How To Fire Up And Use The Traeger Wood Pellet Pro 22 Grill

Traeger wood pellet grills, the alternative outdoor cooking experience

Traeger Wood Pellet Grills are the alternative to cooking outside with gas or charcoal. If you are a fan of cooking larger cheaper cuts of meat ‘low and slow’ then the Traegers are certainly worth looking at as they can be safely left to get on with the cooking without you constantly having to check the temperatures. The unit requires an electrical source to run the on-board computer and the heat rod. The food is cooked from the heat given off by burning the wood pellets; these are ignited by the hot rod in the base of the unit. The power consumption is very low; 300 watts for the first 4 minutes, until the rod comes up to temperature, and 50 watts thereafter. An induction fan distributes the hot smoke throughout the unit cooking the food evenly. The wood pellets are also available in a variety of flavours such as hickory, oak, apple, maple.

The hopper on the side of the unit takes a huge amount of pellets so once it is full you can forget about having to add more fuel throughout the cooking process. On some models there is a little trap door on the hopper to allow you to change the pellets depending upon what you are cooking; just remember to place a bucket underneath before opening! With a large piece of meat on low and slow and a hopper full of fuel you can go to bed happy in the knowledge that the food will cook slowly throughout the night. The auger moves the pellets from the hopper to the cooking chamber at a variable rate depending upon whether you are cooking quickly or low and slow. There are 2 in-built temperature probes which feed in through the side of the unit; you leave the probes in the meat throughout the cooking process and check the core temperatures via a digital read-out on the exterior.

Salmon with pesto

The temperature is easily controlled by a dial on the front and is accurate to within 15F. The 572 sq in grates hold a huge amount of food which we have demonstrated in another video. The bottom grate measures 22” x 19” and the upper grate 22” x 7”. We easily accommodated 6 large burgers, 8 large thick free-range sausages, 10 lamb kebabs, 4 whole chicken breasts and 4 corn cobs with enough space left to allow for the hot smoke to circulate. The food all went on at the same time and all came off at the same time, there was no need to turn the food, so really it couldn’t have been easier.

There is also a shut down cycle which allows the unit to clear any residual ash from the fire pot; once it has done this the unit will shut down. There is a small bucket at one end which catches any fat dripping from the meat. If you are wanting a fuss-free, reliable, easily controlled outdoor grilling unit then these Traegers are definitely worth looking at.