Anyone own a Traeger Smoker?

[phillihp23]

My natural gas BBQ is on its last leg (lasted 20 years so not complaining) but I will be looking at upgrading next year. My question is is there a Smoker combo available that you can do both BBQ and smoke on the same unit? Plus I want natural gas not propane and electric is too expensive to operate.

The answer is yes, and yes. You just have too look around a bit and find one. My grill is custom built in, I run it on a natural gas line at the house, and it has a chip box with a dedicated flame under it to smoke. There's equipment out there specific to each cooking style, or you can find something that kinda does both.

I have this one without the cart in a outdoor kitchen of sorts.

 

[GFOviedo]

Those pics are a veritable feast for the eyes! Wow

Thank you. Everything I've cooked in this little barrel comes out excellent. Pretty much everyone loves to eat my meat! Yet, I can tell you it takes some work. That's the reason why I have been pondering about trying out a pellet smoker. It's easier. You set the temperature, put the meat in, put the temp. thermometer in the meet, set up your phone app, and let it cook. So much easier than my little barrel smoker. However, I have heard that the meat in pellet smoker grills are as smoky compared to a regular smoker. I am not sure if this is true or not since I haven't tried any meats cooked in a pellet smoker. Can anyone else on here who has had experience with both confirm this?

 

[Todd Anderson]

I've smoked three meats in the Traeger that my fam gave me... honestly, the meat doesn't strike me as being under smoked (flavor-wise). I wish we could run an A-B comparison!!!

 

[mechman]

I don't worry about smoke towards the end of any of my cooks. The meat stops taking most of the smoke once it reaches a certain temp - which is usually within a few hours depending upon what you're cooking. After that it's pointless to throw smoke at it in my opinion. Although in my Kamado, the chunks I use smoke for several hours - like 7 or more.

 

[GFOviedo]

I don't worry about smoke towards the end of any of my cooks. The meat stops taking most of the smoke once it reaches a certain temp - which is usually within a few hours depending upon what you're cooking. After that it's pointless to throw smoke at it in my opinion. Although in my Kamado, the chunks I use smoke for several hours - like 7 or more.

That's the reason why smoking my meat is a low temp slow process that can take up to 16 hours depending on my meat size!

 

[Michael Scott]

I've smoked three meats in the Traeger that my fam gave me... honestly, the meat doesn't strike me as being under smoked (flavor-wise). I wish we could run an A-B comparison!!!

I've smoked three meats in the Traeger that my fam gave me... honestly, the meat doesn't strike me as being under smoked (flavor-wise). I wish we could run an A-B comparison!!!

My buddy and my brother had a Traeger at one point and I wasn't happy with it. way undersmoked compared to what I'm used to with lump coal (I'm a charcoal fanatic). The thing is, I think part of it is growing up in the southwest where when we smoke meats, we SMOKE meats. Heavy mesquite and hickory, so switching to the lighter flavor that pellets give is a bit of a shock.

and Mechman is right, unless you're doing a stupidly low temperature smoke chunks are only necessary the first 3 hours, maybe 4, before the meat stops absorbing the smoke. Even though my chunks can continue to smoke for 5+ hours on the initial addition I'm not too worried about adding my chunks to the mix as past the 4 hour mark there's not much of a benefit.

If you're going pellet though, there are some nifty specialty pellets that have more smoke potential than the Traeger brand pellets. There's a wicked mesquite pellet manufacturer in Tucson itself that we used and it gave a surprising amount of smoke for a pellet smoker. Not as much my drum style smoker with 6 chunks of mesquite, but a solid amount (we use mesquite in everything down here. You've never tried home made bacon until you've tried it with mesquite. Most people go towards hickory or applewood for bacon because it's traditional, but mesquite bacon has a really nice flavor that's unprecedented. Especially since pork absorbs smoke like no other)

 

[mechman]

Mesquite bacon... I’m going to have to ty that!

 

[Michael Scott]

it's amazing. I use 2/3 mesquite with 1/3 hickory for my bacon these days. it makes it a spicy bacon, especially if you crust it in pepper before the smoke