What's for dinner tonight? Dinner ideas?

Beautiful sunny Sunday. Got a chunk of pork loin on the Ironwood. Rubbed with EVOO and dusted with Rib Tickler.

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Well did the Traeger cajun broil today. Came out pretty good. Id cook the potatos differently as they were dry, but we quartered large baby reds. Small baby reds might not have gotten rubbery.
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The grill was working fine ,i had it set to 475f. Put the taters on for about 25 mins, because its cold out i usually turn the set temp down so it doesnt try to ramp up before i open the lid. At the 25 min mark i turned it to 200f and put the corn and kielbasa on the rack shut the lid and turned it back up to 475f. It didn't recover and would not go over 400f, so i turned set temp to 500, still wouldn't go over 400f. Now im at a loss, its NEVER done this before. So, i shut it off and restarted. Big mistake. In 30 mins of trying to restart it smoked and kept give slow start notifications and finaly shut down. I pulled the grate and drip pan out and restarted to confirm the auger was turning, it was as was the blower fan. I put it back together and let it run the ignite sequence. It ignited. I had grill set to 500f it went to 400f and wouldn't go higher. So I'm going to purge the auger and make sure it's clear, refill and fire again to see what goes on. I've cooked at this outside temp before so I'm kinda at a loss.
 
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Cheated on the Mac n Cheese... from frozen but DAM GOOD

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Well did the Traeger cajun broil today. Came out pretty good. Id cook the potatos differently as they were dry, but we quartered large baby reds. Small baby reds might not have gotten rubbery.View attachment 4085
The grill was working fine ,i had it set to 475f. Put the taters on for about 25 mins, because its cold out i usually turn the set temp down so it doesnt try to ramp up before i open the lid. At the 25 min mark i turned it to 200f and put the corn and kielbasa on the rack shut the lid and turned it back up to 475f. It didn't recover and would not go over 400f, so i turned set temp to 500, still wouldn't go over 400f. Now im at a loss, its NEVER done this before. So, i shut it off and restarted. Big mistake. In 30 mins of trying to restart it smoked and kept give slow start notifications and finaly shut down. I pulled the grate and drip pan out and restarted to confirm the auger was turning, it was as was the blower fan. I put it back together and let it run the ignite sequence. It ignited. I had grill set to 500f it went to 400f and wouldn't go higher. So I'm going to purge the auger and make sure it's clear, refill and fire again to see what goes on. I've cooked at this outside temp before so I'm kinda at a loss.


Well.. i purged the auger tube and refilled it. I didnt think there was to much dust in the tube and the auger turned with no issues. I also didnt find anything foreign in the tube. So the only things i can figure out was
1. To much dust.
2. Bad pellets. I used a brand new bag of Traeger Pecan.
I refilled it with Bear Mountain apple pellet. Known to be good.
So idk. I ignited it and it went right to 500f and stayed there for 15 mins before shutdown. And now outside temp is -1.
 
1. To much dust.
2. Bad pellets. I used a brand new bag of Traeger Pecan.
I refilled it with Bear Mountain apple pellet. Known to be good.
So idk. I ignited it and it went right to 500f and stayed there for 15 mins before shutdown. And now outside temp is -1.


And so the only conclusion I would come to is Traeger pellets gave you dust OR they just don't even burn good enough to run you at 500.
I mean I don't see it any other way...
I need to give my grill a good cleaning too... but I have already decided a Traeger pellet will never again see the inside of my rig. I'll use them in my tubes but not my hopper.
 
Thr weird part is i purged the tube 3 cooks ago. Since Thanksgiving ive used Traeger pellets 3 times. So i agree I'm not using them anymore. I've never used Traeger Pecan pellets either. I have several different brand im gonna try, ill probably stick with bear mountain mainly. I need to get a smoke tube.
 
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Thr weird part is i purged the tube 3 cooks ago. Since Thanksgiving ive used Traeger pellets 3 times. So i agree I'm not using them anymore. I've never used Traeger Pecan pellets either. I have several different brand im gonna try, ill probably stick with bear mountain mainly. I need to get a tube.
That's pretty wierd, but clearly pellet blend makes a difference! I'm seeing lots of pellet dust with my Traeger pellets as well. Traeger claims to use blends in all their pellets to ensure consist burn between flavors but this makes me wonder what's in the blend.
 
Brisket #6 came out pretty much perfect, 20 hour cook, almost 4 hour rest and still almost too hot to hold. Happy campers here!
 

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That's pretty wierd, but clearly pellet blend makes a difference! I'm seeing lots of pellet dust with my Traeger pellets as well. Traeger claims to use blends in all their pellets to ensure consist burn between flavors but this makes me wonder what's in the blend.

Im gonna steer clear of the Traeger pellets from now on. I'm pretty sure they were the issue. Kinda ruined the day. I've stocked up on different flavors of Bear Mountain and Pitt Boss pellets. I moght give Lumber Jack a try also.
 
Brisket #6 came out pretty much perfect, 20 hour cook, almost 4 hour rest and still almost too hot to hold. Happy campers here!
Lookin good my man! Lookin good!
 
Burnt ends look Great! Did you end up covering them with foil, or cooking open?

I did first hour covered... then opened for about 45 and good to go.
 
Yes, I stuffed both with onions. We took both chickens with us. After we ate half of one my wife froze the rest in individual freezer bags. Mom is 96 and lives alone so nice easy meals for her.

last nights dinner was venison chili
 

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