Wood Pellet Smoker/Grill

[workingcinderellaman]

As someone who loves to grill, rotisserie and smoke meat, this is something I've wanted for a while. Traeger started it all,

 

 

 

But now there are other options:

 

 

Anyone have a wood pellet smoker/grill?

[goose]

I love the food they produce, but don't like to put in the time it takes to smoke meat. A crock pot seems so much easier. :P

[Aikenrooster]

I love the food they produce, but don't like to put in the time it takes to smoke meat. A crock pot seems so much easier. :P

yeah, a smoker is for lazy people, like me. I think these new pellet smokers auto feed themselves, so you don't have to quite be on top of it all the time.

[Tinwoodsman]

I love eating but hate cooking. The smoker works great for a bachelor. A BBQ backup kills 2 birds with one stone unless one is just plain frugal. Just don't plan a meal for 20.

 

Hunters' dream.

[Aikenrooster]

I love eating but hate cooking. The smoker works great for a bachelor. A BBQ backup kills 2 birds with one stone unless one is just plain frugal. Just don't plan a meal for 20.

 

Hunters' dream.

I've had to learn to cook for myself for 2 1/2 years now. I've learned a lot. Always been good on the smoker, but I've learned how to make side dishes like squash casserole, baked macaroni, southern style, and scalloped potatoes, etc. I can make a good catfish stew and deer cubed steak and onions. Thank goodness for the internet !!! Particularly, Food Network and New York Times recipes.

[Tinwoodsman]

I love eating but hate cooking. The smoker works great for a bachelor. A BBQ backup kills 2 birds with one stone unless one is just plain frugal. Just don't plan a meal for 20.

 

Hunters' dream.

I've had to learn to cook for myself for 2 1/2 years now. I've learned a lot. Always been good on the smoker, but I've learned how to make side dishes like squash casserole, baked macaroni, southern style, and scalloped potatoes, etc. I can make a good catfish stew and deer cubed steak and onions. Thank goodness for the internet !!! Particularly, Food Network and New York Times recipes.

 

You are doing well! There is no easy recipe. It takes work. I am from a long way away. Good food is good!

[HemiBeers]

Mrs. Hemibeers got me a smoker for christmas, birthday, anniversery, or some gift exchange event, a few years ago. My initial thought was 'why do i need to start cooking dinner 6-8 hours before dinner?'. I think she wanted smoked meats much more than me. If it takes more than 15 minutes on a grill, I lose my patience.

 

I ended up selling the f***ing thing 3 months later on craigslist, still in the unopened box. Call me a terrible person, but if I don't want to use something, I don't buy it. I just don't like spending money on shit that I know I won't use. Family has finally figured out my raging pragmatism the last few years.

 

BTW my brother was on The Price is Right a few years ago and won a bigass smoker. Yeah the meat tastes good, but not worth babysitting for hours.

[Crimsonmistymemory]

I have an electric smoker and L O V E it! It's basically a small electric oven with a port (on the side so you don't have to open the smoker and lose your target temp) that you add wood chips of your choice (hickory, mesquite, apple etc.) that get deposited on a tray just over the heating element. You add the chips every now and then as much or as little as you want for the amount of smoke flavor you want your food to have. There is a pan for keeping water in and catch drippings. There is the brain box that you set your time and temperature. Put the food in and other than the occasional check or to add wood chips it's about as set it & forget it as it gets! I have done whole turkeys, brisket, chicken, lamb, pork, fish etc. along with a variety of veggies. Some days I will bring it to work and do a "smoker Friday" which is load it up with marinated & injected chicken drumsticks. As long as the smoker is up to temp by 7:30am (we start at 7am) by noon the crew is eating good! My smoker was pretty cheap too! I think I paid about $125.00 (USD) about 3-4 years ago! Definitely got my $$$'s worth out of it! I looked into the pellet type smokers that use compressed wood pellets and automatically feeds them to the burn box. These types of electronic smokers were way more expensive than the one I bought and the pellets were proprietary and waaay more expensive than buying a bag of wood chips. The most I have ever spent on wood chips is about $7. And that was for the Jack Daniels chipped oak bourbon barrels. Oak is personally my favorite smoking wood but something about the oak that is infused with Bourbon just has extra depth and notes! I imagine the grill in the video from the OP uses propriety wood to. Probably not cheap either. But if one is shelling out $900 bucks to have something to cook on, it may not be a bother. Oh on another note I'm still get hell from my "real smoker" buddies but I 'll be damned every time they come over to break bread it's nothing but compliments about my smoked food! Good food is good food and if one can get the same results with minimal effort I am all for it! Edited February 2, 2019 by Crimsonmistymemory

[ILSnwdog]

I bought a Traeger a month ago. It’s amazing! The Traeger website has awesome recipes. I’ve made pulled pork twice, and it was so delicious! The first brisket I made was tasty, but tough. I rushed it. Yesterday, I did a whole brisket, and I woke up at 5:00 AM to make sure I had plenty of time for it to cook. It took 12 hours and I gave it an hour to rest...and it was so tender and delicious. Today I made “3 2 1” ribs. 3 hours at 180, then wrap’em in aluminum foil with brown sugar and apple juice for 2 hours at 225. Then take them out of the foil for a bath in Sweet Baby Ray’s and 1 hour at 180 again. Best ribs I’ve ever eaten.

 

If you love eating good food, a good smoker takes cooking to a new level.

[Fordgalaxy]

I bought a Traeger a month ago. It’s amazing! The Traeger website has awesome recipes. I’ve made pulled pork twice, and it was so delicious! The first brisket I made was tasty, but tough. I rushed it. Yesterday, I did a whole brisket, and I woke up at 5:00 AM to make sure I had plenty of time for it to cook. It took 12 hours and I gave it an hour to rest...and it was so tender and delicious. Today I made “3 2 1” ribs. 3 hours at 180, then wrap’em in aluminum foil with brown sugar and apple juice for 2 hours at 225. Then take them out of the foil for a bath in Sweet Baby Ray’s and 1 hour at 180 again. Best ribs I’ve ever eaten.

 

If you love eating good food, a good smoker takes cooking to a new level.

 

I've started seeing commercials for Traegers over the past week or so and I don't recall seeing any previously. Coincidence?

[ILSnwdog]

I bought a Traeger a month ago. It’s amazing! The Traeger website has awesome recipes. I’ve made pulled pork twice, and it was so delicious! The first brisket I made was tasty, but tough. I rushed it. Yesterday, I did a whole brisket, and I woke up at 5:00 AM to make sure I had plenty of time for it to cook. It took 12 hours and I gave it an hour to rest...and it was so tender and delicious. Today I made “3 2 1” ribs. 3 hours at 180, then wrap’em in aluminum foil with brown sugar and apple juice for 2 hours at 225. Then take them out of the foil for a bath in Sweet Baby Ray’s and 1 hour at 180 again. Best ribs I’ve ever eaten.

 

If you love eating good food, a good smoker takes cooking to a new level.

 

I've started seeing commercials for Traegers over the past week or so and I don't recall seeing any previously. Coincidence?

Yes, it’s my doing. :lol:

[goose]

I bought a Traeger a month ago. It’s amazing! The Traeger website has awesome recipes. I’ve made pulled pork twice, and it was so delicious! The first brisket I made was tasty, but tough. I rushed it. Yesterday, I did a whole brisket, and I woke up at 5:00 AM to make sure I had plenty of time for it to cook. It took 12 hours and I gave it an hour to rest...and it was so tender and delicious. Today I made “3 2 1” ribs. 3 hours at 180, then wrap’em in aluminum foil with brown sugar and apple juice for 2 hours at 225. Then take them out of the foil for a bath in Sweet Baby Ray’s and 1 hour at 180 again. Best ribs I’ve ever eaten.

 

If you love eating good food, a good smoker takes cooking to a new level.

 

I've started seeing commercials for Traegers over the past week or so and I don't recall seeing any previously. Coincidence?

Yes, it’s my doing. :lol:

:lol:

 

I have friends with Traegers and the food they make is fantastic. In general, I don't have the patience for cooking with a smoker.

[thesweetscience]

I love smoked food and I do it all on my old charcoal grill with a side smoker box. I actually enjoy the process of managing the smoke and the temperature.

[ILSnwdog]

I tried smoking salmon. It was amazing! It’s quite a process though. You brine it one night, then rinse all the spices off, and let dry overnight. Then it gets smoked for about 4 hours. It was so good.

 

I have a pork belly curing in the fridge. I can smoke it on Friday and have homemade bacon this weekend. :drool:

[Julista]

On 2/22/2021 at 7:13 AM, ILSnwdog said:

I bought a Traeger a month ago, it’s amazing! The Traeger website has awesome recipes. I’ve made pulled pork twice, and it was so delicious! The first brisket I made was tasty, but tough. I rushed it. Yesterday, I did a whole brisket, and I woke up at 5:00 AM to make sure I had plenty of time for it to cook. It took 12 hours and I gave it an hour to rest...and it was so tender and delicious. Today I made “3 2 1” ribs. 3 hours at 180, then wrap’em in aluminum foil with brown sugar and apple juice for 2 hours at 225. Then take them out of the foil for a bath in Sweet Baby Ray’s and 1 hour at 180 again. Best ribs I’ve ever eaten.

 

If you love eating good food, a good smoker takes cooking to a new level.

I was surprised to find a fan of Rush and Traeger here  I was thinking about having it in the closest future but now I see that this is a really good desicion to purchase it now

Edited August 12, 2022 by Julista

[BigMontanaSKY]

Bumping this since I have access to a smoker now. w0000

[Prime Mover and Shaker]

On 12/17/2018 at 12:33 PM, workingcinderellaman said:

As someone who loves to grill, rotisserie and smoke meat, this is something I've wanted for a while. Traeger started it all,

 

 

 

But now there are other options:

 

 

 

Anyone have a wood pellet smoker/grill?

 

 

I feel like I've come.... well, not exactly full circle, but...

 

When I first started grilling, I tried a few devices on a standard grill to get some smoke flavor, but was never really satisfied.

 

I eventually got a Traeger, and it opened up many possibilities, and I learned a lot.  I think the pellets do a fine job, but I still wasn't immediately satisfied with how I could control the amount of smoke I was getting.

 

It began to dawn on me over the learning process the importance of thinking about smoking and cooking as two separate steps.   I find I can get more of what I am after by approaching things this way.

 

But that eventually led me to the notion that one can easily get the smoke out of pellets without making much of an investment at all.  I invested $15 in a smoking tube:  Amazon.com : LIZZQ Premium Pellet Smoker Tube 12" (Set of 2) - 5 Hours of Billowing Smoke, Hot or Cold Smoking, for Any Grill or Smoker, An Easy and Safe Way to Provide Smoking, Free eBook Grilling Ideas & Recipes : Patio, Lawn & Garden

 

So now I can add the smoke I want in a cold state, and then cook later.  Which also allows some marinading in between, and for a rub/oil to sit overnight if desired.  Then the day of the meal just involves cooking time.  

 

I still have the Traeger, because it hasn't broken... but I don't really use it as much of a smoker.  Just a glorified grill. 

 

We recently purchased a second house (in MI, to get out of the AZ heat in the summer).  At this new house, I bought a gas grill with a sear burner.  Between this grill and a smoking tube, I can really get a lot done.

 

(although there is a bit of a learning curve with a sear grill;  some accidental well done happened once or twice ;) ).    

 

 

 

  

[workingcinderellaman]

15 hours ago, Prime Mover and Shaker said:

 

 

I feel like I've come.... well, not exactly full circle, but...

 

When I first started grilling, I tried a few devices on a standard grill to get some smoke flavor, but was never really satisfied.

 

I eventually got a Traeger, and it opened up many possibilities, and I learned a lot.  I think the pellets do a fine job, but I still wasn't immediately satisfied with how I could control the amount of smoke I was getting.

 

It began to dawn on me over the learning process the importance of thinking about smoking and cooking as two separate steps.   I find I can get more of what I am after by approaching things this way.

 

But that eventually led me to the notion that one can easily get the smoke out of pellets without making much of an investment at all.  I invested $15 in a smoking tube:  Amazon.com : LIZZQ Premium Pellet Smoker Tube 12" (Set of 2) - 5 Hours of Billowing Smoke, Hot or Cold Smoking, for Any Grill or Smoker, An Easy and Safe Way to Provide Smoking, Free eBook Grilling Ideas & Recipes : Patio, Lawn & Garden

 

So now I can add the smoke I want in a cold state, and then cook later.  Which also allows some marinading in between, and for a rub/oil to sit overnight if desired.  Then the day of the meal just involves cooking time.  

 

I still have the Traeger, because it hasn't broken... but I don't really use it as much of a smoker.  Just a glorified grill. 

 

We recently purchased a second house (in MI, to get out of the AZ heat in the summer).  At this new house, I bought a gas grill with a sear burner.  Between this grill and a smoking tube, I can really get a lot done.

 

(although there is a bit of a learning curve with a sear grill;  some accidental well done happened once or twice ;) ).    

 

 

 

  

My son does something like that with his grill. I haven't tried it but it sounds like a great idea.