Cuisinart Clermont Pellet Grill & Smoker

The grease tray can be accessed from the left side of the grill. After every few cooks, pull this pan out and discard the grease. Once the body was connected to the cart, the last steps were adding the shelves and accessory features. The grill has a drip shield that extends the length and width of the interior of the grill. While it collects drips and guides the grease away from the fire, it also serves as a diffuser plate to create the indirect heat zone for barbecuing and smoking. Cuisinart introduced the grill capability into the Clermont by adding a sear zone.

Thorough and mindful research is crucial to making sure you get your hands on the best-possible Cuisinart Clermont Pellet Grill and Smoker. Make sure that you are only using trustworthy and credible websites and sources. Right now, if you open the pellet dump, you have to hold the bucket up or they disperse everywhere. Overall, I’m really impressed with everything about this grill. There are only three features that I would adjust, if I ruled the world. Use the center area for your primary sear location, and then move your meat or veg to the left or right for indirect high heat.

You likely give your outer lid a quick wipe down if you see visible grease stains. You also might notice that if you have a stainless lid, discoloration begins. If you’d like to keep its gorgeous stainless lid here’s a few engineering-approved chemicals that will maintain that shine. The last step after you’ve scraped cuisinart griddler elite all the internal parts that have visible build-up is to go through the bottom of the chamber with a shop vac and vacuum the debris up. If you’d like, you can give the internal chamber a quick wipe down with a paper towel or an old rag. An optional cleaning trick is to take compressed air to spray in the nooks.

clermont pellet grill & smoker cover

In order to achieve a perfect fall-off-the-bone result, I had to keep the smoker temperature at 275°F for 10 consecutive hours, aiming an internal temperature of 203°F to 205°F. Throughout the cooking process, the Clermont maintained a temperature between 255°F and 285°F, which is much better than I expected in such poor weather conditions. The commercial grade gasket surrounding the inside of the double French doors seals in the smoke, but also prevents wind and cold from entering and chilling the smoking chamber. This is the go-to grill for small families, campers, tailgaters, RVers, or anyone who wants to cook two racks of ribs or 4-6 nice steaks or a bunch of burgers.

It has one of the largest cooking spaces for any pellet grill under $1,000. It comes with 4 probe inputs, a double-door smoking box, a large hopper, ash cleaning system, touch screen display controller, and Bluetooth connectivity. This pellet grill features include an extra-large backlit LCD controller with cooking read outs and Wi-Fi remote monitoring via the Cuisinart® Easy ConnectÔ mobile app. Most pellet grills in this price point had between 600 and 2000 square inches of grilling surface.

The sear trap also needs to be cleaned each time because when the accumulated grease cools down, it makes it hard to slide it out during subsequent usage. I like to grill outside all year round, but where I’m from, winters are long, cold and rude. The Clermont really comes in handy here for many reasons.

For the price, we were fine with these discrepancies, but it’s an indicator that you get what you pay for. The build materials also feel and look cheaper than other grills we tested, so we’re not convinced this grill will last as long as some of the others in the test group. The Cuisinart® Easy Connect BBQ Mobile App will let you take the guess work out of your next outdoor grilling experience.

Sliding from side to side opens the vents on top of the fire pot, allowing the flame to rise in the smoking chamber. Therefore, makes it possible to use the Clermont as a direct grill, and sear your meat over an open flame. It makes reverse searing so easy as you can do everything you need with just one grill. I’ve assembled a handful of Cuisinart BBQs before so I’m starting to know the “drill”.

The initial building process is time-consuming , but it’s worth it in the end. Inside, it features three customizable racks for a total of 1400 square inches of cooking space. It also holds 40 pounds of pellets at once, twice the amount of most of the pellet grills we tested. Pellet grills are different from other grills because they’re dual-fuel. That process means pellet grills have set-it-and-forget-it functionality.