What's cooking today? 🔥 Pics are necessary!

[Shedd]

I double smoked a Smithfield hickory smoked spiral slice ham this morning at 225 for about 3 1/2 hours. I rinsed then dried the ham, coated with my homemade mustard sauce then used a new rub I was given called Sweet Preacher pork rub by Fire and Smoke Society. Everyone loved it, I didn’t have leftovers. I also cooked a big pan of my southern cornbread dressing, It had a little smoky flavor that was really good and freed up my oven for 4 dozen yeast rolls along with a Kentucky Butter Cake that I’ve been making many years. Was a busy day but well worth the work. Family is everything to me!

 

[RagTopTA]

Had some Traeger fun today! Smoked some ribs for Fam Easter get together. Did 3 racks of baby backs. They requestedy norm 3-2-1 sweet sticky bbq style. But, I threw everyone a curveball.... I made the 3rd rack with a mystery sauce. Everyone got a couple from the mystery rack and at the end of the meal got one guess. Anyone with the correct amswer gets the huge sum of 5 bucks ; ) Peoples brains were going trying to figure it out. Some liked them even more than my norm ribs. I'll add the mystery sauce in the pics. Turned out good! 3 hours 180, 2 hours 225 wrapped with honey, dark brown sugar, and apple juice. 1 hour unwrapped and sauced. The mystery ribs got Only butter and spritzed with Apple juiced when wrapped. The slathered with the mystery sauce in the last hour. The mystery ribs are on the left side in each pic and the bottom of the tray cut up. Happy Easter yall!

 

[Shedd]

Something I wanted to share to people that may not know about how to cook when it’s convenient to cook but the timing isn’t right for your get together. So many people ( including myself many times throughout the years) try to smoke meats for a planned gathering and have to try to keep their guests entertained while the meats are still not done. I cook when I’m in the mood and have time on my hands, no one is waiting on it. After my food cools I divide into portions and put in vacuum sealed bags (I use a food saver, usually on sale at Costco for $100) and put in the deep freezer. The attached pictures are St Lewis ribs I cooked 2/4/23, pulled pork on 12/2022 then today I got some nice corn on sale for a quarter each in the shucks. I shucked the corn, put two ears per vac bag along with a little salt and pepper and a little butter. I also have a Anova Sous Vide cooker, I put the corn in at 185 degrees for 45 minutes. After the time was up I put the vac bags of pulled pork and ribs into the SV cooker with the corn and turned off the heater. Since it’s just my wife and I eating I removed the extra bags of corn so they could cook before freezing. The SV is another story for later but the point is you can put the frozen bags into a pot, fill with water and let it heat the bagged items until the food inside the bags feel soft and hot. The hot water will overcook meats so you have to keep a check on it, why a SV cooker is also very handy to have because you can set the temp and you won’t overcook it. I have friends in the restaurant business and they introduced me to SV a few years back. So many restaurants use this method, of course on a much bigger scale.

The food I reheated tasted exactly like it just came off the smoker, no weird taste like heating up leftovers in the microwave. The vacuum sealer is the key to preserving the taste/flavor and water to heat it up while still in the vacuum bags keeps it all together. The juices that was in the meat was still in the ribs, pulled pork and corn I had tonight. I do this with smoked food, grilled burgers, steaks and chops, veggies, etc. I even bake desserts and freeze them but I just set them out to thaw. With food prices being so high and restaurants so expensive, I shop for bargains and pre cook regularly. If I have guest that come to eat and they each want different dishes, no problem. It reheats fast in the water. Less time in the kitchen.
Sorry so long!! Hopefully this will help some people.

 

[Slimpicker]

I cook when I’m in the mood and have time on my hands, no one is waiting on it. After my food cools I divide into portions and put in vacuum sealed bags (I use a food saver, usually on sale at Costco for $100) and put in the deep freezer.

This is how we have lots of our meals while hunting for 4 months... I take my SV, put supper in it during the evening hunt, come back, get the 'sides' ready, and BOOOOM, fresh brisket, pulled ham, pulled pork, etc.

 

[Timmy]

We had Easter dinner last Saturday. The pimpmygrill gen2 3 rack system was way handy.
I made EVERYTHING on the Traeger.
We had turkey, double smoked ham, ham n beans, green beans, Mac n cheese, cornbread casserole and bratwurst from a local meat locker.
The 780 shelf mitigated most of the drippings from sliding the racks out, cleaned up easily with a paper towel. And the chrome stack worked fine.

 

[RayClem]

Something I wanted to share to people that may not know about how to cook when it’s convenient to cook but the timing isn’t right for your get together. So many people ( including myself many times throughout the years) try to smoke meats for a planned gathering and have to try to keep their guests entertained while the meats are still not done. I cook when I’m in the mood and have time on my hands, no one is waiting on it. After my food cools I divide into portions and put in vacuum sealed bags (I use a food saver, usually on sale at Costco for $100) and put in the deep freezer. The attached pictures are St Lewis ribs I cooked 2/4/23, pulled pork on 12/2022 then today I got some nice corn on sale for a quarter each in the shucks. I shucked the corn, put two ears per vac bag along with a little salt and pepper and a little butter. I also have a Anova Sous Vide cooker, I put the corn in at 185 degrees for 45 minutes. After the time was up I put the vac bags of pulled pork and ribs into the SV cooker with the corn and turned off the heater. Since it’s just my wife and I eating I removed the extra bags of corn so they could cook before freezing. The SV is another story for later but the point is you can put the frozen bags into a pot, fill with water and let it heat the bagged items until the food inside the bags feel soft and hot. The hot water will overcook meats so you have to keep a check on it, why a SV cooker is also very handy to have because you can set the temp and you won’t overcook it. I have friends in the restaurant business and they introduced me to SV a few years back. So many restaurants use this method, of course on a much bigger scale.

The food I reheated tasted exactly like it just came off the smoker, no weird taste like heating up leftovers in the microwave. The vacuum sealer is the key to preserving the taste/flavor and water to heat it up while still in the vacuum bags keeps it all together. The juices that was in the meat was still in the ribs, pulled pork and corn I had tonight. I do this with smoked food, grilled burgers, steaks and chops, veggies, etc. I even bake desserts and freeze them but I just set them out to thaw. With food prices being so high and restaurants so expensive, I shop for bargains and pre cook regularly. If I have guest that come to eat and they each want different dishes, no problem. It reheats fast in the water. Less time in the kitchen.
Sorry so long!! Hopefully this will help some people.

Absolutely. I am normally cooking for my wife and I. We have no relatives in the area and we rarely entertain friends. Thus, a vacuum bags, a freezer and a Sous Vide circulator are ideal. I can cook an 8# pork butt and divide it up into meal size portions and freeze it in pint bags. It can be reheated in the Sous Vide bath, in a skillet, or on my flat top grill. When cooking steaks, pork chops, or chicken breasts, I always cook enough for about six meals. Anything not eaten the first say is vacuum sealed and then placed in the freezer. In late fall, I will cook even larger quantities and freeze the excess so I don't have to venture out in a Chicago winter to cook when the temperature is well below freezing. We had one unusually warm day in January, so I fired up the Traeger and cooked enough steak, pork and chicken to last until spring.

 

[Slimpicker]

Timmy Mastered that rake system on that cook, good job buddy!!

 

[Parrothead1809]

Timmy Mastered that rake system on that cook, good job buddy!!

Is that the Pimp my Grill system (https://pimpmygrill.com/pro-780-pmg-gen2-rack-system-2-racks/)?
-PH

 

[CMTiger]

Is that the Pimp my Grill system (https://pimpmygrill.com/pro-780-pmg-gen2-rack-system-2-racks/)?
-PH

Yes

 

[Timmy]

Is that the Pimp my Grill system (https://pimpmygrill.com/pro-780-pmg-gen2-rack-system-2-racks/)?
-PH

Yes it is. It’s very well manufactured and fits easily into the grill.

 

[MarkC18]

More jerky…turkey and beef!

 

[Timmy]

Cooked up some pork tenderloins last Sunday. I roll cut these and put pineapple and maraschino cherries inside. Smokem till the hit 135it. Then glazed them with orange marmalade,whiskey and cherry juice glaze. Finished at about 150it. These were so dang good, even the grandkids ate them. Haha

 

[GrillGuyMilwaukee]

First brisket ever on IW885. Besides a weird flameout issue, (one time), brisket came out great!

 

[Slimpicker]

DEER NIGHT...

I did some backstrap and a 50/50 beef/venison Meatloaf.

Took everything out of freezer and it was thawed in no time.
Backstraps were coated in a mustard ham glaze of a binder, and completely surrounded with the rub in the pic.

2 lbs Meatloaf prepped:

Sitting in my Rachel Ray Meatloaf Rig....
Everything on the Traeger @ 400°, probes in the loins

Loins done in no time, both finished almost exact temp together

The BARK on these was unreal, I couldn't stop eating them.
The wife and I never left the counter, we POUNDED these things!!!

Best I've ever made!!!!

The meatloaf is taking it's time, the thing I like about the Rachel Ray meatloaf pan is it lifts out once the meat takes shape... and I usually finish the cook this way till done!

We are gonna hit this meatloaf hard too...
Damn good deer night I must say!!!

 

[Shedd]

I shouldn’t even post these dang chicken drumsticks after seeing those delicious looking deer meat cooks!! Awesome!
But I grabbed a deal for 14 drumsticks for 7 bucks and tried a hanging rack I’ve had but never used. The Traeger did an awesome job. I used my smoke tube and smoke box so they had excellent smoke to the bone. Juice dripping out with every bite. Other than some fried potatoes I made up an old deep southern dish we call “rib rice”. It’s basically country style pork Ribs (sliced Boston butt) slow cooked in a crock pot with seasonings. Pull the meat in smaller pieces, use the crockpot liquid and the meat to make rice. Not too bad.