Way off topic but,

[USAFsparkchaser]

So made the investment and bought one of these at Home Depot this week. Went with burgers for first meal on it, didn't want to go to crazy the first time. If steaks and chicken cook the way the burger did I will be very happy. Now just gotta try smoking in it!

[dnl42]

"One of these"? Oh, the tag sez Traeger.

 

Yeah, pellet grills are great! Got my first one in 1994--I believe they were still the only pellet grill at the time. Sign up for the their email, they send out great recipe ideas! Their "Make My Day" Salmon recipe from their recipe book is truly amazing.

 

Understand though, a pellet grill is either a (hot) smoker or a wood-fire convection oven. You can quite sear a steak. So, I have both a regular gas grill and a pellet grill.

 

Almost any kind of vegetables are great roasted. Toss the veg in EVOO, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder and roast @ 350 until done...they're just amazing. Corn bread is also awesome. Set the grill to 375 and put a large cast-iron frying pan in to heat for about 45m before adding your cornbread mix. Baked potatoes are also wonderful @ 375; just clean and toss on the grill until done.

 

Smoked ribs are also easy if you follow a 3-2-1 recipe, like this one from Traeger. You'll find that 225 is a good smoking temp; also it's the highest temp that won't burn tomato sauce, like in a BBQ sauce.

 

Brisket will take practice, practice, practice. Lots of good information on the Interwebs. After many years, my basic method is a spice rub with a slathering of tomato paste on a full packer brisket, which has the plate and the point. Set the grill  @ 225 and smoke until the meat hits 165, then wrap in pink paper and continue cooking @ 225 until it reaches 195 for slicing and 203 for pulling. Once you've reached temperature, put the still-wrapped brisket into a deep roasting pan, like those disposable aluminum pans, and wrap the whole thing in 2 or 3 beach towels or place into a large enough cooler. It will be ready in 2h, but you can wait for up to 4-5h if needed. Slice across the grain (you need to look, as the plate and point are different directions). You're looking at 9 to 16h for a packer brisket. Do read about brisket though. As I wrote, it took years to get consistently great results.

 

Another gem is a smoked Prime Rib--it's the only way to do justice to that expensive hunk of meat. Apply rub and smoke @ 225 until it reaches the desired temp (I pull @ 125). Cover and rest, it will rise another 5-10 degs.

 

As you can see, I cook by temperature except for 3-2-1 ribs. I highly recommend a Thermapen MkIV. Sign up for ThermoWorks' email, too; another great source of recipe ideas. Whatever you do, don't waste your money on a cheap thermometer!!! You also need good smoking probes, I also recommend their ThermaQ with 2 armored smokehouse probes; you don't need a grate probe with a pellet grill.

 

I just recently replaced my 2nd Traeger with a Mak 2 Star grill. But, you'll be thrilled with the Traeger.

 

Happy Smoking!!!!

Edited July 8, 2017 by dnl42

[mingwin]

David, if you continue such mouthwatering posts, you'll end up with quite lot of people visiting you! ...even from the other end of the continent!

Edited July 8, 2017 by mingwin

[dnl42]

4 hours ago, mingwin said:

David, if you continue such mouthwatering posts, you'll end up with quite lot of people visiting you! ...even from the other end of the continent!

Visitors are always welcome when the grill is fired up, which is probably half the weekends of the year.

 

Wow, I didn't talk at all about wood species! Pellets in various species are available to use in your new favorite cooking device. The Traeger recipe book suggests species in each of their recipes.  My primary wood is hickory--always and only for brisket. Alder is very traditional for salmon for good reasons. Mesquite is nice, especially with a beer-can chicken, which is world-class on a pellet grill. Fruit woods tend be have a sweeter taste which go well with poultry (whole smoked turkey for Thanksgiving!!!), pork, and fish.. Several other wood species are available as pellets, see more recommendations here.

 

Pellets must be kept dry or they turn into useless sawdust. A really useful accessory that Traeger recently introduced is a lid for a regular 5 gal pail that provides a grate on the bottom to trap saw dust and a pour spot on the top. I always have one pail with hickory; another usually has alder or mesquite.