I have no other advice than to make sure it is enormous. Ever since I got my new HUGE grill all the neighbors are completely jealous. This beast I have takes 2 tanks. When it is lit you can see the flame from about a mile away.
It is awesome.
Kirkland = Costco house brand = good quality
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The Big Green Egg. http://www.biggreenegg.com/
The egg grills the best steaks, fish and chicken. You control the temperature and grill steaks around 700 - 800 + F and chicken on the beer can at around 250. I started eating red meat again after using the egg. Chicken over the beer can!!!
I won the medium size grill in a race($400) and have since bought the small mini egg for our cabin.
Have had several grills, including Weber gas(junk), Green Egg(before it was cool), and several other charcoal varieties. I presently have the best grill I have owned, the Phoenix Grill. Has a drip pan similar to the Holland but gets a lot hotter than the Holland. Really nice to have no flame up. If you go with charcoal, use the natural lump charcoal rather than the usual brands - hardly any ash and cooks better.
**If you go with charcoal, use the natural lump charcoal rather than the usual brands - hardly any ash and cooks better. **
I agree, but that stuff is expensive, in comparison to usual stuff.
My only advise is get a grill with burners that run front to rear not side to side. As the grill is usually wider than deep it is easier to have just a far side burner going to get indirect heat. With my Weber Genisis I still get pretty much direct heat anywhere on the grill with only one burner lit…
If you use the lump charcoal in a Big Green Egg, where you shut the grill down after cooking you can re-use the unburned charcoal. We cook several times per week yer round and a 20# bag of the hardwood lump lasts us the better part of a year. I find it much cheaper than shoveling out the filler type briquets that burned after I was done cooking and then putting in more. I only add charcoal every two or three times cooking.
just cued in a way i hadn’t in a while. with wood. i was getting my carne ready after having it marinade all night, got the artichokes boiling, went out back. no charcoal. look to the propane, none. so i busted out a few peices of oak i had stacked ext to the outdoor fireplace and let her rip in the weber. forgot how good the meat tastes with real wood flavor. kind of a pain to cook though.
OP, did you figure out what you’re getting yet?
Paul m wrote
I will not go back to gas. Ever. You have to buy 20# bags of wood pellets, but they have 10 or so choices of wood. A big pork roast with Apple wood. Mmm mmm good!!! Beef with a cherry/maple combination. Mmm mmm better! At low settings it’ll burn about 1/2 pound per hour, at high, up to two pounds. My average cost is about $1.00 per hour. The grill will NOT work without electricity, so keep that in mind. There is no direct flame, so the charring look is very different from a typical grill. This unit is more like a traditional BBQ as opposed to a grill.
That sounds good , whats the start up time from light off to grilling meat ? It sounds like your hot smoking it , I don’t see any wood pellets sold here maybe a speciality store ? . I like wood smoke flavor
Heli
I’ve got the smallest version, the “L’il Tex”. It’s about 10 minutes from turn on to hot, (450-ish degrees). I grill a 1.5" thick steak right from the fridge in about 12 minutes from there, not quite rare, just a bit more than rare, (internal temp about 120 to 130 degrees). Since there is no direct flame, there is no searing or charring of the meat. I’ve done a 5 pound beef roast in about 4 hours, with the temp set at 250 degrees. I know guys that have done a 20#+ pork shoulder on my size grill. The temp control on the Traegar has a setting for hot smoking too, at about 200 degrees. You can get an add on chamber for the side which will let you cold smoke.
A really big chicken breast will take the best part of an hour to get up to 180 degrees internal temp. But it’ll be just about the best chicken you’ll eat at home.
I get the pellets from the same place I bought the grill, but you can order direct from Traegar. You really need to use the Traeger pellets. There are cheaper heating fuel wood pellets out there, but they have binding agents and other chemicals in them. The Traeger pellets are nothing but highly compressed wood dust. I also bought a wireless remote talking digital meat thermometer. When the core temp of the meat is 10 degrees shy of the target temp, it beeps twice and says “Your food is almost ready”. At the target temp it beeps again and says “You food is ready”. This grill is soooooo “set it and forget it” it’s not funny. I know a guy who keeps back up power to his with a car battery, a solar powered trickle charger and an inverter. The unit pulls about 300 or so watts at start up, and idles at under 100 watts, so the back up power system will keep the grill going for about 8 or 9 hours.
I was used to a propane grill, cranked up to high, and cooking steaks at 2 minutes or less per side. This low-and-slow method of BBQ is soooo much nicer. Every Saturday there is some charity group fundraising by burning meat on a propane grill outside the grocery store. I used to enjoy that smell, but now it just smells too acrid to me. High temp grilling has been associated with heterocyclic amines, which are considered by some to increase the risk of some cancers. The heat transfer system in the Traeger doesn’t lead to that.
Another guy I know bought a brand which he heats up with a portable propane torch, and brands in his initials into every steak he serves.
If you contact Traeger, they can put you in touch with a customer close to you who will likely invite you over for a meal. Those of us who use them are that excited about them.
It was the best $1 000.00 I’ve spent in years.
Peace,
Paul
Interesting , I went to our local barbecues Galore . I asked if they sold pellets - no they don’t carry any of those grills. I wonder how the pellets are distributed under the grill with the auger or is it an indirect heat type cooking .
One Site had wood pellets for heating and animal litter boxes ( I’m guessing that’s not the grilling pellets). I grilled up some thresher shark & orange roughy tonight , with some apple wood chips thrown in at the start - on a gas grill .
Thanks for the reply Paul
There is a hopper on the left hand side that holds the pellets. There is an auger feed system that feeds the pellets to the fire box which is in the bottom center of the big heating/cooking chamber. When starting the grill you turn the temp control all the way up. This turns on the “hot rod” which is just a heating coil, not unlike the hot surface ignitor on a gas furnace or water heater. The “hot rod” stays red for three minutes, which is enough to start the pellets burning. After 7 more minutes, the unit will be fully heated and ready to go. The digital thermometer option gives you temp control in 25 degree increments. A thermocouple is in the cooking chamber. The temp controller controls the auger speed, based on your temp setting. Faster = more pellets = hotter.
There is a dealer locator on the Traeger site, and a shopping page to buy pellets and some other accessories.
Peace,
Paul
I’m the exact opposite of if him. I have both a weber genesis and a phoenix (at the fire station I work at). I would take the weber over it any day. They are both decent grills but I can’t really sear thick steaks and chops like I can on my weber. Some of the posts are advocating some pretty nice looking grills. The thing that sold me on the weber was 24 hr customer service that is great. A 10 yr warranty. The fact that parts are readily available for them. That is one big reason I would shy away from an el cheapo grill. I looked at it like this, I won’t balk at spending 500 bucks on a stove/oven. I use my grill a hell of a lot more than I use them. Spend some money and get a nice grill.
I used this to bar-b-que (which means slow cooking; normally between 200 - 230 degrees) a pork shoulder for 12 hours and beef short ribs for 8 hours on Sunday. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
