Egghead looking for Traeger tips...

KiterTodd

I'll going on a guy's trip for the next week and a buddy is bringing along his new Traeger 34 Pro. I don't know anything about them and he probably doesn't either, other than what the salesguy told him. But it looks big! Should be able to fit a lot on there.

I have slow cooked a lot on the eggs. Anything I should know for my one week with the Traeger? I don't think I'll be buying one, but I am staying with 18 friends and it'd be nice to transfer some of my egghead knowledge over and slow cook some ribs and roast some spatchcock on that thing.

Wasn't sure if there is anything to know about holding temp or fueling it. Looks like a pellet smoker. I'm guessing he'll bring the pellets. It looks like you just plug it in and program the temp and it holds it.

Do the rest of my egg cooking habits apply? I usually don't foil anything unless I really have to work a crutch. Be nice to just throw on several racks of ribs at 225. Go play for the day, and know I'm coming back to something delicious. Or do you have to tend to these?

Thanks for any tips!

MattBTI

Moisture may be the largest difference between going from an egg to a pellet smoker. You're fuel source is a compressed saw-dust pellet burning in a small pot with a heck of a lot of air being inducted into the burn pot with a fan. All that air moving would make me think it would be easier to dry out the meat. Probably wouldn't hurt to have some sort of moisture in there. Either a water pan or more frequent basting, spritzing.

grillman14

As I say: It's like buying a car that only goes 30 MPH... :)

cookingdude555

its an oven: push start before you put the food on, and push stop when taking it off. 😀

There isn't much really to a traeger. I sold my green mountain grill pellet smoker last week after using it for 18 months. I would get it to temp, put the food on, and wait until the thermometer said it was done. Occasionally I would add more pellets, but that was during colder nights. One thing I did learn was to use a smoking tube in the chamber when I was smoking. It was the only way to get the smoke the way I liked it. The pellet cooker will give you an awesome smoke ring (if you think that matters). I think the smoke ring pellet cookers give is something that makes people believe these things are amazing smokers.

lkapigian

Make sure it's seasoned first. Other than that, you got this @KiterTodd

GATraveller

If you've used an oven then you'll have no issues with a Traeger

Kokeman

My wife bought one and I don't care for it. I tried to use it twice. Once for a roast and once for a steak. I checked on the roast a little over a hour into the cook and the fire was out. Looked in the hopper and there was a funnel shaped hole in the pellets. No pellets were getting in the auger. For the steaks I couldn't get it over 375°. My suggestion would go buy a minimax and take it with you.

YukonRon

Bring a tool box.

FATC1TY

if it’s under the timberline model good luck. Your cooking knwodlege is out the window.

I

jamesj

Check pot where the pellets go, after some time you have to clean it out. Other then that pretty simple.

littlerascal56

Timberlines are discontinued due to problems. If it’s a standard Traeger, then just fill the hopper with pellets and set the thermostat. Had 3 of them and the made some great ribs at 225, but I spritzed them every hour to keep moist. They are great burger/hot dog/brat cookers at 325. Cooked a ton of bacon at 350. Not very good for steaks. Excellent jerky makers at 160.

KiterTodd

Thanks for the tips, guys. My buddy smoked 10 racks of ribs on the Traeger last week. I gave some of your guidance in the beginning and then we went out and did our things for the day while the grill worked. The ribs were okay, but not BGE good IMO.

I think the issue was that it was his first time smoking on it (other than one butt cook) and I have never used one before. I'm sure you can get good results. In the end, he wasn't able to get it to hold 250 well... it was coming low. So he turned it to 300, we left for a few hours and during that time the temp of course shot up above 300. So, I'd say the cook took about 6 hours and they would have been good after 5. Some ribs sections were great, others were pretty dry or burnt. Smoke flavoring was there, but not as good as I can get on the egg.

I had never seen a Traeger before but I wasn't totally impressed. It seemed like immitation smoking for some reason. There was no lump/wood burning, just hot air being blown into a thin metal loosely sealed grill being fueled by a $20 bag of pellets (not hit on the cost, our lump cost the same). The good thing was that it seems a lot easier for the casual cook to get decent results without any fire knowledge. And I'm sure like anything, you can dial it in for great cooks.

So, I'm not sure if it was the tool or the cooks, but in the end, it was still an awesome dinner because... RIBS! :) Thanks again for the help. Just wanted to close the loop here and let you guys know how it went.

Canugghead

Sweet PRO 34 there. Late to the party, just couple of observations to share ... the ends overhanging the drip tray get more heat, similar to ribs overhanging the PS... the can of liquid so close to the upright temp sensor on the left may interfere with the true temp reading? Sometimes I start ribs in the Traeger to get the visual smoke ring, then finish off in XL for smoke taste and better moisture retention.

Foghorn

When cooking that many racks of ribs you’re going to have to pay attention to them on any grill. On my XL BGE when I load it up I sometimes have to rotate the racks from hot to cooler spots. Sometimes the ends cook faster than the middles of the racks - in those cases I cut the racks in half and lay them on the grid with the least cooked part toward the outside. And then you may have to take each rack (or half rack) off st different times as they get done - and FTC them. I suspect that 2 or 3 racks on a Traeger would be relatively easy/mindless as it is on an egg or an offset. But when you start filling up all the space and messing with airflow it gets a lot harder on any grill/smoker.

lousubcap

As long asyou enjoyed the outcome. And thank you for the follow-up. Most times that doesn't happen so it leaves everyone wondering.