First of all, I needed to convince Audrey of the worth and validity of an upgrade to a wood-burning smoker/grill, followed by a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis. The arrival of the Traeger roadshow to nearby Costcos in the same month we got our cashback coupon from our Costco credit card was indeed fortuitously timed.
It took a bit of scouring but I did manage to find the Alberta roadshow schedule online, but misread it and took a wasted trip to the East Edmonton warehouse earlier in the week. I then accepted I would have to wait until they came to that store on Feb 6, but when I checked on Friday, the event had been canceled.
Rather than waiting until the end of February in Sherwood, I drove out to Leduc after supper on Friday. I made my way to the improvised booth that had been set up, but was saddened to see nothing at the price point I was looking for. The two grills at my end of the scale (including a portable model) felt a bit too small.
Luckily Brent, the Traeger rep returned as I was preparing to leave, and suggested the one model might suit me well, as he owned the same model, the Mesa. He pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of his easily enclosing an 18 lb brisket, another with three large steaks and a half dozen ears of corn, and a third with an entire three-pack of Costco chickens sitting comfortably on the cooking surface. When he threw in the cover for free, I quickly consulted Audrey, got the greenlight and departed Costco with my largest single box ever in the back of the Flex.
The next day I deployed a new blade in the old box cutter and started the unpacking process. I quickly discovered there was almost as much cardboard as metal inside the packaging, most of which serviced as baffles to prevent damage from jostling during shipping. One nice touch though, is that they print a cute cabin on the inside of the box so kids can play in it, so we will put that aside until Robin's next visit. (Although the compulsion to colour it is almost overwhelming...)
Despite my misguided focus, which almost resulted in my attaching a handle to the interior of the barbecue (oy!), I managed to get the whole rig put together by myself and got ready to prime the augur (a motorized screw that delivers wood pellets to the heat source, or firepot) and season the grill with a brief high-temperature run - and here I began to encounter challenges.
First, Audrey requested the chimney be moved further away from the house; fair enough; I placed the new and old grills facing each other beside the step, making sure they were both 18" from any combustibles.
 |
| Welcome to Grillbase Alpha |
I then removed all the innards from the barbecue (heat diffuser, drip tray for grease, and the grills themselves), loaded the hopper with applewood pellets and followed the instructions for priming and seasoning. The augur turned so slowly at first I didn't even realize it was moving, but soon enough pellets began to drop into the firepot. I turned the switch off and then back on, and turned the heat up to 450 as instructed, and was rewarded a couple minutes later with the sight of fragrant white smoke puffing out the stack on the side.
I switched everything off, blew out the flame and went inside to do more research while everything cooled. Fearing at first that I might have a faulty temperature controller or something, I eventually found a set of instructions on the Traeger that differed from those in my manual. This set added a step where you replaced the grills, drip tray and diffuser I had removed, which made sense to me since they felt tacky to the touch and undoubtedly had some sort of solvent or other compound that needed removal via heat.
The second priming proceeded uneventfully, so I will say Trager makes a great product but their documentation and website could use some work. Oh, and yeah, that ended up being a lot of cardboard when I was done too. But now that my Trager was food-ready, I had still more work to do.
I raced out to the nearby Peavey Mart to grab some liners for the grease bucket that hangs off the end of the grill, but they had no welding blankets, which were suggested to me as an insulator against the cold. Next stop was to Costco for the three-pack of chicken so I would actually have something to cook the next night, and finally off to Princess Auto to grab the welding blanket and a steel pail for collecting ashes in.
Returning home, I froze one of the chickens and prepared a brine for the other two, using a mix of kosher and smoked salt, plus brown sugar. The next day, I rinsed the birds, lightly salted them, and added rosemary, smoked paprika, and fresh ground pepper, then put them on the preheated grill at 225 to smoke for an hour.
The Traeger is meant to function using smoky, indirect heat with the door closed as much as possible, a real switch-up from my constant minding, flipping, and avoiding cold spots and flare-ups on the propane grill. Putting the welding blanket over top of it in order to regulate the temperature and potentially conserve fuel was a real aid to this.
There is a port in the side so you can insert the included meat probe that displays on the grill's thermometer, but I subbed in my faithful wireless model so I could keep tabs on the temp while remaining indoors.
After an hour, I added an aluminum tray of little potatoes tossed in olive oil and a seasoning mix called El Chupacabra I had brought home from Texas, then turned the heat up to 375 to crisp up the skin on the chickens.
It was around 10 below and breezy during most of my first cook, but about 70 minutes later, the thermometer chirped that the chickens had reached 165 degrees, so I went out and brought all the food inside. If nothing else, it certainly all looked appetizing!
Audrey and Glory were returning from High River and it was tedious going thanks to the snow along most of the way, so the dinner waited in the oven for about 45 minutes until they arrived. Meanwhile, I cooked the potatoes for another 5 minutes in the microwave, since being uncovered, they were still crunchier than I wanted.
Soon after the family got home, we carved into the chicken, which was a smidgen on the pink side, but which Brent had warned me about and assured me was still safe. We ate with gusto, and although the potatoes were a bit of a letdown (lesson learned - get them covered!), the brining and smoking had provided us with moist, flavourful chicken.
So! First meal completed within 48 hours of purchase, and I was very pleased with both how it turned out and how easy it was to prepare. With the grill itself managing the temperature and the flow of wood to the fire, the Traeger is largely a 'set it and forget it' affair, which is right up my alley, frankly.
Perhaps next time I will forgo the brining in favour of a saltier rub, or try our beloved beer can chicken instead. I am perusing recipes online at the Traeger site and elsewhere, and bookmarking furiously. Cincinnati chili? Never heard of it, looks interesting. Ribs? Obviously needs to happen at some point. Brisket? Hmm, maybe in the summer.
Wait a minute -there's a cocktail section?
No comments:
Post a Comment