Tragers are nice, they just recently however switched to being made in usa to be made in china, and people say the quality has dropped a little The way I understand it is they used to hold the patent for pellet grills, once it expired the family sold the company off and the current owner farmed out the manufacturing overseas, they used be make them Oregon I believe I own a Green Mountain ( made in China as well) that i really like bottom line there are alot of Pellet grill manufactures to chose from, just like wood / pellet stoves for home heating Here is a pellet grill forum link that has some outstanding info on it about pellet grilling and grills ( like we have about wood burning) Yes I belong to it under the same username I know Mike from Englander could probably provide more info, they make a high quality pellet grill as well, and he belongs to this site, I just cant recall his username. I hope he reads this and chimes in as well http://pelletheads.com/
I have always heard good things about the Traeger grills but I would second looking at the englander pellet grill also.
here is a thread I started about pellet grills awhile ago, http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/threads/anyone-else-here-run-a-pellet-grill.6329/
Great feedback. Thanks. I was just in the showroom looking at some other stuff and noticed these. They looked awesome. Wife and I both like to cook outside and are always looking for alternatives to fossil fuels like propane and charcoal. I think I will look further into pellet grills.
They're. Awesome. This is a pork picnic smoked for 9 hours on a lil Tex with digital controller. It pulled apart like a dream. The leftovers make excellent pulled pork tacos. Just freeze in 1 lb packages, pull out of freezer, simmer in water with taco seasoning for 30 minutes and you have the best taco meat on the planet!
Sweet! That looks delicious. I'm thinking of transitioning from store bought charcoal to home grown firewood. Pellets are sort of in-between.
My only complaint is that they don't do the best job of searing a ribeye so that the outside has a nice crust and the inside is medium rare, although there are things you can do to make them work better for that. Still no complaints with the steaks, they come out great as I like them medium or so also.
Stick burners are awesome, I just like being able to set a dial to where I want it and forget about it until it's done. With charcoal/wood you kind of have to keep an eye on temp fluctuations etc. I don't have a problem with that and I still have a charcoal smoker, but the Traeger is just to easy. I can turn it on and go spend a day with the lady running errands and grocery shopping and not worry that the grill is going out of control or dying out. IF you get one, I would suggest the digital controller, the analog one is LAME sauce as it only has 3 temp settings.
Have you ever tried "sous-vide"? This is putting the meat in a vacuum bag and heating it throughout, then, taking it out of the bag and searing the outside. This allows you to get the center up to a goodt temperature without overcooking the outside. As it is, I save all my venison steaks in vacuum bags before I freeze them, so it wouldn't be any extra work to warm/cook in water first then throw on the grill to finish. I'm definitely going to experiment in the near future.
I have not, might have to look into that method. I don't care if the inside is raw, I just want a crispy outside which is tough with the Treager without removing the drip shield and the heat shield. The Traeger is more like a convection smoker than a grill when it comes right down to it lol
Here is the "EXTREME" of sus vide cooking. The host uses hot springs at various temps. to cook meat, fish and vegi's in volcanic heated springs inside of vacuum bags. Pretty F-ing cool, if you ask me. http://www.newscancook.com/tv-series-guide/episode-5-mighty-volcanic-oven/
