Smoking with a gas grill

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roksmith

Meat Mopper
Original poster
OTBS Member
Feb 27, 2006
180
10
Southeastern Ohio
I tried a little experiment the other day and I thought I would share my experience and see if anybody else has tried anything similar.

I decided to smoke a pork butt the other day but didn't want to take the time to fire up Brutus for a single butt.

I decided to use my Brinkman grill.
It's a regular propane grill with 3 burners(left, center, and right).
I have a cast iron wood chip box that's about 8X4X1.

I rubbed the butt down as I normally would then after it came up to room temp, I placed the butt on the extreme right side of the grill with a pan under it to catch the grease.

I placed the smoke box on the extreme left and ran the left burner on low.
(I found that this combo would keep the temp right around 225.)

I replaced the wood chips(more of a sawdust I guess that I bought from Gander Mountain) about 4 times during the "smoke".

The butt came up to 190 degrees in about 9 hours, then I wrapped it in foil and coolered it for another hour.

The pork came out nice and tender as I expected and it pulled well...(actually I used a trick that I think Dutch posted about using my Kitchen Aid mixer to pull the pork)

The only downside I saw to it was that I did not get the real smoke flavor through-out that I normally get when I cook with splits.
I guess it would still be considered BBQed..although I would not have called it "smoked".

Everybody still enjoyed it, but I guess I'm a harsher critic of my Q.

My question would be to those who regularly cook with propane smoker..

Do you normally get the smoke flavor through-out the meat?
And should I have maybe tried to use a bigger container for my sawdust?..like a coffee can or something?

-Rock-
 
Do you know where the post is about the trick of pulling pork with the kitchen aid mixer? I'll like to check that out.

Sorry, I've never used a propane smoker so I really am no help there.
 
I have thought of doing this with my propane grill, being that I can just about set the temp to where I want it. Do you think that the lack of wood flavor may have been due to the type of wood you were using? I have watched cooking shows on TV where a smoke packet is made with foil, and wet wood chips. These shows depict the food as having a great smokey taste, and flavor.
 
Hey Rok,

I definitly get as much flavor from my propane setup as I ever got from my ECB's or any other straight charcoal smokers.

It's the proper amount of smoke and the constant temp that you add to the smoking session that makes the Q. The pig or cow or lamb don't care what kind of energy is being expended to cook his A$$. It's all about what you do with it while you're cooking it. :D

During a long smoke like a brisket or butt, I may burn up 5# of wood chunks or 5 or 6 sticks of pecan . Propane just helps me keep a constant temp without all the worry. :D
 
I probably just didn't roll enough smoke on it.
I think I may abandon the sawdust stuff for some bigger wood chips.
The smoke I was rolling was apple..which in itself is a pretty mild wood..maybe next time..I'll step it up a bit and use hickory.
May go with the chips wrapped in foil this time as well.

Maybe a couple of birds this weekend...

Thanks All

-Rock-
 
Ice, I think he mentioned he has a box, but I agree, leave the lid off and use chips and chunks.

The smoke ring is a chemical reaction between the meat, and the burning wood/charcoal.

As Scott might drop in and mention, some that use gas or electrics will sometimes add a piece of charcoal to their smoke box, just to get a smoke ring (I know a guy with a Smokette that does this, cuz he feels brisket needs a ring, even if the smoke taste is still there, he wants the visual appeal as well.)

As far as myself, I only have a 2 burner gas grill, so I opt for the Weber kettle when I don't want to crank up the beast.

I bet your 3 burner is great for beer can chicken (insert envy smiley)
 
rok, I did a lot of cooking using the gasser before I got my first offset cooker.

I had the best luck using chips in foil (dry). I never had much luck with making a pouch, I just folded a large piece of HD foil over like a file folder and placed a small rock on top to keep the folder closed.
I added fresh chips once an hour, and it takes a lot of chips but you can get very good results this way.

I used mostly hickory, but did use some cherry and apple too when I had them.
 
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