Cold & Warm Weather Cooking

Cold Weather

1. Remember, it will take longer for food to cook when it's cold, windy or wet outside. Rule of thumb: add 20 minutes cooking time per pound for every 5 degrees BELOW 45 degrees F.
2. Every time you open the lid to your grill, you lose the heat in the cooking chamber. Add at least 15 minutes extra cooking time each time you check your meat on the grill.
3. In winter, move your grill to an area that is out of the wind and cold. However, NEVER operate your grill in an unventilated area!
4. Purchase a Traeger Pellet Caddy to keep your pellets nice and dry!
5. Place an outdoor thermometer close to the area where you have your grill. It will help you keep track of the outside air temperature and help you determine how long it will take your food to cook.
6. When cooking in cold weather, it's best to allow your grill to heat-up on a high temperature setting for at least 20 minutes before you place the food on the grill. You can always turn down the grill temperature when you begin cooking.

Warm Weather

1. The hotter it is outside, the faster food will cook on your grill. If you are long-term cooking, you may want to cook your food at a lower temperature setting.
2. Because food will cook faster, it's important to use a high-quality meat thermometer or instant reading thermometer to monitor internal meat temperatures. This will help prevent over cooking your meat and drying it out.
3. Even in hot weather, you still want to cook with the lid to your Traeger grill CLOSED.
4. In hot weather, make sure you defrost meat IN THE REFRIGERATOR! Food borne bacteria rapidly multiply in hot weather and can easily cause food to spoil, ruining your cookout.
5. The Food Safety Rule of Thumb is: "Keep hot foods hot-above 140 degrees F- and cold foods cold-below 37 degrees F.
6. Cooked food and salads should not be left out in the heat for more than an hour. BETTER YET---fill a deep tray or casserole dish with ice and keep salads-particularly potato or mayonnaise based salads on ice.
7. Never use the same cutting board for cooked meat that you used to prepare raw meat, unless you've thoroughly washed it in hot, soapy water before using again. The same thing holds true with knives and cooking utensils.
8. You can keep foods hot by wrapping them in foil and then placing them in an insulated cooler. Stuff wadded-up newspaper around the foil wrapped food. This will keep your food hot for a good three to four hours.