I've smoked three meats in the Traeger that my fam gave me... honestly, the meat doesn't strike me as being under smoked (flavor-wise). I wish we could run an A-B comparison!!!
I've smoked three meats in the Traeger that my fam gave me... honestly, the meat doesn't strike me as being under smoked (flavor-wise). I wish we could run an A-B comparison!!!
My buddy and my brother had a Traeger at one point and I wasn't happy with it. way undersmoked compared to what I'm used to with lump coal (I'm a charcoal fanatic). The thing is, I think part of it is growing up in the southwest where when we smoke meats, we SMOKE meats. Heavy mesquite and hickory, so switching to the lighter flavor that pellets give is a bit of a shock.
and Mechman is right, unless you're doing a stupidly low temperature smoke chunks are only necessary the first 3 hours, maybe 4, before the meat stops absorbing the smoke. Even though my chunks can continue to smoke for 5+ hours on the initial addition I'm not too worried about adding my chunks to the mix as past the 4 hour mark there's not much of a benefit.
If you're going pellet though, there are some nifty specialty pellets that have more smoke potential than the Traeger brand pellets. There's a wicked mesquite pellet manufacturer in Tucson itself that we used and it gave a surprising amount of smoke for a pellet smoker. Not as much my drum style smoker with 6 chunks of mesquite, but a solid amount (we use mesquite in everything down here. You've never tried home made bacon until you've tried it with mesquite. Most people go towards hickory or applewood for bacon because it's traditional, but mesquite bacon has a really nice flavor that's unprecedented. Especially since pork absorbs smoke like no other)