Sometimes you just want to make a brisket and let it cook for hours and hours while you have a beer and wait. What you probably don’t want to do is pay thousands for a real smoker for authentic barbecue that doesn’t really work for simple grilling. Of course you can make one yourself, but you’ll need to know how to weld and have a lot of extra time to devote to doing it right.
In other words, you want the authentic taste of a good barbecue meat, but you want to be able to make it with what you already have. After all, it isn’t like you’ll be doing this every weekend so getting special gear isn’t really on the cards.
What we’ll outline in this post is how you can use the equipment you already have, or you can buy a grill that does a lot more than just smoke meats.
Get a pellet grill
If you don’t already have a decent grill and are looking to buy something, then your best bet is a built in pellet grill. The reason is how versatile it is as you can fire it up in minutes to make a burger, or let a slab of ribs and side of brisket cook away in the smoke for the whole day.
And it’s far less fussy than trying to tend to a smoker. The reason is that the pellets are fed to the burner in a way that you can control. If you’re looking to smoke for the whole day at a low temperature, then you can set the temperature and how much smoke you want and the grill takes care of it for you.
The pellets can be from any hard wood that’s good for smoking from mesquite to hickory to apple. Whatever your preference, you can find the perfect pellet.
Go with the snake method
You can create a perfect environment in your charcoal grill that simulates a smoker very easily. And it’s very hands off once you get the system down.
It’s called the ‘snake’ method and it involves positioning your charcoal in such a way that it burns slowly to keep the temperature low. Then a few chunks of hardwood provide the smoke.
The reason it’s called a snake is that you arrange the charcoal in a snake pattern around the edge of the grill leaving the middle empty. Then, every few inches you place a chunk of hardwood. Light the end of the charcoal and it will slowly burn through the shape of the snake. And then it only burns the wood at the intervals that you place it. For lots of smoke, keep the packed wood close together; for less smoke, further apart.
In the centre of the grill, place a pan with apple juice and put the grill over the top with the meat right in the centre. The apple juice will keep it moist inside the grill and catch the drippings so it doesn’t burn and taste acrid.
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