As a meat and fire fan, the Traeger Timberline 850 strikes directly into my rib zone. This powerful and expensive smoking grill looks more like an outdoor oven than the charcoal grill or gas grill you used and the unique pellet system adds flavor, smoke and smoke to your copious cups.
Traeger has been around for years and started in the Northwest as a small cult brand associated with sturdy smokers. Recently reborn and renamed by former Skullcandy CEO, Jeremy Andrus, Traeger's story now squarely targets gourmets and outdoor-loving Xers (and Millennials who can afford the $ 1,700 prize for one of these massive grids.)
The interesting thing about these grids is the pellet system. The pellets are introduced into a fire boat which burns them at consistently high temperatures, essentially creating a convection inside the massive drum. In turn, it warms, cooks and roasts meat and vegetables to a surprising perfection. I made steaks, pork and even pizza in this beast and every effort was rewarded with good food. Another favorite, Beer Can Chicken, produces a perfectly crisp bird in about an hour.
There are some things to consider before changing. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes for the grill to warm up and there is always the very real fear of running out of pellets. These are usually available at hardware stores across the country. Anxiety granules is a real problem with these grids, but I've never needed a pellet bake late at night during my cooking tests.
How does Wi-Fi help things? Mainly by allowing you to keep an eye on things from a distance. Once you have connected the grill to your home wi-fi, you can adjust the temperature and internal alarms of the sensor, allowing you full control over your cook. The grill also allows you to cook by temperature, no perceived cooking, an improvement that is worth the price of admission alone. Once you cook based on the probe and not on the color of the meat, you learn to understand when things are drying out, how long it takes to turn on the chest and how to stop the burning of lemons smoked.
This grid is very funny. It's a little bigger than your old gas or charcoal grill, but it's definitely worth it if you want to enhance your backyard grill game at the levels of Starship Enterprise. You can do things with the Timberline that you certainly can not do with a gas grill and although I miss the slow and steady trend of my animal Brinkmann smoker, the food coming out of the Timberline is surprisingly good. Sometimes you have to travel in the future to recapture the past.