Pit Boss has a number of pellet grills throughout their lineup utilizing their Flame Broiler system. A slide-out lever uncovers the firepot to reveal the open flame so you can get a true flame-grilled taste on those burgers or steaks. You could even amp up the tailgate by smoking chicken wings and then finish them over the open flame. The Ironwood has the same double-wall construction as many of Traeger’s other models and is feature-laden in the app and control departments. It fared well in baking in searing tests, but the Super Smoke feature didn’t impart the flavor we expected during testing.
Generally, most people can get a mid-size model, around 24 inches, that will do everything they need it to do. To consistently serve a crowd, we recommend upsizing to a 36-inch model. If you don’t need a large cooking area and can look past a few inconsistencies, the 440 delivers good results at an unbeatable price.
Pellet grills require an electricity source to run the auger that dispenses wood pellets into the firepot. The ignition starts the fire, and the grill is ready to cook on after it reaches the set temperature. The second-generation EX4 aced our grilling, smoking, and baking tests with consistent and even heating. The EX4 has excellent heat control and (more importantly) retention, thanks to its porcelain enamel finish.
For our first test, we loaded each grill with chicken wings and covered them for smoking, noting the amount of smoke the grills produced. For our second test, we placed a frozen pizza at the center of each grill grate, baking according to package instructions. We limited our fourth test, long smoking pork shoulder, to the nine grills that had performed best in our tests. Overall, we cooked over 300 pounds of meat and 20 pepperoni pizzas.
Pull the burgers off the grill and preheat grill to the highest setting (500°F). When it comes to flipping the burgers, only flip once in the middle of the cook. It might be tempting to try and spread the wealth and make thinner patties if you’ve got a big barbecue pit boss pellets to cater – but if you lose size, you’re also going to lose taste. You’re going to run into loads of simple burger seasoning recipes that are built around just salt and pepper. A little minced dried onion, garlic, and brown sugar won’t let you down either.
For both, connectivity packages that allow you to monitor temperature from your phone can be very useful. Pit Boss knows that the digital age requires monitoring of cooking times with our cell phones. You can purchase the Pit Boss Controller, allowing your grill to speak to your smartphone via Bluetooth. Once you download the Pit Boss app pit boss flat top (available for Android and Apple platforms), you can digitally control aspects of your Pit Boss smoker from afar. Moisture may have created a toxic habitat within the pellet, potentially housing mold or fungus. Using heat pellets rather than food-grade wood pellets will not only worsen the taste of your food, but also make you sick.