Andrew O'Hara
With everyone staying home during the coronavirus pandemic, home cooking is taking off. The updated Traeger mobile app is a great utility tool to learn new skills and find great recipes, all with some of the world's best pitmasters and chefs. It also can control your Traeger grill, if you happen to have one.
Up your cooking game
We are huge fans of cooking at home and are always keeping an eye out for exciting connected cooking gadgets. It was during the COVID-19 crisis that we ran into WiFIRE connected grills from Traeger. It just so happens Traeger also offers a well-polished and highly-rated app that is beneficial to even those who don't have one of their wood pellet grills.
The app was just updated with several new features including "Traeger TV" that features a varying roster of award-winning chefs and pitmasters. There are tabs for recipes, which can be filtered by protein or creator and can be broken out into ones that are done in 30 minutes or less, a current top ten, recipe of the week, and those for meal planning. Recipes can be explored or saved and you can also follow specific creators.
Among our favorite recipes is an excellent buffalo chicken dip and a caramel apple cheesecake galette, both of which are absolutely incredible. Worth checking out for sure and are explained in very good detail. The app walks you through each step, provides metrics for prep time, cook time, effort, and which pellets to use (if you are cooking it on a Traeger grill, which isn't necessary).
The only thing we wish we saw was the ability to track ingredients better to be more prepared before jumping into a recipe. But ingredients are clear in the recipe itself.
Outside of recipes, you can also expand your skills via the learn tab. There are knife skills such as cutting onions or trimming brisket and tool tips such as cleaning a cast iron skillet.
Navigating the app is very pleasant with many subtle animations thrown in throughout. As you peruse the list of recipes, each new recipe rolls into view as it loads, which is a nice touch.
Creating a profile gets you personalized options based on your pallet as the list of recipes grows.
It is important to note you don't need a Traeger grill to use the Traeger app, but if you do have a Traeger grill the app and this update offer additional features.
Connected grills
This new update brings a firmware upgrade to the Traeger pro 575 and 780 grills that allows them to hit 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Traeger's WiFIRE grills allow you to adjust the grill temp, monitor cooking, set timers, and receive alerts directly from your iPhone. As it is Wi-Fi-based rather than Bluetooth, you can monitor your dinner from your home or check in on a smoke during the day while you are at the office.
Download the app now
There is no shortage of cooking apps on iOS. We've personally tried what feels like dozens of different selections, but few are tailored so close to grilling and are so well-polished. The app is great, the recipes are wonderful, and we have found it an excellent resource, especially after the new 2.0.2 update.
The Traeger app is available to download now from the App Store for free.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
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3 Comments
Weber Smokey Mountain and Fireboard. You’re welcome.
if you want to smoke do it with charcoal and wood, not pellets.
Firmware upgrade to hit 500. What an age. I dumped too much wood in my Weber kettle recently and accidentally hit 700. Doesn’t exactly count as low and slow ...