20 Best Traeger Pellets For Ribs (2023 Updated)

Have to admit I’m new to pellet grills (have a Weber Summit 620 with a smoker section), but my wife insisted I get a smoker she can use so we got the Traeger Jr Elite. I bought Traeger hickory and apple pellets as well and have had the system for just 1 week and love it.

The Traegar pellets give a good taste and provide good smoke. Since the pellets are made from sawdust, there is no waste and the ash content is minimal, i. e, cleanup takes 5 min. Pellet cooking is the lazy man’s(or woman’s) way to smoke food.

No cutting chucks down to size, no soaking, and no getting a face full of smoke every time you have to refill the smoker box. Just make sure the hopper is filled, set the temperture and come back when it’s done cooking.

So far have done ribs, chops and salmon – all were perfect. Just be sure you get a smoker with a digital temperature thermostat and not the cheaper Low-Med-High ones. They are a few $ more, but being able to set the exact temp you want is essential.

As to my Weber, I am not giving it up, but for smoking meats, will first look to the Traager.

This is the second time I have purchased these pellets from Lowe’s and am very disapointed. They are not storing the pellets properly. I have had a Traeger grill for years and have never had this issue with pellets except with Lowe’s.

They made it so difficult for me to get a refund (which I never received!!) the first time that I eventually gave up because my time trying to get my $22 plus dollars back wasn’t worth it. I emailed all the info that was requested of me and I would get an email back saying that someone from the store would contact me.

This NEVER happened. I went through this process multiple times and just kept going around in circles. Because of the COVID-19 I again (foolishly but thought what are the chances this would happen again) ordered these pellets again.

Guess what same problem! The pellets have absorbed moisture and have dried and literally gone to dust, no longer in pellet form. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Lowe’s as a company, I will continue to shop here but now realize that they have thier strengths and weaknesses.

Traeger pellets are great! And I do recommend the product but would only buy in store so I can see the condition of the pellets.

Purchased this to add a unique flavor to our BBQ creations. I was skeptical at first but this product was incredible. Made all our outdoor meals so much more tastier.

These pelllets burn amazing, very little ash and will get you to your 600f sear in a hurry. They burn hotter than the competitors pellets and smoke great too.

Bought these in the spring , cooked a pork roast and a loin .Absolutely unbelievable flavor .I would recommend these in a heart beat ,can`t say enough.

Great pellets. My go to pellets for my pellet grill. Tried many other brands but these are the best. My favorite are the Apple. Seems to work best for all my cooks.

Recently purchased a Blazn Grill Works “Grand Slam” A bag of the Hickory pellets came with my grill. I have read a lot of reviews and you guys seem to carry the best. I wish there was a way for the company to have a distributor in Oregon.

I would prefer to pick up in store to get the better price. I had no issues with my shipment, it was delivered in a timely manner and in good condition. I have used a blend of the Hickory and pecan and my tri-tip came out great, with an awesome smoke ring that was picture perfect!.

We are using these pellets to cold smoke cheese for an experiment. Some other cheeses that we smoked at that time came out with a wonderful Applewood taste. I would highly recommend any of these flavor woods for use.

We love using these mulberry pellets when we smoke chicken and cornish hen on the grill. Very mild flavor.

I got into smoking foods over three years ago. This wood is a great chose to use. If you want a earthy flavor instead of a sweeter flavor then Mesquite works really well. Enjoy it with pork, beef or fish.

You can smoke all year round which is nice for a change in the winter.

I bought this blend hoping for a return to the kind of smokiness I missed from my old wood-fire pit that my Traeger replaced. The “Signature Blend,” Apple, and Pecan woods that I’ve used so far just didn’t seem to have anything close to the old Smokey kick I’m used to, but this Bold Blend really came through! I noticed that I didn’t really detect the Rosemary in the smoke smell/flavor until I got the Traeger up to temps above 275, but I still loved the flavor I got at the lower smoking temps (190-225).

I’ll be buying this again soon!.

Texas style beef brisket starts with a USDA Prime whole packer brisket. Add a generous amount of kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Then a LONG, SLOW, Smoke over pecan, mesquite, and oak wood. The Traeger Texas pellets dont just make this cleaner, easier, and more reliable than other smoking methods, they duplicate the best results.

Perfect bark on the outside. Bright pink smoke ring on the inside and incredibly flavorful! Accept no substitute!.

Obviously these are what make my Trager Grill go. I bought them because they said they worked with all meats and vegetables. So far, so good. Lovely taste enhancement.

This is the first flavor I have tried so far and I can’t wait to try the rest. Our hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks taste so good. I believe the pellets help a lot with the taste of food.

First timer at smoking. Used the Traeger signature blend as an all rounder for smoking. We slow smoked chicken legs, the kids loved them, you could taste the flavour of the different blends of wood.

I smoked a Chuck roast for chili with the Meat Church pellets and was very surprised with the smoke flavor on the chuck. I’ve tried all other Traeger pellets and never really got this flavor, it’s a winner.

Soooo glad they’re bringing back the brisket pellets, I loved the old Texas blend. One complaint, cmon Traeger $25 for an 18lb bag??? You’ve raised all of your prices already I think you’re making plenty of money already so show ur customers a little love!.

I’ve been a big fan of meat church for a few years now, I love the rubs and brine and his videos. However I’ve never been a fan of traeger pellets. I just made the tri tip brisket style for dinner with the meat church pellets and unfortunately the pellets didn’t pan out.

Had a great smoke ring, almost 1/4 inch but it had almost no smoke flavor. There are much better pellet brands out there. I took a chance and was disappointed with the result.

I loved their oak pellets but since they discontinued them I needed something comparable. This Meet Church blend is perfect if not better. I seem to get better smoke and smoke flavor and it seems to burn longer resulting in less pellets used.

Stock up before they stop making it.

Pellets came with a damaged bag. The bottom had been taped with packing tape to repair the damaged pellet bag. Its missing some of the pellets. This is totally unacceptable, Traeger is a premium company.

Its horrible to be sold damaged goods from Best Buy. I can buy the same bag for the same price at Home Depot. If I return it, Ill lose reward certificate I put towards the purchase. Ive spent thousands of dollars at Best Buy so far this year.

I wont be buying anymore outdoor stuff.

Smoked 3 racks of ribs on my new Traeger 885. Used the Texas crutch 3/2/1. Results were absolutely delicious! Buy more earlier than later. Smoked jerky the following day and went through 20 pounds with about 10 hours of cooking.

Great flavor!.

The Traeger wood pellet grill is a great addition to my outdoor cooking arsenal. In fact, it will probably replace my 2 bigger Weber charcoal grills entirely. The costs of charcoal keep going up, and it is messy to light and subsequently clean up and dispose of.

For brisket or other long-cooking items, charcoal has to be added as you go. So far, after a couple months of experiments, I’ve found the Traeger grill easily makes charcoal obsolete. (Except in power outages or camping with no power, where charcoal cooking would be handy or necessary.

) In an emergency, you could run your Traegers small power needs via a generator, or a simple cheap car operated power converter. I am going to measure how much power the Traeger actually needs to operate, but from my electrical experience, once lit, it is likely under 225 watts.

While the Traeger DID cook a rib eye steak, and it was still pink in the middle as I prefer them, it didn’t do it quite as nicely as my little Smoky Jo Weber charcoal grill, that is small and made for one or two people’s meal.

The more immediate heat source right under the meat sears the meat better and is overall still the preferred method of cooking a steak for me, especially at the cost of steaks today. If you like steaks well done, or are not concerned with the searing and resultant flavor this produces, the Traeger is just FINE for steaks.

It’s only dent in the armor is that it is not designed to “sear”. What it does do is BETTER than charcoal in every way. In summary, the Traeger replaces my charcoal grills of all sizes, EXCEPT for steaks – and costs me less to operate than charcoal or similar costs compared to flavorless propane.

I will still keep the propane grill for emergencies or quick hot dogs, but not for routine grilling. That spot goes to the Traeger. Final note, were I at Traeger, I would have designed a way to easily swap wood flavors as different meats “take” the smoke differently.

You cannot just decide to cook with apple wood when the hopper is full of something else. I will add that this is a minor nitpicking, as I’ve found the Hickory to be a very good overall choice, and it has not overpowered my food at all.

Thus I just buy Hickory now. Learn to use just the smoke setting for a few minutes to give big boosts for smoke flavor if desired for some items.

Traeger’s Hickory pellets are my favorite for red meat. Always quality, always consistent pellet size, consistency and smoke flavor!

I can’t find oak pellets anywhere local to buy and found these. They mix perfectly with other kinds of pellets. The shipping was fast and reasonable.

I love the flavor of Traeger pellets but their quality tends to be so poor. Bags show up full of dust. I complained to a Traeger rep because this sand clogs the auger and burns out the motor on their grills.

Their rep blamed the brick and mortar store telling me that they dry out at those stores waiting to be sold. They suggested Home Deliveries USA as inventory moves faster. On boards people say they just use a strainer to separate the pellets from the dust.

Why can’t Traeger just fix their quality control problem or put in an Auger motor that can deal with their poor quality pellets?.

I wouldn’t able to compare with other brands. We started using this pallet with our traeger grill. Everyone loved it. The chicken was nicely cook inside and didn’t burn outside. It also had a nice grill smell.

And you don’t need much to make the barbecue. If we try any other brand later to check if those cheap pallets are also having the same effect, I will update my comment, but for now, we are in love with this.

Ive never had a problem with Traeger pellets that I didnt cause myself. The only times Ive had problems with swelling and dust, were when I failed to keep them in a moisture resistant container or roughly handled the bag/storage container.

I buy these in the 20 lb bag, and for 19 bucks, I think its on the high side given the pellet material more on that later. Before use, I recommend you pour the contents of the bag into a bucket and then use a scoop or your hands to place the pellets in the hopper.

If you pour the contents of the bag into the hopper, youll get the dust from the bottom of the bag down into the hopper and the auger tube. The dust will clog the auger tube and could result in burn back.

Now on to the material, as I mentioned earlier. All of the Traeger pellet flavors contain an unspecified percentage of a hardwood alder or oak, according to Traegers web site. In other words, if you buy the hickory pellets, the pellets are made from hickory and alder/oak.

Thats okay because you still get good smoke flavor, but Id really like to see pellets made from 100% of the wood on the label, or at the least, a percentage identified on the label of how much hickory or whatever the flavor wood is in the pellet.

I certainly recommend these pellets, but I also recommend pellets from other reputable manufacturers when they go on sale. Pros:- Good burn/smoke- Good flavorCons:- Pricey, even at 19 bucks for a 20 lb bag- Not made from 100% of the flavor wood on the label.

Traeger pellets perform as promised. They also must be used to maintain the warranty. The few dollars saved are not worth the risk of voiding a $700. 00 purchase, in my opinion. This grill has many moving parts.

In time, wear and tear will cause the need for replacements parts. Why run the risk?.

Outstanding pellets like all traeger products! Service was also outstanding would highly recommend

The family loves the flavor you get from these pellets.

I purchased a new, high quality pellet smoker in the spring and it came with 100 lbs of pellets. This gave me a chance to see how this smoker/grill/oven worked at different settings, temperatures and meats.

Well, just this month I started looking for an alternative pellet fuel that I could buy locally. I wanted to try different flavors as well. I did try to be careful not to get a punctured bag to avoid pellets that have taken on moisture, or a bag that had been mistreated on the store shelf to avoid crushed pellets.

Well, once I had the hopper clean and ready for just the new pelltets, I loaded it up and started the cook. Unfortunately I had some of the same problems I read about. The grill seemed to have more trouble keeping a consistent temp.

Even though I tried to be careful not to get a bag of crushed pellets there seemed to be an extremely large ratio of crushed to full sized pellets. Once the smoking was done and I tried to raise the temperature to get a sear on my chicken I had a very hard time getting to temperature up to 400 degrees or higher.

Plus the flame was not as large as I am used to and it barely reached to under surface of grates to help create the expected char. The taste was fine though. I really would like to give these pellets another try as I am a Kingsford charcoal diehard fan and only buy their charcoal.

I’m sorry I didn’t think to take photos to show what my bag looked like once I got it open and into the hopper.

Have always been in a dynamic “search” for the “best” wood pellets. Mostly had settled on “LJ” brand, as they are great quality and consistent. Having tried these Kingsford pellets, I may be “sold” on these.

They are high quality, burn excellently and make great flavor. A massive percentage of folks don’t understand “smoke science” and are misled in thinking that lots of white smoke is a good thing, when it’s absolutely not (research clean vs dirty smoke).

These make good smoke, which means flavor! Pellets are lower in moisture content vs natural wood pieces, but they can come close with a lot less “effort”. Have tried the classics, signatures, hickory and cherry.

I always thought there was some sort of esoteric mystique surrounding the art of smoking foods. It seemed like something beyond me, even though I consider myself a good cook. I am familiar with charcoal and gas grilling, and assumed that to try smoking foods myself, I’d have to buy an expensive smoker.

Wrong!! These pellets have me hooked!! I tried these out on charcoal, and will definitely try gas next, but let me tell you — it was so easy! I did buy myself an inexpensive pellet tube online to go with them (even though you can put the pellets directly on the coals as well).

It just seemed like the easiest way for me to ensure I wasn’t burning the pellets up too fast. I will try without the tube next time to see if the result differs. I filled the tube and set it on top of the lit coals.

Once the fire died down, and the pellets started smoking nicely, I put on my steak and corn. As I’ve stated, I am a smoking newbie, but wow, the flavor! Perfect, and the smoke ring was very evident on the steak.

And while there was a good amount of smoke coming off of the pellets, I didn’t feel like I was curating an inferno in my back yard, if you know what I mean. I liked that it produced a lot of smoke for my food without alarming the fire department two blocks over.

These pellets have definitely got me intrigued to try more. I used the hickory flavor this time, and will be picking up some of the others as soon as I can. Other more experience meat smokers can probably offer you a wealth of sophisticated thoughts on these pellets, but as a beginner, I say go for it — the pellets make backyard meat smoking accessible to everyone!.

This is my favorite hickory pellets to use in my pellet smoker/grill. The hickory flavor seems to be pure without any other wood blends. I’ve had zero feeding issues even when used when the humidity is very high.

This is my absolute go to for hickory pellets right now and the only downside is they don’t stock these at my local Walmart in Oxford, Alabama. I’m not brand loyal and for pure hickory pellets you should definitely give these a try!.

For this cook I was using an a smoke table top smoker. Something happened this time that has never happened before. My smoker created a ton of ash within the first two hours and covered my igniter causing my smoker to go out.

I vacuumed out the chamber, started the smoker again and two hours later had the same result. This was with the hickory pellets. I initially thought it was a problem with my smoker but after reading some reviews I have found that this has occurred with other customers as well.

I don’t know if the pellets are just not compacted enough or what but they definitely burn differently than other pellets.

First time using Apple pellets. I have used oak and hickory multiple times and never had any issue. I clean my Traeger after every use. I started to see smoke coming out of my hopper so I shut off the Traeger waited for it to cool down and checked the fire pot.

The fire pot was full with a baseball sized hunk of burnt pellets melted together the clump was hard as a rock. I cleaned the grill emptied the hopper and used another bag of Traeger apple pellets and the same thing happened.

What a mess.