What's cooking today? 🔥 Pics are necessary!

[FireTechMike]

Deep fried turkeys are good as well, but the flavor of smoked turkey is special.

I smoked my first turkey 2 years ago at Christmas, my family requests it every year now.

 

[Shedd]

I got around to taking pictures this time. My schedule has been crazy lately, I’m a Homebuilder and I’ve been working more than I care to. So I put these butts on the 780Pro yesterday evening around 7pm. Set temperature to 230(it varies 200-240) and as I’ve been doing, I don’t worry about the pit temperature but used a Meater probe in each butt. Oddly I got a notification from my phone that the Traeger was in error about 6:30 am. It was out of pellets! I filled the hopper completely full but IDK, this hasn’t happened in a long time, maybe it was just really cold but luckily everything was still hot. I moved them to a covered pan finished in my oven. They turned out great. I took them to a local youth shelter for dinner tonight.

 

[RayClem]

The weather in the Chicagoland area is nice this week, so I am trying to get my freezer stocked for winter. It is supposed to rain most of next week and winter weather will begin in earnest after Thanksgiving.

Yesterday, I cooked 9 thick pork chops on my Ironwood and then took them to my Flat Iron griddle to sear them afterwards. My wife and I had one for dinner last night. We shared some with our two cats who devoured it. If the cook is feline approved, I know it was successful. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo. They are now vacuum sealed for the freezer.

Today, I made up a batch of my bean recipe. I use Bush's canned beans as the base, but doctored them with onions, bell peppers (red, orange, yellow) for color, bacon, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, cane syrup and Worcestershire sauce to increase the flavor. I prepared everything on the kitchen stove, but then transferred it to a roasting pan for smoking on the Traeger at 200F for a couple of hours to add yet another layer of flavor goodness.

If anyone is interested, I believe I posted my recipe elsewhere on the forum or PM me and I can send you a Word document with detailed recipe. One recipe make a lot, but we love freezing it for use later in the year. You can always make it with dried beans if that is your thing. I have also made them for large gatherings.

I still need to cook the Thanksgiving turkey on the Traeger. I will probably cook a pan of cornbread dressing on the Traeger as well. Thus, I hope I can get everything done in between showers.

 

[Shedd]

I cooked two racks of St. Lewis ribs today and a London Broil. I didn’t get to try them but my friend said they really enjoyed them they didn’t have any leftovers. She just started a wedding venue and got in a bind with a few guests that suddenly needed her help. I marinated the London Broil all day, cooked at 225 for about 90 minutes at 135. I’m supposed to get a picture of it sliced but haven’t received it yet. I coated the ribs with my mustard sauce then used Hog Waller rub. Cooked at 225 for 2 1/2 hours, wrapped with butter and honey for 2 hours, then added more rub and cooked about 11/2 more hours until 200.

 

[Shedd]

I cooked two racks of St. Lewis ribs today and a London Broil. I didn’t get to try them but my friend said they really enjoyed them they didn’t have any leftovers. She just started a wedding venue and got in a bind with a few guests that suddenly needed her help. I marinated the London Broil all day, cooked at 225 for about 90 minutes until 135. I’m supposed to get a picture of it sliced but haven’t received it yet. I coated the ribs with my mustard sauce then used Hog Waller rub. Cooked at 225 for 2 1/2 hours, wrapped with butter and honey for 2 hours, then added more rub and cooked about 11/2 more hours until 200.

 

[TELLIOTT]

Did my first cook today. Turkey Thighs, Drumsticks, Beans and Hotlinks. I expected the food to be minimally good, and it was that. I understand that it takes a few cooks to get a good season on the grill and would expect that it would increase the flavor profile. Doing a Tri-Tip on Saturday. This picture is about half way through the cook.

 

[RayClem]

Chicagoland weather reached 65F yesterday, so it was time for another cook. This time it is boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The first time I tried doing these after getting my Ironwood, they turned out like shoe leather. Thus, a change in procedure was necessary. Here is what I did.

I marinated the breasts in a Zip Lock bag using Stubbs Chicken Marinade. They remained in the refrigerator for about 16 hours. When removing the breasts from the bag, I reserved the marinade and simmered it on the stove to kill bacteria and thicken it slightly. I used the marinade to baste the chicken about 1 hour into the cook.

The cook was done with cherry pellets at a cook temperature of 225F to start. After basting, I bumped the temperature up to 250F.

About 45 minutes later, I basted the chicken breasts again with Lillie's Q white sauce. This is Charlie McKenna's version of Alabama white sauce first developed by Bob Gibson in Decatur It is a mayonnaise-based sauce that is great on chicken. It acts as a glaze to seal in juices and also to help the skinless breast develop a nice brown color.

The photo below shows only five breasts. We had already eaten one for dinner. It turned out great, both moist and flavorful. Another breast was still on the Traeger as it was so large that it took an hour longer to cook than the others. That must have been one giant chicken. The smaller breasts finished about 1/2 hour quicker than the larger ones shown in the photo. This demonstrated why you can NEVER cook based on time and cook temperature. You need a good instant meat thermometer to check internal temperature.

 

[Shedd]

Did my first cook today. Turkey Thighs, Drumsticks, Beans and Hotlinks. I expected the food to be minimally good, and it was that. I understand that it takes a few cooks to get a good season on the grill and would expect that it would increase the flavor profile. Doing a Tri-Tip on Saturday. This picture is about half way through the cook.
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You might want to invest in a smoke tube and some wood chips. It’ll add so much more flavor.

 

[TELLIOTT]

You might want to invest in a smoke tube and some wood chips. It’ll add so much more flavor.

On order

 

[FrankToys]

That's a brilliant idea! Breakfast for dinner is always a cozy treat, and taking it outside in the summer sounds like a fantastic plan. The gasser-to-griddle conversion add-ons are a game-changer for versatile outdoor cooking. Enjoy those delicious outdoor breakfasts in every season!

 

[RayClem]

That's a brilliant idea! Breakfast for dinner is always a cozy treat, and taking it outside in the summer sounds like a fantastic plan. The gasser-to-griddle conversion add-ons are a game-changer for versatile outdoor cooking. Enjoy those delicious outdoor breakfasts in every season!

Agreed. While we order things like bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles, or French toast if we go out for breakfast, we never make those things at home for breakfast. However, we love doing breakfast foods for supper on Sunday evening.

 

[FieldMedic]

The ambient temperature reached an unseasonably high 70 F in Chicagoland, so it was a great day to fire up the Traeger.

Today’s cook involved two beautiful Certified Angus Beef top round London Broil steaks around 2.5 pounds each. I started last night by seasoning the steaks. One was seasoned using McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning and the other was seasoned using The Spice Lab’s Chicago Chop Seasoning. The Montreal Steak seasoning is coarse, so it develops more bark. Both were quite tasty, so I cannot say that I favor one seasoning over the other. The two thick steaks were wrapped in parchment paper and rested in the refrigerator overnight. I pulled them out about an hour before grill time.

I smoked the steaks on the Traeger for about 2 1/2 hours at a cook temperature of 200F to develop smoke flavor and color. The 1st photo is about ½ way through that time. I pulled them off the grill when the internal temperature reached 125F. The 2nd photo shows that stage. The color of the two steaks is different, I suspect due to the different seasoning methods.

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The two steaks were each vacuum sealed in a 1 gallon bag and then placed in sous vide at 135F for a period of 5 hours. They were then left to rest for 20 minutes. The 3rd photos shows the steaks after the rest. The long cook time was intended to tenderize the lean meat without overcooking. Both turned out tender enough to cut with a fork.


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The final stage of the process was to pat the steaks dry and then reverse sear them in a carbon steel skillet. The steaks were seared in peanut oil and basted in butter flavored with rosemary and garlic. Here is the final product.

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The steaks were sliced diagonally across the grain in thin slices using a brisket knife. The slices could be cut with a fork, no steak knife needed at the table.

If meat is grilled conventionally, my wife wants beef with no pink. However, she will tolerate some pink if the beef is cooked sous vide for several hours. Thus, for me, the combination of smoking, sous vide, and reverse searing is a a great way to get tender, flavorful steaks, even when less expensive cuts of beef are used.



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Of course, no meal would be complete without a side dish. Since fresh squash and zucchini is still available, I combined them with onions for a nice complement to the beef. I posted a photo of an earlier cook of this same dish, so I skipped the photo this time. Cook time was about 45 minutes at 375F.

EPIC!!! The Time Allowed Definitely Shows In The End Product!!! Strong Work!

 

[TELLIOTT]

Traeger 's Roasted Herb Turkey Breast just went on. Just finished 7# breast 2 hrs 15 minutes @ 325 except for the last 15 @ 350

 

[Hawaiian]

Is it me or is the Traeger App down?

"Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later."

It was working for the first hour but I have since not been able to connect.

 

[TELLIOTT]

Is it me or is the Traeger App down?

"Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later."

It was working for the first hour but I have since not been able to connect.

I've not had any issues during my cook today. I would try uninstalling the app and then reinstall.