Pellet Grill Archives - Grill Nation

Prime Rib on a Yoder Pellet Grill

September 15, 2022 By Ms. K

Not sure what meat prices are like in your neck of the woods these days. But when prime rib roasts went on sale at our local grocery story, we had to snap one up. It’s summer, and we usually equate Prime Rib with Yorkshire pudding, hearty garlic mashed potatoes and other cozy fare. But we decided to go for it – and seize the chance to throw it on our Yoder YS640S Smoker

Yoder Smoker S640S Competition Smoker - Beautiful — Yoder Smoker S640S Competition Smoker – Beautiful

We fired up the grill, and brought it to a super-low 200 degrees F.

You can’t go wrong with a simple seasoning, so we chose our go-to blend of Malcolm Reed’s A.P. Rub and The BBQ Rub – no one does the basics better. And this way we figured we’d have to the best chance to tasting just what the smoker offers one of our all-time favourite cuts.

The 2.7 kg (~6lbs) roast took 5 hours to reach 132 F with virtually nothing for us to do. Now and then, we just needed to check our app linked to the built-in Fireboard temperature monitoring system (more info on this here). We might have stretched our legs once to go out and check the pellet levels, too. But truly – the Yoder makes this so easy.

We rested the meat for 30 mins, although we’d consider a 45 min. rest time for even more juiciness. While the meat did its thing, we roasted up some of the summer bounty from a local farm – multi-coloured carrots and purple potatoes. We boiled a yellow potato and a couple of cobs of corn for good measure, too – bringing summer sides to what’s often a winter dish.

Prime Rib - Plated and Ready! — Prime Rib – Plated and Ready!

The whole meal was delicious. The smoker worked great, and imparted a subtle smokey taste to the meat, which is what we were hoping. It may not replace our much-loved approach somewhere deep in December when we’ll be roasting prime rib indoors and whipping up Yorkshires and mashers – but it’s certainly a worthy option!

Winter Cookery: The Thermal Jacket for the Yoder YS640s

February 14, 2022 By Ms. K

Nothing says Christmas Holiday Dinner like baby back ribs.

Okay–maybe not.

But then again, why not? If you’re like us, the answer up until now is that for a big chunk of the winter, it’s just too darn cold to be thinking of smoking meat low and slow outside. That’s why we were excited to come across Yoder Smokers’ Thermal Jacket for our Yoder YS640s pellet grill.

YS604S with Thermal Jacket — YS604S with Yoder Smokers’ Thermal Jacket

The jacket is an insulated cover custom-made to fit over the cooking chamber of our YS640S. It’s a three-piece system that easily attaches to the unit and to the other jacket pieces with simple hooks straps.

Another View of Thermal Jacket on Yoder YS640S

The idea is that when the cooking chamber is insulated, your smoker won’t have to work as hard – i.e., consume more pellets than necessary – to fight cold outside temperatures.

Note that the thermal jacket is specifically designed for low cooking or “smoking” temperatures (below 300 degrees). Yoder recommends that you remove the jacket for higher temperature cooking.

We gave our insulating jacket a whirl on December 23rd when the thermometer dipped to -9 degrees Celsius (about 16 degrees Fahrenheit). It definitely gets colder than that around here, so we’ll be updating you on our experiences with more frigid temps.

As you can see from the time and temperature chart above, we were able to keep a low smoking temperature (~225 degrees) nice and steady for hours – exactly what our Holiday Ribs needed. Despite the cold temperatures, we went through an average amount of pellets and didn’t have any problematic temperature swings.

(BTW – we’re totally loving our smoker’s built-in FireBoard wireless temperature monitoring technology, where the screenshot above is from. It lets you monitor what’s going on with your grill via an app on a tablet or smarthphone. Handy all year round, but especially welcome when it’s cold outside! Read more in our Yoder Grill overview.)

Ribs in late December is no longer just a dream thanks to our new Yoder Thermal Jacket. At about $270 US, it’s not cheap but it saves pellets, constant checking, and the potential for weird temperature swings when what your meat needs is consistency. In our books, it’s a win.

We definitely recommend that cold-weather citizens of Grill Nation with Yoder Smokers’ pellet grills check it out.

The Yoder YS640S Competition Smoker. It’s Here.

June 13, 2021 By Ms. K

Yoder Smoker YS640S Competition Smoker - Beautiful — Yoder Smoker’s YS640S Competition Smoker – Beautiful

There’s a new addition to our outdoor kitchen, and it’s a serious piece of equipment. Our Yoder YS640S Competition Smoker has arrived. It’s big, heavy, solid, and very impressive. We thought you’d enjoy an ‘unboxing’ tour and a few comments about the unit.

So, we got it up on the deck and love that despite the beefiness of this competition-worthy wood pellet smoker, the YS640S fits surprisingly well on our deck. And it’s so well-built that it really is an attractive thing (if you’re into grills, of course). Speaking of looks, we chose the black and silver style, but a flashier orange and black option – as well as custom cart colours – is also available.

As a competition grill, it’s meant to be mobile. We like how even if we’re staying put and smoking at home, the solid tires make it easy to pull the unit away from the wall and reposition when desired.

Of course, what really matters is how it performs. We were drawn to the YS640S for the promise of top-notch slow-and-low cooking, and the ability to sear at extreme temps. So far it’s met and exceeded our expectations for ease-of-use, clean-up and most importantly, results. (Cooking and food-related articles coming soon with mouth-watering pics.)

We ordered our YS640S through our local barbeque supply dealer, Luxe Barbeque Company. They had it pre-assembled so that on delivery other than popping on the front and side shelves, there was little for us to do. The delivery was definitely a two-person job (the machine weighs in at a cool 418 lbs). Getting it into place was not without its challenges – the guys had to negotiate a few steps up onto the deck (thanks, guys!).

The shot above of the cooking chamber shows off the awesome construction of the YS640S – and its spaciousness. You can immediately picture smoking multiple pork shoulders, chickens or turkeys if the need arises, all super-doable with this sort of capacity.

Here’s the hopper where you drop in your wood pellets. The auger at the bottom automatically feeds the pellets into the fire pot within the chamber.

And here’s said fire pot in action:

The hopper holds 20 lbs of pellets. We’ve already taken advantage of Luxe’s pellet-delivery service to keep the fires burning, so to speak. So far, so good.

Two-Piece Heat Diffuser with Access Door in Yoder cooking chamber

Above is a photo of the the Two-Piece Heat Diffuser with Access Door. The ‘access door’ is the removable piece directly above the fire pot. This insert is the critical piece that gives you the ability to smoke at low temps, then to crank things up and sear. With the door above in place, you can maintain low temps for hours and hours in the chamber.

Yoder Smoker - Access door on two-piece diffuser removed — Yoder Smoker – Access door on two-piece diffuser removed

Remove the door as shown above, now you’re able to crank that heat, place grill grates directly above the fire pot, and sear your meat at scorching temps surpassing 700 degrees Fahrenheit (Yup. We’ve done it. And it heats up fast).

An important note on the two-piece diffuser with access door: this part is supposed to be standard-issue with current YS640S units. However, on arrival ours came with the one-piece. Our dealer informed us that some of the newer models have still been shipping with the old part. He made sure we got the correct piece a.s.a.p. – but, be warned. Here’s the thing: you really can’t sear without the two-piece and its access door, and sold separately it will cost you a few hundred dollars. So, this is something to check as soon as you get your machine – it’s supposed to be included!

Above is a shot of the underside of the hopper lid, with some handy cooking tips and a meat temperature chart.

Here’s digital controller unit, located on the front side of the hopper. This is where you fire up the grill and monitor the temperature of the chamber and the meat, too (with a probe) if desired.

So this is pretty cool – the YS640S comes outfitted with FireBoard’s awesome wireless temperature monitoring technology letting you monitor grill and meat temps using an app on your phone or tablet. Not only that, you can create cooking programs with target times and temps, view graphs, get notifications, and keep an ongoing historical log of your sweet outdoor cookery. We’ve talked about using FireBoard digital thermometer before and have always been impressed; the fact that the YS640S has this technology built right in is a huge plus in our books.

Coming soon: several articles showing the YS640S in action where we’ll do a deeper dive into the smoker’s features and our thoughts on function so far. For now, we’ll leave you with this tasty teaser shot of a 10lbs. pork shoulder we smoked on our YS640S according to the expert directions of Killer Hogs’ Malcolm Reed. Grill on, nation.