My Traeger after 6 + Years

I bought my Traeger 07E from my butcher Kah Meats in 2010.

Yesterday I washed down my Traeger with some simple green. The lid was getting pretty brown but got most of it off. Today applied a coat of mineral oil to it. For being used 6 years it almost looks new. I had sanded down the smoke stack, paint pealed due to operator error and got too hot. The barrel under the lid was corroded some from drips; I sanded it down and repainted it and the stack with some hi-heat Rustoliem. Other than that the rest of the paint is in good shape.

When I bought it in 2010 I joined a forum for pellet smokers and a lot of people were adding fire bricks in the bottom. The thinking was the bricks acted like a heat sink and held temps better especially over long cooks and they would help during cold winter weather. Five of the fire bricks fit into my Traeger, two on each side of the auger tube and one across the end of the fire box. Last summer I took them out and have never put them back in. Did they help, I am not really sure. Last winter I did not note that I burned more pellets without them, but it was a mild winter. Some in more northern areas may find they help.

Most manufacturers sell insulated covers for winter use. I did use a welding blanket the first winter but it was kind of a pain taking off & back on except for long cooks.  I think wind effects heat loss more so than cold weather. In the winter mine is pretty well protected from any wind.

After a couple of years my heat shield got a bad warp and would not set down right. Instead of buying a new one I got 3 steel plates, ¼  X 4 X 12 inches and bolted them to the underside of the shield and it took the warp out. I also get the effect of the steel acting as a heat sink and maybe that’s why I don’t miss the bricks.

I loved cooking on my Traeger and the only complaint was like all had with Traegers; the wild temp swings it would take at times. Mine had the 180 controller on it. Ortech was the manufacturer of the Traeger controllers and came out with one of their own that was supposed to be better than the Traegers so I bought one. For me it was worse than the Traeger controller.

In 2014 I was finally able to buy a Savannah Stocker Controller V.3 from Billy Merrill. It has been great for me; from 180 deg. to 250 deg. it holds usually +- 15 deg. with enough cycles to give out good smoke. At higher temps it will hold +- 10 deg. and usually +-5 deg. After opening the lid sometimes I will get a 20 to 30 deg. overshoot when it tries to recover but will correct itself.

I had problems with burn back, pellets in the auger tube burning; this is usually indicated by smoke coming from the pellet bin. This happened mostly after shutting down. I installed a manual switch so I could run the fan after a shutdown. After a higher heat cook I lower the temp and don’t shut down until I am below 250 deg. The Savannah Stocker has a shutdown mode where it continues to run the fan until it’s below 120 deg.

Most of the new pellet smokers now have PID controllers and are a lot better than the Traeger. Traeger recently updated their controller and now claim they guarantee it to hold temps +- 15 deg. If that holds true it’s not bad. I have not read any reports from new owners.

Not everyone can afford $1200 plus for a smoker so one at $700 is pretty inviting. Another smoker in that price range is the new Camp Chef and they have pretty high quality cooking equipment. 

Instant Pot Smoked Andouille, White Beans, Kimchi and Kale Soup

Sept 09 2016

My wife went to a concert with our daughter last night so it was time for me to cook something with beans. I had about a half quart of my kimchi left and wanted to use it in a hot dish. I have been making kimchi for years but never used it in a hot dish. Some sausage, beans and kale soup sounded perfect to add it in. I got some good andouille sausage from my butcher Kah Meats to use. I smoked it in my Traeger at 190 deg. for an hour and a half.

I have now used my Instant Pot to steam corn, make shredded beef, and cook some Hungarian beef and now to make soup. It is great to be able to sauté in the same pot and along with the glass lid it makes a great storage pot for the fridge.

I had some bread and butter with the soup and it was full of flavor. The heat from the andouille and the kimchi made it just right for me. Soup does taste good on a hot day if you're in air conditioning!

Click Here for printable recipe

The Andouille

Smoked in my Traeger

Ready for the pot

Onions and garlic in

A little stock and andouille added

Rest of stock, seasoning and kimchi added

Kale added in

My supper

Instant Pot Hungarian Beef over Spaetzel Noodles

Sept 07 2016

91 deg. and 61% humidity and that’s too hot for me to cook out.  The grandson was coming after school to mow but told him it was too hot.

I would use my Instant pot and enjoy cooking in the air conditioning! I found a recipe by Amelia Lundy of Food 52 for Hungarian Beef. All the ingredients sounded great to me. She did hers in a cast iron pot but thought I could adapt it for my Instant Pot. She used sirloin beef; I used a beef chuck roast that I trimmed and sliced in inch thick sliced. I changed some of the ingredients and read several other recipes for pressure cooker beef stew to give me an idea on times.

I had a plan; I would brown the beef on sauté mode, deglaze the pan then add all back in and cook on “Meat Stew:” for 25 minutes. After the 25 minutes I let set a few minutes then manually released the steam to check the meat doneness. It was fine so I shredded it and back in the pot and left on warm hold while I cooked my spaetzel noodles.

I had some red beets for a side and served it with bread and butter. Tasted great, we have been eating a lot of summer dishes and sandwiches so was ready for a more comforting meal! Next time I may thicken the sauce at the end even though it was tasty and made good sop for the bread.

I did one no no; I forgot to add the paprika! I should know my now about any Hungarian dish requires paprika!

Click Here for printable recipe
Click Here for Amelia's original recipe

Ingredients

Browning the beef

Stock, beef and carrots added 

Mushrooms added

Onions, garlic in w/rest of the seasoning 

Wine poured over

Beef shredded and added back to pot

Cooking the noodles

My supper

Beer Brats, 1 Portabella Sandwich, cheesy pasta and asparagus

Sept 05 2016

It was a pretty busy week end here. Our daughter came home Sat. to stay. Last Thursday I had done pulled pork and Friday I did a Cuban chicken for our supper so had plenty of leftovers for the week end.

Saturday at 5:30 the grandson and other young soccer players got to run on the field with the High School team during introduction. We had to go see that. Not sure why they start a game right at supper time! I was hungry so had to have a hot dog & some popcorn. I didn’t stay long; the wife and daughter stayed and then they all went out to eat after the game.

Sunday we stopped to see my 94 yr. old Mother and went to see my daughter who is in a rest home from a stroke. I had a cooler full of my leftovers I vacuum sealed and froze I took to her husband. This always leaves me depressed a few days. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel and ate before heading home.

For today I did beer brats, one portabella burger for the daughter in law, Bob Evens pasta w/double cheese and apple wood smoked bacon and some fresh asparagus. A few years back I would want most of my side dishes made from scratch. Getting older I use some shortcuts for easier meal prep. Bob Evan’s sides are all pretty good.

For the brats I added some sliced onions to a pan with some butter and it went on my Traeger at 185 deg. along with the brats for an hour. After a half hour I added a can of beer to the onions. I had my Weber Spirit heated on Med, about 400 deg. and browned the brats about 4 minutes per side and then they went in the beer bath on my smoker.

I had chopped some red pepper and onions for the portabellas. I had cleaned the stem and ribs from the mushrooms and seasoned with some garlic herb salt. I sprayed them with a little olive oil and they went rib side down about 3 minutes the turned them and filled with the peppers & onions, shredded mozzarella and some shredded Manchego cheese. They were on 4 to 5 minutes to melt the cheese. My wife was heating the pasta and the asparagus in the microwave. I had drizzled the asparagus with olive oil and white balsamic vinegar and seasoned with garlic herb salt.

We all thought it was good. The Bob Evens pasta is pretty darn good for bought and an easy side. Our daughter would never eat asparagus but my wife told her to try the fresh. She did and went back for seconds. There was sauerkraut and mustard for the brats; I had Maille mustard and some of my Kimchi on mine.

Brats & onions on the smoker

Browning the brats on my gas grill

Brats added to the beer & onions

Portabellas done

Daughter in law's sandwich

My supper

Cuban Chicken with Red Beans and Rice

Sept 02 2016

Back in the 60’s while stationed at the Homestead AFB I ate in a Cuban restaurant in Coral Cables. The menu was in Spanish so I ask the waitress & she recommended the chicken. It was a chicken breast and one of the best I ever had. It was infused with a lime citrus and cumin flavor that seamed a part of the meat. I don’t remember the sides but probably rice and black beans. Ever since then I have tried to duplicate the chicken; I have come close but not the same.

I found a recipe that I wanted to try but adapted some by mostly adding orange juice to the marinade. I had a 5 ½ pound organic chicken to use. I had it in the marinade 3 ½ hours then drained on a rack and added the ½ lime and onion to the cavity and some adobe seasoning.

It went on my Traeger that was heated to 190 deg. for a half hour of smoke then I eased the temp up to 350 deg. grill level. It took a total of 2 ½ hours to get it to 180 deg. breast IT. I basted it a couple times with some garlic butter.

Normally Cuban chicken is served with white rice and black beans; the wife does not like them so I had some Zatarain’s red beans and rice. I had a mix of Cuban and Cajun.  We had some buttered English muffins with it.

It all tasted pretty well, not a winner on the chicken but close. The skin was not that crisp but was edible and tasted good. The Zatarain’s red beans and rice is not as good as made from scratch but is good in a pinch and easy to make quick.

Click Here for printable recipe

Ingredients

Marinated & ready to smoke

All done

Resting

My supper

Pulled Pork Sandwich, Mac n Cheese & Asparagus

Sept 2016

Well August is over and I hope the hot humid weather is gone too. It was a nice 73 deg. day today; mostly sunny. I had no pork in the freezer so time to do some pulled pork. I had a 9.5 pound butt from my butcher. Last night I trimmed most of the pound of fat cap off.

Most of the pork butts I have done were not injected with any flavoring. I like molasses for the glue and a good rub. The molasses gives a good bark and I freeze most of it for later then I can add any flavors I want when I use it. I decided to inject this one, I did get a new injector a while back so need to justify why I bought it!

This is kind of a cross between Tee’s (a LTBBQ Member) and Chris Lily’s recipe. I got up at 5:00 am this morning and rubbed what was the fat cap side with a little olive oil then seasoned well with Savor’s Fine Swine & Bovine. I then turned it over and injected it with the mix. I then seasoned it well with Fine Swine & Bovine.

I got my Traeger heated to 195 deg. and got the butt on at 6:00 AM. I baby sat it for a while then went back to bed for a couple of hours. I had my Maverick remote to keep check on the smoker.

After 3 hours on smoke at 9:00 I went to 225 deg. on my controller and was getting about 240 deg. grill level. I mixed some Blues Hog Tennessee Red sauce and some of the injection mix 1 to 1 to use as a mop sauce. At 9:30 I started moping every hour. At noon the butt was at 150 deg. IT. At 2:00 it was going into its stall at 165 IT. I double wrapped it in foil and then back on and upped the controller to 235 deg.

I had planned to take it to an IT of 185 deg. then remove the foil for the rest of the cook. I thought this would give me better bark than if I left it wrapped. My only worry was getting it on & off the grill without it falling apart. About 3:10 it hit 185 deg. I removed it and unwrapped and got it back on the grill using a large spatula and some tongs. I had removed the temp probe and when I put it back in that spot was just 180 deg.

I think it went into a 180 deg. stall; it took until 5:50 to get to 195 deg. I did a probe test and it went in like butter so I pulled it off and took it inside; I tented it with foil. I usually like to let it rest in the oven for an hour but we were hungry! I pulled enough apart for two sandwiches.

I was glad I picked two easy sides to fix. I had some Bob Evans mac n cheese with bacon I nuked in the microwave for 5 minutes and a bunch of asparagus drizzled with a little olive oil and a garlic herb salt added nuked for 3 minutes.  We both had some of my butcher’s BBQ sauce on our sandwich. It all tasted good!  The bark was a little crispy and the wife liked it.

After we ate I pulled the rest of it and removed most of the fat. It will set in the fridge overnight then it will vacuum seal better when cold. I left it a little coarse and can always chop smaller later.

The pork butt was $1.89 a pound and I was using Lumberjack pellets; a 1 to 1 mix of oak and a hickory blend. I ended up with about 5 lbs. of pork.

Pork injection
3/4 cup apple juice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup salt, scant
2 tablespoons Worcestershire

Click Here for link to Chris Lily's recipe

Fat cap trimmed

Seasoned fat cap side

Injected and seasoned other side

3 hours in

My Traeger

Ready to foil

Done at 195 deg. IT

Resting

Rough pull to let cool

My supper

Smokin' Pete's New Cookbook

May 27 2016

The “Wood Pellet Smoker & Grill Cookbook” by Peter Jautaikis is a beautiful hardcover cook book and can be bought at Amazon. The front cover shows a mouthwatering photo of a sliced beef brisket.

I first came across Peter, Smoker Pete as he is known at Let’s Talk BBQ forum, about 5 years ago. Commenting on each other’s cooks he became one of many good friends on the forum. He also has a BBQ blog where he is known as Smokin’ Pete, http://www.smokinpetebbq.com/wordpress/

I had his new cookbook on order at Amazon then Pete wrote and asked for my address and the publisher would send me one for free if I would review it on my blog site. I gladly accepted and would have given it a review even if it had not been free. From viewing Pete’s BBQ over the years I knew it would be a good book to have. I wish I had it back when I first bought my Traeger pellet smoker.

It is well laid out with professional photos and the recipes are easy to follow. The front explains how a pellet smoker grill works with all the major parts explained. Some of the newer ones have special plates to insert for searing meats.  He also shows some of the popular accessories.

The recipes cover appetizer and sides, all the meats, beef, pork, poultry, lamb, and seafood. He has a section on extras, just about anything you can do in your indoor oven you can do on a pellet smoker grill. In the back is his Brine and rub recipes. If you try all the recipes it will keep you busy for a long time!

I wanted to do one of his recipes for this review but I am busy for the next week so it will have to wait until I get back from an Ohio LTBBQ gathering next week-end. I wanted to get this posted to let all know there is now a great cookbook available for pellet wood smoker grills.

I highly recommend this for all whether you are a novice or experienced cook. BBQ and cooking is a forever learning craft and no matter how good you get there is always room to learn more.

You can get the book here Amazon

Some views of the cookbook