Sorry, could not resist

Saw some posts on smoker boxes on the old board.

Years ago I got fed up with all of the crummy offerings in this area, all these little bitty cast iron boxes were worthless IHMO.

Go to Target or Kohls, WM, or anywhere you can purchase a good quality stainless steel Lasagne pan, preferably 9x12x2, with a flat flange around the edge.

Buy two of them, they should be about 10-12 bucks.

Take them home, and take one of them and drill 30 or so holes in the bottom of it, this is the top of the smoker box and is used upside down.

You now have a very nice, and very long lasting smoker box, just place the pan directly on top of the burners, throw in either chips, or the nice thing about these is that you can actually use wood chunks, or even if you prefer you can toss charcoal in there to get that charcoal taste. They are very clean, long lasting, easily handled as the pans usually have nice stainless handles on them...

Let me know what you think!

I have just been using tuna fish cans . I got that tip from a grill cookbook.
Do they make any pans smsaller than the ones you brought.?

Say I was to try the tuna can method - would I place this on top of my flavorizer bars? How many cans, 2?

-Benji

dabowsa,

I would not recommend placing the can on your flavorizer bars.

There have been mixed reviews with Webers being able to heat a smoker box up enough to produce smoke. I purchased a Summit Series which includes a smoker tray and a seperate smoker burner to avoid this problem.

Try using very fine pieces of wood, or even sawdust, and you should be OK. Also, do not soak the wood...Stogie corrected me on that one a while back. Put the box on the grill while preheating. This should heat up and begin producing smoke about the time the grill is ready to cook. The disadvantage to smaller chips or sawdust is that they will not smoke very long.

It works JUST fine on my weber...however I use a different twist. I take a grease catch pan (the little tin one at the bottom) and fill it with chips cover with foil and punch a hole. I use this trick on my weber and my Members Mark. Works just great. Mind you don't get things too hot or it will flame. Also don't punch in too many holes or it will allow a draft in there and encourage flaming.
Larry

The food network is having a grilling marathon right now and they even used the tuna can on Boy mets Grill. It has worked fine for me .
Also pages 16,17 and 18 of Steven Raichlen's How to Grill book he goes into detail on how to smoke with a gas grill (complete with pictures) and he
even shows you how to make a foil pouch for your woodchips

I have used the foil pouch many times with my previous grill. Works like a champ, but make sure you use good quality (Reynolds) foil or it will fall apart on you. In my opinion, a tuna can is too small.

You can also purchase a cast iron smoke box from lowes for @ $10. They work OK but I ended up using foil pouches more. The thing I like about the foil pouches is that you can pre-make a few pouches up and toss them on as needed. With the cast iron box you tend to have the grill open for longer times dealing with that very hot box.

That guy Steven Raichlen was on one of the home channels last night grilling up some deserts.

So for my Weber, would I put the foil pouch directly on my flavorizer bars? I do have two types of Reynolds foil, standard and "Heavy Duty" - I wonder which one would work best? How hot is too hot for this technique?

I'm not too anxious to try smoking just yet, I'm getting great flavor as is! Last night I threw a shark steak down with just some lemon pepper and oregano - oh man it was superb. I read somewhere that you can use the flat side of the cast iron grates for more delicate meats, like fish - any truth to this? I'll probably try it next time as I did loose a little of the shark from crumble at the flip. But it had perfect grill marks and was cooked on the money.

That shark was fresh and at $4/lb and gave me a similar taste and texture to swordfish which was $11/lb fresh...anyone else think that's really expensive?

I've got the Vermont Castings VCS3500, and it came with a small, stainless steel smoke box. I can't figure out where I put the damn thing in the grill if I wanted to use it...

dabowsa,

I would place the foil packet, use the heavy duty if you have it, on the grate over one burner off to the side. Leave that burner on high and turn the other burners down to your desired cooking level. As you pre-heat your grill the chips will start to get hot. Do not poke too many holes in the foil or they may flame up. After about 10 minutes, the pre-heat cycle, the chips should be smoking. Depending on chip size, and the number of holes in the foil, the packet will last about 20 minutes. Have another packet pre-made if you want more smoke and just toss it on as the other starts to die out.

Will,

On the VCS3500, isn't that box supposed to somewhere near the rotisserie burner?

Here is a link to a picture on Vermont Casting web site showing the smoker box in the grill. Scroll down to the last picture on the page. Hope it helps.

Vermont Casting

Also, here is a link to the user manual, required Adobe Acrobat Reader, showing the smoker box on page 12.

VCS3500 User Manual

The grill that Steven Raichlen's used on page 18 of the How to Grill book is in fact a Weber and it list 3 photos with instructions.
I listed the picture captions below

1. If you are using a smoker pouch , position it under the grate
directly over one of the burners

2. Run the grill on high until you see smoke, then reduce the heat to the
desired temperature.

3. Alternatively, position one or two soaked wood chunks under the
grate directly over one of the burners.
Again , Run the grill on high until you see smoke, then reduce the
heat to the desired temperature.

Ronald, thanks for the info! I guess I'll have to get that book now.

Hi Ronald, sorry for the latereply. I think that you can get some 8x8x2 baking pans that will work just as well.

I just place the pans directly on top of the burners...