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Any Time is Grillin Time

That's a good looking unit. Congrats!

I fired up my smoker today and warmed up my leftover pizza from last night. It takes a brave man to eat pizza two nights in a row. :) I've never cooked a pizza in my smoker but I know I'd love it. Just warming up my pizza in the smoker puts an entirely different flavor on it and it does wonders for the crisping up the crust.
 
I can't wait. I was eyeing the Timberlines, but I can't justify $3,700 for a grill. Bad enough what I paid for this one, but it has the features I want, the Traeger quality, and doesn't have the features I didn't like on the Weber.

I don't mean to be harsh on the Weber, it has served me well for the past 2+ years. My biggest gripe is that they stick with the patented "Flavor Bars" on a grill that goes from slow and low to high temp. The concept works well on medium high to high temp grilling. If you do any cook that begins with slow and low and transitions to high temp, the oils, fats, and greases build up on the flavor bars and you have an inferno when you go to high temp. Traegers, Green Mountains, and even Pit Boss grills, are set up to get the grease and oil away from the heat where the Weber just lets it build up.

Anyway, I'm having a grill sale. You pick up. :p
 
I was leery of the Weber grease management or lack of. Flavor bars work great as long as your are cooking hot enough to burn the grease off as it drips.

I bet you will love your new Traeger. I bet you'll be impressed at the improvement made since your last Traeger. Pellet tec has evolved. I bet you get more smoke for less pellet consumption and I bet it does an excellent job at holding a cook temp. Both mentioned improvements I'm only guessing at. My only complaint about my Traeger was temps would ramp up over 25° over set temp and then fall 25° below.
The end results were always excellent and it threw a lot of smoke while the temp rose. It also consumed a lot of pellets in that constant temp yoyo.

The big selling point for me is the Traeger is one well built smoker. My Traeger served me well at home, then a life at the cabin, and is now happily smoking meat at a friends house. Eleven years of heavy use speaks volumes for any product.

You will have to share some pics and the virgin voyage for your new smoker.
 
I just endured the longest half hour of my life. The local Fire Chief showed up to check out / collect my grills I was donating to the crew and to my surprise, took both on the spot. I had a whole in my heart shed with no grills of my own. Luckily, and unbeknownst to me at the time, my new grill arrived shortly after. Now I have to wait for the weather to break so I can set it up and do a burn in.
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Unforgiven said:
I just endured the longest half hour of my life. The local Fire Chief showed up to check out / collect my grills I was donating to the crew and to my surprise, took both on the spot. I had a whole in my heart shed with no grills of my own. Luckily, and unbeknownst to me at the time, my new grill arrived shortly after. Now I have to wait for the weather to break so I can set it up and do a burn in.
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She's a beauty! 😍👍
 
Unforgiven said:
I just endured the longest half hour of my life. The local Fire Chief showed up to check out / collect my grills I was donating to the crew and to my surprise, took both on the spot. I had a whole in my heart shed with no grills of my own. Luckily, and unbeknownst to me at the time, my new grill arrived shortly after. Now I have to wait for the weather to break so I can set it up and do a burn in.
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I'm excited for you. A new cooking tool is so much fun and your new Traeger looks like it is the real deal! I'd say donating used and getting new was perfect timing! I wish my hopper was on the right instead of the left. Where I have it sitting it's a bit difficult to access. I can't tell from your pic just how large the new hopper is. I suspect it is plenty large enough for long cooks. My old Traeger had the hopper inside of the hood and was small. I always had to top it off on most cooks. It also decreased my grate area. Really it is the only poorly design feature of my first smoker. Next year's model moved the hopper to the outside of the hood. They learned from their error.

I put the super clean on my GM smoker today. It was overdue. It was three months, perhaps four, when I last cleaned it. I put the super clean on it today. It's too windy to ride my bike and I had zero excuse not to clean it. My son basically has the same cooker. He has ash build up and replacing the ramp foil to deal with, but I also have a grease build up in mine. I don't know why they are different.
I have grease front and back at the surfaces beyond the grates as well as grease in the smoke stack. It's a nasty task to clean up and it remains a mystery why his smoker doesn't have that build up. Oh well, my smoker is once again clean.

I'm cooking a couple of ribeye steaks tonight. I'll let them smoke at 150° until I see 107° internal temp and then put a reverse sear on them using either the Weber or the Blackstone... haven't decided yet. I have them marinating in Allegro, beer, and Grill Mate's Montreal Steak Seasoning now.

My butcher buddy marked the steaks down for me. They were still $15.99 a pound. Sheesh!
 
I did the deep clean on my two old grills so they would be ready for the Fire Department to use. You almost wish you would do it every time you cook but reality is much different. I was surprised with my old Traeger how clean it was, since I hadn't even fired it up once I got the Weber about 3 years ago. Looks like the burn-in is an hour, where I will also set up the WiFi and Blutooth. That won't happen until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest since I'm getting another 2-3 inches or rain overnight and have baseball practice in the morning. Sadly, I don't know when the first cook will be. :(
 
I'm both sorry and jealous that you are rained out today. That's the beauty of having a covered cooking area. It doesn't come into play when you get no rain however. We are in a dire need of measurable rain. I'm betting on some fine meals in the future of the new Trager. It's a darn shame that with the time window, the elements have prolonged your anticipation. Waiting to fire up that beast has to be killing you.

Did you have to assemble the Trager? I didn't have to assemble my Trager but all of the Green Mountains took a bit of time to put together. They were well engineered with all of the parts fitting and holes aligning. I put the cabin GM together in about fifteen minutes... but I've had practice. :)
 
olbriar said:
Did you have to assemble the Trager? I didn't have to assemble my Trager but all of the Green Mountains took a bit of time to put together. They were well engineered with all of the parts fitting and holes aligning. I put the cabin GM together in about fifteen minutes... but I've had practice.
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I bought this at the Big-E (Eastern States Exposition) so the fair deal was base grill price ($2k) but I got free assembly and delivery, a front shelf, and cover, so roughly $300 in free items, and whatever in services. Delivery and assembly were meh throwins, but I was happy to take them alongside the tangible freebies.
olbriar said:
My ribeyes turn out great. I used the Weber to put a sear on the steaks. They weren't to die for steaks but very tasty and done just like we like them. Considering the steaks were choice and not prime, they were very good.
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Ribeyes are my favorite cut of beef, and even choice is spectacular.
 
Unforgiven said:
I bought this at the Big-E (Eastern States Exposition) so the fair deal was base grill price ($2k) but I got free assembly and delivery, a front shelf, and cover, so roughly $300 in free items, and whatever in services. Delivery and assembly were meh throwins, but I was happy to take them alongside the tangible freebies.

Ribeyes are my favorite cut of beef, and even choice is spectacular.
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I assume the front shelf attaches where that accent or mag strip is in front of the cooker. I'm spoiled by the front shelf on the GM smokers. The GM I bought for the cabin is without a front shelf and I miss it big time when smoking there. I will say that the front shelf makes it a bit harder to remove and replace the cover but it's a great tool.

Putting a smoker together is a hassle at best. I'd rather put it together vs hauling it assembled. Assembled and delivered free of charge is sweet.

I'm anxious to hear how well the wifi works on the new Trager. GM works but is not worth the effort.
To wifi connect to my GM I have to forget my local network and then connect to the smoker. The smoker doesn't connect to my wifi... my phone connects to the smoker. A very poor setup for my home. I'm so close to the smoker that it's not a big deal but I tried it out to say I have.

Man, I bet you are excited to see that beast throw smoke!
 
so i dry brined some chicken wings with some citrus salt that i bought at Wholefoods. it is basically salt infused with citrus along with the zest of oranges and lemons. it is really good. i did this overnight. you then rinse the chicken and pat dry and cook. half of the batch i air fried inside the house. the other half i smoked with ninja woodfire grill.

i am currently smoking them as we speak.
 
olbriar said:
Don't leave us hanging :) Which cook topped the other?
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LOL i just finished dinner. it was close, but the smoked wings won out for me. this was the first time i dry brined anything. might have to do that more often. the wings were perfectly seasoned and that citrus really shown thru....even after rinsing them.

i devoured them and did not take any photos.....sorry.....lol
 
I got the burn in done. I had a little problem connecting WiFi, but I think that was because I tried being too smart and not following the steps. I was going to smoke, then BBQ some drumsticks, but at the last minute everyone has other dinner plans and it is only me, so I'm getting some bachelor food.

You know when you are looking at a nice piece of equipment, this is that. Even more than my original Traeger, or the Weber I was using. Everything about this grill is solid, heavy, and sturdy. Plus the thing is massive. My first real test will be smoking 4 butts, 37lbs. of pulled pork in a couple weeks. Damn, it's been a bit since I've been this excited to grill.
 
Smoke Sunday will be flatiron tomorrow. They were on sale (cough cough) for $9.99 a pound. It seems like yesterday when the regular price per pound was four bucks. Marked down three bucks a pound caused me to snag one. I bought the best looking one though it wasn't great looking and will put some smoke on it tomorrow. I'll rub it down with avocado oil and season it with coarse salt and coarse pepper. I'll smoke it at 225°, wrap it when the internal temp reaches 160°, and pull it off the smoker to rest in my hot box when it reaches 195°. I'm fixing some fresh green beans with new potatoes and bacon pieces to go with the steak.
 
olbriar said:
I imagine that even the burn in process was fun! Did your Trager look for area networks to connect to or was it like a GM where it was discoverable? Please tell me it's not as left handed as the GM wifi.
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It was connect through Blutooth and from there, Wifi. So now the grill connects to my WiFi, and from there it communicates with my phone.
olbriar said:
Smoke Sunday will be flatiron tomorrow. They were on sale (cough cough) for $9.99 a pound. It seems like yesterday when the regular price per pound was four bucks. Marked down three bucks a pound caused me to snag one. I bought the best looking one though it wasn't great looking and will put some smoke on it tomorrow. I'll rub it down with avocado oil and season it with coarse salt and coarse pepper. I'll smoke it at 225°, wrap it when the internal temp reaches 160°, and pull it off the smoker to rest in my hot box when it reaches 195°. I'm fixing some fresh green beans with new potatoes and bacon pieces to go with the steak.
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Nice. I have to run back to my local warehouse as they have strips for sale at $9.99 / lb. That's pretty good right now, so I'll grab 3-4 for me and my father in law.
 
I'll test it out next weekend. It's running on wood, let's see what happens. I'm used to the propane grill, it was easy to adjust the temperature, but with the wood grill I'll have to get used to it.
 

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