Had to pick between a pellet smoker and a stick burner for my backyard comp

After 3 weeks of research I chose the stick burner because I wanted that real smoke flavor, and even though it took me 2 hours to hold 225 steady during my first brisket, I finally tasted what all the fuss was about, anyone else make the switch and regret the extra babysitting?

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1 Comment

iris_rivera441mo ago

My first comp with my stick burner taught me something nobody mentions: the flavor profile changes based on your wood split size, not just the wood type. I cut my splits way too big at first and got this bitter, acrid taste that masked everything, then I switched to fist sized chunks and it was a whole different cook. That babysitting is really just you learning your fire rhythm, and once you get it, you can basically doze off for 20 minutes without the temp swinging past 10 degrees. I also found that starting with a full chimney of lit coals under the fresh splits cuts way down on the initial white smoke phase, which is where most of the nasty off flavors come from. So the real question isnt stick vs pellet, its whether you wanna learn fire management or temperature management, and thats a totally different skill set that most reviews skip over.