Cooking on Smoke Setting of Traeger Pellet Grill

Can I Cook On Smoke Setting On Traeger Pellet Grills

Traeger pellet grills are an easy way to cook food and add that highly sought-after smoky flavor.

However, once you start using a Traeger pellet grill more often, you may notice this “smoke” setting instead of a temperature setting.

So do we need to put the pellet grill on “smoke” setting to have it smoke the food? And is it possible to cook something on the “smoke” setting?

Food can be cooked on the smoke setting since the temperature will be anywhere between 150°F to 180°F. However, Traeger pellet grills will create smoke at any setting so a temperature setting such as 225°F is better for cooking food.

See this video where I cover the pros and cons of using the “smoke” setting for cooking food on a Traeger:

Generally, the smoke setting on Traeger pellet grills is intended to start the grill by igniting the pellets. When in “smoke” mode, the pellet grill will feed in pellets for 15 seconds and wait 65 seconds (factory default) before repeating the cycle.

When cooking or smoking food on the “smoke” setting, make sure to adjust the p-setting so that the Traeger is maintaining the appropriate temperature. The p-setting will control how long the pellet grill pauses before turning the auger back on.

To create additional smoke on the Traeger, use a wood pellet smoker tube which can be purchased on Amazon.

What Happens On The “Smoke” Setting Of Traegers

The Traeger will start an ignition cycle that feeds in pellets for 15 seconds and waits 65 seconds (factory default) before repeating the cycle. This allows the heating rod to ignite the pellets to start a fire before more pellets get fed in.

If the p-setting (pause setting) has been adjusted on the Traeger then the pellet grill may pause anywhere from 45 seconds to 95 seconds before turning the auger back on. We’ll cover how to adjust the p-setting later in this article.

The smoke setting feeds pellets into the firepot the slowest which allows the wood pellets to burn and smolder. So the smoke setting will create the lowest amount of heat and usually the most amount of smoke.

Below is a photo of my Traeger when I just fired it up after cleaning out the firepot.

Traeger starting in Smoke Setting

There is an important thing to keep in mind when using the smoke setting.

The temperature of the smoke setting can be anywhere from 150°F to 180°F, but it might be less if the air temperature is cold and the Traeger is not insulated.

The smoke setting is just feeding in pellets for 15 seconds and waiting 65 seconds regardless of how hot or cold the Traeger is so you might end up with different results if you cook the exact same thing on a cold versus a hot day.

Adjusting The P-Setting (Pause Setting)

Traeger pellet grills have a p-setting or pause setting that controls how long the pellet grill will pause or wait before turning the auger back on.

By toggling the different p-settings, the Traeger will pause at different intervals from 45 seconds to 95 seconds before turning the auger back on which feeds in more pellets.

Here are the times associated with each p-setting:

P-SettingAuger On TimePause Time (Auger Off)
P-015 secondsPause 45 seconds
P-115 secondsPause 55 seconds
P-2 (factory default)15 secondsPause 65 seconds
P-315 secondsPause 75 seconds
P-415 secondsPause 85 seconds
P-515 secondsPause 95 seconds
Source: Traeger p-setting

When To Adjust P-Setting On Traegers

The p-setting should be adjusted when the grill is running above or below the set temperature. The correct p-setting will help the grill maintain temperature when the ambient temperatures are warmer or colder.

Generally, the p-setting should be set to a higher number (P-2 to P-4) during summer and a lower number (P-0 to P-2) during winter.

If the pellet grill is on Smoke but the temperatures are above 200°F then increase the p-setting so that the auger pauses longer before feeding in more pellets.

Note: Traeger does not recommend using P-5 unless absolutely necessary since this setting waits 95 seconds before turning back on which may cause the fire to go out.

How To Adjust P-Setting On Traegers

To change the p-setting on a Traeger, use a paperclip, thermometer probe, or anything narrow and pointy in order to press the button inside the hole on the front face of the grill’s controller. Press the button to change the p-setting which will be shown on the digital display.

There may be a sticker covering the hole so remove anything that blocks this hole:

Traegers Produce Smoke On All Temperature Settings

The good news with traeger pellet grills is that they will produce smoke on all settings. Whether the smoke setting is selected or your set the temperature to 225°F or 350°F, the traeger will produce both heat and smoke.

A pellet grill raises the grill temperature by feeding pellets faster into the firepot in order to produce more heat.

Burning pellets is also how the traeger pellet grill creates smoke so there will always be smoke that gets created at any setting.

Keep in mind that setting a higher temperature usually means the food will cook faster and will not be exposed to as much smoke. So the smoky flavor may be more subtle on food that is cook at 350°F as opposed to food that is cooked at 225°F.

How To Smoke On A Traeger

Traegers, much as other pellet grills, can both cook and smoke food. Depending on the temperature setting, a traeger can act similar to a regular grill when cranked up to 350°F or 400°F.

The best way to smoke food on a traeger is to set the temperature to the lowest setting. Usually the lowest temp setting on a Traeger is 180°F.

See this article for the 11 easiest meats to smoke on a Traeger.

Setting the temperature to low will allow the food to slowly cook and get exposed to smoke for a longer period of time.

Simply put – smoking on a pellet grill requires less heat and more time.

How To Get More Smoke From My Traeger

Another way to smoke food on a Traeger is to create more smoke. See this article for 5 tips on how to create more smoke on a pellet grill.

Traeger pellet grills can only produce a certain amount of smoke without needing some additional help.

The best way to create more smoke on a traeger is to use a pellet smoker tube. A smoker tube is a metal tube that is filled with wood pellets and ignited in order to create more smoke.

smoker tube for creating more smoke in traeger pellet grill

These smoker tubes can be filled with the same wood pellets used in the traeger and are simply ignited using a lighter or torch. After it starts smoking, the smoker tube is just placed inside the grill to produce extra smoke.

I recommend using this smoker tube that can be purchased on Amazon.

If one smoker tube and the traeger are still not producing enough smoke then use two smoker tubes. Placing them on both side of the smoker should provide complete smoke coverage and the food should develop delicious smoke rings.

Traeger Smoke Setting vs 180°F

The smoke setting of a Traeger is generally used to ignite the pellets and fire up the pellet grill.

The Traeger will not monitor the temperature and will feed in pellets for 15 seconds and wait 65 seconds (default setting) before repeating the cycle. This is problematic since food cooked on a traeger on the smoke setting on a cold day will cook differently than on a hot day.

Traegers that are set to a specific cooking temperature such as 180°F will monitor the internal cooking temperature and adjust how often pellets are fed into the firepot to maintain this temperature. Generally, the cooking temperature will stay around 180°F +/- 25°F.

So if its a cold day and the traeger needs to feed in more pellets to keep the grill warm, then it will feed in more pellets which will create more smoke and heat. If it’s a hot day then the traeger will feed in pellets at a slower rate.

The reason why using a temperature setting such as 180°F is better than the smoke setting is it allows you to plan how long the food needs to cook. The smoke setting can have a wide range of cooking temperatures based on the outside air.

Traeger Smoke Setting vs 225°F

The smoke setting of a traeger is used to ignite the pellets and fire up the pellet grill.

The traeger will not monitor the temperature and will feed in pellets for 15 seconds and wait 65 seconds before repeating the cycle. This is problematic since food cooked on a Traeger on the smoke setting on a cold day will cook differently than on a hot day.

When the traeger is set to 225°F, the traeger will make sure that the cooking temperature stays around 225°F +/- 25°F.

So if its a cold day and the traeger needs to feed in more pellets to keep the grill warm, then it will feed in more pellets which will create more smoke and heat. If it’s a hot day then the traeger will feed in pellets at a slower rate.

The reason why using a temperature setting such as 225°F is better than the smoke setting is it allows you to plan how long the food needs to cook. The smoke setting can have a wide range of cooking temperatures based on the outside air.

Final Thoughts

Using the smoke setting on a Traeger pellet grill is an acceptable setting to use if you:

  1. Live in a warm or hot air temperature area
  2. Do not care how much the cooking temperature fluctuates
  3. Have a food thermometer to monitor the food temp

Even if you do live in a warm or hot air temperature area, such as California or Texas, you should still use a temperature setting for smoking your food.

The smoke setting on Traeger pellet grills is intended to start the grill by igniting the pellets. When in “smoke” mode, the pellet grill will feed in pellets for 15 seconds and wait 65 seconds (factory default) before repeating the cycle regardless of ambient and cooking temperature.

This means your food may cook completely differently if you only use the smoke setting on two days with different outside temperatures.

So just put the Traeger on a low temperature such as 180°F or 225°F to give the food a nice smoky flavor and add a smoking tube if you want more smoke. Using a temperature setting means you know exactly how long it will take for your food to cook.

This way you can set the temp, forget about it, and return to perfectly smoked food.

Sources:

Steven

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