When Traeger’s patent expired in 2006, the competition began to emerge. Wood pellets are used to smoke and smolder as you grill, creating flavors similar to grilling over wood or charcoal. Hi, I’m Lindsay Mattison, a trained professional chef and a barbecue weekend warrior. You’ll find me outside almost every weekend, cooking over an open fire pit or smoking on a pellet grill. I’ve tested over three dozen grills over the years for Reviewed, so I’ve learned a thing or two about what works (and what doesn’t). This smaller unit cycles the air within about 500 square feet twice hourly and within 250 square feet four times hourly.
Now you can take the world famous Cuisinart® brand to your patio, lawn, tailgate, or campsite with our comprehensive line of outdoor grilling products. [This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have had several cooks with the Cuisinart Clermont Grill & Smoker, and so far it is by far my favorite way to cook! First cuisinart pots and pans set of all the assembly of the pellet smoker was a breeze. It came partially assembled and the remainder to put together was easily directed by virtual 3d instructions. The question is; does it really hold its temperature in the cold? I tested the Clermont with some massive beef shanks on a cold and windy day (-20°C / -4°F).
Some contain a sliding sear plate that creates a section of the grill that has access to the flames in the fire pot. The SmokeFire looks like any other Weber grill, though, with an open design and a heat deflector plate that only covers an eight-inch area over the fire pot. That means it was able to function more like a traditional grill when cooking at higher temperatures. We were pleased with the results, and our chicken wings cooked evenly over the entire grill grate. From this point forward, I pretty much think any pellet grill/smoker over $500 should feature a PID control panel.
The grill offers a large 1,400-square-inch cooking space with an intuitive design so you can get a lot cooking done all at once. With the 8-in-1 functions to smoke, grill, bake, sear, char-grill, barbecue, braise and roast, this multifunctional unit offers a total of 1,400 sq. Pellet hopper with probe storage in the lid, 5-tier slide-out rack system for customization, and 2 oven style probe thermometers to ensure the perfect temperature every time. When used at low-and-slow cooking temperatures, the pellets smoke and smolder, creating flavors similar to grilling over wood or charcoal.
Finally, the pellets ran down the auger unevenly, causing us to get a low-pellet alert when the hopper was more than half full. For starters, we must comment that this grill didn’t have any of the bells and whistles we found on most of the other pellet grills we tested. Instead of a digital control panel, it had a turn dial that allowed us to set the temperature in 25-degree increments. This pellet grill is also lacking the popular sear plate we found on most pellet grills, but we actually thought that was a benefit when it came to performance. At low temperatures, the pellets will smoke without creating a large fire. That infuses smoky flavors into the food, similar to what you’ll find when grilling over wood or charcoal.