Smoking with Propane
Meat smoking and barbecuing are traditional processes to prepare delicious meat flavors and recipes in all seasons and that’s where we are knocking at the moment.
Though you must have heard that smoking is not allowed where there is propane because it catches fire too easily-but it’s not in the case when we are using the meat smoking process using propane smokers which is quite easy and essential for the best food flavor just like when you try smoking with pellets.
People love to get outside to enjoy various smoked recipes and also want the same while they are within their home.
The debate that starts within the smoking arena is to choose propane or any other source of smoking. Propane smokers carry a lot of flexibility and suitability for smoking various delicious recipes. While employing propane smokers, a number of things need to be taken care of in order to make your meat dish even more appealing and tasty.
Smoking with the Speed you need
Smoking, as we all are familiar with could be a long tiring job. It becomes even more challenging when you have to manually keep a check on temperature and to add wood chips in order to let the flavor propel and develop with consistency.
All this further add to the cooking time and requires much more commitment. However, this is not the case with propane smoking, as a lot of things are taken itself by the propane smoking unit with minimal human intervention and then the smoking time is also considerably lower.
As we dig more into propane smoking, another great thing is the quick availability of the propane source. It might require you to do the refilling of the propane tank, but you can always have the backup ready in case the current propane tank goes out of fuel.
This is much better than an electric smoker, which consumes more energy, cooks slower and bound you to be close to an electric power source. The modern propane smoking units of today also come with a much wider smoking surface so that you could cook different items, ideally, the whole meat briskets laying totally flat over the propane smoking unit.
If you are planning a day out, even better, an overnight camping trip, then nothing could beat the convenience of carrying a propane smoker, where the propane tank along with the propane smoking unit could be easily transported to the place of your camping.
Propane Smoking – Leading All the Smokers
Propane is a top smoking source for meat for multiple reasons. Considering the overall cooked meat quality, flavoring, taste, convenience and the time consumed in smoking, propane has its multiple benefits over electric and a few other types of smokers. Let us find a few reasoning that makes smoking with propane the next big thing in the smoked meat category:
The Best Flavor Treat
There are a lot of myths prevailing among the smoker enthusiasts that wood smoker is the only mean, by which you could get the most desirable smoked meat, but don’t get carried away with such rumors.
A number of tests have been conducted by industry experts and it has proved that propane smoker is just as good as a wood smoker, if not better, in terms of producing taste. Propane offers a very unique and lovable flavor that comes without any headache of maintaining the right temperature through hours of smoking.
The Adjustable Temperature Convenience
Most of the smoker enthusiasts know that the ideal temperature for smoking either vegetables or meat is somewhere in between 25 to 250 degrees. The propane smoking unit provides users with the convenience of setting up and adjusting the temperature as high as up to 450 degrees. This feature alone makes it stand out in the alternate options circuit and also provides a mean to move seamlessly from smoking to grilling if required.
Propane Smoker – The All Rounder for Indoor or Outdoor Smoking
The prerequisite for smoking in propane smoker is to have your meat, wood chips and a tank of propane. Having all this makes you a free bird to smoke anywhere you want, whether indoors, outdoors or even at a friend’s house. This is excellent with its easy portability and maneuverability.
First Timers to Smoking
The first timer to smoking meat would love the features and convenience of using a propane smoker. There was another myth that wood smoker claims to be the best smoker by experts, which gets better with the addition of chips and woods over the flame. The chips or wood on such smoker needs to add or removed in order to maintain the heat of the unit for smoking. However, this myth now has been busted as experts claim that the propane smoker is the best one to get the best taste in meat smoking of any kind.
In the propane smoker, the user just needs to deal with wood chips as a mean of flavoring or smoking agent. No need for manually adding/ removing the wood chips. You will find the temperature to be constant as long as the unit is rightly getting fueled through propane source. Your duty would just be to ascertain that the wood chips are doing its job in properly smoking the meat. Just occasional addition of wood chips needs to be ensured in order to keep up with the smoke inside the smoker. In short, minimal manual effort with best possible smoked meat you get on the dining table.
The Vegetable Friendly Unit
The vegetarians would simply love it. If you are not a fan of meat, then this would keep your smoked vegetables totally isolated from any particles of meat cooked before. The environment-friendly (low pollution smoker) always ensures that the smoker is far easy to clean completely off any infused meat debris that we usually find in the wood smoker, even after cleaning. Such meat debris or particles then may get stuck with the vegetable items, hence, giving an excuse to the vegetarians for a meal skip. With a propane smoker, just pop in your most loved vegetables inside the unit, smoke and enjoy the treat.
Does Not Break the Bank
Many of you would know that an average wood smoker could cost somewhere around $800 or even more. On the other side, a good quality propane smoker can be easily purchased within a range of $250 and that too from renowned manufacturers.
They are essentially designed to accommodate food items for smoking in large quantity and then many come with a dual door design that allows adding the woodchips with no loss of precious smoke and heat already built inside the unit.
The Top Propane Smokers to Purchase:
Before we jump on to discuss the best available propane units available in the market, there is a little tip to share, which might help you in making the right decision. The tip is that you should consider buying propane or any other smoker a little bigger than your current needs. It is because a propane smoker bug discovered after purchase could break the bank and there wouldn’t be any way to revert your decision after purchase.
Masterbuilt 30-Inch Outdoor Vertical Propane Gas BBQ Meat Smoker Grill
Our Rating: [star rating=”4″ numeric=”yes”]
Just as we were discussing the convenience with propane smokers and minimal human intervention, this specific one is a prime example of it. The subject propane smoker from Masterbuilt ignites with the push of a button.
The 15,400 BTU burner (stainless steel) is adequately powered through propane and works like a charm until you are done with your meat/ vegetable smoking job. The propane smokers in real smoking need circumstances works efficiently within the temperature range of 150F to 250F with consistent heat provided.
However, it has the capacity to go further up, in case the smoking job demands with excessive meat and/ or brisket being smoked.
This is a 2 door propane smoker and provides 30 inches of cooking space which is good and quick enough (with propane) to serve a good number of guests at home.
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Char-Broil Vertical Liquid Propane Gas Smoker
Our Rating: [star rating=”3.7″ numeric=”yes”]
This one is a double propane smoking treat. First, it provides a spacious 7,566 sq. inches of area to cook food and then provides a warming rack as well right on top of the chamber. This warming rack for post smoking needs could be employed just as you want.
The smoke through this propane smoker works best in combination with the porcelain type wood chip. The temperature gauge is provided with user convenience right at the top. You can easily set the temperature and rest can be taken care of by the smoker powered through propane, giving all consistent smoke throughout the cooking job.
Amazingly, the smoker would be as productive at home, if you wish to carry it and use in the outdoor premises or overnight camps.
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Dyna-Glo DGY784BDP 36″ Vertical LP Gas Smoker
Our Rating: [star rating=”4.1″ numeric=”yes”]
The vertical type smoker is best for easy carrying in the outdoor space with all the facilities of carrying a propane tank along. The smoker is aptly designed to enhance the taste of all meat and vegetable products used, which comes best with the consistent heat provided throughout the smoking session.
You may get an amazingly different range of flavors just by choosing a different type of the wood chip and the same recipe would turn out to be completely different from its prior version tried.
Shortly, the product always rises to the occasion of cooking anything you like from briskets to ribs to chicken and even vegetables. Moreover, the rigid construction of the unit makes sit eligible for outdoor use even in extreme weather conditions, where most of the other product fails or doesn’t live up to the expectations set.
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Smoke Hollow 38202G 38-Inch 2-Door Propane Gas Smoker
Our Rating: [star rating=”4.4″ numeric=”yes”]
The powerful propane gas works at an output of 20,000 BTUs, which is amazing for such a vertical propane smoker with 3.4 cu. Ft. capacity for cooking. The external temperature gauges masterly control the performance of the propane smoker throughout the smoking session and just wants you to do very rare manual checks for maintaining the temperature.
Propane gas coupled with the lower and upper vents makes the entire smoking process easy and such a setting considerably adds to the taste of the smoked product as well. It is just that you are good with using the best wood chips to enhance the taste as per your liking.
Moisture also is well maintained inside the unit with the impressive gas control system and maintaining the temperature well within the low to high ranges.
The manufacturer provides a lovely sausage hanger along with the product as a complimentary item.
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Smoke Hollow 38205GW 38-Inch Propane Gas Smoker
Our Rating: [star rating=”4.1″ numeric=”yes”]
This is a lovely vertical smoker with the 2-door system offering 4 x chrome cooking grids totally a cooking capacity of 3.4 cubic feet. The push button ignition system adds to the convenience of quick and easy smoking. It is a perfect smoking solution for both indoor and outdoor smoking needs, with full user convenience ensured.
However, some random issues about the flame not to stay lit consistently has been reported. Users also have totally opposite and positive reviews about the flame lit. As the best suggestion, it is advisable not to keep your propane gas tank full.
Just be keeping the propane feed down through tank would not let in the flame to under or overheat. Despite that, this one overall with all the positive features and enhanced performance serves as a good option for propane smoking enthusiasts.
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The Final Verdict:
As you can see above, the smoking with propane is a way that is perfect for both the starters and seasoned meat smoking enthusiasts. It works equally well for meat and vegetable products for smoking. The performance in terms of taste production, time consumption in cooking, cost, maintenance and minimum manual efforts required is at par or even better than the propane smokers.
People usually love it for its much environment-friendly nature and ability to maneuver it easily in and around your house.
On top of that, the adjustable temperature experience with minimal human intervention with the addition of wood chips make propane smoking stand out in the crowd of smokers. So its worth taking into consideration if you need a reasonably priced easy to use meat smoker.
