one of my favorite things to do is smoke my burgers for an hour, pull them off the grill, heat it to max temp, then put them back on for 10 minutes to finish.
I like mine medium well and well smoked, so works great for me. Its a preference thing though, one kid in the house hates the "red meat" so I always have to do his different. Big 'ol fat homemade patties will help with that also.
You can pull the meat when the thermometer hits 135 for medium rare. That's for beef. Adjust accordingly
I think I was talking more about the 11 hour smoke for the "medium rare" option. I've never seen it done. I could be wrong though.
I think we are a little confused. I only smoke a big roast that long. My roast from last night got put on at 11pm so it smoked for 8 hours, but I will get a 20lb full packer brisket sometimes and smoke for 12+hrs. That will get the meat to around 140degrees internal temp, then you cook it up to 190-205 internal temp at a grill temp of 225-250. For a burger, chicken wiings, or something small I would either not smoke at all or smoke for an hour max, then finish on a grill setting.
If you cook at 150 degrees (smoke), then 150 degrees is the maximum possible temperature of the meat... If you use a thermometer, you can take the meat off when the temperature is right. You don't go by time anyway, you go by temperature on these smokers.
some tings can time out well, like full chickens I just go for an hour and dont need to check temp, but the meat temp is pretty much the key for perfect juicy meat. If you take your brisket above 210 it gets dry fast. Alternative is to wrap your meat...... but no self respecting BBQer wraps their meat.
I notice most recipes on the WWW for traeger do not include cook times unless you're using it full blast like a traditional grill. The typical pattern is smoke for a long time, then raise the temperature to 250+ and cook until temperature reaches the desired level. Like your burgers.
Yeah I understand time isn't really what makes a good cook, but I was replying to the long smoke time only. So even at 150, it can still get medium if you smoke for 11 hours.
You will still need to finish at a higher temp to get the fat to cook right, otherwise it can be to rubbery or not melt into the meat well enough.
Gosh, I'm such a traeger perv [video=youtube;XAyWIm7kaUA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_592915&feature=iv&src_vid=6MaSZohjiO8&v=XAyWIm7kaUA[/video]
just hanging out on the internet checking out other peoples meat. Did you buy one yet? Chicken wings are one of latest favorites. [video=youtube;5pab1OaQNN0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pab1OaQNN0#t=89[/video]
I'm going to be on vacation in a week so I'm probably going to buy it then so I can experiment and set it up. Kinda wondering if I should wait and see if there's any deals on black friday? Those chicken wings look good!
