a " true Chicago style pizza" IMO.

Tim
 
Tim,
My wife wholeheartedly agrees! She grew up off 95th and Roberts Road in Palos Hills. I guess as a Floridian, I was the tourist and took to deep dish;). But moving to baseball, I am a south side Chicago White Sox fan rather than a touristy Cubs fan. No offense to REAL north side Cubs fans. I respect you all very much, and I enjoyed a bunch of good times at Wrigley before the lights went in. I still miss old Comiskey Park, though. I had some great moments seeing Carlton Fisk jack home runs out of there and my only in-person chance to experience an in the park home run. That old place SMELLED like baseball:cool:!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comiskey_Park
 
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LMichaels said:
This is not true. The pizza that my parents/grandparents brought from their homeland typically was made in a square fashion not circle. Doesn't make either wrong only regional variations. Overall if people think about Chicago pizza they typically consider it to be the deep dish pie type. You will never find that in Italy though. And visiting family and friends in Italy when they made pizza at home it too was in sheet pans in large medium thick square.
There is only one wrong way to do pizza IMO and that is the way Giordano's does it. Very yeasty poorly cooked bread dough, with pasty, very acidic tomato sauce with tons of sugar in it to try to offset all the acid in it because you used too much tomato paste to make it overly thick.
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Actually I agree!
 
FWIW I grew up in the Craigin area near St Gen's parish (actually was my church). (1/2 blk west of Cicero right between Belmont and Diversey). Every Wed afternoon we got out of school early and a huge long line of us marched down Lamon Ave from Falconer school to St. Genevieve for our CCD classes. Of course that was the 50's when being Catholic/Christian wasn't frowned upon like today.
Times were so much better then........................sorry I digress. BTW back in the day there was only one place to find what today Chicago has become known for in pizza. That was Pizzeria Uno (there was no Due' yet). Lou Malnatti himself helped develop the pizza for them and later struck out on his own. But back in those days Lou himself was actually one of the partners and was in the kitchen. Dad used to bring us there after the circus at Medina Shrine Temple. Mom used to complain to him she didn't like it there because there were too may "beatnicks" LOL
 
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