My Newest Tool

Bill Arnold

1974
Staff member
Messages
8,633
Location
Thomasville, GA
I finally took the plunge into a new (for me) era in outdoor cooking. I've had stick burners for many years and enjoyed using them, but . . .

To be honest, a bit (well, more than a bit) of laziness has crept in and I was growing tired of having to tend the fire on my OK Joe Longhorn. It's a great smoker, but it was time for something new. So, here it is!

Traeger1.jpg


For my first cook on it, I whacked up a chuck roast and made some jerky. The second cook was some wings; bad on me for no photos!!!

Jerky_07Dec19_a.jpgJerky_07Dec19_b.jpg
 
Congratulations Bill! Have you turned it up all the way? Just curious what the max temp you can hit is?

I've got a Louisiana Cooker Pellet Grill, same concept, just a bit different feed system. I hear the trager has a better auger system than th paddle wheel design mine has. I usually can get it started and its up to about 700 in 15 minutes. I usually let it come up and self clean, then cool back down before brushing off the ashes.

I like to put a pizza stone in there to heat up, then make homemade or pickup a fresh made papa murphy's pizza to cook on it from time to time. Even used it to cook brownies a time or two since it's a convection oven.

Jerky looks good. Will have to add some of that onto my list of things to do.

BTW, if you don't already have one, the Weber iGrill temp monitors work well for keeping track of the chamber and food temps. You get used to not tending and checking the food after a while, so an alert from it keeps me on track. Just don't leave the probe in there when doing a higher than 450*, the silicone tubes may melt. DAMHIKT :rolleyes:
 
Love mine, put a cold smoker box on mine for doing bacon. Congrats!

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I purchased one two summers ago and my wife just did not like it. I think the main reason, is you are suppose to trust the barbecue and leave it alone to do it's thing. We kept checking it and fiddling with it. Anyway, wasn't worth listening to my wife fret about it so I sold it at a very cheap price to my niece. She loves it and cooks delicious food on it. She has even made chocolate cookies on it.... I can not imagine.....
 
Congratulations Bill! Have you turned it up all the way? Just curious what the max temp you can hit is? ...

The HIGH setting is supposed to hold it at 450°. The only time I set it that high so far is during seasoning. All of the other settings hold within the specified +/-15°.


... BTW, if you don't already have one, the Weber iGrill temp monitors work well for keeping track of the chamber and food temps. ...

This Treager comes with two probes in addition to the built-in chamber monitor probe. The others are fed through a grommet on the side of the chamber to monitor food temperature. All three probes can be read on the control panel. I do like the idea of being able to monitor temps remotely, so I'll look into it.


I purchased one two summers ago and my wife just did not like it. I think the main reason, is you are suppose to trust the barbecue and leave it alone to do it's thing. We kept checking it and fiddling with it. ...

The thing I like about the Traeger is the forced air keeping the chamber temperature even and recovering the temperature quickly. One thing I had to learn about smoking was to trust the process and leave the chamber closed except when absolutely necessary.
 
+1 on the Weber igrill. Very nice to remote monitor things. I'll run it the entire time without opening the lid

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Been looking into the Z grill. Half the price of the Traeger supposedly made them for Traeger before starting there own marketing. Lots to look at. Bill just enjoy. It great to smoke or grill.
David
 
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