Cooking Brisket / Traeger -vs- WSM


 
BenM

BenM

TVWBB Fan
Good morning all.

In addition to my 18" WSM, I own a Traeger Pro Series 34 and use it often. Pork butt, ribs and chicken, I pretty much have down pat on both the Traeger and my WSM. My next WSM mission will be brisket. I've cooked brisket on my Traeger, and they came out great. I have no doubt that they will be just as good, if not better, on my WSM.

I am very curious to compare the two and see if there is any noticeable difference between the two rigs! For those who have both rigs, has anyone done a comparison? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this?

Thanks
 
I've never done it.
But there are others on YouTube that have

My one comment is that the results depend actually on how good you are with the cookers. What if you're better with one than the other,?

Hairy Soo used to say it's always the pitmaster, never the pit. And he did well at very high levels of competition with the WSM. But I don't think his brisket was the top trophy getter. If you manage it right you can get a really good brisket out of a WSM but I suspect that if you manage it right you could get a better one out of an offset using splits, at least if Texas style is what you're after. So why are there other kinds of cookers? Because tending fire on an offset is a bit of work, is my guess. Now that said, Aaron Franklin who is reputed to have one of the top briskets in the country...... Did a competition one time, and came in like 46th or something like that. People love his brisket but the judges apparently did not that time. Competitions are different beast obviously
 
Unless you're feeding a lot of people, smoking a couple of chuck roast might be a more economical way to run your test and still stay in the beef category. I've often wondered if the pellet smokers could yield a more smokey flavored piece of meat because the pellets are 100% smoke producing fuel vs a WSM or kettle where we're usually using chunks to make the smoke..

I "went big" loading wood chunks (pecan roughly 3 x 3 x 3 and 5 of them, mixed with some briqs, with Fogo lump on top into my 22" WSM this weekend on some spare ribs and got plenty of smoke...

I would try to match the pellets with whatever smoke wood you put in the WSM. Let us know how things turn out, whatever you decide!
 
I guess that I am in the minority in that I have cooked and competed on all three. There is a lot of good and not so good things about each but I will say a couple things here. A wsm that you are familiar with can be almost as set and forget as a pellet grill, and in my experience, I enjoy the product off the wsm more. The smoke flavor is more pronounced and recognizable (as far as wood type) and the bark formation seems to be better to me. By better I mean the smokey, maillard reaction flavor that comes along with that slight crunch/chew on a bark.

In a comp, we don't really cook that way so wsm vs pellet can be a much closer cook in the finished result. You typically wrap a little sooner and have temps higher as you are against the clock. And rubs, injections and finishing powders can be more of the star of the show.

The traeger has definitely been more forgiving to me. Seems hard to mess up a cook even when I know I blew it. I think it's just like life. The more effort it takes, the better the final result. Pellets are great, but a well run wsm edges it out for me. And a well run offset is a lot of work, but my best cooks have come off of one. Maybe it's the extra attention/effort running the pit that makes me keep a closer watch on the meat.

But if I had the time and the choice between pellet and wsm, I'd do the wsm every time.
 
Jeremy Yoder.... Says that the pellets make all the difference when cooking a brisket with a pellet grill. There's apparently a huge difference in pellets, at least in his opinion. Foodfor thought.
 
MartinB said:
Jeremy Yoder.... Says that the pellets make all the difference when cooking a brisket with a pellet grill. There's apparently a huge difference in pellets.
Click to expand...
Abraham Lincoln warned about what you’ll read and see on the internet.
 
GaryP said:
I guess that I am in the minority in that I have cooked and competed on all three. There is a lot of good and not so good things about each but I will say a couple things here. A wsm that you are familiar with can be almost as set and forget as a pellet grill, and in my experience, I enjoy the product off the wsm more. The smoke flavor is more pronounced and recognizable (as far as wood type) and the bark formation seems to be better to me. By better I mean the smokey, maillard reaction flavor that comes along with that slight crunch/chew on a bark.

In a comp, we don't really cook that way so wsm vs pellet can be a much closer cook in the finished result. You typically wrap a little sooner and have temps higher as you are against the clock. And rubs, injections and finishing powders can be more of the star of the show.

The traeger has definitely been more forgiving to me. Seems hard to mess up a cook even when I know I blew it. I think it's just like life. The more effort it takes, the better the final result. Pellets are great, but a well run wsm edges it out for me. And a well run offset is a lot of work, but my best cooks have come off of one. Maybe it's the extra attention/effort running the pit that makes me keep a closer watch on the meat.

But if I had the time and the choice between pellet and wsm, I'd do the wsm every time.
Click to expand...
Having now cooked for just a few months with the WSM, got mine in July, I can say that the smoke flavor is definitely more pronounced than with my Traeger. I bought a smoke tube for my Traeger to add more smoke flavor into the meat. The Traeger is a no- brainer unit. Turn it on and let it go. No worries.

The WSM I found to be a more fun rig to use. I also love to cook with charcoal. By fun, I mean I love to learn how the different temp settings, vents, and methods, affect the food. After a minor learning curve, it really is a set and forget type of smoker. I thoroughly enjoy cooking on it and I am just starting to learn everything it is capable of cooking.
 
BenM said:
Having now cooked for just a few months with the WSM, got mine in July, I can say that the smoke flavor is definitely more pronounced than with my Traeger. I bought a smoke tube for my Traeger to add more smoke flavor into the meat. The Traeger is a no- brainer unit. Turn it on and let it go. No worries.

The WSM I found to be a more fun rig to use. I also love to cook with charcoal. By fun, I mean I love to learn how the different temp settings, vents, and methods, affect the food. After a minor learning curve, it really is a set and forget type of smoker. I thoroughly enjoy cooking on it and I am just starting to learn everything it is capable of cooking.
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You are discovering why the WSM is so well liked. They do an awesome job especially when combined with the wealth of knowledge and expertise on this site. I bought a E6 WSK but still use my 22 WSM from time to time. Just cannot let it go.....
 
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Mark Foreman said:
You are discovering why the WSM is so well liked. They do an awesome job especially when combined with the wealth of knowledge and expertise on this site. I bought a E6 WSK but still use my 22 WSM from time to time. Just cannot let it go.....
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Same for me Mark.....just with the WSM 18.
 
You could always cook half of the brisket on each smoker and see which you like better.......
 
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