smoking pork on a propane grill?

[murphmag025]

Hello all! I want to try to smoke a 3.29 pork shoulder on my propane grill using a cast iron smoking box. I have read a lot of random info on other sites that this may take about 10 hours.....Is this true? Any pointers for my plan? I was thinking this would take about two hours at most...

 

[kev211]

Probably not 10, but definitely not 2. At 2, youre basically just grilling it. To finish in that amount of time the grill will have to be way hot and will either char or possibly dry out your meat. Typically, the rule of thumb is 1.5 hours per pound so youre looking at closer to 5 hours. That being said, Ive never smoked on a grill, so being closer to direct heat it might go a little faster

 

[murphmag025]

5 Got it! That sounds reasonable. Should I be basting it or spraying it with anything as it goes?

 

[jimmykx250]

5 Got it! That sounds reasonable. Should I be basting it or spraying it with anything as it goes?

Keep the grill @ 225 and shield it from direct heat. Low and slow is what you want. Apple wood goes nicley with pork shoulders. Never smoked on a gas grill myself though. Get a weber kettle u can find them for next to nothing on craigslist and you will love smoking on that thing. Best grilling investment I ever made.

 

[_BullDog_]

In my smoker it takes ~1 hr per pound at 300 but that is because I foil it at 160. This speeds up the cooking time a fair bit. I've done 3 8 lb shoulders (24lbs total) in 8 hours a couple times.

 

[_BullDog_]

I don't worry about basting or spraying... especially with a shoulder you have a lot of fat/grease. Oh yeah - stick a foil pan under it to catch the drippings or you will end up with a grease fire. [emoji91]

 

[kev211]

end up with a grease fire. [emoji91]

Which, may end up helping you get it done in 2 hours

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Remember, you want indirect heat. So assuming your propane grill is a typical 3-burner model, you can usually hold 225 by just having one burner turned on and moving the shoulder to the other side of the grill above the "off" burners.

What to watch for is the smoke. You *don't* want the wood chips in that smoker box to ignite. You want them to smolder. If you start seeing thick white smoke coming out of the grill, they've ignited. You should be seeing thin blue smoke. If they ignite, you might want to have a spray bottle of water on hand to knock out the fire.

It'll take some time to figure out exactly where the optimal spot is and the optimal burner settings to hold 225. I'd quite frankly play around with the grill and the smoker box WITHOUT the pork for a few hours before you attempt it. You might waste a little bit of wood chips, but small price to pay to learn the grill's behavior. And hey, it gives you an excuse to go hang out by the grill with a few homebrews

And read the below link. Several times. Over and over. And then get lost in the rest of the site for the next week. Apologize to your boss for wasting an entire work week reading about BBQ. (Apology will be more successful if you bring your boss delicious BBQ.)

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/gas_grill_setup.html

 

[_BullDog_]

That is a great site ... use it a lot

 

[Maylar]

Start at 250 for the first hour then ramp up to 300 until "probe tender". The bone should wiggle, and internal temp be about 195-200 for pulling.

Never had much luck with those cast iron smoke boxes, I use pellets with either an A-Maze-N tube or a Moe's smoking pouch on the gasser.

 

[murphmag025]

Great info! Thanks for the help. Will give it a go tomorrow. I did a turkey breast a couple weeks ago and kind of messed it up....although, the husband said it was good. But I think learning from that experience and taking your input into account will result in a better product. We'll see!

 

[zpack]

I'm currently smoking chicken wings and drinking my home brew ipa. If I were you I would see if smoking meat is something you want to get into and invest in a decent kamado smoker. I use the char griller akorn and it's pretty inexpensive and with a few cheap mods it's great for low and slow. I have smoked in 6" of snow for a 12 hour smoke without adding charcoal. This grill will smoke for 12 hours holding 250* or sear at 650* I got rid of my propane grill and use this for everything.

 

[murphmag025]

Wings look delicious! Yes, I have just been experimenting lately. We'll see how this pork goes...

 

[applescrap]

I smoke a lot of pork on gas grill. It will be done quicker. Probably will need to put chips under grates to keep them going. Dont use sugar until the end or it will burn. For two zones one zone (the cooking side) off and the other on as low as it will go. This is as low as your grill will go. It wont go lower than that as far as I know. Depending on grill quality size etc for my old grill that meant 300ish unless it was a winter day. I usually do this when its 3 in the afternoon and I want a pork butt by 6ish. Best of luck any more questions glad to help.

 

[murphmag025]

Thanks for all the help! The pork turned out great! It was done pretty early. The hardest part was keeping the chips going without getting the heat too high. We did have to put some chips down under the grates. Overall I was pretty satisfied and surprised at how well it turned out. I would do it again.