In my last post, I mentioned we stopped at Costco in Burnsville on the way home from Donna’s bike race in Minneapolis. It was a nice store, not crowded at all, but maybe a little smaller than some of the Costcos I’ve been in. I wrote about the start-up of the Price Club and eventual merger with Costco in this post.

We had a few things to pick up – I wanted to stock up on bottled water for our travels next week and also buy clumping kitty litter for Ozark. Costco has a 42-pound bag for just a few bucks more than the 19-pound pack at Petco.

As we wandered through the store, Donna bought organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs and tilapia sourced from Costa Rica. We looked at salmon and that made me think of cedar planks. Sometimes we can find a good deal on a package of cedar planks at Costco. I looked in the area where they had charcoal and other barbeque supplies.

Donna saw a guy by some grills and asked him if he knew where the cedar planks were. He told her he hadn’t seen any, but if we had one of his grills, we wouldn’t need them. I didn’t pay much attention, but I heard him say these grills were wood-fired. I was imagining finding fire wood for the barrel shaped grills anytime I wanted to grill. Then he caught my attention when he said they use wood pellets. What? I didn’t know wood pellet fired grills existed.

I understood the pellet technology and how wood pellet heating stoves work – I had one when I lived in the Pacific Northwest. It turns out that the company that invented wood pellet stoves in ’80s found their market to be too seasonal. People only thought about heating their homes and buying pellet stoves in the fall or winter. In the ’90s, they came up with the idea of making a wood pellet fired grill and smoker. They filed patents and started marketing the grills to fill the slow spring and summer seasons. Over time, they refined the product. This company is called Traeger and it’s headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Costco is now carrying Traeger smoker/grills. I ended up talking to the guy for about 20 minutes as he demonstrated how it works. I already understood the basic operation. We told him that we’re full time RVers, so he showed us a compact model.

I knew from my experience with pellet heating stoves that the quality of the pellets matters. Low-quality pellets don’t make as much heat and also leave ash deposits. He told me that pellet grills use special “food grade” pellets made only with hardwood (more on this later). Heating pellets are often made from lumber mill waste (saw dust) and contain softwoods such as fir and pine which would not be as good for cooking.

He was a good salesman and kept pitching the product. When I asked how much the Traeger Junior Elite (the compact model) costs, he broke out his iPad and showed me the MSRP was $449 with some places selling it for $429. He said the Costco price was $349. Then he said he would include the grill cover, which retails for $60 (I found it online for $45) and a bottle of dry rub spices. He had a ton of pictures on his iPad of food he and his dad have grilled.

I went for it. I figured we had the car today, I couldn’t see myself strapping this 60-lb. grill on the back of the scooter if I bought it later – and I was getting about a $500 value for $349.

It took some doing to get the big grill box, two cases of water and 42 pounds of cat litter in the rental Passat with Donna’s bike and gear already in the back, but we managed. When we got home, I unpacked the grill box on the picnic table. Some assembly was required!

Everything was nicely packed. I was impressed with how the hardware was handled – every screw had a washer and nut on it, making sure nothing was left out. All I had to do was remove the nuts and washers, install the part and install the washers and tighten the nuts. I read the assembly instructions, then went to work.

I followed the directions with only a couple deviations where I saw a better way. The hardware pack included spanner wrenches in 3/8″, 7/16″ and 1/2″ sizes. I used my own wrenches and 1/4″ drive sockets to speed the assembly.

I completed the assembly in about 30 minutes. Once I had it put together, I filled the hopper with Traeger pellets I bought at Costco. There are a variety of wood pellets available – hickory, oak, cherry, apple, etc.  that can impart different flavors to the food you cook.

I bought a 33-lb. bag of maple, hickory and cherry blend of wood pellets at Costco for $20. This will last for 15 to 40 hours of cooking time, depending on temperature selected and ambient wind and temperature conditions. This fuel is more economical than propane and it imparts flavor like charcoal or wood-fired cooking. I fired up the grill and ran it on high for 45 minutes to season it and burn off any oils or manufacturing residue.

The Traeger has a temperature sensor inside the grill and a digital controller. Once fired up, you set the desired temperature and let it warm up for about 10-15 minutes. Then you place the food on the grill and leave it alone! No peeking. Let it cook for the required time and voila!

I don’t usually impulse buy like this, but I was intrigued by the wood pellet technology and felt like I needed to move up from our trusty Weber Q grill. This thing has so much potential for barbeque, smoking, roasting and baking – yes, baking. Donna prepared boneless chicken thighs and I preheated the grill. It was so easy – set it and let it do its thing. The chicken was delicious.

Before I began cooking, I lined the drip pan with aluminum foil. Any fats that drip grease are caught by the pan which slopes and drains into a grease bucket. Easy clean up and no flare-ups.

I spent time on the Internet and found that wood pellet smokers and barbeques are quite popular among the barbeque competition crowd. Some people say it’s cheating because they’re too easy.

I also found there’s controversy over “food-grade wood pellets.” Heating pellets are about a quarter of the cost of “food grade” wood pellets. The thing is, there’s no standard for “food grade” that I could find. One site mentioned a USDA requirement, but after half an hour on the cumbersome government site, I couldn’t find anything. My thinking is this – I’ll buy the “food grade” stuff from reputable firms for my own well-being. I know first-hand that heating pellet quality varies and I wouldn’t want to use a pellet with soft woods, bark or recycled construction waste – not to mention made on manufacturing equipment that wasn’t using food grade lubricants.

The reputable manufacturers of pellets intended for grills use only hardwoods with no binders and use food-grade lubricants such as canola or soy oil. The pellets are made by pressing saw dust through dies under extreme pressure at about 250 degrees. The saw dust is lubricated to facilitate the extrusion through the dies. The naturally occurring lignin in the wood binds the pellet together during the process. Heating pellets may contain cornstarch as a lubricant and binder or other undesirable elements. Until standards are established as they have in Europe, I’ll stick with major, albeit more expensive brands. Traeger has their own pellet manufacturing plants to ensure quality pellets for their grills.

There is one consideration that has me keeping the Weber Q at this time. Wood pellet grills are really smokers or convection ovens. They don’t really provide direct heat, so it’s difficult to get pleasing grill marks on meat. The pellets are burned in a small pot with a fan blowing air across them. This oxygenates the burning pellets and also creates a convection flow in the  grill. There’s a diffuser over the burning pot – this along with the drip pan prevents direct heat from reaching the grill. There are ways to work around this and I’m looking forward to learning. I hope to move on from the propane Weber in the near future.

Donna had a book signing in St. Paul last night. Before she drove to St. Paul, we went to the farmers’ market at the tribal Mazopiya natural food market. It wasn’t much of a farmers’ market – just a few tables of locally grown produce.

Today Donna wants to go back to the natural food market before she returns the rental car. The weather guessers are calling for a warmer day with temperatures in the mid 80s before thundershowers move in for the weekend. I think I’ll remove the tire covers and windshield covers this afternoon and pack them away while they’re dry. We’ll pull out of here on Sunday.