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The Traeger has a considerably larger and more usable cooking area than the Bradley, so we're trying more things these days.
This weekend's experiment was reverse-seared tri-tip; take a 2.5-lb. triangle of beef and smoke it at 250 degrees (F) over mesquite for an hour, rest it for ten minutes or so, then throw it on a 600-degree grill for three minutes per side. Slice thin, and serve with chimichurri.
To accompany, we had Hasselback potatoes, which are a fancy presentation of a baked potato where you slice *almost* through the spud at an interval of 1/8", season, and roast. We'd never tried these before, but they looked neat and we figured what the heck?
Our green vegetable was roasted asparagus, which we have pretty much whenever Margaret notices that the grocery store has asparagus for sale (note I did not say "ON sale").
Things looked pretty good, if I do say so myself (I feel pretty good about that smoke ring, for what it's worth):
But looks will only take you so far; what really matters is how it all tastes. In reverse order of importance:
The asparagus is Margaret's usual recipe, big surprise: we like it.
The potato is tasty, but not any better than a regular baker. Given the significantly higher effort involved in the preparation, we're unlikely to ever revisit the Hasselback method.
We were super happy with the steak, though. We'd been a little worried that an hour would not be enough for the meat to pick up much smoke flavor, but the two-fire method (one fire for heat, one fire for smoke) I've settled on gave plenty of flavor and that nice smoke ring. We will definitely be adding tri-tip to our beef rotation. And a good thing too, since the Costco pack Margaret picked up to make the steak a bit more affordable had 2 steaks, so now there's one sitting in the freezer waiting its turn. :)
This weekend's experiment was reverse-seared tri-tip; take a 2.5-lb. triangle of beef and smoke it at 250 degrees (F) over mesquite for an hour, rest it for ten minutes or so, then throw it on a 600-degree grill for three minutes per side. Slice thin, and serve with chimichurri.
To accompany, we had Hasselback potatoes, which are a fancy presentation of a baked potato where you slice *almost* through the spud at an interval of 1/8", season, and roast. We'd never tried these before, but they looked neat and we figured what the heck?
Our green vegetable was roasted asparagus, which we have pretty much whenever Margaret notices that the grocery store has asparagus for sale (note I did not say "ON sale").
Things looked pretty good, if I do say so myself (I feel pretty good about that smoke ring, for what it's worth):
But looks will only take you so far; what really matters is how it all tastes. In reverse order of importance:
The asparagus is Margaret's usual recipe, big surprise: we like it.
The potato is tasty, but not any better than a regular baker. Given the significantly higher effort involved in the preparation, we're unlikely to ever revisit the Hasselback method.
We were super happy with the steak, though. We'd been a little worried that an hour would not be enough for the meat to pick up much smoke flavor, but the two-fire method (one fire for heat, one fire for smoke) I've settled on gave plenty of flavor and that nice smoke ring. We will definitely be adding tri-tip to our beef rotation. And a good thing too, since the Costco pack Margaret picked up to make the steak a bit more affordable had 2 steaks, so now there's one sitting in the freezer waiting its turn. :)