Toying with buying a smoker box for the BBQ. What experiences (good or bad) have people had using these? Is it worth the hassle? Does it add a noticeable flavour to the meats that you cook? Just trying to work out if it's worthwhile or just a gimmick...
Parents have got one and the food is amazing out of it! I've never had to set it up or clean it so can't comment on whether its worth the hassle.
I have been looking into a smoke bbq where you cook meat with the heat of smoke rather than the coals. So takes a lot longer and is more for ribs, beef brisket etc than burgers and sausages. Haven't seen much on these boxes but will give them a look as I think the point of a bbq is smoke and charcoal flavour otherwise cook in your oven and carry it outside.
Suppose it's dependent on what you use to create the smoke, Hickory chips are quite common. According to the yanks ( BBQ experts ) BBQ is a long process and not just hoying on yer sausages on for a quick flash fry.
I enjoy cooking on the bbq and am into the long slow smokey experience. You can spend a fortune on a bbq that does most of the work but I have stuck with my webber kettle for years. It can do the 10 hour slow cook with lots of smoke easily enough, you just set it up on a half and half basis, direct and indirect. Keeping the temperature right is a bit of hassle, but if you get a charcoal starter that works well. I use big lumps of fruitwood for the smoke - apple wood is good. Just lodge it in the coals and let it smoke. A lot of the flavour comes from the spice rub as well and plenty of smoked paprika goes into that. I do have a small smoker box as well for wood chips. I use it when doing quick bbq things like fish or steaks. Because they are wood chips they burn out quickly. You get a hint of smoke which is nice. If you want a big smoke flavour you need a long cook time which creates a smokey crust around the meat. Grillstock is a cracking BBQ recipe book which also tells you how best to setup a bbq for lots of different types of cooking.
Depends on your bbq. I’ve got a water smoker that I bought the box for, but it choked the air to the coals so stopped using it and just throw the chips in every so often. If you’ve got a multi gas burner, I’d say get one and only put one burner on to smoke the chips in for indirect cooking. If you like the flavour of the smoke on the meat and you can get away without one, you don’t really need it.
