Pellet Question

[Gator]

BFD - how many LBs of pellets does an FEC100 use per hour/cook...ect?

[DATsBBQ]

Man if pits had to be NSF blessed here in Texas there'd be a load of folks out of business.

It just the way the county works here if you want to be licensed. You have to meet the same requirements that a sit down resteraunt has to meet. Exceptions are heat and serve (hot dog carts) and personal chefs who cook at their clients house and use only their clients kitchen and cookware.

Now most resteraunts around here offer some kind of catering. Either pick up, delivery or delivery with service. Food is cooked back on site.

As for the others that caterer. well they do so without the benefit of a food service license They either claim they are a personal chef (even though they advertise delivey of prepared food stuffs) or claim that since they are cooking on private property the HD has no authority over them. Same folks are lacking a sales-tax license.

If you don't have a food-service license in this state, you won't be allowed to vend at competitons.

[Burnt Food Dude]

BFD - how many LBs of pellets does an FEC100 use per hour/cook...ect?

I've been using it in cold weather but I'd say about 3/4 pounds an hour. The hopper is supposed to hold 20 pounds of pellets. The first time I fired it up I filled the hopper about 3/4 with cooking pellets. I was surprised in the pellet usage. I got about 24 hours of cooking before I had to refill the hopper. Then I experimented with flavoring pellets. 10 pound bag of cherry burned up in about 6 hours. I put the cherry/oak blend of cooking pellets in (10 pounds) and it still going at 12 hours.

Before I bought it I talked to Scottie Johnson (Cancer Sucks Chicago) and he uses less than 10 pounds per contest. Rod Gray (Pellet Envy) says about the same thing but he uses 2 FECs. Ron from Capt'n Ron's Brew-n-Crew says he tops off the hopper before he leaves home.

As far as price goes, shipping can be a pellet killer. All in all I'd say it costs less than a charcoal smoker.

Note: The reason I experimented with cherry is I like the color it put on the meats when I used it in the WSM.