After 14 years of using a Treager pellet oven to "grill" with, I've decided to go back to charcoal, as I've never been satisfied with pellet cooking, outside of a couple things. I have a new grill coming but that is not what this is above. This is about experimenting with the Treager using charcoal and wood. It originally had this hang on shelf but I upgraded to the folding bolt on unit and this hung out in the garage until this experiment. I modified this shelf into a grate that sets over the fire pot where pellets normally burn. The fire pot has holes inside of its circumference for air to be forced in with a fan. Normally there is a deflector covering this pot, plus a drip shield then the cooking grate. The drip shield fits over the charcoal grate.
My plan was to try and use the fan to help ignite the charcoal and possibly control the temp with some experiments. It definitely increases lighting speed over any method I tried back when charcoal was all I used. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZHXzZBi1d9UwBhTQA Plus I tried this Milwaukee heat gun and it's what I'll use going forward
A demo of the fan and how it effects burn. https://photos.app.goo.gl/3PoWCCtSkNmQASCZ8 Now, this old grill, er, oven, doesn't use actual temperature to cycle the auger for heat and the fan is always on. The auger runs based on whatever parameters it was made with and the temperature you set the dial at. It basically runs every so many seconds to minutes for a preset amount of time.
I wanted the fan to run intermittently like the auger to hopefully have some control for longer cooking sessions. I found this in the Treager manual. I unplugged the auger from its control harness and plugged the fan into it. Now the fan cycles on and off like I wanted. Below is a test of the fan cycling on / off. https://photos.app.goo.gl/GhniuQfRJ23s7v1WA This session made these chicken thighs. No sauce, just some Watkins chicken seasoning. Almost to much smoke with these but still excellent. I slid the grate against the back wall and laid out the charcoal and wood in a T shape starting at the fire pot and kept the chicken in the front for indirect cooking.
Lastly, I cooked some 81/19 burgers mixed with powdered ranch dressing mix and shredded sharp cheese. This was done right over the coals without the drip shield in a different cook. This experiment has me very excited about grilling again and the new unit that should be here in a few weeks.
Love the ingenuity. Have you thought about using lump? Hotter burn so may need less air and way less ash.
Thank you. I haven't tried lump yet but I plan on it. I've been researching charcoal grilling pretty heavily. B&B seems to be a favorite.
I try to find a brand that I can come by easily but also has quality pieces. Tall order. Until the last few years royal oak was always pretty good. I've noticed the last couple years there tends to be a lot of dust and really small pieces in the bag. So much so that I emailed them about it....their reply was very cookie cutter. Cowboy isn't a bad brand and can be found pretty easily but I still usually just get royal oak because my wife gets it at wal mart at the same time as groceries.
Thank you for the information. I'm not sure why I tolerated the pellet unit so long. I went from a Weber perfomer kettle with the big side table to the Treager thinking I'd get all the charcoal flavor but with gas convenience. I was wrong. It has no direct searing option for steaks and burgers and doesn't make a lot of smoke. I pretty much stopped grilling steaks amd burgers altogether because I didn't want multiple grills and I wasn't into the flavor off the pellet unit. The Treager does make a good smoked salmon and a flavorful pizza. Any whole chickens or turkeys turn out well too if injected but they are more roasted than smoked. I have more time in my life now. The treager is showing its age. Things are getting burn through holes, it keeps burning out the hot rod yearly and sometimes it don't want to shut off. Its time for a new grill and this has prompted me to experiment and relearn charcoal cooking while I wait on the new unit. I'll share it here when it arrives.
There's a place near here called academy sports. Buddy was just there yesterday and sent this pic to me. I just bought a chargriller or I'd be really tempted to get this. He said it's really heavy duty and looks like it's built well.
