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BBQ Tips and Techniques

  1. Your Traeger Pellet Grill should never be moved when it is hot. If you are transporting your grill in a vehicle after cooking on it, make sure the fire is completely out and the unit is completely cold before placing it in any vehicle. NEVER put water in the firepot. It will jam the auger.
  2. The Traeger Pellet Grill is designed to cook with the lid closed. Cooking with the lid open will dramatically lengthen your cooking time.
  3. Never add pellets by hand to a hot firepot. This is dangerous and you may get seriously burned. If you run out of fuel and lose your fire while cooking, let the unit completely cool and start all over again with auto-start or manual lighting procedure.
  4. Your Traeger comes with a three position cooking control board. It can be changed at any time to increase or decrease the temperature of your grill.
    • High is used for grilling. The auger runs all the time on high.
    • Medium is for slow cooking. The auger will run for 2 minutes and then shuts off for 2 minutes.
    • Smoke is for smoking foods and adding wood smoked flavor to the foods you cook. The auger runs for 1 minute and is off for 3 minutes. This creates a natural wood smoke flavor to your food. The SMOKE setting can also be used to "hold" foods at approximately 180 degrees-200 degrees.
  5. When estimating cooking times, remember that the outside temperature will dramatically alter your cooking times. If it is hot outside, it will take less time for food to cook. If it is cold, wet or windy, it will take longer for food to cook.
  6. Grease fires are caused by not properly maintaining your grill, or failing to clean your angled drip pan on a consistent basis. In the unlikely event you experience a grease fire while cooking, keep the lid closed. Never open the cooking chamber lid during a grease fire. If it does not go out, lightly sprinkle baking soda on the fire. Be careful not to burn yourself. If this does not work, then carefully remove the food from the unit (being careful not to burn yourself), turn the power switch off and shut the lid until the fire is completely out. When completely cool, remove the grill, replace the foil on the drip pan, reset the drip pan and cooking grill and resume cooking your food.

THE TRAEGER TRUTH

Up until now, you have been given only two choices for grilling: propane and charcoal. Finally, technology has caught up and a healthier, safer and tastier alternative has arrived: Traeger Wood Pellet Grills.


PROPANE

They use this stuff to fuel blow torches or to run a fork lift. Do you want that next to your food? People say it’s easy to use. Really? Only if you like lugging around a highly dangerous and flammable tank in your car, not to mention store it just steps away from your family. Is that your idea of easy?

CHARCOAL

How about that dirty black mess of a choice, charcoal? Wikipedia describes charcoal with words like “black residue … animal, and vegetation compound.” Canada law requires charcoal briquettes to be labeled under the Hazardous Products Act. We don’t know what that means, but it scares us and it’s not something we will let seep into our food. Consumer Reports says, cooking directly over a high temperature flame is responsible for turning healthy foods into carcinogens. We looked it up, it’s not good.

TRAEGER WOOD PELLET GRILLS

Before Traeger Wood Pellet Grills, you just couldn’t cook with wood unless you wanted to dig up your backyard, a National Forest, build a pit, cut down the trees, chop the wood, and make the fire ... that sounds like a lot of work. At Traeger, we make it simple. We have eight flavors of wood pellets that provide great taste to every dish.

The amazing taste the pellets provide is just one of the many benefits, there are no artificial binders and they are EPA recommended. You can't say that about the other grilling options. Additionally, Traeger cares about our environment. All Traeger Wood Pellet Grills provide a zero carbon footprint and are made from 100% natural material. That means nothing harmful is cooking your food. That’s something we think is important.

As far as cost, wood pellets win there as well. Propane costs twice as much per BTU as natural wood pellets, and as far as charcoal is concerned, are there really any benefits? Why would you cook with anything else?

Stop grilling, start TRAEGER'ing!