Date Night Doins BBQ For Two
Backyard Grilling, Barbeque Recipes, HowTo's, Ideas for Outdoor Cooking, BBQ, Grilling and Smoking
with Pellets, Gas, Charcoal and Wood using
Royall, Traeger, Char-Broil, CharmGlow, Brinkman,
and Weber Grills
Traeger Grill Tips
I have a Traeger BBQ075, hands down this is the best grill I have ever owned. I have been grilling and BBQing for the last 35 years so I have had both the pleasure to have some fine grills and I have also experienced junk. Traeger makes it easy for anyone to be a “Grillmaster”. The first thing that got my attention was that the Traeger is a “Digital Smoker”. I had never heard of anything like that. I have always done my smoking where you are always feeding wood into the fire box and trying to maintain a steady temperature. This can be a real chore when your smoking something like pork butt for 14 hours. The fun then becomes a lot of work. With the Traeger you just set the temperature you want , note the time and that’s it. I use a kitchen timer a lot. It truly is all about “ Time and Temperature”. (Just like your oven.)
A Loaded Traeger
From the day we brought our Traeger home I have been giving it a real work out. We smoked a capon, a tri-tip and some assorted sausages, along with our garlic pie. Then, topped it all off with our grilled peaches. I wanted to see this thing in action. And to tell you the truth, I don’t know yet how to dance with this grill as I do my others. (I have a wall of “Q’s” on our patio.) But, we are warming up quite nicely.
I was a little confused at first about how much the “pellet feed system” would need to hold a temp of 350 for an hour. A lot? A little? Everyone I asked just said to "fill the hopper". Not being made of money I wanted to know if I was also stuffing money down the hopper.
The Hopper
The Digital Control Panel
Well, I was surprised to learn that I only used about 2 inches of the hopper to do the first burn in and cooked for about 2 more hours. I had a temperature range from 200 to 500 during this time. So it really can put out the BTU’s when you want them. I am more of a low and slow kind of guy so I am thinking that we are going to get along just fine. Queue the dance music, please.
Traeger Tips
We use our grill 4 to 6 days a week. We are always working on new recipes, most good and some we won't talk about. So I think we may use ours more than most folks.
This means that I need to clean it more often. Most of us will only need to clean out the fire box once a month or so, or you can think of it like every 4 or 5 times if you have long cooking times. It is no big deal, but it heats and burns better if you do. It is easy to do.
Cleaning
1. Lift out the cooking grid
2. Lift out the drip pan
3. Lift out the fire pot cover
4. Clean out fire pot with a shop vac. Make sure it is off or even better, unplug it.
( if you don’t have a shop vac you can use a bent tablespoon)
5. Clean out the V channel grease catcher
6. Clean out the bottom by either using a vac or brush.
Clean Firepot Out with a Shop Vac
Always put clean foil over the drip pan every time you use your grill. Easy to do and keeps clean up simple.
Pellets:
I get a lot of questions about pellets, it’s real simple. Use what you like, there are no rules about what you have to do. Experiment , try a few different kinds , maybe mix a few until you find your favorite. Some wood leaves a heavy smoke flavor, like hickory or oak. Use that for beef of chicken. Others are lighter, try these on pork, fish or again, chicken. Go to our “Smoking on the Grill” page. There is a list of different kinds of wood and what they go well with . But all that’s important is finding what you like.
Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste. Take it and run with it….
Traeger Support:
I have not had the need to call Traeger before, but I thought I would just to see what they had to say. My drip pan is really warped, doesn’t hurt anything. But it makes it a little harder to get it in and out for cleaning.
I talked to Joel and told him what was going on and that I probably use my Traeger more than most folks. He asked me for the Model # and serial # and my address. He said he would “send out a new one today”.
Again, this is something I have not experienced before. No argument, no hassle, just “I’ll send you out a new one”. Awesome.
Send me your Traeger thoughts or tips and we will post them.
kenfisher@datenightdoins.com
Hey, if you are interested in learning more about Traeger Grills or for fine meats and sausages for your grill, go see Jacob. He is a Sausage Meister and we are not kidding. If you get a chance, go and see him. It will be a fun day trip. (Take an ice chest; we always fill up a big one.) Or check him out @ www.tandhsausage.com or call him 760 471- 9192.
