Pellet Mixing 101: Texas BBQ Flavor on your Pellet Smoker

Today in this video we will go over how to sift, blend and store your pellets to craft amazing smoke flavor for your pellet smoker.
If you are just buying a "competition" or "pro" blend for your smoker, thinking that one bag can do it all...you are missing out!
As a bonus I will show you my pellet blend recipe for a really good Central Texas BBQ Flavor.
Let me know in the comments what pellets you like to mix together.
Here is a link to the green pellet sifter:
amzn.to/3E8ANgQ
Oklahoma Joe Pellet Bucket Kit:
amzn.to/3HTnGBa
Traeger Lid and Filter:
amzn.to/3HTnGBa
(Unfortunately it looks like they just discontinued this)

[@mitchtucker5768]

Dont throw the leftovers away! Use them on a charcoal fire or pack them in a smoker tube. Great vid Sarge

[@GrillSergeant]

Great idea! Pinning this comment so others can see it!

[@Dtag1971]

Excellent idea!

[@BrisketMedic]

Outstanding! I was just thinking of ways to use those!

[@anthonyp2003]

My wife uses them in the compost. It breaks down to sawdust after it gets wet.

[@Blackheart7-5]

Knotty wood plum wood and Almond wood with royal oak charcoal added.. delicious!

[@ensnipe2000]

I use the sifter (good call) but I mix 1 part each Pecan, Apple, Cherry, and a Northeast mix, makes nice ribs, pork belly, chicken turkey and brisket

[@Dub636]

I’m new to pellet smoking and for now I’m sticking to the basics but this is something I will definitely do to go the extra mile once I dial in the fundamentals

[@Mike-gb2xb]

This is a great blend. Thanks for the great information.

[@BrisketMedic]

Great work and great idea!

[@daddydutchbbq]

Nice Andrew ! You look like a Texas gold miner ! Great tip with sifting and blending ! See ya next week !

[@troyv8302]

Never tried sifting pellets but have taken my auger out and vacuumed it a couple times when I do a deep clean. I tend to use Lumberjack pellets; their char hickory blend on pork and I mix oak, pecan with cheery for beef. For chicken, I use whatever is in the hopper...LOL

[@TheAmericanSmoke]

Great content. I like that blend. I’ve been using BnB Championship blend with Charcoal pellets. About 2:1. Championship has Post Oak, Cherry, and Pecan. It’s a winner. Smoke on brother!

[@GrillSergeant]

I have yet to try the B+B Championship Blend but it's on my bucket list.

[@TheAmericanSmoke]

@@GrillSergeant "Bucket List" I see what you did there.

[@dannydavis5212]

Smoking pecan pellets 1 part 1 part Manchester pellets 1part charcoal crazy good beautiful bark amazing tast

[@locke6854]

We do half Post Oak, quarter mesquite, quarter charcoal pellet for brisket (I'm in Texas). Pulled pork we do half Competition, quarter hickory, quarter charcoal.

[@GrillSergeant]

I'm a huge fan of mesquite so I would love to try out that ratio!

[@mountainviewturning5319]

Very nice been thinking about getting one of wood pellet barbecue grills

[@RicsBBQSpecialties]

Very cool video

[@user-re1mp6bv2t]

Pretty excited to try the coal, think I'm gonna do 3 parts coal 1 part apple and 1 part pecan.

[@randyshifter]

Well hell. I guess I'm going to have to get a pellet smoker now so I can try this. Great video Andrew...

[@GrillSergeant]

You might get kicked out of Texas for saying that lol

[@randyshifter]

@@GrillSergeant 🤣

[@thegalleryBBQ]

Nice job grill sergeant!

[@GrillSergeant]

My man!

[@thegalleryBBQ]

@@GrillSergeant Thats my line🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@NC-oy8hq]

I don’t have a pellet smoker. But I use a blend of hickory, cherry , applewood, and oak chunks of wood in my smoker. Full chuck real charcoal. And a lot of babysitting. But that’s ok, as I always have beer while babysitting.

[@beckyjacobs9176]

I love b&b products I use Post oak wood chunks on my smoker

[@GrillSergeant]

Right? I'm so glad I can get my hands on B+B locally

[@beckyjacobs9176]

My local Ace hardware keeps in stock b&b products

[@nevermore311]

This type of stuff doesn’t make or break a cook, but once you’re good at managing the meats and temps, this is where one of the final “dials” you can turn with a pellet smoker. I’ve moved on to a Woodwind Pro, so now I mainly stick with competition blend, and change out wood chunks to tweak flavor. Most people don’t have that though, so experimenting with pellets becomes the strategy. I would suggest a fruit wood blend for ribs. I’ve recently settled on cherry being my favorite in the woodwind pro. So it might be worth it to have a Texas/Beef blend that you like, and also a milder blend for other things.

[@GrillSergeant]

well said Evan! How do you like the Woodwind Pro?

[@nevermore311]

@@GrillSergeant it’s as advertised. Not a gimmick. The improvements to the legs and body help justify the price, although it still feels a bit expensive. That said, I used pellet tubes in the past, and the wood chunks are most definitely a different beast. Takes some practice to get used to the smoke box. I use it differently than a lot of KZbin videos showed. I’m messing with it every 30-45 mins, and poking down the coals to be able to fit more wood in quickly. I also add chips to the box to take up as much space as I can. Almost like I’m trying to over smoke the meat (which is possible with this thing). You can make it a very involving process if you want to😂 Another perk not discussed too much: you can cook faster. With the ability to add smoke flavor with chunks, you no longer have to start your cooks at 180-200 to maximize smoke flavor early. You can start at 225 or even 250, and you’ll still get lots of smoke flavor because of the box. Shaves maybe an hour or two off my brisket cooks, and my ribs are done way quicker than when I had a RecTeq.

[@garyh4458]

I made a machine that sifts the whole bag into a bucket. Used a washing machine motor and some other parts I had laying around.

[@GrillSergeant]

That’s awesome!!!

[@mr_mel]

Very informative. Making me want to get a pellet smoker man. Maybe you can recommend a small one that pit boss sells?

[@juanserrano8274]

I just got the pit boss Lexington on sale at Walmart and it’s been great

[@tedjones112]

Mesquite, Post Oak and Charcoal mix

[@IzzyEatz]

I use competition Pitboss and I bought the oak bag.. the Costco bags from Traeger are ok but don’t have much flavor

[@markiz8777]

Hello, I would like to create my own custom mix which I plan to use mainly for adding a smoky flavor to some of my aged whole muscle and salamis. I am thinking of using hickory, pecan, apple, and cherry pellets. I wonder if it would be a good idea to mix all four and in what proportions I should mix it. Thanks in advance for your advice.

[@raytrout8272]

Good videos I mostly cook brisket 1 a time Should I spend Xtra 100 For Brunswick Or go with the 4 vertical ???

[@GrillSergeant]

Hey Ray. I would hold off on both. Pit Boss is sending me a new vertical that just came out and it looks like it blows both out the water. It will be available at Lowes. Stay tuned.

[@Nick-bh2rh]

Great video sir, wife just got me Pitboss Pro Series 4 smoker, trying it out soon!

[@mikemcmahon67]

Late to the party as usual, but I brought a dumb question to make up for it: would losing the hopper using a metal cat litter scooper not accomplish the same result of minimizing fines in the hopper?

[@GrillSergeant]

Yes! And I’ve tried it. 😂 Not as fast but it does get the job done. Thank you for watching! Happy smoking!

[@tricepilot]

Amazon has a bunch of five gallon bucket grit filters mainly used when washing cars, but none of them are anything close to 1/4 mesh BUT one can buy 1/4 inch wire mesh and cut it to shape to sit on said grit filter. I currently use that exact same green filter (again, from Amazon) but I don't sift over a bucket. I sift outside and just let the dust and debris collect on the driveway and use a leaf blower to send it to the lawn. Why not? It's just wood pellet material and my San Antonio Texas lawn needs material like that. It all breaks down. The other thing I'm doing is putting Damp Rid packets in my pellet buckets. FYI I'm over here near Randolph AFB.

[@GrillSergeant]

Howdy neighbor! I'm up near Helotes.

[@user-dj2ll8pj3v]

I just watch your video about sifting. I see there is a 1/8 inch sifter. Is that to small to use versus 1/4 inch?

[@jasonveldhuis9471]

Pretty positive that the act of shaking and sifting is creating more debris than you realize. That’s marketing 101. Create a need sell sifters, get people to make sifting videos on KZbin and sell more sifters. However, I am a fan of mixing hardwoods for a certain desired flavor and by all means, keep experimenting with that! Just mix them lightly in your bucket by hand and don’t dump all the shake in your hopper.

[@vincentaguilar1185]

Did pitboss discontinue the charcoal pellets I can find em anywhere where I am in Texas. Not even online. Noticed they have a charcoal blend, perhaps changed the packaging?

[@blueridgebillclinton6820]

I bet you could take the waste and mix with paraffin wax in little muffin cups and make fore starters

[@anthonyp2003]

I've been sifting my pellets like this since your original video. My wife uses the dust and small chunks in her compost (no animal products). That aside, here in South-West Ohio it's darn near impossible to find Post Oak pellets. I'm willing to buy in bulk and have shipped if anyone has suggestions.

[@thekettleloft]

Check out Bear Mountain BBQ. It's not Post Oak but they do ship Oak or Pecan pellets. I'm in Michigan and having a hard time finding Post Oak pellets as well. I've asked my local Ace to carry it from B&B but we will see what happens.

[@anthonyp2003]

@@thekettleloft Thanks, I'll look for some oak from them. I have some other bags that I haven't tried yet and know who carries them locally.

[@Cincygrillcleaning]

😋😋😋

[@_fasteddie65]

Could you tell me who are what band played the music

[@FracDaddyBBQ]

This is the Frac daddy blend that I turned you on to

[@GrillSergeant]

Although very rare I do listen sometimes. lol Took your 1:1:1 ratio and tweaked it to 2:2:1.

[@FracDaddyBBQ]

@@GrillSergeant it’s still the same blend at the end of the day lol

[@MainahTony]

now i need to buy different brand of pallets? OK :)

[@Trumpetmaster77]

RECTEQ BABY!!!

[@bobashwell9868]

Unfortunately, the Traeger 5 gal lid doesn't fit a standard bucket from Lowes, HD, Sherwin Williams, etc. The outer diameter of the plastic lid is about the same as any other lid but the large lip of the inner diameter lip fitting inside any bucket is too small preventing it from securing. I tried to order the item from Traeger but the link quit so they must know about the mis manufacture. I got mine from a Platinum distributer in Austin and will be returning it.

[@GrillSergeant]

I thought mine was the issue, because it's a pain to get on. I have to use a flathead screwdriver to pry in on and off.

[@bobashwell9868]

@@GrillSergeant Oh well, we learn from our mistakes. Someone dialed in the wrong # in the computer. Grind up all the inventory and returns and start over.

[@Dtag1971]

The sifter.....where can I buy one? Amazon?

[@GrillSergeant]

amzn.to/3E8ANgQ

[@Dtag1971]

Thanks for the link. You rock 4 DayZ!

[@luchadorflyco]

I'm more of a 1-1-.5 blend fan

[@judgewepbbq]

Awww...gotta retire the OG GS blend. 😁

[@GrillSergeant]

Nooooooooo!

[@EricG85]

Pacahn? Or pee can?? 🤔

[@GrillSergeant]

Pee can is what you find in a restroom! Now get back to the range and practice!