Burnt Ends Blog

It was 4:43am on 1/30/2021, and truthfully I had my alarm set for 5am but the excitement of my first smoke had me up all night... butterflies, the jitters, feels like the first day of high school...

Let me tell you, there is something pretty wild about getting up at the ass-crack before dawn and watching smoke billowing out of your Traeger 780 Pro underneath a full moon and crystal-clear sky - oh, and it’s 10 degrees out. Factor in the wind chill and you have frozen extremities and a runny nose. The ambiance felt like I was on vacation and all I could see in the darkness of my backyard was the whimsy of the full moon and the glorious glow of the Traeger WiFire screen. At 5:07am the smoker was at 217, a few more degrees to 225 and I was ready to hit the pit with some pork shoulder.

The cold put the Pro 780 to the test! All day long, the smoker held within +/- 10 degrees of the 225 degree set temperature. Every hour I went out, quickly opened the door and spritzed an 8lb boneless pork shoulder I got from Costco with equal parts apple cider vinegar and apple juice. It was amazing how much heat was sucked out once the door opened - sometimes dropping to 160 degrees within a matter of seconds

The pork that was going to be pulled and shredded into a juicy pile of meaty smokiness was on the pit for about 9 hours before I bumped the cooking temperature to 250 degrees. The bark was perfect and... I was starting to get hungry. Patience is a virtue they say… well, when you’re a Long Island eye-talian, good luck wit dat.

At an internal temp of 160, I took the pork off the smoker and put it in an aluminum tin to catch the juices. I covered it, and put it back on the smoker until an internal temp of 200. By-the-by, I seasoned that sucker with Meat Church Honey Hog and Honey Hog Hot with a yellow mustard binder. Super easy…

Traeger’s temperature probe that connects to their WiFire app is just okay. The probe was about 10-15 degrees higher than my spot check classic analog and archaic meat thermometer. Lemme me tell you sumptim’ dough, dat ting works like a charm. If I didn’t have it, it would’ve been some sad pulled pork…

I went through about 21 pounds of cherry Traeger pellets to make it through the day. The pellets cost more than the piece of pork…

All in all, that pulled pork was RIDICULOUSLY good. The juice was bonkers, the bark was insane, and the smoke flavor was throughout. I’m not saying it was hard because it wasn’t. The Traeger makes life super easy with a set-and-forget mentality. The end result is remarkable and if you’re looking for consistency, setting a temperature and walking away is a tremendous plus... minus the occasional spritzing, wrapping, etc.

As my first smoke, it was a BLAST. Being a “pit-master” can definitely be a “lifestyle” and I can see how people get hooked on it. If it was this fun in the freakin’ cold, I can’t wait for spring, summer, and even the fall.

I didn’t choose the barbecue life, the barbecue life chose me.

-Nick