Photoshop mockup of where this mod is headed... still working on a custom hog butcher diagram and whether I should do it myself via woodburning, or sneak it out to a laser engraver.
Last edited:
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
Pork butt (for pulled pork) on the Traeger. Pic below is right after the stall - wrapping in peach paper and off to 205 we go. I also made homemade baked beans and slaw, nom nom. No plated pics (yet, lots of leftovers).
GrogNerd
mean old man
spares for me (top), baby backs for my baby
just off the smoker, into the oven
just off the smoker, into the oven
Oldskewl
Well-Known Member
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at smoked shotgun shells. Made them as an appetizer for Easter dinner. They turned out great for my first shot at them. Every recipe I looked at was different. I went with beef, finely chopped onion, lots of shredded cheddar and bbq rub stuffed inside manicotti shells. Then wrapped in bacon, more rub and then coated on bbq sauce the last 30 minutes. Smoked 1 Hr 45 min at 250F and then turned up to 275F to help set the sauce the last half hour. I forgot to take the money shot then they were done, just the leftovers.
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
I didn't cook it and I have no pictures, but my daughter's boyfriend smoked/grilled a picanha yesterday that was incredible. I'd never even heard of that cut. He did a reverse sear. Smoked slow up to 105F over pecan wood, then grilled at high heat until medium rare.
My wife usually will eat no steak but filet, but if we're at Fogo de Chao she won't touch it because there is pichana.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Messages
- 4,700
- Reaction score
- 7,178
- Location
- At home, in the brewery in Maryland.
Most impressive!
I finally gave into temptation last week and bought a Traerger 885. Favorably impressed so far after three sessions on the grill. The only glitch was an epic fail trying to get the WiFire to connect with my Android phone with the updated Traeger app. I knew I was doing everything right but the two devices wouldn't connect (via WiFi; no Bluetooth in the app). Finally my son suggested shifting the dual band home router from 5 GHz mode to 2.5 GHz. Immediately connected. (Damn millennials).
So the trial run was a sirloin trip-tip, brined for eight hours with curing salt, dry rubbed with with normal steak seasonings plus a pinch of cayenne and a tablespoon of Demarea sugar. Hickory smoked that bad boy @225F for 4 hours to an internal temp of 130F. Double wrapped in foil for :30 mins while everything else got prepared. Tender, delicious, medium rare perfection. Next trial run was a sockeye salmon filet along side a whole turkey breast. Since the time and temperature requirements were going to be different, I opted to go full manual and bypassed the 'autopilot' cooking programs. The plan was to brine, then smoke the turkey at a higher temperature for a few hours to get the internal temperature jump started, then reduce the temperature to around 180F and smoke the salmon till done, figuring that both pieces would finish at roughly the same time.
The plan was solid, but the performance was less than optimal due to some operator error. I had emptied the pellet bin after the first test run, since I wanted to use alder and apple wood for Test #2 instead of the hickory from Test #1. It ended up with insufficient fuel in the auger and subsequently the fire pot. I started getting a small temperature rise and some light smoke after hitting the igniter so I put the turkey breast on the grill. The next time I checked about 5 minutes later, the temperature hadn't increased (from about 110F) and there was a "Failure to Ignite" error code on the PID. Figuring that the auger had not delivered enough pellets, I went to the main menu and selected "Prime Auger" and hit the igniter again. In about 2~3 minutes there was a COPIOUS amount of smoke surrounding the rig and the temperature was spiking above 300F. Obviously priming the auger resulted in an over-full fire pot. I pulled the meat and let the fire burn down while the temperature stabilized after about half and hour. Disaster averted, lesson learned. Everything turned out well. Nevertheless, I had this subtle feeling that both pieces were slightly dry, though it may have just been a false expectation with me flogging myself for a self-inflicted boneheaded mistake. SWMBO'd was happy, and she is not one to hold back 'constructive criticism' when appropriate. Either that or she was showing some tender mercies for my bruised ego.
Anyway, this was just a prelude to the main event: Easter Sunday Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb. This is a family tradition dating back more than 50 years, so it's not something to be trifled with. The first time I had it was shortly after my (future) father-in-law (a senior Naval officer), had returned from duty in Vietnam. On a stopover in Japan, he had purchased a ceramic grill/smoker that was a traditional Japanese cooker. For decades now, we know them as Big Green Eggs. Anyway, he prepared this leg of lamb to perfection. I'd never tasted anything like it. The recipe actually came from my mother-in-law's side of the family (Swedish/Norwegian), so there's no telling how long the tradition has been going on. Now I was tasked with applying this automated smoker technology in a 'failure is NOT an option' scenario. I bravely set about the task at hand, but with more than just a little trepidation.
First was procuring the meat. I vowed not to go cheap. There's a local country butcher not far from here so I opted 'local' over 'imported, previously frozen'. I was forewarned that the pricing was out of control, and that a whole lamb was selling for $500 on the hoof. One leg, bone in, was proportional, so do the math. The owner himself, a third or fourth generation butcher in the family shop, did the honors of deboning and butterflying the leg. I didn't need the bone, and even though I would have loved to claim the shank, by keeping both of them he gave me a significant price break in the final dressed out leg of lamb. 8# 6 oz. of just about the freshest meat you could possibly get. When I got it home I further trimmed and separated the meat into a 4# roast for Sunday, two 1½# portions frozen for future 2 person meals, plus some scraps to be ground up for Shepard's pie. The primary roast got brined overnight, then marinaded for 4 hours in a French garlic dressing with red wine vinegar and olive oil, secret family recipe.
Smoked for 2½ hours @ 200F, apple and cherry wood combo next to a tin pan of apple juice on the grill for added moisture. When the internal temperature reached 120F, it was flame seared on a Weber gas grill at 700F for four minutes, turning every :30 seconds. Immediately double wrapped in heavy foil right off the searing station for nearly half an hour while everything else on the menu (grilled asparagus, stuffed twice-baked potatoes, kale salad and home baked sour dough rolls) got set out. Adult beverages included a home crafted New Zealand Pinot Noir as well as a boutique vineyard Cabernet from Red Mountain AVA at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Red Mountain AVA is the smallest American Viticultural Area (AVA), producing a very small volume of exceedingly superior domestic red wines. There were even a few Weihenstephaner and Paulaner lagers imbibed pre-dinner, that resulted in the brain lapse of failing to document the event with photographic evidence. You'll just have to take my word on it!
TL;DR : Total success. Meat was superb. Tradition upheld. Week's worth of leftovers in the fridge.
Most impressive!
I finally gave into temptation last week and bought a Traerger 885. Favorably impressed so far after three sessions on the grill. The only glitch was an epic fail trying to get the WiFire to connect with my Android phone with the updated Traeger app. I knew I was doing everything right but the two devices wouldn't connect (via WiFi; no Bluetooth in the app). Finally my son suggested shifting the dual band home router from 5 GHz mode to 2.5 GHz. Immediately connected. (Damn millennials).
So the trial run was a sirloin trip-tip, brined for eight hours with curing salt, dry rubbed with with normal steak seasonings plus a pinch of cayenne and a tablespoon of Demarea sugar. Hickory smoked that bad boy @225F for 4 hours to an internal temp of 130F. Double wrapped in foil for :30 mins while everything else got prepared. Tender, delicious, medium rare perfection. Next trial run was a sockeye salmon filet along side a whole turkey breast. Since the time and temperature requirements were going to be different, I opted to go full manual and bypassed the 'autopilot' cooking programs. The plan was to brine, then smoke the turkey at a higher temperature for a few hours to get the internal temperature jump started, then reduce the temperature to around 180F and smoke the salmon till done, figuring that both pieces would finish at roughly the same time.
The plan was solid, but the performance was less than optimal due to some operator error. I had emptied the pellet bin after the first test run, since I wanted to use alder and apple wood for Test #2 instead of the hickory from Test #1. It ended up with insufficient fuel in the auger and subsequently the fire pot. I started getting a small temperature rise and some light smoke after hitting the igniter so I put the turkey breast on the grill. The next time I checked about 5 minutes later, the temperature hadn't increased (from about 110F) and there was a "Failure to Ignite" error code on the PID. Figuring that the auger had not delivered enough pellets, I went to the main menu and selected "Prime Auger" and hit the igniter again. In about 2~3 minutes there was a COPIOUS amount of smoke surrounding the rig and the temperature was spiking above 300F. Obviously priming the auger resulted in an over-full fire pot. I pulled the meat and let the fire burn down while the temperature stabilized after about half and hour. Disaster averted, lesson learned. Everything turned out well. Nevertheless, I had this subtle feeling that both pieces were slightly dry, though it may have just been a false expectation with me flogging myself for a self-inflicted boneheaded mistake. SWMBO'd was happy, and she is not one to hold back 'constructive criticism' when appropriate. Either that or she was showing some tender mercies for my bruised ego.
Anyway, this was just a prelude to the main event: Easter Sunday Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb. This is a family tradition dating back more than 50 years, so it's not something to be trifled with. The first time I had it was shortly after my (future) father-in-law (a senior Naval officer), had returned from duty in Vietnam. On a stopover in Japan, he had purchased a ceramic grill/smoker that was a traditional Japanese cooker. For decades now, we know them as Big Green Eggs. Anyway, he prepared this leg of lamb to perfection. I'd never tasted anything like it. The recipe actually came from my mother-in-law's side of the family (Swedish/Norwegian), so there's no telling how long the tradition has been going on. Now I was tasked with applying this automated smoker technology in a 'failure is NOT an option' scenario. I bravely set about the task at hand, but with more than just a little trepidation.
First was procuring the meat. I vowed not to go cheap. There's a local country butcher not far from here so I opted 'local' over 'imported, previously frozen'. I was forewarned that the pricing was out of control, and that a whole lamb was selling for $500 on the hoof. One leg, bone in, was proportional, so do the math. The owner himself, a third or fourth generation butcher in the family shop, did the honors of deboning and butterflying the leg. I didn't need the bone, and even though I would have loved to claim the shank, by keeping both of them he gave me a significant price break in the final dressed out leg of lamb. 8# 6 oz. of just about the freshest meat you could possibly get. When I got it home I further trimmed and separated the meat into a 4# roast for Sunday, two 1½# portions frozen for future 2 person meals, plus some scraps to be ground up for Shepard's pie. The primary roast got brined overnight, then marinaded for 4 hours in a French garlic dressing with red wine vinegar and olive oil, secret family recipe.
Smoked for 2½ hours @ 200F, apple and cherry wood combo next to a tin pan of apple juice on the grill for added moisture. When the internal temperature reached 120F, it was flame seared on a Weber gas grill at 700F for four minutes, turning every :30 seconds. Immediately double wrapped in heavy foil right off the searing station for nearly half an hour while everything else on the menu (grilled asparagus, stuffed twice-baked potatoes, kale salad and home baked sour dough rolls) got set out. Adult beverages included a home crafted New Zealand Pinot Noir as well as a boutique vineyard Cabernet from Red Mountain AVA at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Red Mountain AVA is the smallest American Viticultural Area (AVA), producing a very small volume of exceedingly superior domestic red wines. There were even a few Weihenstephaner and Paulaner lagers imbibed pre-dinner, that resulted in the brain lapse of failing to document the event with photographic evidence. You'll just have to take my word on it!
TL;DR : Total success. Meat was superb. Tradition upheld. Week's worth of leftovers in the fridge.
Nice write-up, and congrats on upholding the tradition.
The Traeger is never going to satisfy the traditional ugly drum smoker guys. It doesn't generate enough smoke for enough time, needs to be plugged in, requires a vac (!) to clean out the ashes, doesn't work well in the rain due to the grease bucket being external, etc.
However, I still love mine. I use that smoke tube, which greatly amplifies the smoke level and also allows you to easily change the smoke flavor (change the pellets in the tube, not the Traeger bin). I do like the notifications on my phone when the meat probe hits its target (works away from home, too!).
I recommend the fold-down shelf on the front. Not sure what that accessory costs, but worth it.
With some YouTube study time and a sharp knife, you can start deboning your own leg of lamb... Not sure if the butcher charged extra from trim and debone, but it's not particularly hard to do. Granted, I wouldn't probably choose my first time to do it for a "be prepared to turn the knife on yourself if you screw it up" occasion... But I did it for a Christmas Eve dinner and managed it lol...
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Messages
- 4,700
- Reaction score
- 7,178
- Location
- At home, in the brewery in Maryland.
I noticed the smoke tube in your pic. Have you been pleased with its performance? One criticism I've heard about Traeger is the lack of visible smoke output, even in the Super Smoke mode. The corporate line is that the "best" smoke is the thin 'blue' smoke instead of the thick white billowing variety. I didn't notice any shortage of smoke flavor in any of the four meats I've done so far. Test #1, the Trip-Tip roast, had an incredibly thick pink smoke ring after only 4 hours. I've got a pic on my phone of the (remains of) the Trip-Tip that I'll try to post.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Messages
- 4,700
- Reaction score
- 7,178
- Location
- At home, in the brewery in Maryland.
Oh, I've boned more than a few, and you're right, it's really not that hard. But the butcher was willing to debone and butterfly it, and to give me a price break if he kept the shank. I actually grilled it flat rather than rolled, hoping that it would absorb more smoke flavor. Plus that's the way my father-in-law did it. Yours sure look juicy and flavorful done rolled. Looks to be about 135F internal. Is that about right? Mighty fine!
Fish and poultry don't need much smoke. But IMO you need a lot with pork shoulder/butt and brisket. I've done both of those several times with my Traeger and it isn't enough smoke. I do not have the Super Smoke feature on mine (I have the 570).
I do like this smoke tube. DON'T GET THE FLAT ONE THAT LOOKS LIKE A MAZE. That one will not stay lit inside a traeger. To light the smoke tube, you really need a torch like this:
I think it was around there for finishing temp--I know I was shooting for medium rare. I think I pulled it under 130, and let it come up the rest of the way via carryover.
We were at someone else's kitchen working in someone else's oven, so thankfully I had my trusty Thermoworks Dot available to pull it when I needed to!
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Messages
- 4,700
- Reaction score
- 7,178
- Location
- At home, in the brewery in Maryland.
My intent was to pull between 115F and 120F, then reverse sear for 4 mins, then wrap, shooting for ~125F-130F at carving time. I was cooking manually, and when I looked at the 2 hr mark on a planned 3+hr smoke, I was dismayed to see the probe temp reading 127F. Yikes! I grabbed my trusted switchblade Thermo Pen that I use in brewing and got 117F in the thickest part and 122F in the thinnest, so my Traeger probe was reading about 8-10F high. I lowered the grill temp to 165F, raised the hood for about a minute to release some heat, and then let it ride till 2½ hr mark when the Thermo Pen registered 120F in the thickest section. I know there's a convoluted way to calibrate the probe, but I haven't yet plumbed the depths of the user manual or online sources. At carving time the reading was 127F, right on target for Rare-Med. Rare.
The learning curve hasn't been too steep for this novice, but the nuances of this style of grilling will take some more smoking sessions before I start to feel more at home with the process. Baby steps.
This might be a bit corny y'all, but one of our favorite date night movies is 'Six Days, Seven Nights' starring Anne Heche, David Schwimmer and Harrison Ford. On the first night that Anne and Harrison's characters are marooned on a desert island (Spoiler alert!), he hunts down a peacock and roasts it on a spit, marinating it with the liquid from a jar of maraschino cherries. A romantic dining scene ensues, and we've fantasized about tasting that meal for a few years...
I'm planning to recreate it with grilled chicken marinated in and lacquered with maraschino juice to test out the idea, photos and recipe to follow.
I'm planning to recreate it with grilled chicken marinated in and lacquered with maraschino juice to test out the idea, photos and recipe to follow.
Last edited:
Are you sure the Traeger probe was wrong? Often the meat has different temperatures throughout. They appear to use a 3-wire sensor which should be immune to wire resistance changes.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Messages
- 4,700
- Reaction score
- 7,178
- Location
- At home, in the brewery in Maryland.
I can't say for sure that the probe is at fault. I suspect the probe may have gotten inserted through a thin part of meat that bridged two thicker parts, which might have resulted in inaccurate readings. That said, I feared that my turkey breast Test #2 was overcooked when the probe temp was higher than what I calculated should have been, based on time vs. temp. It turned out OK, and a crosscheck with a Thermo Pen on it showed a lower temp than the Traeger probe. I know that the Thermo Pen agrees with two other brewing thermometers I have, so there's that.
A cursory read of the Traeger user's manual shows a quick check for probe accuracy, but I'm not sure if there's any ability to recalibrate the display on the PID. At the end of the day +/- 10°F delta inside the smoker will have minimal impact on the final outcome, but the internal temperature of the meat will be affected.
TBD what adjustments, if any, will need to be made. Right now I'm merely bracketing, trying to find the sweet spot. Dialing it in will be fun.
Yeah, the dome thermometer on the Big Joe is out of whack... Reads about 50F low. Not that I really worry about the dome thermo though... I've got plenty of tech that's more reliable lol.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2012
- Messages
- 357
- Reaction score
- 476
Oh man, when I was in South Africa, a Brazilian co-worker got a local picanha and grilled it for us for a mutual braai (bbq). Truly awesome!
I ended up marinating the thighs in 2 parts grenadine to one part each soy sauce, rice vinegar and canola oil along with 3 cloves crushed garlic and 2 tablespoons ginger paste. As the skewers were grilling I brushed them with more grenadine but it mostly just ran off. Turned out pretty good but next time I will thicken some grenadine with honey for basting, and use sea salt instead of soy sauce to let the red color come through more. For a first attempt my wife loved it, but I'm definitely going to work on it.
I used Pit Boss charcoal blend pellets @375f, the food picked up enough smoke flavor to taste like it was cooked over a small fire without being overtly smoked.
Upon further reading, I see that Grenadine is not really an authentic substitute for or upgrade to maraschino cherry juice. Never able to leave well enough alone, I went that route because regular cheapo maraschino cherries are swimming in corn syrup and artificial flavorings, and good quality grenadine is made from pomegranate juice. I always thought grenadine syrup was the basis of maraschino cherries but apparently that is not correct. Next time around I'll look for better quality maraschino cherries to steal the juice from, although I think Luxardo would be a bridge too far.
Last edited:
No final pics but this was right in the stall, 18lb brisket before trimming so probably 15lbs on the smoker. Did this for my neighbor, we also did a small piggy.
4 pound pastrami, going to make Reubens for dinner.
Now that is one of my favorites. Is that a gen 1 or 2 Weber pellet grill? It looks like a Weber. Do you like it? How does it sear?
It is a second generation Weber SmokeFire, I've only had it a few weeks but so far I freaking love it. Waiting for spring to finally arrive so I can really enjoy it. I bought it being fully aware of the problems the first gen had but Weber is unparalleled in supporting their products. So far I've run maybe 50lbs of pellets through it without any problems. I'm anticipating a 15-year love affair with this glorious smokewagon, maybe longer. Who knows.
It does a great job of searing! 600f is easy on regular pellets, it can go even hotter with charcoal pellets. Not a 100% replacement for a charcoal kettle but so much more convenient. IMHO a great tradeoff; my Char Broil and Fuego gas grills along with a Pit Boss electric smoker are all going on Craigslist. I'm all in.
What made the decision for me between Traeger and Weber came down to powder coat vs. porcelain enamel.. Sooner or later, stray unignited pellets and grease will conspire to create a flameup in the bottom of the pit. Google photos of traegers that have been through this and bear the big rusty scars of burned off powdercoat. Weber makes its pit from enameled steel which stands up really well to the high heat and keeps looking great and rust free for years on end. Powdercoat is great for an exercise bike or a weightlifting bench, but no good for a grill. IMHO, It's really just that simple.
Last edited:
Thanks, I agree with porcelain. I abuse my kettle 2 to 3 times a week year-round. I have bigger smokers for bigger cooks, but a kettle is so easy when it is just the family.
It's good to know they got their stuff together after the dumpster fire of the original release. I have been a Weber fan for a long time due to the products and customer support but that shocked me that it made it out the door. If I even get a pellet pooper this will be back on the list of considerations. Thanks
It's good to know they got their stuff together after the dumpster fire of the original release. I have been a Weber fan for a long time due to the products and customer support but that shocked me that it made it out the door. If I even get a pellet pooper this will be back on the list of considerations. Thanks
Similar threads
