Pitboss pellet for snack sticks

[Craig Stockman]

Hello everyone. Currently I’m making some snack sticks in the Masterbuilt Sportsman Elite electric smoker. While it works great for jerky there just isnt much room for hanging snack sticks. Has anyone tried using a pitboss pellet smoker and just folded the sticks back and fourth on the grate? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

[Jonathon]

Craig Stockman Yeah, I have laid out snack sticks before and I know a lot of other people do it as well. Its not as good as hanging but it certainly works perfectly well. One tip is instead of folding them just cut them to the max length that will fit, that way you don’t hve as many bent pieces?

[blackbetty61]

Craig Stockman
Is a pit boss smoker a pellet grill? I use a bull rack on my green mountain when I make sticks I can get 10lbs of sticks on my bull rack

[AdamCA]

Craig Stockman I have a Masterbuilt electric smoker and the last time I made snack sticks I coiled them up and put them on the racks. I pulled the racks out and coiled as much as I could on each rack. If I remember correctly I was able to fit about 10-15 lbs in there. Probably closer to 10 lbs, I thought I took pictures of it but I can’t find any so I may just be having a senior moment. The only draw back in my opinion is you won’t have any straight pieces so they don’t “look” like a snack stick.

[Scott Steinocher]

I do mine on a traeger. Got a little over zealous and mixed about 18 lbs today. I have the smoking rack and I fit them all in but didnt have any space between them. Seemed to cook ok. I had 2 probes in different areas. I prop the door open a bit for the first hour or so.

[Troy Eggers]

With the Pitboss 5 you can stuff 40 inch sticks and hang on the top rack for 20 inch smoke and cut to 10 inch to fit 11 inch vacuum seal bag.

[Jamieson22]

Scott Steinocher said in Pitboss pellet for snack sticks:

I prop the door open a bit for the first hour or so.

Always confused by this. Doesn’t that just lower the temp and make the controller keep pushing pellets and fans to get hotter?

[Dave in AZ]

Jamieson22 I’ve thought this too, it is being driven by a PID controller chasing a temp after all. But I guess there is an opening it just can’t keep up with. Or more likely, the cracked door keeps temps up top from rising and equalizing with lower down temps near the burner and temp gauge. So the PID temp gauge maybe reads 180 as the hot air passes, but it never accumulates in a closed barrel to heat the grill or raised grates area to that temp. So you’re tricking the PID.

This makes me think that if you intentionally moved the PID temp probe down below the heat shield, closer to the burn, you could probably make a pellet grill stabilize nicely at 120 or so… just have to mess with the probe so you could move it, then move it back to correct position for your other cooking needs.

[Bob Stehlik]

Jamieson22 The “Smoke” setting on the Traeger is a timed setting. You can change the “P” value in your controller to change the timing of the pellet feed. All of the “temperature” settings are based on temperature and pellets are fed to keep the temp up. Therefore, if you crack the door on the “smoke” setting the pellets will only feed every 45 seconds or to what your “P” value is. Traeger explains this in their digital controller guide instruction guide and I’m sure it can also be found online.

[Dave in AZ]

Bob Stehlik said in Pitboss pellet for snack sticks:

Jamieson22 The “Smoke” setting on the Traeger is a timed setting. You can change the “P” value in your controller to change the timing of the pellet feed. All of the “temperature” settings are based on temperature and pellets are fed to keep the temp up. Therefore, if you crack the door on the “smoke” setting the pellets will only feed every 45 seconds or to what your “P” value is. Traeger explains this in their digital controller guide instruction guide and I’m sure it can also be found online.

Okay, that is super useful info that I did not know! I need to go find those instructions. Thx!

[Jamieson22]

Bob Stehlik I thought P setting was removed from their newer generation controllers, no?

[Bob Stehlik]

Jamieson22 I have the older digital controllers with the LED readout. The newer ones have an LCD display, however, I assume the “smoke” setting would still be based on time and not on temp.

[johnsbrewhouse]

Bob Stehlik If you have a small sticker on the upper right hand corner of the control panel next to the digital readout, you can adjust the “P” setting. The switch is behind that small round sticker that says “Call Service”,

[Bob Stehlik]

johnsbrewhouse That sounds like it. On some of the controllers the adj. screw is on the back side and on some it’s an actual little knob in the upper right hand corner. I’ll see if I can find the specifications for the different “P” values and post it.

[Tim Evers]

My Pit Boss grill settings are:
P0 on 18 off 55
P1 on 18 off 70
P2 on 18 off 85
P3 on 18 off 100
P4 on 18 off 115 (default)
P5 on 18 off 130
P6 on 18 off 140
P7 on 18 off 150
On and off times refer to auger cycle in seconds

[Bob Stehlik]

johnsbrewhouse Here are the basic “P” settings for the Traeger on Smoke. If you Google P settings for pellet grills you’ll find the info for several manufacturers and their different models.

[johnsbrewhouse]

Bob Stehlik Thanks Bob, I don’t have a Traeger controller any more on mine. I swapped it for a Stanbroil Replacement Digital Pro Controller which gives me a whole lot less problems, plus two meat probes along with the factory temperature sensor. I buy all Stanbroil replacement parts now for the Traeger since they make them for Traeger and are cheaper. I did the adjustment with my old controller, but I was always having problems with pellet loading of the fire pot then un-controlled fire.

[Bob Stehlik]

johnsbrewhouse I don’t really mess with mine too much. I only go to P4 on occasion but have only gone to P1 once and had problems in cold weather. P2 the factory default works the best. I’ll have to check out the Stanbroil parts.

[johnsbrewhouse]

Bob Stehlik They are cheaper, you have to scroll through multiple pages to find what you are looking for your Traeger, then they send you off site to Amazon to buy them through their store. https://www.stanbroil.com/product/Grill-Accessories.html

[Bob Stehlik]

johnsbrewhouse Thank You