Want to still play with fire but love your Maverick? Want to add some stick burner style smoke to your cook? Enter the Smoke Cage. The Pitts & Spitts Smoke Cage is an insert for your Maverick Pellet Grill where you can replicate a traditional live fire. It sits next to the burn pot so the circulated air fans the flames and has a slide to feed small wood chunks in during the cook so you can feed the fire.
Don’t just listen to us. Watch Steve Gow from Smoke Trails BBQ put the Smoke Cage to the test cooking a brisket on his Maverick 1250.
12 Responses
How do you control the smoke (clean/ dirty). what happens to the grease that drips into the slide
Clean vs. dirty smoke is determined by the wood you use. If the wood is seasoned correctly, the smoke will be clean. During testing we did not run into any issue with grease causing a grease fire on the chute. If it is a concern, you can foil your drop pan to direct the flow to either side.
Is there any difference between the smoke box and a smoke tube in terms of additional smoke given the design of a pelt grill and offset smoker have significate air flow differences
The Smoke Cage is designed to burn chunks or pieces of would that are cut from the splits used in an offset. This means it will very closely mimic the quality and type of smoke created in an offset. It is not meant to burn chips or pellets like a tube as we’re focused on the type of smoke versus just more smoke.
I highly recommend the Smoke Cage if you have a Maverick. I have used it twice so far, first time with ribs and second time with brisket. It was easy to use and produced great results as far as achieving more of that stick burner wood flavor. Cleanup was easy too. You just need to make sure you feed it with one or two wood chunks every thirty minutes or so to make sure the wood fire doesn’t go out before you want it to.
Thanks for the comment, Greg! Glad you’re having success with the smoke cage.
How do you access the smoke cage to add wood during a cook? Do you need to purchase the modular grate system? I’m not seeing how to access the chute. Thanks!
You do not need the modular grate system to use the smoke cage. You simply slide out the entire bottom rack and place the wood in the chute and it will slide down into the smoke cage.
I just did my first cook tonight on my all stainless Maverick 2000 with the smoke cage,,,, All I can say is WOW! I used Lumberjack 100% hickory and 100% cherry pellets mixed. I loaded the smoke cage with Pecan and Cherry chunks from Fruita wood in Colorado. I cooked 2 slabs of spare ribs, and they may have been the best ribs I’ve ever smoked. I added a couple of chunks every 30–45 min. I had consistent blue smoke the entire cook. Temps were consistently 249-251 (set to 250). The ribs had a bright red smoke ring and were extremely smoky. The cook smelled like an offset and the results were as good, probably better than my go to BBQ spot that uses large lang smokers. I wish I could post a pic…..
That’s awesome to hear! So glad you are enjoying your Mav 2000 with the smoke cage.
I’m cooking a pork shoulder today. One accessory that I would buy in a heartbeat for the smoke cage would be a pusher. Something with an “L” shaped angle to help push the wood chunks all the way into the cage. Especially when starting with a full cage of chunks. It would save me time and a few less burnt forearms. As it is, the smoke cage is awesome!!!
Thanks for the suggestion! That is a great idea.