Seasoning a pellet grill is essential because of so many reasons. It will help to clean off every type of bacteria, oil, and dirt from the grill that will remain in the manufacturing process and make your grill ready to use. When it comes to seasoning, you may create a funny image of seasoning with spices. However, the fact is different.
Whether cooking with your family or entertaining your guests, it is essential to know how to season a pellet grill. A seasoning pellet grill is altered from seasoning conventional gas grill cast-iron skillet and is also known as curing or pre-seasoning. Today, we will discuss seasoning in detail and why it is important to season your pellet grill before cooking.
What Is Seasoning?
You might have heard that you should season your grill before using it. Some think seasoning means shaking some paper on the pellet grill, but it is not seasoning.
Seasoning means running your smoker or grill for the first time without food. You might find this process difficult to hear, but it is easy. The process is essential to ensure that the food you cook will be chemical-free and healthy and the life of your grill.
Related: How To Use And Cook On Pit Boss Pellet Grill
Why Should You Season Your Pellet Grill?
There are many reasons behind it why you should season your food before cooking which are explained below:
Remove Impurities
Your grill is manufactured in that factory where chemicals are treated unless you purchase a used grill. The main benefit of seasoning is that it will eradicate all these chemicals and create a smoke barrier between your grill and the outside.
Improves taste
Suppose you want to avoid seasoning your grill since you are not interested in removing impurities from the grill. Besides, it will also improve the taste of the food. Without adding the initial smoke layer to the grill during the seasoning process, there is a chance that the metallic or chemical taste will enter your roof during cooking and reduce its flavor.
It Lets You Learn
It is not possible that you will become a pro chef after just starting the grill. Running the grill empty allows you to know how long the pellet grills last in the grill and how long the grill takes to warm. It is good learning for you.
How To Season A Wood Pellet Grill?
The steps to season your pellet grill are given below. Before beginning the grill, you must ensure that you have to look at the instructions because the instructions for each model are different.
Clean The Grill
It is a straightforward process during the assembly phase, but you should have to clean the non-electric parts of the grill with water and soap before starting it. And then allow these pieces to dry.
Assemble Your Pellet Grill
Collect all the parts of the grill and make sure that they are placed correctly. After putting all the elements in the exact places, it is a good idea to check whether all the screws are tight and all the parts are correctly placed.
Coat With Oil
Apply a thin coat of oil on your grill and the grill grates. Only apply a little oil so that it will begin to drip. If you do not have spray oil, you can use a rag of coal oil inside the grill.
Fill The hopper
Put the pellet in the hooper in a quantity that will become filled. It is unnecessary to fill it, but it will hold enough pellets.
Plug In The Grill
Now, plug in the grill, preferably right to a power source without an extension cord.
Turn On Prime
Turn the grill settings to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and more than it, and keep the lid open. You need to hold it down for a few moments till the pellets drop into the fire chamber. The probability remains unless you will not press the prime button.
Wait
You can see smoke coming from the pellet grill. Keep the lid open for about 5-7 minutes, and then wait. When there is a considerable amount of smoke, close the grill.
Set A Timer
Set a timer of 30 minutes after closing the lid. Then, leave it at a high temperature. It will prove very efficient in seasoning your grill.
Do Not Unplug
After 30 minutes, turn the grill off, but do not unplug it so the fan can complete its cycles. If you unplug the grill early, pellets can come to the hooper, resulting in lightning.
Remember that some models require more seasoning than others. Check the manual to ensure, and in doubt, let your grill be seasoned for a bit so that it will be seasoned completely.
Unplug
When the fan turns off after finishing its cycles, it is safe to unplug it. Now, it has seasoned and is ready to use. After seasoning the grill, you will want to clean the grill, but be careful while cleaning. Refrain from cleaning that layer of smoke that you have added just before.
Additional Ways To Season Your Pellet Grill
Whether you believe it or not, there are a few additional steps you can take while seasoning your food to change the flavor of the meat. One of the best things is using wood pellets to increase the flavor during the seasoning.
The type of wood you will use depends upon the kind of food you will cook the most. For example, most people use hardwood to season their foods rather than fruit wood. Many are interested in knowing how to season a new pellet grill.
You can put a few large pieces of bacon that will season the grill rather than coating the interior with oil. Do not hesitate to experiment. It will give a milder taste than oil. Ensure that the things used during the seasoning process are thrown away later, and do not use them.
Pros And Cons Of Seasoning The Pellet Grill
Besides the so many advantages of pellet grill, some cons of it are given below:
Pros
Cons
How To Get Your Pellet Grill To Produce More Smoke?
Are you facing problems while increasing the smoke of your grill? Though it is recommended to season your pellet grill at a high temperature, you can produce more smoke by turning down the grill.
Set the temperature to 225 degrees Fahrenheit and see whether more smoke is produced. If you do not see extra smoke, you have made mistakes in the priming process. In this case, turn off your grill and return to the priming process.
If there is still no smoke produced, then the best idea is to call the customer services of this brand and discuss with them what to do now. If a bit of smoke is created, but you want more, use a smoke tube.
Can You Re-Season your Pellet Grill?
Try hard as you can. Unfortunately, you might have to re-season it again after some time. It will happen because sometimes you need to clean your pellet grill thoroughly, which will remove the layer of smoke inside it.
If you do not clean the grill, mold will grow because these things are prevalent in a moist and warm environment. If that happens, or you throw something in the grill you need to wash, use a degreaser.
Many people want to re-season their grill after using a degreaser. Suppose you want to avoid cleaning the grill. Still, it is an excellent idea to re-season your grill regularly. To do so, you will always get healthy and delicious food. I recommend you re-season your grill after every year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Final Words
We all know that pellet grills are very expensive, and hence, it is mandatory to take proper care of the pellet grill. Well, the sole purpose of seasoning is to clean the grill off and then make it ready for cooking. As a result, here I have shared some important points on how to season a pellet grill properly.
