Smoker, Grill, and Flatop

ASMOKE Pellet Grill/Smoker

First let me say I was skeptical about this purchase. I have always been a lump charcoal kind of guy. I looked down my nose at the "set-it-and-forget-it" crowd of people who used this method, thinking them somehow insulting that long line of "real" fire cookers.

Well, I was wrong! I still use wood and lump charcoal when back at the homestead but in the RV, on the road, this is my tool of choice.

This grill does it all for me. I can grill or smoke and with the optional cast iron griddle - I get all three in one unit. 

As with any method of cooking there are techniques to using the tools. And this tool is no different.

• Temperature Control - this is probably the most talked about. My experience has been the the temp settings are approximate at best. There are so many factors that determine how accurate your temperatures will be. Type of pellets, ambient temperature, etc. all play a part. I do find that Bear Mountain keeps the temperature at +- 15 degrees during the cook. 
• Let the grill settle down. I start mine 15 to 30 minutes ahead of time to give the grill time to finds its place. This is still working with wood and fire and once you've gotten a pile of pellets burning, well you can't just turn them off.
• Don't keep opening the lid - its fine in there. Smoking is much more forgiving than people would like you to believe.
• When smoking, I use the 3-2-1 method. I put the meat on the grill unwrapped and let it go for 3 hours at 225 to 250. This gets the smoke into the meat. Next I wrap the tightly in either butchers paper (for beef) or aluminum foil (for pork). This goes for 2 hours at the same temperature. Next, 1 hour back on the grill unwrapped. This is when I add the sauce and let it caramelize. 
• Grilling steaks I use the reverse sear method. I put the meat on grill with the lid closed and smoke/bake them until nearly the desired doneness - if that's a word. Then I open the searing panel on the drip shield. This allows the steak to see open flame. A few minutes of that and you have well cooked, juicy, and now seared to perfection steak.

We have cooked burgers and dogs, ribs (full slab), pork shoulder (7#), beef ribs, beef roast(6#), whole chicken, oysters and shotgun shells - all of which turned out great. If you are a "heavy smoke" person, you may need to increase the amount of smoke with a "smoke tube" or use pellets that have a stronger smoke profile. We like applewood for most everything.

Clean up

Cleanup is no more difficult that with a charcoal grill. We have a small handheld vacuum works perfectly for cleaning the ash area and the cleanout tray is a nice feature. The drip pan catches everything so greasy stuff stays outside the fire box.

Our Takeaway

We love this smoker/grill. It fits nicely into our motorhomes side cubbies and travels well. It is very well constructed with heavy gauge metal. We have used it for nearly six months and have found nothing to complain about. I would buy this again in a minute.

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