“Real Wood Smoke Flavor” from a gas grill

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I am one of the guys who loves my gas grill, and I really do not care what others say.

I like the ease of use, predicable performance, easy of cleaning, and all of that.  But, it took me awhile to learn how to get “real wood smoke flavor” from my gasser.

 When using my smoker, I have learned to love certain smoke flavors with certain types of meat. For example, I like fruit woods such as Cherry, Apple, and Peach on poultry and pork. For beef (primarily Brisket Burgers on the gasser), I like a touch of Mesquite.

I have also played with specialty chips such as the Jack Daniels barrel chips and such with mixed results. To get the smoke flavor, I use a “Smoke Bomb” loaded with chips or pellets of the desired flavor.

A Smoke Bomb is basically a closed container with only a couple of air holes to allow smoke to escape.

A Smoke Bomb can be made that lasts a long time, even to an hour or more if needed. It works so well because it restricts the oxygen to the chips or pellets, producing a longer and smoldering burn that reduces flare ups and quick burning.

 I started with the most simple of Smoke Bombs, just heavy duty aluminum foil. I made a double layer big enough to resemble a small grapefruit with chips or pellets inside. Sealed it up good and poked one or two tiny holes in the top with a tooth pick or my trusty Thermopen. Place it on a burner and when smoke starts emitting from the holes, it is time to cook.

 The next step up for me was one of those stamped and bent sheet metal boxes sold by Home Depot with “smoking chips” in them. They are about 5-6 inches long, 3 inches wide, and an inch deep. The first thing is to throw away the “smoking chips” unless you really know what they are. If you try to use these open boxes with chips, you will need to soak them first or they will just ignite and last a minute or two. Not even long enough to do a smoked hot dog. So, I wrapped the box with good ole HD aluminum foil and poked a couple of small holes in the top to restrict combustion air. Worked like a charm. Biggest benefit was that the box gave some form to the Smoke Bomb when compared to HD foil only. Worked well.

My final evolutionary step was a cast iron skillet to hold the chips and pellets. I found an old 7 Inch skillet at a garage sale for $2. I cover it with HD foil with a couple of teeny -tiny holes again. One quarter to one half a cup of pellets or chips produces plenty of smoke for a good steak cook. Because of it’s mass, I put the skillet on my side burner to get the heat up and start the smoke. Then, the skillet fits perfectly on the two left hand burners on my five burner gas grill.

I defy anyone to tell that my steak cooked with a Mesquite Smoke Bomb came off a gasser! Outstanding wood smoke flavor, and that is what BBQ is all about.

Chips a pellets are available at many places, including WalMart if you watch the BBQ area closely. Small quantities of pellets are available on-line in many flavors. I tequires so few pellets or chips per cook that they are really cost effective when used only for flavor.

Happy Cooking.

TIM

Is My Barbecue Ready Yet? – Cooking Ribs

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By Kevin Bevington

There are different ways to cook, and determine doneness in your BBQ ribs, and we are going to break those down into the 2 types.

St Louis Spare Ribs – St Louis Spare Ribs can be one of the most difficult meats to cook and to get done accurately. Many of the ways you would determine doneness, take some time and experience to identify and master. But first, we will cover a good process to use, which will take you real close to being done, and then you can apply a couple of simple techniques to determine doneness.

You should cook ribs at a temperature of 250 – 275 degrees F. Place your ribs in the smoker bone side down, and cook them for 2 hours, or until they get a real nice color. Then wrap the ribs in heavy duty aluminum foil, still leaving the bone side down. Then cook for them for 1 hour wrapped.

Then open the foil (do not take them out of the foil), and cook for an additional 1 to 2 hours, depending on the following factors; physical size and weight of the ribs, and airflow through the cooker. The larger, or heavier the slab of ribs are, the longer they will take. Also, the more air flow through your cooker, the less time they will take.

So, until you have a good feel for your smoker use the following techniques to determine the doneness of the ribs.

After about 30 minutes with the foil opened, place your hand (in heat a resistant glove of course) underneath the foil, in the center of the slab, and lift. The slab should bend easily, and begin to crack in the thickest part of the slab. If you see both of these characteristics, then the ribs are done. If you only see one, or the other, then they are not done, and need more time to cook.

A good way to learn this technique, and verify that you your ribs are done, is take an instant read thermometer, and check the temperature in the thickest part of the slab. This should read approximately 194 – 196 degrees F.

Remove the ribs from the cooker, and place them in a warmed environment until you are ready to cut them. With Ribs, they are best cut and served as quickly as you can, after you remove them from the cooker.

Baby Back Ribs – On baby back ribs, we use the very same technique. Cook for 2 hours, then wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil. Leave wrapped for 1 hour, then open the foil, and let cook for an additional 15 minutes to 1 hour, or until done. You can use the very same doneness techniques discussed above.