BBQ Experiment

Friday night I was hungry for a Johnsonville Bratwurst . . . OK, I admit maybe I'm hungry for Penn State's football season to get started and a brat is as close as it gets right now, short of watching taped games from last year . . . (end of digression) . . . so I fired up the UniFlame gas grill to makes a pair of brats.

Earlier in the day, I had purchased a one pound packet of "wood pellets" designed for smoke pouches or cast metal smoke boxes commonly used (they say) in gas grills. I've tried the cast metal box and soaked wood "chips" in the gas grill before but was never impressed with the results . . . kind of a why bother, it doesn't really work thing. What the heck . . . I gave the wood pellets a try. Not bad, I thought as white clouds of hickory smoke escaped around the perimeter of the grill lid . . . maybe it is possible to get the best of 2 worlds in gas grill. The brats only took a few minutes so smoke penetration into the meat was minimal . . .

Saturday afternoon, I experimented with the UniFlame and pellet idea again. This time the meats were pork riblets and southern-style pork sirloin strips. No rubs, sops, mops, or any seasonings . . . just offset heat (220-240 degrees), meat on the warming rack, and a spritz of apple juice/Jim Beam every now and then over the 5 hour cooking period. During the final 2 hours, I introduced the pellets to the process . . . to see if a smoked flavor would penetrate . . . and to my surprize . . . absolutely. The pork was ready to serve at the 5 hour mark . . . very tender, moist, and superb flavor (I cheated and tried a riblet). Too bad the dinner guests were 45 minutes late . . . by then, the riblets became dry . . . still good eating but 45 minutes past excellent.

On the plus side . . . gass grill/pellet combo . . . easy, virtually no post-grilling ash and coal clean up. Downside, pellets require at least one burner on HIGH to generate enough heat to get them smoking. At $3.00 a pound for the pellets, they are no more cost effective than wood chip or chunks. It's an interesting alternative, I can see using pellets to add smoke to the usual grill fares (burgers, steaks, etc.) . . . but I'll stick to the traditional charcoal and wood chunk set ups for ribs and roasts.