Traeger

Traeger pellets are the hardwood fuel for Traeger grills, for home cooks who want to smoke a turkey low and slow and grill burgers hot and fast on one grill. One bag does both jobs. The pellets are made for Traeger grills and calibrated to burn consistently, and the controller holds the temperature you set.

Traeger Grills, based in Salt Lake City, makes wood pellet grills, griddles, pellets and grilling accessories. Joe Traeger founded the company, and it dates the first wood pellet grill to 1987 in Mt. Angel, Oregon. The Traeger family sold the company in 2006, and its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker COOK.

Matching the pellet to the meat

For a turkey, load apple or cherry. Those fruit woods are made for poultry and pork, and they won’t bury a bird under heavy smoke over a long cook. For burgers, load hickory or mesquite. Mesquite is the strongest of the lot, and it suits patties that only spend a few minutes in the smoke. Pecan sits between them, a nutty wood that gives pork and chicken more than fruit wood does. Signature Blend mixes hickory, maple and cherry, and it is the bag to keep on hand when you cook a bit of everything. Traeger’s rubs (beef, coffee, Hoboken, Black Saskatchewan, garlic paprika for vegetables) go on before the meat hits the grill; salt-heavy rubs work best put on an hour ahead so the salt has time to pull in.

Smoke comes through heaviest at low temperatures. Food cooked hot the whole way tastes like it came out of an oven, and that’s the complaint heard most from new owners. For a turkey with real smoke flavor, start it low and bring the heat up late in the cook to finish the skin.

Moisture ruins pellets faster than anything. Wet pellets swell and crumble into sawdust, and sawdust jams the auger, so keep the bag sealed and off a damp floor.

Low and slow, then hot and fast

People look at a pellet grill and see a smoker. Anything you can cook on a gas grill cooks on a Traeger, and the same grill that smokes ribs low and slow grills burgers hot and fast. Let it preheat all the way before the patties go on; it reaches the set temperature in about 10 to 15 minutes.

Burgers, chicken and wings take well to top heat. For a thick steak, smoke it low first, pull it, let the grill climb to around 500 degrees, then put it back on to finish the crust.

How the grill burns the pellets

The auger carries pellets from the hopper to the fire pot, the HotRod lights them, and a fan moves heat and smoke around the food. The controller holds an average of the temperature you set and adjusts on its own, so the reading runs a little over and a little under through the cook. Traeger says those swings are normal and intentional.

Keep the lid shut. Every peek dumps heat and smoke. Cook to a meat thermometer instead of the clock: every Traeger comes with a probe, and on WiFIRE models the Traeger App shows the food’s internal temperature and sends an alert to your phone when it’s ready.

Power and placement

A Traeger plugs in. A small amount of electricity runs the controller, lights the fire, turns the auger and runs the fan. The common mistake is assembling the grill first and then finding the cord won’t reach, so pick the spot by the outlet. It cooks in rain and snow, but keep it out of a lawn sprinkler’s path, because it’s protected only from spray falling within 60 degrees of vertical.

Grease and cleanup

The drip tray under the grates catches grease and keeps flames off the food, which is why a Traeger doesn’t flare up. For the rest of cleanup, Traeger makes a galvanized steel drip pail, aluminum bucket liners and a 32 oz grill cleaner. Empty the pail after every cook, before someone knocks it off the side.

The grill families

Traeger’s grill families are the Westwood, which Traeger calls its gateway grill, plus the Woodridge, Ironwood and Timberline. WiFIRE controllers on some series let you run the grill from the Traeger App, and the Timberline comes with a built-in MEATER Bluetooth probe. The compact portable grills are made for balconies and tailgates.

Traeger at a glance

Item	Detail
Apple and cherry pellets	Sweeter, subtler smoke for poultry, pork, seafood and baked goods
Hickory, mesquite and oak pellets	For beef, wild game and vegetables
Pellet make	All-natural hardwood, dried, ground to a uniform size and pressed in U.S. mills
Cooking modes	Grill, smoke, bake, roast, braise and BBQ
Warranty	10-year limited on Timberline, Ironwood and Woodridge; 7-year limited on Westwood, Ironwood Gen 1, Timberline Gen 1 and Pro Gen 2

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you smoke a turkey on a Traeger?

Traeger sells a Turkey Blend pellet packed with a Brine & Rub Kit, so the wood, the brine and the seasoning all come in one box. Put the probe in the thickest part of the breast and pull the bird when it reaches temperature, not when the clock says so, because a turkey’s size and the weather both change the cook time.

Can you actually grill on a Traeger, or is it just a smoker?

You can grill on it, and it does more than grill: the same grill bakes a wood-fired pizza and braises a pot of wild game chili right on the grates. For burgers and other hot-and-fast cooking, the drip tray keeps grease off the fire, so you won’t have to fight flare-ups. If you want a flat-top for smash burgers, Traeger’s griddles are built for that.

Are Traeger grills any good?

The case for one is that it burns only hardwood and holds the temperature you set on its own, so a long smoke doesn’t need someone feeding a fire. The grills are also built modular, so an owner can swap a worn part like the HotRod or the fan without a service call. What decides whether you like it is whether you cook low and slow often enough to use what it does best.

What’s the difference between the Traeger Ironwood and Timberline?

Traeger calls the Ironwood its versatile grill and the Timberline its powerful one. The X MEATER Bluetooth probe comes standard on the Timberline and Timberline XL and costs extra on the Ironwood and Ironwood XL. It’s the only MEATER that connects straight to the grill, since the MEATER Plus and Block have to go through the MEATER app.