SC - OT-OOP-bread help!

Wed Sep 22 12:36:26 PDT 1999

        Niccolo wrote:
        On a different subject, I have had great success recently with
smoking on my gas grill.  I did 12# of pork shoulder as well as 12# of pork
sausage that I stuffed using the Le Menagier 'recipe'.  It took about 3
hours to hot smoke the sausages and another 4 hours for the pork hunks (too
small a grill to do all at once).  Apple smoke is the bomb for pork!!
        <<<<<SNIP>>>>>

Sounds delicious. How did you smoke them on the grill? 

Al Vostro e al Servizio del Sogno
Lucretzia

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lady Lucrezia-Isabella di Freccia   |  mka Tina Nevin
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Goode Lady,

I am most pleased to offer what I have learned in using modern grilling equipment to smoke meats and anything else one wants to smoke: peppers, crawdads, watermelon, Moors, Jesuits, etc.

items needed:  grill thermometer, food, gas grill with at least two burners, wood chips, aluminum foil or smoker box, disposable aluminum baking pan that will fit in half of grill, boiling water, meat thermometer.

The key is indirect heating setup.  On my gas grill, I have a right and left burner.  This is so terribly convenient, and can still be done with front and back burner elements with some effort.  You only use one burner (on mine it was the one on the left as it is the one that goes right to the gas), and the food is on the grill away from the heating element.

1) Put the disposable aluminum roasting/baking pan rectangular in shape on the side of the grill I will call COLD.  The burner will not be lit on that side.  Fill it with boiling water. . . it must be hot water or the grill heat will be sucked up in heating the water rather than you food.  This should be checked periodically to keep water in as it is the heat regulator that keeps your grill from making charcoal.

2)  Turn on your one burner on the HOT side on high and let it heat the grill for 15 minutes (your milage may vary).   

3)  While grill is heating, prepare the wood chips.  You have two options to maximize the smoke from your chips:  a.  soak 2 cups chips for twenty minutes in water to cover and wrap in small package of aluminum foil with several air/smoke holes poked in. . . place this close to heat element, right on the rock grate or whatever is down under food grate;  b.  place 2 cups dry woodchips in same aluminum package and place on the cooking grill on the HOT side.  Either method will keep the wood from burning up and produce a slow smolder that gives lots of smoke.  I recommend Apple or Hickory for most meats.  You will want about 1 gallon of wood chips (no idea how many cubic inches that is, sorry). 

4)  When the grill is preheated, turn the burner down to medium or so and put the food to be smoked on the COLD side over the water pan.  You want to keep the temperature around 200-220F (use your grill thermometer to kepp it in this range) in order to move the food exterior through the danger zone quickly enough and still slow cook your meat (the water vapor keeps the environment moist).  after about the first 45 minutes I add a wood chip package to the HOT side of the grill grate, same level as food (or below the grate if using wet chips).   It can take a few minutes for smoke to start (10 or so).

5)  Add a new wood package about every 45 minutes when smoke begins to thin.  My 12# of link sausages were on three levelrack and smoked about 3 ½ hours.  Your meat thermometer will be indispensable for smoking meats.  Check the interneal temperatures for doneness.  The three racks of spare ribs were about 4 hours (dry rub and apple smoked).  Large, thick pieces of meat will need far longer times.

These are the fundamentals of smoking on gas grills.  Same principles apply when using charcoal or wood, just doifferent applications like banking the coals and putting the soaked chips and/or chunks directly on the coals.  An interesting link on the web is http://barbecuen.com/     It offers a wide range of reading on cooking and equipment.
I hope this has been of help in getting started.  There is lots more to discuss what with gelatinization of callogen tissues, moiture retention and saucing. . .oh my!!

pacenm et bonum,

niccolo difrancesco

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================