Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Excellent Meals with Smoker Grills

Smoker grills these days are a modern up-date to one of the earliest ways of cooking and preserving meals. Before refrigeration had been available, meats could be smoked for protecting this during a process. Foods were either preserved utilizing cold smoke or prepared and then preserved along with hot smoke. While all of us don’t need smoking to preserve food any longer, utilizing smoker grills may bring out the finest flavours to match different palates.

Smoker Grills: Great Flavours with Slow and Low Cooking
Ordinary barbecue grills cook the food using direct heat given off by the burning propane or charcoal. As the meat cooks at a higher temperature, chances are of it getting charred or burned outside and remaining raw inside. Charring is also associated with negative health effects. On the other hand, in smoker grills, the cooking is slow and done at lower cooking temperatures, ensuring that the food cooks evenly. The exquisite taste of smoke grilled meat comes from the smoke as well as the gentleness of the lower cooking temperatures which helps to preserve more of the meat’s flavour.

Smoker grills, unlike ordinary barbeque grills, are closed cookers. This makes it important for smoker grills to be well designed, enabling the air to move freely about the meat. Poor airflow will result in the deposition of creosote like chemicals, which imparts a bitter flavour to the meat.

Types of Smoker Grills: Pros and Cons
although traditionally smoking was done using smoke from charcoal, other types of smoke grills are now available. However, all of them have certain advantages and disadvantages. Let us take a closer look at them.

Charcoal Smoker Grills: In these cookers, there are essentially two compartments. The coal burns and produces the smoke in the first chamber, which is then passed into the second chamber, where the meat is kept on racks or is left hanging from hooks for cooking. Cheaper to buy and easier to move around, this is the best option if you don’t mind cleaning up the ash and learn to control the dials and knobs.

Propane Fired Smoke Grill: Here a tray of wet wood chips are heated by burning the gas to release smoke, which is then used to cook the meat. These grills are easy to light and adjust for the best smoke output. However, large pieces may take longer to smoke and you might have to keep changing gas bottles.

Electric Smoke Grill: Here electricity is used to heat the wood chips and release smoke for cooking the meat. While they are easy to use and you will not run out of gas, these can be used only at homes where there are electrical outlets.

Pick the one which suits your requirements the best and enjoy some delicious smoked food.