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After months and months of reading reviews, googling myself half to death and checking and re-checking the budget, I decided to pull the trigger on a Traeger Texas grill.
I hope I'm not sorry, but only time will tell that tale.
One thing I noticed is that the new Traeger digitals now have a "shut down mode" setting, which shuts down the auger and burns any remaining pellets in the firepot before shutting down the fan as well. Perhaps a change to help deal with some of the "overburn" heard about?
Anyway...here is how it went:
Over all it was a snap...assembly took literally a few minutes and then I did a burn in for an hour or so.
This is how it looked just coming out of the box....note that the hopper, controls and auger are all pre-assembled...that when I knew this would be an easy one.
Opened it to find things well-packed inside.
Heck....they even gave me extras of every hardware item....I don't know about you, but I always lose that last little frigging washer...ya know?
Ok first step....put the legs on...two bolts in each....no prob.
Then put the handle on the door and attach the smokestack with gasket to the unit, and we're done with the major assembly.
Now we get to the "innards"...first the heat deflector goes directly over the firebox.
Then the grease drain which will drain from left to right and into the little bucket you see hanging there...be sure to line that bucket with aluminium foil to make your life a bit easier.
Then the porcelaine cooking grate on top. These three items are heavily coated with manufacturing oils and such, and will be burned off before use.
Done....and ready for a burn in
On the initial burn in, it takes about 5-7 minutes for the suger to feed the pellets into the fire pot and get them lit....everything working well so far.
Brought the temp setting to high and soon had a bit of smoke showing.
The ambient temperature was 50 °F and the wind was a slight breeze.
About five minutes in we were nearing 300°
Ten minutes in we topped 380°
15 minutes in and we are approaching 450°...it topped out over 450, then settled in and ran at about 425 for the rest of the hour burn off procedure.
I let it all cool down and then returned to christen it with some chicken quarters and baked potatoes.
Took the yardbird and rubbed it with some EVOO and then Lawreys salt and Plowboy's yardbird rub.
Heated the grill to 375 and let her rip.
Don't know if you can see it because the wind was howling by this time, but we had some nice thin blue smoke here.
Cooked it over hickory pellets and even with the wind, the grill held 375 very nicely....there will be a slight learning curve here. The chicken cooked more quickly than I thought it would...it was up to 190° in an hour....but was very nice and juicy.
I didn't take a picture after cutting into it, but I should have...it developed a nice little smoke ring in just an hour....tasty, juicy and with a touch of smoke...not overpowering.
I'm quite pleased with the first cook....check back often...I will try to post most of my learning curve with this Traeger.
I hope I'm not sorry, but only time will tell that tale.
One thing I noticed is that the new Traeger digitals now have a "shut down mode" setting, which shuts down the auger and burns any remaining pellets in the firepot before shutting down the fan as well. Perhaps a change to help deal with some of the "overburn" heard about?
Anyway...here is how it went:
Over all it was a snap...assembly took literally a few minutes and then I did a burn in for an hour or so.
This is how it looked just coming out of the box....note that the hopper, controls and auger are all pre-assembled...that when I knew this would be an easy one.
Opened it to find things well-packed inside.
Heck....they even gave me extras of every hardware item....I don't know about you, but I always lose that last little frigging washer...ya know?
Ok first step....put the legs on...two bolts in each....no prob.
Then put the handle on the door and attach the smokestack with gasket to the unit, and we're done with the major assembly.
Now we get to the "innards"...first the heat deflector goes directly over the firebox.
Then the grease drain which will drain from left to right and into the little bucket you see hanging there...be sure to line that bucket with aluminium foil to make your life a bit easier.
Then the porcelaine cooking grate on top. These three items are heavily coated with manufacturing oils and such, and will be burned off before use.
Done....and ready for a burn in
On the initial burn in, it takes about 5-7 minutes for the suger to feed the pellets into the fire pot and get them lit....everything working well so far.
Brought the temp setting to high and soon had a bit of smoke showing.
The ambient temperature was 50 °F and the wind was a slight breeze.
About five minutes in we were nearing 300°
Ten minutes in we topped 380°
15 minutes in and we are approaching 450°...it topped out over 450, then settled in and ran at about 425 for the rest of the hour burn off procedure.
I let it all cool down and then returned to christen it with some chicken quarters and baked potatoes.
Took the yardbird and rubbed it with some EVOO and then Lawreys salt and Plowboy's yardbird rub.
Heated the grill to 375 and let her rip.
Don't know if you can see it because the wind was howling by this time, but we had some nice thin blue smoke here.
Cooked it over hickory pellets and even with the wind, the grill held 375 very nicely....there will be a slight learning curve here. The chicken cooked more quickly than I thought it would...it was up to 190° in an hour....but was very nice and juicy.
I didn't take a picture after cutting into it, but I should have...it developed a nice little smoke ring in just an hour....tasty, juicy and with a touch of smoke...not overpowering.
I'm quite pleased with the first cook....check back often...I will try to post most of my learning curve with this Traeger.
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