Country Smokers Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:05 pm

guess its time to put our new Country Smoker through its paces .... on tap for tomorrow Twice Smoked Ham ===> https://countrysmokers.com/recipes/twic ... amon-glaze ..

.. should be interesting ..

Post by **BigAl52** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:06 pm

One thing I know from experience is they say warming the meat up first then turning the temp down to smoke it opens the pours of the meat up. Be carful in hotter temps not to get to carried away with temps for warming the meat. It takes a good while longer for it to cool back down to a good smoking temp. I like 195 for a smoking temp. My grill will achieve over 600 deg. I do have a separate cover that allows the flame from the pellets to be used when cooking steaks if one wishes. I dont do that to much but when cooking steaks I like to sear off each side with that hotter temp I can achieve with mine. I usually set that temp to 575 before I throw them on. It works great and the steaks come out very good.

Post by **BigAl52** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:14 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCEOTg4Kris Here is the grill I have at home. Mine is an older one so the control panel isnt wifi like this one is. I got mine in 2012 and paid no where near what they are asking for the new ones. My brother in law was a distributor for them and I got a great deal on it. There well made and mine is now 8 years old. No issues so far and there customer service is good.

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:28 pm

BigAl52 wrote: ↑
Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:14 pm
Here is the grill I have at home.

that is one beautiful grill .... with your experience, you'd be good to go from day one with Country Smoker Traveler ....

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:32 pm

BigAl52 wrote: ↑
Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:06 pm
One thing I know from experience is they say warming the meat up first then turning the temp down to smoke it opens the pours of the meat up.

recommendation appreciated .... that's a tip I've never heard before and it makes sense .... we hope to grill our first steaks on Monday

Post by **BigAl52** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:25 pm

One of our favorite things to cook but it takes a long time is a pork shoulder roast. Pulled pork is awesome. Set it at about 225 to 250 for a about an hour then turn it down cook it until done. Takes about 16 hours for a 6lber but its really good.

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:56 pm

that sure sounds good .... we've done pretty much the same thing on our Holland Companion with large pork tenderloins from Sam's .... they should turn out even better with our new Traveler because it has much more concise temperature control

Post by **JEBar** » Sun Mar 29, 2020 5:19 pm

in order to make the spiral cut ham in our Traveler, I had to debone it .... as can be seen in the picture below, it filled the cooking area .... it turned out really well

Post by **BigAl52** » Sun Mar 29, 2020 7:09 pm

Looks good to me Jim. Do you deliver

Post by **JEBar** » Sun Mar 29, 2020 9:12 pm

might deliver to Texas next winter ..

.. just made an evening meal out of that ham, scrambled eggs with cheese on a biscuit .... the good news is we have several vacuum sealed bags of the ham in the freezer ....

Mistered · Post by **Mistered** » Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:45 pm

I have often considered some type of pellet grill but something always stopped me.

Maybe the automated process, things to go wrong etc. HOWEVER if anyone is interested pellet smoked goodness can be had with a basic propane grill with the fold up upper grate.

Lay heavy duty aluminum foil on the bottom grate covered completely. Sprinkle a handful or two of pellets on the foil and turn the grill on LOW.

When the pellets begin to smoke put the meat on the upper grill and close the lid. A little experimentation may be needed with heat but with the setting on low it works very well and the pellets glowing add to the heat as well.

I can do chicken thighs, ribs, country style ribs, small pork shoulders etc. in about 1 - 1.5 hours and they come out excellent - tender and juicy and you would think they spent much more time in a smoker.

Is it perfect? No - but not a bad alternative to get a smoked flavor with a 'basic' LP grill on a budget!

This is a recent load of chicken and potatoes! YEP try smoke-baking your spuds this way! They come out great!

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Post by **JEBar** » Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:17 pm

most any grill can be upgraded by adding a Cold Smoke Generator ===> https://smokedaddyinc.com/product/8-inc ... generator/ .... we've used the one from Smoke Daddy on 3 different grills .... they really work well

Mistered · Post by **Mistered** » Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:15 pm

Garlic-pepper chicken thighs tonight!

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Post by **JEBar** » Wed Apr 01, 2020 1:37 pm

the last time I used our new Traveler I noticed that the seal glued across the back to the bottom of the lid was coming loose .... because the grill is so ksonew I didn't figure it was a big deal and it would be worth my time to call the company to see if they would send me a replacement .... this morning I spoke to a very helpful lady named Amanda and told her about the seal .... she said this was the first time she'd spoken with anyone whose grill had this problem .... it do believe her because she spent several minutes looking for seal on the parts list on her computer .... no such seal is shown ..

.. as it turned out, the seal is permanently attached at the factor and doesn't come as a separate part .... at her request I went out and took the pictures below and emailed them to her .... as quickly as she received and looked at them, she said she was going to send a replacement lid .... so we should have a new lid within a few days .... must say, to me that's pretty dang good customer service

Post by **JEBar** » Thu Apr 02, 2020 12:09 am

Bacon Wrapped Sirloin Steaks

we grilled Bacon Wrapped Sirloin Steaks on our Traveler this evening .... simple recipe given below that yielded really good eating .... followed the recipe to the letter but grilled them longer at a lower temperature ....

https://countrysmokers.com/recipes/baco ... loin-steak

Post by **JEBar** » Thu Apr 02, 2020 12:28 pm

I'm happy to report that the SHINESTAR Grill Cover ===> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T5 ... UTF8&psc=1 we purchased to use with our Traveler passed its first test .... granted, the rain wasn't heavy but it was steady and fell most all night .... pulled the cover off the next morning and the grill was dry ...

Post by **JEBar** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:01 am

Recycling

I much prefer the stainless diamond pattern of the cooking grate in our Holland Companion (first picture) .... one of the very few things I don't like about our Traveler is its cooking grate (second picture) .... our Traveler is a portable grill with a cooking grate that is smaller than the ones in home style grills .... while looking for a replacement diamond grate I was reminded that several different types of steamer type pans that are designed to be used with grills .... out of the Zenon Mist that fogs my mind, I remembered that decades ago we bought such a pan (rest of the pictures) but had no clue where it might be .... thankfully, my wife's memory is much better than mine ..

.. its not exactly what I would buy today but I believe it will do and it was paid for a long time ago .... having it expands the types of foods we can grill/smoke and for us, that's a very good thing ..

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Apr 11, 2020 5:54 pm

another 1st .... Calabash style oysters, shrimp and scallops on our Traveler ..

Post by **JEBar** » Sun Apr 12, 2020 3:15 pm

first Huli Huli Chicken (recipe in link below) cooked on our Traveler .... it turned out really good

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... li#p103589

Post by **JEBar** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:21 pm

in preparation for a storm that was forecasted to move through last night I decided to cut open a couple of large trash bags and use them to make a rain shield ... pictures 1 & 2 show outer cover before the rain .... pictures 3 & 4 were taken after the rain .... picture 5 shows the wet outer cover removed .... picture 6 shows a dry grill ... the rain protection worked .... not to ponder on if we should find a small plastic tarp or bigger trash bag ....