How to smoke a brisket on a Traeger Pro 780 

Thank you so much!

Thanks so much Neil!

Tyler Terrell thanks brother! Was pretty awesome!

Really appreciate that, thank you! You’re gonna love your 780, I love mine!

How do you like your Traeger Pro 780? We are very seriously considering buying one. We plan on keeping our grill.

@keithzastrow I quite liked it, I think it did a great job on 90% of the cooks. I’m in an area where really cold weather is normal during winter months so the thinner steel makes for a lot more pellet consumption. The insulated grills don’t make sense for the price imo so I ended up moving to a Yoder 640. More room, 10-gauge steel and more versatile with the searing capability and controller. Cost is much higher than the 780 but worth the price for my purposes.

@@GRodGrills Yeah I'm in Michigan. I work with someone who has owned a Traeger for 9 years and she swears by it. They do us the insulated blanket you can buy for it....for the same reason you pointed out. Thanks.

Thanks so much Dan! This one was a beauty for sure!

Thank you very much!

G-Rod Grills no problem! Great cook

Thanks brother!

Thank you very much!

Bark builds just fine without the smoke tubes, just gotta cook longer before wrapping

Thank you, always glad to hear it was helpful!

They absolutely do. That boning knife is pretty awesome. Thanks for watching!

On mine, the chimney side is hotter. That said I have seen folks say their hopper side is hotter… I’d say throw a few pieces of bread on different areas of the grill at 250 and let it go for about 10min. Should help you find your hot spots.

@@GRodGrills thanks mate

Thank you! It really depends, I think if you’re cooking at 200-250, the smoke you get is pretty good. Any higher than that and you’re gonna want a smoke tube. The Traeger is very efficient and produces little smoke at those hotter temps.

Not including prep but including rest time, I was at about 14hrs, maybe a little shy of that. The most important part is getting your bark set right, once you wrap you can bump up your temperature if you need to speed it up. Just make sure you adjust your rest accordingly as the hotter you cook, the longer you’ll need.

Thank you so much!

Absolutely! I used Kosmo Q - Texas Beef, Meat Church - Holy Cow and Whiskeybent BBQ - The Rocks. I like to use the more coarse rub on top to build the bark. Thanks for watching!

It’s gets a fair bit of smoke, not compared to a stick burner or charcoal grill but it’s definitely there. I use a mix of competition blend with charcoal pellets. I think the flavor combo is awesome for just about all protein.

On a pellet grill I always cook fat side down. Since the heat source is directly underneath, the fat helps protect the meat. It also gives you an awesome bark on the meat side rather than a softer one on the fat (which tends to sweat and soften the bark). I have cooked them fat side up on a pellet grill but I prefer the bark when it’s down fat down. I’m not sure I’d flip it to be honest, there won’t be much benefit to it and since you’ll be handling the meat mid cook, chances are that bark is going to get broken up. I’d say pick a side and let ‘er rip the whole cook instead.

You can rest it in your oven (turned off of course). As for butcher paper, you can but it’ll take longer to finish as it doesn’t help push through the stall as well as foil. You’re also not able to introduce as much moisture with paper as you can with foil. As you can probably tell, I prefer foil but have definitely done it in paper as well.

Short answer, no - I’ve done them both ways and can’t say I’ve noticed a huge difference if any. That said If you ask 50 different people you’ll get 50 different answers on the fat up/down question. I’d say as a general rule you want the fat to face the heat source if possible, pellet smokers heat from directly below so the fat should be on the bottom, it helps protect the meat from any excess heat. Then there’s the bark aspect, you can build a better bark on the meat side of the fat is down and if you chose to trim the fat away once it’s sliced, you don’t lose that bark you’ve built. As for the smoke setting, no. Traegers don’t have a smoke setting but they do produce the most smoke at lower temperatures. 200-250 is plenty low enough to get a good balance of heat and smoke.

I bump my temperature up to 250-275F if I’m short on time. 300 if I’m in a big pinch but I find 275 is plenty once I wrap.

I think for this cook I used the Traeger brand Mesquite pellets. I generally run Pit Boss competition blend in it though as they’re easier for me to buy where I live. The grill does produce plenty of smoke on pretty much everything under 275 and less as you climb temps. The sweet spot for smoke I find is between 200 & 260. Once you go above that, you start trading off smoke for heat and fuel efficiency.

@@GRodGrills Ok thank you very much...

Traegers can be tricky because they’re very efficient at burning pellets which translates into less smoke being produced. That said a few things you can try is cooking between 200-250° up until the point where you wrap. The lower your temperature the more smoke it will produce. If you’re doing things like steak I’d use 200-225°, same for chicken but only for the first 30-45min as I find that any more than that you can get a bit of a rancid taste. Lastly, you can always use a smoke tube to supplement the smoke in your cook. Amazen Smoke makes a few different types lasting anywhere from 30min to a couple of hours. Just remember that pellet smokers will not give you the same smoke as a stick burner or charcoal grill, it will be a lighter smoke.

I grabbed two “A-Maze-N” smoke tubes for 25 a piece and they work GREAT. Check em out

Absolutely. I always layer flavours on with the coarser rub going on last.

You certainly don’t have to but, the hard fat won’t render during the cook so you’ll end up with large chunks of not so tasty fat that you’d likely trim away before eating anyway. If you trim it before, you get to build a bark on all parts of the brisket you’ll actually eat.

For the most part yes. The brisket is a heavily used part of the cow which contain a lot of connective tissues which make the meat tough. These tissues don’t break down until much higher temperatures but once they do break down, the meat becomes tender and fall apart. You can certainly cook them to a lower temperature but the meat will be tougher to chew.

Hahah I hope you don’t as well! Thanks so much!

Thanks so much! Pellet smokers produce plenty of smoke at lower temperatures but it is a lighter taste for sure! Still delicious!

I usually run Pit Boss competition blend, they’re readily available at your local Walmart. Cooking Pellets and Bear Mountain pellets are also pretty good.

@@GRodGrills Thanks for the reply, that was fast. If only smoking was that fast... I'll go with Traeger for the season, and probably my first couple cooks (Brisket and ribs) but I will try the Pit Boss as well. I have heard good recommendations on them and yours confirmed it for me to give them a try. Grill Baby Grill!

The 780 has no smoke! I called treagar and they were no help. I miss my smoke.

I’ve had no issue with smoke on mine, a combination of temperature and quality of pellets will make a difference. Definitely not as strong of a smoke flavour as a stick burner, but nothing really is.

Thanks so much! I usually run the Pit Boss competition blend pellets in all of my pellet grills. They have lots of flavour and I’ve never had any issues with excess dust in them.

I used 50/50, I really just wanted to dilute it a bit so the sugars weren't all there as they can burn. Really just want the colour and moisture.

That’s a great question. I used to do them fat cap up but found that with the fat down I protected the meat more from heat fluctuations (which are a fact of life on a pellet grill) and I got better results. I have done fat up on charcoal cookers and it always turns it out amazing too.

I guess I can see since the fire box is directly underneath.

Absolutely it does! You spend so much time getting the meat to get to a certain temperature, when you spray or use a cold liquid you cool it down. It’s not going to affect the flavour but it will increase your cook time. Room temp should be the coolest you use in my opinion...

You don’t need to spritz until you wrap

@@miahzzeebest701 that’s the beauty of bbq, so many ways to do it. I’ve almost always spritzed, but have done without as well. Thanks for watching!

I can’t say I’ve ever really used mine but I’m pretty certain you can calibrate them if you have the D2 models (Pro575/780 or higher). This is a bit of an older video but I typically use either my Thermoworks Smoke X4 or Meater Block.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the darker spots of meat. It turns colour as part of the packaging/processing and is 100% good meat. Trimming it would’ve exposed too much of the meat from the flat which then could increase the chances of it drying out. You certainly could trim it but I wasn’t too concerned with it. Thanks for watching!

Had to go back and watch the trimming portion... I did try and angle the blade down or away. You’re right though, knife safety is very important on any cook! Thanks for watching!

Haha definitely keep them on then!

Actually Richard, that’s a perfectly acceptable way to cook a brisket. I tried to find your video of how to cook a brisket on your page but didn’t see one. I guess being a keyboard warrior is more your forte.

Thanks for the feedback. Not everyone has the same level of experience as yourself. Thanks for watching.

@@GRodGrills I found the trimming useful!

Right on, glad it was useful! Thanks for the support!

Same. Thanks for including everything.

Rude and childish