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Smoking On A Gas Grill
Now, before I get started, I KNOW for a fact that a lot of people are going to carry the belief that you simply can't smoke meat properly on a gas grill. And guess what...they're right!! I grew up in Texas, and I will be the first to admit that "Real" BBQ is slow cooked over wood or lump coal and in no way can one properly "smoke" meat on a gas grill. It would be sinful! Okay, now back to reality, while I will agree with all of those folks regarding the fine art of BBQ and the time it takes to do it right, I will say that I was very curious to do some testing and see what I could do on a gas grill. I wasn't sure how well it would turn out. My previous experience with slow smoking is on my horizontal Brinkmann with an offset firebox. Oh, by the way, I still have that "Bad Boy". I will never get rid of that! (Much to my wife's dismay - she thinks I am collecting them! Still got my ol' Sunbeam too! HEY, you can never have enough grills or smokers............right?)
I knew I had to figure out a way to simulate the wood smoke that the Brinkmann gave. I knew I could not simulate the wood "heat", (and I do think that is a different heat than gas), but I felt that if I could at least produce some smoke in some sort of "controlled" way, in conjunction with a very easily controlled heat source, the results would be interesting. I was searching everywhere, trying to find a nice SS smoker box that would match my Virco grill. I had seen a couple of nice ones on the net, but they were over $100! That was just too much, I felt, for smoke. Finally, I found a pretty good solution. I found a cast iron wood chip smoker box at Lowe's for about $10.00. They sell them at Wal-Mart for only about $6.00 but they were, in my opinion, a poorer quality. Rough edges, lid didn't fit very well, etc.... Anyways, after some experimentation, the one at Lowe's worked great with a little aluminum foil modification. It has slots through the lid to let the chips get some air, but I think it is too much. When I first tried it, I could hardly get any smoke, the chips just seemed to burn more than smoke. I took the lid only, and wrapped it tightly in foil. Then, I took my BBQ fork and poked twice (four holes) right through the foil and the slots on top. This made four nice little holes about 1/4" diameter. Now, without even soaking the chips, I get nice smoke for about 30 minutes. It gives a real nice flavor. I removed the left hand grate and put it right on the SS flame tamer in the center over the hole. I tried soaking the chips first, it didn't seem to make them smoke any longer, it just took longer to get them smoking.
I wanted to slow smoke a pork butt roast but I didn't want to deal with "managing" a hot cast iron box every 30 minutes and trying to dump out the ashes and put more chips in there while not losing to much heat. Solution, I bought a second box! Now, when I want to cook slower, I just prep both of them (with foil of course) and when the first one stops smoking, I just use my spatula to remove the spent box and set the new one in place, I don't lose much heat this way and only have the lid up for about 10 seconds to change it. I let the old one cool down for a while, then douse it with the hose if needed, then I can reload it and get ready for the next batch. I was able to slow cook the pork roast using indirect heat over about 6 hours, it came out VERY nice. I didn't use smoke the whole time, just the first 2 or 3 hours. It gave it a real nice smoke flavor without overpowering it. I used a combination of apple wood and hickory chips. Gave it a nice sweet taste. Next time I will try Mesquite.
I also cooked a whole chicken, a pack of country style pork ribs, and two packs of hot Italian sausage. I fit all of this on the grill at one time. I started the roast at about 10:00 A.M. Then, around 1:00, I put the chicken and ribs on, finally at 3:00 the sausages went on top on the warming rack. Everything was on (or over) the right two grates. The only burner that I used was the one on the left, which had the smoker boxes on it. I kept the burner at around medium. With this setting I was able to easily maintain about 275 F. I found that if I went below this that the wood chips wouldn't start smoking. I would have rather cooked at about 225-250 but I could not get any smoke doing this. I had tried some earlier attempts at this with the foil pouch method that some people use, whereas you make a pouch out of foil, put some wood chips in it, fold it over to seal, poke a hole in it and throw it on the flame tamer. I was able to get smoke a lot easier doing this, and at a lower temperature, but it didn't seem to last very long and the cast iron boxes hold more wood. So, for me the boxes work out pretty good. Everything came out fabulous! The chicken was VERY tender and juicy, the ribs were very tender and meaty and the sausages had a great flavor to them (They were above the chicken dripping juice onto it, yum!)
Now, I am not going to tell anyone that this turned out as good as my Brinkmann would have, but...I WILL say that I was able to achieve a very tender pork roast with a nice subtle smoky flavor that made some great pulled pork sandwiches the next day. For me nothing can replace my Brinkmann for "True" BBQ, but I realize that not everyone has a grill and a smoker, or maybe the time to do this. But, it's nice to know that if you want to, you can produce a real nice, slow cooked, "chunk-o-meat" this way. Plus, you can throw a box of chips in there just when you do burgers or steaks and it gives a nice little hint of the smoke. Hope this helps, let me know how you make out.
Regards,
Bsbbq
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