Greetings Beer and BBQ lovers.
One of the great food and beer pairings is a great smoked beer along with some great smoky flavoured BBQ meat, such as beef, lamb or pork.The flavour imparted into food while cooking over wood, charcoal or BBQ brickettes just can’t be beat over the same thing done on a gas or electric BBQ. Thing is, the majority of people in Australia own and use a gas BBQ, so how can you impart that same smoky flavor into your food when you cook with gas?
There are actually a few different methods you can use, and all pretty cheap and simple. Here are some of them.
- Buy a metal smoker box. Many BBQ shops and hardware stores sell smoker boxes that you can fill with wood chips, wood pellets or even wood saw dust. These small rectangular boxes have holes through them to let air flow in, the box heats up and smolders the wood so it starts to smoke. These do a reasonable job but you really need to pack them full for them to work effectively.
- The cheapest and simplest way is to get a piece of aluminum foil, place your wood chips in it, wrap it into a pouch shape and using a sharp knife, stab some holes in it and place this directly above your gas burner on the grate somewhere. It will smolder nicely and add smoke to the food.
- You can buy wood chunks and place them on the grill next to your food. There is a bit of trial and error here to get them in a good spot on the grill grate so they smolder nicely without catching fire, but it’s an easy one to try
So these are the easiest way to smoke food without having a charcoal BBQ. Of course these still don’t beat what a proper charcoal BBQ can do, so why not give these techniques a go and maybe think about investing in one?
Cheers! – Hoops