Traeger questions

[frieed]

OK, so I've had a standard propane grill in addition to my Big Green Egg for some time now, but I'm just fed up with propane.
So some questions about the Traeger:

Does it get hot enough to cook steak, radiant heat like charcoal ?
I understand a strength is controlled low temp smoking, how long can I run it unattended?
Larger cooking area vs smaller?
How does it compare to the Campchef version ?
How wife friendly, easy to start? easy to run?
any other things I should consider?

Thanks

 

[Spork]

I don't have one but since you mentioned the campchef my mother-in-law has the camp chef and manages fine, basically plug it in and turn dial to desired temp. She did a smoked turkey for Thanksgiving and it was awesome.

 

[moab_cj5]

In my experience the Traeger wont get hot enough to seer like a gas grill will, and cook times will be longer than a gas grill, but it will cook a steak.

Itll run as long as you have pellets for it, and start up is easy as long as you clean the burn pot of ashes.

I'm not familiar with the camp chef smokers, but from what I've read, they are very similar to the Traegers.

I have loved my Traeger, but I use my gas grill more. I have it tied to the natural gas on my house though so I haven't used propane in almost 8 years.

 

[Jay5.9L]

I have a green mt grill which is the same idea as a Traeger. It’s gets up to 500 F (most tragers I’ve seen only hit 350) and I still like my power house of a gas grill for steaks. Totally different styles of cooking. I highly doubt any pellet pooper could do what I just did for dinner tonight. Love my smoker and love my grill.

 

[Jay5.9L]

I just bought my smoker a few months ago so I did some research. Traeger had the idea first then several companies copied and tweaked their dresign. Most pellet grills are easy to start and easy to use. If you can bake a cake you can smoke ribs . Just handle the temp and the time, the machine will do the rest.

 

[Rock Taco]

I've been wanting to get down to one grill and have been looking at the Campchef SG as that replacement. It along with the optional Sear box I think would be good.

https://www.campchef.com/pg24sg.html

 

[Hickey]

Some of the Treagers will get hot enough to grill a steak like you are used to. I think my Camp Chef goes up to 400 degrees.

As for duration, it depends on the size of the hopper. We smoked two pork butts one night and we had to use some cardboard to enlarge the hopper so it would run all night. We filled it up with pellets, started it up, and went to bed for the night.

 

[Jay5.9L]

Also depends on the outside temp. Colder burns more pellets. Some of the nicer models have a built in WiFi which has a ton of advantages and will alert you if you are low on pellets.

 

[UNSTUCK]

I can't remember the last time I used my BBQer. We do everything on our camp chef. From hamburgers to pork butt to pizza. It's all good and totally different than the BBQ.

 

[Tonkaman]

I absolutely love my traeger!

-Camp chef stoves are noticeably thinner and seem to be cheaper materials/build quality all around.

-start up is a no brainer, turn the switch and wait. That being said I had mine shut down several times upon start up and was getting very frustrated. Come to find out there is a safety that shuts it down if it hasn’t gotten over 100°? In 5 minutes. Now I know not to take so long to scrape the grate and put the meat on.

-A smoker will absolutely not replace your grill! Sure it can reach 500°, but it’s indirect heat. It’s just like putting your steaks in the oven. A grilled piece of meat gets much hotter temps than that and it takes far less time to reach that temperature.

- Pellets can last a very long time, but it depends on outside temperature and mostly your cooking style. To put it in perspective, I could cook a whole turkey without refilling the hopper. If it was snowing or raining outside then that may not be possible. If I’m trying to use my smoker like a grill at 500° then I might use 1/2 a hopper for some hamburgers.

-Best money I ever spent on the smoker was a WiFi enabled thermometer and meat probes. That way I always know what temperature the smoker is and all internal temps of the meats as well. The adjustable alarm tells me when things are getting too hot or too cold as well. I love being able to run errands while the smoker is burning away and not being worried that the meat will over cook.

 

[The_Lobbster]

I love my traeger too. Mine will hit 450 on high. It's enough to sear, but I still prefer to sear over charcoal. It is possible to do burgers on it, but I prefer to just use mine for slow cooking. Pork, ribs, brisket, etc, and have a separate gas or charcoal grill for my burgers. Super wife friendly, but mine still won't touch it.

 

[BCGPER]

I love my traeger too. Mine will hit 450 on high. It's enough to sear, but I still prefer to sear over charcoal. It is possible to do burgers on it, but I prefer to just use mine for slow cooking. Pork, ribs, brisket, etc, and have a separate gas or charcoal grill for my burgers. Super wife friendly, but mine still won't touch it.

My Traeger will get hot enough to sear, but I still use the gas grill for that. When I have the time, I’ll slow cook the food on the wood, then a quick sear on the gas.

If you insulate your Traeger, it’s a whole different animal. I can easily smoke food for 12+ hours without refilling the hopper.

 

[Greg]

Couple more tips, keep your pellets dry. Store them in a air tight 5 gallon drum with a threaded top & o-ring, indoors is best. When you first start it, open the lid and set it to 'smoke' so it gets plenty of oxygen to start burning. You'll know it's ready when smoke starts rolling. Clean out the burn box every few uses, if you don't it will error out and shut down, usually at the worst time. Use a shop vac, makes it real easy. When you are done cooking, turn the dial to 'shut down' and let it sit with power still on for at least 5 min, so it can burn out the remaining pellets. If you just shut it off or unplug the power, that can also cause an error, too.

I don't know that I've ever needed more than 350*s for cooking, check out a 'reverse sear' if that sounds like something your interested in. - https://www.traegergrills.com/smokenomics/reverse-searing


There's a Traeger app with all kinds of recipe ideas, it's pretty neat. Lastly.... enjoy owning a Traeger!

 

[Greg]

Had to try the reverse sear tonight, working with Top Sirloin... a Rib Eye would have been better, but it's what I had. With the ambient temp being 40's outside, no insulation on a Traeger Tailgater I saw 445's... it probably could have got hotter had I waited a little longer, but I was hungry. I finished the steak at 135*'s internal temp and only had it on the grill for a few min per side. There are grill marks and it's a sear, but it's not a flame-licked finish with crispy bits like @Jay5.9L posted. The steak was perfect, great flavor, perfect doneness and just enough smoke flavor.

 

[nnnnnate]

I've got some smoker questions.

1- Where are you guys getting your rubs? Are you making them, buying them off the shelf locally (where?), or ordering online?

2- Same question for BBQ sauce. Do you make it, buy it local, or order online? This one might be easier because grocery stores have lots of options.

3- Are you changing pellet "flavors" based on whether you are smoking beef, pork, or chicken? What do you use for each if you switch or what is your standard pellet flavor?

4- Where do you go for recipes on things you haven't tried before? I've been watching All Things BBQ, Meat Church for Traeger, and How To BBQ Right videos on youtube. Is there a go to resource? I have to say I like Chef Tom on ATBBQ the most.

I've made lots of tri-tips the last few years and have just used salt, pepper, and oregano but want to give some of these fancy rubs a try. I just don't know if there is a local place that sells a good variety of them. It seems like traeger sells pellets and stuff just about everywhere but thought I'd ask about some of the other ones I've seen a lot on the videos. Plowboys and Meat Church are kind of the bigger ones I'd really like to try.

 

[Jesser04]

Bbq pitstop in Layton has a ton of rubs and sauce that you can sample worth stoping by they are also very knowledgeable. Pellets I just use whatever I have at the time and don’t worry to much about it (I’m convinced it’s all the same shit in a different bag). Recipes google is my best friend I find a highly rated recipe and follow the directions with great results 9/10 times.

 

[moab_cj5]

1- Where are you guys getting your rubs? Are you making them, buying them off the shelf locally (where?), or ordering online?

I buy McCormick <sp> and Traeger rubs from Costco, or ACE Hardware, or RC Willey depending on where I am and how much they are charging. I also use Lawry's seasoned salt on almost everything. One of my favorites is Maple Smokehouse by McCormick for poultry and pork.

2- Same question for BBQ sauce. Do you make it, buy it local, or order online? This one might be easier because grocery stores have lots of options.

I like Sweet Baby Rays, and Hog Wild (a BBQ Chain in Kansas) that I get when old friends come visit.

3- Are you changing pellet "flavors" based on whether you are smoking beef, pork, or chicken? What do you use for each if you switch or what is your standard pellet flavor?

Yes, when I'm not lazy. There is a Hickory, Maple, Cherry blend I buy from Costco and use that for most of what I do. If I know I will be doing Pork, Chicken, or Turkey, I like Maple and Cherry. I personally like Hickory too for almost everything. There are certainly different flavor profiles for the different pellets that add something extra to the meat you smoke.

4- Where do you go for recipes on things you haven't tried before? I've been watching All Things BBQ, Meat Church for Traeger, and How To BBQ Right videos on youtube. Is there a go to resource? I have to say I like Chef Tom on ATBBQ the most.

Traeger.com and online in general. I also do a bit of trial and error experimentation.

 

[Jay5.9L]

The BBQ pit stop places are dangerous, you want to buy everything LOL. I grab rubs from various places. Whatever sounds tasty such as the habanero mango rub at IFA or the coffee rub at trader joes. Lately I have been using Sweet Baby Rays as the finishing glaze for ribs. Its all down to experimentation and finding out what flavors you like on each type of meat. I tend to go sweat on pork and more savery (pepper/garlic etc) on beef.

As for pellets the guys at the BBQ pit stop gave me some good info. All hard wood pellets are mostly a base of either ASH or OAK then they add cherry, hickory, etc. Oak burns hotter and cleaner than ash. The Traeger plant in the north west uses ash and the one in texas uses oak. Both plants use the same bag so its impossible to tell where they came from. So if you can't get the smoker hot enough you may be using the ash pellets.

For pellet storage I tried a 5 gallon bucket with a screw on gasketed lid. That sucker was on tight and still let water in . I picked up a airtight pet food container at costco and its working great! Its a bigger one that will hold at least one big costco bag with room the spare.

 

[nnnnnate]

Crap, I knew I had another question but forgot to ask it. Where do you get your meat? I talked to Dave last night and he said he gets his just at Smiths by his house. I know Jay has mentioned Costco, especially the monster one in SLC. I typically have gotten my tri- tip from costco so I'm aware of what they have. Do any of you go to a butcher? Have you ordered meat online and had it shipped?

Dons meats came up in a search and there is one in WJ, its a little out of the way but I could make that work. Can you get everything you want from a grocery store or costco? I can't say I remember ever seeing pork belly, but I also am not sure I've specifically looked for it.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Paul R]

I've got some smoker questions.

1- Where are you guys getting your rubs? Are you making them, buying them off the shelf locally (where?), or ordering online?

2- Same question for BBQ sauce. Do you make it, buy it local, or order online? This one might be easier because grocery stores have lots of options.

3- Are you changing pellet "flavors" based on whether you are smoking beef, pork, or chicken? What do you use for each if you switch or what is your standard pellet flavor?

4- Where do you go for recipes on things you haven't tried before? I've been watching All Things BBQ, Meat Church for Traeger, and How To BBQ Right videos on youtube. Is there a go to resource? I have to say I like Chef Tom on ATBBQ the most.

I have had a Trager for 4 or 5 years now and have tried all sorts of stuff.

If you watch most the rubs or directions for dry brines follow approximate ratios. For my goto rub for pork shoulder, for example, I typically go equal parts Kosher salt and brown sugar, then throw in a healthy amount of garlic powder, paprika white and black pepper, cumin, and chili powder in order of the amount. But the Salt and Sugar ratio is the most critical everything else is pretty minor.

Before buying a bunch of expensive rubs, I would go to Costco's spice aisle and grab whatever sounds good and try it out.

I buy R&R's BBQ sauce because I haven't dabbled in making my own too much yet that I like it more than theirs. I especially like their Carolina sauce for pulled pork.

I typically mix hickory, maple, and pecan, and use it on everything. But I probably don't have all that sophisticated of a palate that I would know the difference.

I used the traeger online recipe page, the Smokin Word BBQ page for ideas on what to cook, and always watch a few different Youtube videos before I try anything new and then try to just take the general principles and experiment in variations with what makes the most sense to me. I'm not one that ever follows recipes exactly.