if you are Like me, you’re probably not used to pulling out nearly 50 pounds of pork shoulder perfectly with your smartphone in bed. But I’m there using the new Traeger Timberline, hitting the “super smoke” button and checking my temperature at 6am before my morning coffee, making enough meat to feed 100 people in my town’s annual backyard keg .
I don’t just cook lots of pork on Traeger’s newly designed premium smoker. In fact, I rarely make anything non-smoked this summer. Chicken salad? Smoke that chicken first. Steak? Smoke it before grilling on the built-in induction burner. Fresh and juicy melon? Toss it on the Traeger for 30 minutes for the perfect caramel desert.
This smart smoker and induction burner provides the perfect all-in-one outdoor kitchen. Minus a moderate Wi-Fi connection (you’ll need to make sure your yard has reliable coverage), the new Timberline offers everything I want from a modern smoker and more: you can bake, Cooking and smoking this saves both electricity and fuel. After about two months, I barely used a bag and a half of sawdust pellets. Flies in smoke ring ointment? It’s priced at $3,500. That’s a lot of money for any kitchen appliance.
new rig
The Timberline comes in a large orange box with clear setup instructions, but you may need a partner to help you move some of the heavier bits. At the heart of the system is a sizable insulated cigarette case that can hold six pork shoulders, or racks roughly equivalent to ribs or chicken (the company also sells an XL version with about a third of the space for an extra $300). ). Inside the pack, you can have everything in three layers, with a vent for the smoke in the middle of the back of the smoker so that it fully circulates to the top before venting.
There is a drip tray and ash/grease collector in an easily removable compartment in the cabinet under the smoker, which is also a great place to store extra pellets and metal lining for the drip tray. You’ll get a lot of use out of these metal drip liners before you need to replace one; the six pork shoulders are only half filled.
In addition to the cigarette case, on the right side of the unit, you’ll find a box that you can fill with wood pellets of your choice (Traeger sent me their own assortment of interior pellets, but you can use other brands). There’s even a plastic bin and special trap door so you can take one type of pellet out of the auger for storage and put in another if you want to smoke something like pecan before switching back to apple wood type of particles.
The Timberline’s main control area is located on the right side of the unit, via a very comfortable push button knob and a colour LCD display. The best way to use it is to connect your phone to the grill via the Traeger app. Once it’s connected to Wi-Fi, you can control every aspect of the machine (including setting timers and temperature alarms) from your smartphone. It’s very pretty. You just want to make sure your router has enough range, as I’ve had shaky connections on Traeger from time to time.
The Timberline has an induction burner on the left side, and it pairs perfectly with a cast-iron skillet to sear just-cooked food on the smoker, or cook accompanying dishes while waiting to finish smoking.
Accessory rails surround the front and sides of the smoker, giving you a place to place items like a tissue holder, pop-up tray, and grill tool hook. Traeger sent me those accessories and they are all good but not necessary especially since they are expensive a lot of. You will pay $120 for the front rack, $60 for the litter box for utensils and $120 for the stainless steel grill pan. oops. The one accessory you need – a grill hood – sells for a whopping $180. No, it’s not made of silk.
