Searwood 600: Pork Loin and Smokin' Pecan pellets

[Chris in Louisiana]

Pork loin can be dry and meh, but Kroger was out of tenderloins (except pre-marinaded) and a 5.53 lb. loin was only $11.00.
Dry brined it for about 7 hours with 3'ish teaspoons Diamond Crystal salt.
Sprinkled lightly with Honey Chipotle Rub and Uncle Chris’s Gourmet Steak Seasoning, then sprinkled more generously with Heath Riles Sweet BBQ Rub

Preheated the Searwood to 250 using with Smokin’ Pecan pellets.
As an experiment, lit a smoke tube full of Smokin’ Pecan pellets and a piece of cherry wood
Put the meat on the top rack, with Typhur remote thermometers installed.
Spritzed with apple cider vinegar after an hour, then every 30 minutes or so.
I turned it down to 225 for a while because I needed to delay dinner time, then back to 250.
After 2:25 cook time, meat was 140. Tented with foil and let it sit 20 minutes or so.
Sliced.

For pork loin, it was quite moist. Good tenderness, with a decent amount of smoky flavor.

It's done

Made some potatoes/carrot/onion foil packs on the gas grill. Bacon and plenty of Cavender's Greek Seasoning gave them good flavor.

Made some fresh spinach, sprinkled with grated Parmesan.

 

[Josh Dekubber]

Looks Awesome Chris thank you for sharing! I'm considering adding a Seerwood to my lineup so it's nice to see it in action.

 

[Brian-WI]

Smokin' Pecan pellets have become my go to for pork and chicken. For beef I use Lumberjack Competition Blend or if I get to the other side of town I can pick up Cookin' Pellets right at the factory. If I ever want the charcoal taste but am too lazy to fire up the kettle; the Lumberjack Char-Hickory is an option.

I haven't used my smoke tube yet at the start of a cook. I usually go to Smokeboost mode for the first hour or so. Hmm… new things to try. It looks delicious!

 

[LMichaels]

Smokin' Pecan pellets have become my go to for pork and chicken. For beef I use Lumberjack Competition Blend or if I get to the other side of town I can pick up Cookin' Pellets right at the factory. If I ever want the charcoal taste but am too lazy to fire up the kettle; the Lumberjack Char-Hickory is an option.

I haven't used my smoke tube yet at the start of a cook. I usually go to Smokeboost mode for the first hour or so. Hmm… new things to try. It looks delicious!

Would love to try them but can't stomach the price

 

[Brian-WI]

Would love to try them but can't stomach the price

The price isn't bad when you consider it includes shipping. Also they seem to last about 33% longer than regular pellets. When you figure that into it as well do they really cost more? 20lb x 1.33 = 26.6lbs equivalent size box.

If they are still costing more is the taste "worth" it to you? Personally, my pallet isn't that refined but I can definitely tell the difference between Smokin' Pecan and the Traeger Pecan Wood Pellets. To me the Traeger pellets are fairly useless. The only thing I've found to be worse are the Costco Kirkland pellets. I'll spend the $5 more for a bag and get Lumberjack. I'd love to try Cookin' Pellets as they are made close by and I can pick them up at the factory but at over double what I am paying for Lumberjack it's hard to justify the increased cost. The next time I cook with them I may mix them 2 to 1 with the Lumberjack Hickory just to make them last longer.

 

[LMichaels]

So they put more BTU per lb than regular pellets? They would be great but I'm kinda wondering how they could pull that magic off as even their chief shill Tom Horsman has not said anything like that

 

[Brian-WI]

So they put more BTU per lb than regular pellets? They would be great but I'm kinda wondering how they could pull that magic off as even their chief shill Tom Horsman has not said anything like that

I don't know if it maybe because they use shells and not wood, but I've cooked with them several times and over the course of a cook at the same temperature I've always had significantly more pellets left when I use Smokin' Pecan. To be 100% fair what I need to do is get a hold of another Searwood 600 and load one up with 20lbs of Smokin' Pecan and the other up with 20lbs of a Pecan wood such as Traeger and cook something on each and at the end weigh how much is left. But if I was a betting man I would say that the Smokin' Pecan is 25-33% more efficent.

 

[Chris in Louisiana]

Re Smokin' Pecan pellet usage: I emptied the pellet chamber before the cook and loaded with nothing by Smokin' Pecan to the line near the top. After 2.5+ hours--counting preheat and shutdown it was probably close to 3 hours--it put just a small a dent in them. I just measured, and they went down 3 inches. I'd estimate that was less than $5 worth of pellets.

I've noticed that the Searwood sips pellets of all kinds for low and slow, but consumption really ramps up if you cook at higher heats like 400 for wings. I tend to use cheaper pellets for those cooks, with maybe some Smokin' Pecan at the bottom of the bin for the early stage of the cook.

It's worth the extra price for me for low and slow. For high heat grilling/roasting, less expensive options may be wiser.

I would like to see a side-by-side test of identical grills loaded with identical amounts of different pellets, and see how long they will run at a given temperature. Sounds like a solid project for a YouTuber.

 

[LMichaels]

I would like to see a side-by-side test of identical grills loaded with identical amounts of different pellets, and see how long they will run at a given temperature. Sounds like a solid project for a YouTuber.

Absolutely. But, too I noticed both my pellet grills are VERY stingy as well. Too stingy if you ask me. I think it's one of the reasons they have a harder time in cold weather (especially noticeable on Big Z) and one of the reasons I'm looking into getting the Fireboard controller and maybe going to a higher speed (more rotations per pulse) auger motor. Those babies need fuel in the cold. Yeah they're both double walled but I think many mfgrs believe we don't want too much pellet use and give a false sense of operating economy