Smoking meat made easy - The Dallas Morning News

I’m a member of a loose-knit group called the Texas BBQ Posse.

As you might guess, we formed to share a common love of barbecue.

Some Posse members cook their own barbecue, but most of us joined because we like finding and eating good barbecue.

When we first started out, one of our main activities was to plan tours to sample barbecue from three or four or five joints in a day or weekend.

There were others who went before us, like Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, who published a lot of reviews of both good and bad joints, so we usually mixed one or two established good joints in our tours along with a few smaller places.

Over the years, we were able to come up with our own list of top barbecue joints that we really enjoyed returning to again and again.

There were always a few good amateur pit masters in the Posse, but for the longest time, I was not one of them.

I always said I’d rather eat barbecue than cook it, but then things changed.

By talking to pit masters from really good barbecue joints, I came to appreciate the craft, and I started thinking I wanted a smoker at home.

Eventually I settled on a Weber Smokey Mountain, which is a vertical barrel smoker that burns charcoal. I was able to produce some pretty good meals with it, learning enough to know I wanted something bigger.

Enter pellets

In researching the various types of smokers and assessing the space I had at home for outdoor cooking, I decided a pellet smoker would work best for me.

I’ve been using the Traeger Pro 575, which has produced some outstanding barbecue with a minimum of fuss and mess.

I realize it is not on the same level as a smoker that burns logs (often called a stick burner), but I am quite happy with it.

Traeger reached out to me a few weeks back to see if I’d like to review its midrange Ironwood Series 885 Pellet Grill ($1,499.99).

Since I was already familiar with Traeger, I was excited to say yes.

The Ironwood 885 is a step up from the Pro 575, both in size and design.

The 885 in the name refers to the size of the cooking surface. There are two grates that add up to 885 square inches of cooking area.

The interior of the Traeger Ironwood Series 885 Pellet Grill.(Traeger)

It isn’t the biggest smoker Traeger makes, but it can smoke 10 chickens, seven racks of ribs or nine pork butts.

You might not be familiar with pellet grills, but they use wood pellets as fuel instead of charcoal or wood logs.

The pellets, which are made from compressing hardwood sawdust, resemble rabbit food pellets.

The Ironwood 885 can hold up to 20 pounds of pellets in its hopper.

The pellets are delivered to a small burning chamber on the bottom of the grill by an auger. A controller board works with a fan and a thermometer to maintain precise control of the temperature in the smoker. It works amazingly well. The 885 can cook at temperatures from 160 up to 500 degrees. This is perfect for smoking a brisket or racks of ribs. It’s a bit low to get a really good sear on a steak, but if you want to cook burgers or hot dogs or chicken, you’ll be happy with the results.

The 885 has a button labeled Super Smoke that makes it burn more pellets at low temperatures to increase the smoke flavor in your meats.

WiFire technology

The 885 has the Traeger WiFire controller, which uses your home’s Wi-Fi network to let you connect to the grill and control it from your phone or tablet when you are away from home.

The grill runs on electricity, and when you first turn it on, you’ll be taken through the steps to connect it to your home’s Wi-Fi.

The Traeger app lets the user see and control the grill from anywhere.(Traeger)

This isn’t a requirement. If your grill’s location is too far away from your house to pick up Wi-Fi, you can cook with full functionality by using the controls on the grill itself.

Power it on, turn the temperature dial to your desired cooking temperature and press the ignite button to start the fire.

In a few minutes, you’ll start seeing smoke and you’ll notice the digital temperature on the display start to rise.

When the grill heats to your desired temperature, an alarm will beep on the grill and on your phone if you are connected. You can then put on the meat and insert the grill’s probe if you want to monitor the internal temperature of your meat.

You can set a probe alarm, and when the internal temperature of the meet is reached, you’ll get another notification.

You can see all of the information on the Traeger app or on the grill’s display.

Traeger Ironwood Series 885 Pellet Grill.(Traeger)

When your meat is at the desired temperature, you can either take it off the heat or set the 885 to “keep warm” mode, which drops the grill down to 165 degrees to keep it hot and ready without overcooking it.

The 885 also has a built-in pellet sensor that monitors the amount of pellets left in the hopper so it can let you know when you’re running low.

This is very handy, because I’ve run out of pellets during long cooks with the Pro 575.

Design

The Ironwood 885 is a tall and wide smoker with two levels of cooking surface, a larger grate on the bottom and a smaller shelf on top. Both grates are made from porcelain-covered steel for easier cleanup.

The grill has four all-terrain wheels. One pair of wheels swivel so you can move the grill around fairly easily on a smooth, flat surface. The wheels also lock. The 885 has double side-wall construction, and there is a gasket around the lower portion of the door to help keep the smoke and heat inside. I wish the gasket went all the way around the door, but it does not. You can see smoke escaping from the door when you cook, but it doesn’t seem to bother the temperature controller. The grill stays pretty close to your set temperature. It does fluctuate a few degrees over and under your set temperature, but I didn’t experience any wild temperature swings.

Instead of a traditional smoke stack, the 885 has a horizontal opening at the rear for the smoke to escape. This lower and narrower opening helps keep the smoke and hot air circulating around the inside of the smoker before exiting.

The 885 has a stainless-steel shelf on the left side and an optional fold-down shelf on the front. I highly recommend the front shelf if you buy a Traeger.

Cooking

I’ll be the first one to admit that cooking on a Traeger is too easy.

Fire control is one of the first things a pit master needs to learn. Controlling the temperature of your pit is key to getting consistent results.

Using a pellet grill, especially one like a Traeger with its electronic controller, makes setting the grill temperature as easy as setting your oven. Traeger takes the worry out of keeping your smoker at the right temperature.

I understand some pit masters who cook with wood in an offset smoker will look down on any other type of smoker.

I get that. To me, it’s about how the meat on my table tastes, and I’m more than pleased with the meat from the 885.

You might have noticed a Traeger billboard on the Dallas North Tollway poking a little fun at the 2020 election with the slogan “Left Wing, Right Wing … mmmm Wings.”

Traeger says it’s hoping its bipartisan ad campaign will encourage people to vote.

Pros: Large cooking surface, and it’s super simple to set up and use.

Cons: A little expensive.

Bottom line: Great smoked meat — no wood pile required.

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Smoking meat made easy - The Dallas Morning News
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