A grill that is so advanced....

[Murph]

This thing does everything except make you a martini!  I shudder at the thought of the price of this thing, but I would love to have something like this in the back yard.  I like all of the attachments as well!  

 

[R E lee]

Mrs brought home an air fryer at the weekend, apparently we just had to have one, if so, why is it still in the box?.

[Harold Jones]

I have a pellet smoker and a big green egg. I like the pellet because it is set it and forget it but the egg gives a deeper smoke flavor and doubles as a pizza/bread oven when I don't feel like heating the house up.

[Murph]

A buddy just got a Recteq pellet grill and he is writing sonnets about it.  He is really after me to spend the $1200 and get the same model he did.  I don't have the $1,200 and if I did the wife would have me committed.  He does not like the Traeger grills.  The Spouse Unit is talking about Air Fryers as well, I just do not know which one to look at in order to make an informed decision.  

 

 

[R011]

2 hours ago, Murph said:

This thing does everything except make you a martini!  I shudder at the thought of the price of this thing, but I would love to have something like this in the back yard.  I like all of the attachments as well!  

 

Internet says that grill goes for $3799.99 (US Dollars).

https://www.traeger.com/pellet-grills/timberline-xl?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4OybBhCzARIsAIcfn9mAcWvCRTgdEjIAad402RUlrLE_J3H8ALtZ3elIVxXLYMbIDIZBHisaAm1GEALw_wcB

[Harold Jones]

1 hour ago, Murph said:

A buddy just got a Recteq pellet grill and he is writing sonnets about it.  He is really after me to spend the $1200 and get the same model he did.  I don't have the $1,200 and if I did the wife would have me committed.  He does not like the Traeger grills.  The Spouse Unit is talking about Air Fryers as well, I just do not know which one to look at in order to make an informed decision.  

 

 

I have the Recteq 340, it does everything I need it to do. It has been bulletproof for the 3+ years I've had it.

As far as air fryers go I have the instant pot vortex, I use it more than the microwave for heating up leftovers especially pizza. It does a great job on bacon and roast vegetables and stuff like chicken nuggets, hot dogs and chicken tenders or patties. Of course you can get the same from a convection oven but it takes much longer to heat up and is a pain in summer.

[Murph]

4 hours ago, R011 said:

Internet says that grill goes for $3799.99 (US Dollars).

https://www.traeger.com/pellet-grills/timberline-xl?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4OybBhCzARIsAIcfn9mAcWvCRTgdEjIAad402RUlrLE_J3H8ALtZ3elIVxXLYMbIDIZBHisaAm1GEALw_wcB

I was afraid to look.

[Murph]

3 hours ago, Harold Jones said:

I have the Recteq 340, it does everything I need it to do. It has been bulletproof for the 3+ years I've had it.

As far as air fryers go I have the instant pot vortex, I use it more than the microwave for heating up leftovers especially pizza. It does a great job on bacon and roast vegetables and stuff like chicken nuggets, hot dogs and chicken tenders or patties. Of course you can get the same from a convection oven but it takes much longer to heat up and is a pain in summer.

My buddy has the 1250 Recteq grill.

[Harold Jones]

Mine's about a fourth of the cooking area of that monster, but it's big enough to do a full brisket, turkey or up to four racks of baby backs.  So it's good enough for me.

[Murph]

He loves it since he can cook 9 racks of ribs at once.

[Harold Jones]

I'd probably need that capacity once a decade if that.  Although, were I to win the lottery I'd more than likely add one to the stable.

[R011]

1 hour ago, Murph said:

I was afraid to look.

I hear ya.  The last grillI I bought was just a simple charcoal one - just a metal pan and a grill, no other attachments or controls.  Probably can buy one for fifty bucks at any hardware store.  Building I live in now has a couple of gas grills for residents' use tha are much fancier.

[Leo Niehorster]

I buy a cheap, small grill (some assembly required: pan, grill (ca. 40 cm), 3 legs) at the beginning of the season → first warm day. They cost about 10€. Use until the end of the season. Dispose. Rinse and repeat next year.

[Stuart Galbraith]

19 hours ago, R E lee said:

Mrs brought home an air fryer at the weekend, apparently we just had to have one, if so, why is it still in the box?.

Arent they fantastic? They do roast potato's a treat.

[jmsaari]

12 hours ago, Murph said:

He loves it since he can cook 9 racks of ribs at once.

https://blackearthgrills.com/products/folding-rib-rack

52 is a lot less 3800 ....

I'm somehow not a fan of all the automation that goes into the pellet smokers, a big part of the joy of cooking with live fire outside is the manual effort of managing the fire to keep the smoke and temperature where you want it, not doing anything particularly difficult but a good excuse sit outside and relax for a day...  (and that's only partly because i couldnt afford a 4K smoker, anyway

[Murph]

15 hours ago, Harold Jones said:

I'd probably need that capacity once a decade if that.  Although, were I to win the lottery I'd more than likely add one to the stable.

He cooks a lot for his family, and is always telling me about the quantity of meat he bought to get ready to cook.  He is really very accomplished as a grill master.  For him, this is perfect, for me, it would be way, way overkill.  

[bojan]

  

3 hours ago, jmsaari said:

... not doing anything particularly difficult but a good excuse sit outside and relax for a day...

Good cast iron grill + few bricks + plum tree wood when I want to enjoy a process.  Otherwise, I can order grilled meat from a local butcher w/o paying  any extra over the price of meat.

I am also considering making earthen oven in the family house yard next summer.

Edited November 22, 2022 by bojan

[Harold Jones]

1 hour ago, bojan said:

  

Good cast iron grill + few bricks + plum tree wood when I want to enjoy a process.  Otherwise, I can order grilled meat from a local butcher w/o paying  any extra over the price of meat.

I am also considering making earthen oven in the family house yard next summer.

I enjoy the process almost as much as the finished product, but the nice thing about most cooks is that it is mostly waiting and checking temps periodically once the meat is on the smoker so I can do other stuff around the house.  I'm toying with the idea of including a wood fired oven in my patio rebuild/expansion.  My Big Green Egg does a nice job as a high temperature oven but it has limited heat retention compared to an actual masonry oven combined with a smaller baking area than I would like.

[Skywalkre]

Have heard nothing good about Traegers - that they're built on the cheap with lasting potential in serious question.  Hell, last time I was my local Costco looking at all the various models of grills/smokers they all seemed like cheap toys rather than something that would last.  Couple that to the drastic price increases due to COVID supply issues and inflation none of them seemed remotely worth it.  The cheaper options others have mentioned here seem the better route to go.

[Murph]

22 minutes ago, Skywalkre said:

Have heard nothing good about Traegers - that they're built on the cheap with lasting potential in serious question.  Hell, last time I was my local Costco looking at all the various models of grills/smokers they all seemed like cheap toys rather than something that would last.  Couple that to the drastic price increases due to COVID supply issues and inflation none of them seemed remotely worth it.  The cheaper options others have mentioned here seem the better route to go.

That is what my buddy says about the Traegers.  He is waiting for the smoke box attachment to come in on his Recteq (it is perpetually back ordered).  He loves his 1250, and is trying really hard to get me to get one.  The only other real issue is keeping the electronics dry.

[Harold Jones]

RecTeq customer service is top notch and their grills are built like tanks.  Mine sat outside without a cover for the first 3 winters I had it with no issues. Now that I've moved to the colder and much more damp Midwest I invested in a cover.   

[Sardaukar]

[shootER5]

17 hours ago, jmsaari said:

I'm somehow not a fan of all the automation that goes into the pellet smokers, a big part of the joy of cooking with live fire outside is the manual effort of managing the fire to keep the smoke and temperature where you want it, not doing anything particularly difficult but a good excuse sit outside and relax for a day... 

 

Same here. Me buying a pellet smoker (I refuse to call them grills) would take all the fun out of it. 

A good friend of mine had a Traeger and recently upgraded to some other kind, but I still call his cooker an Easy-Bake Oven.  


That said, one of my cousins used to do large scale barbecuing for golf tournaments and such (as well as competing in contests) and he was a big fan of the old school (way before pellet cookers came out) electric smoker he bought to use on his patio on weekends. He didn't feel like work as hard on his own barbecue as he did when he was getting paid for it. 

[DKTanker]

45 minutes ago, shootER5 said:

 

Same here. Me buying a pellet smoker (I refuse to call them grills) would take all the fun out of it. 

A good friend of mine had a Traeger and recently upgraded to some other kind, but I still call his cooker an Easy-Bake Oven.  


That said, one of my cousins used to do large scale barbecuing for golf tournaments and such (as well as competing in contests) and he was a big fan of the old school (way before pellet cookers came out) electric smoker he bought to use on his patio on weekends. He didn't feel like work as hard on his own barbecue as he did when he was getting paid for it. 

A friend of mine and I were discussing the intricacies of smoking, we of the stick burner guild, when all of a sudden he says he has a confession to make.  He's bought a pellet grill.  He in fact was a bit ashamed of himself as he put it, "I feel like I've turned in my man card."  To which I replied, if he wanted the advantages of forget it cooking, why not just crank up the kitchen oven and inject the meat with the usual injection and a dose of liquid smoke?  All the while he was hanging his head scuffing the dirt with the toe of his boot. 

[Harold Jones]

I use what I feel like using, sometimes I use both because I'm doing something like a turkey on the BGE and Ribs on the RecTeq, one epic Thanksgiving I had a ham on the BGE, a turkey in the RecTeq, and another one in fryer plus an oven full of sides.  The important part for me is that I end up with something that my friends and family look forward to eating.