Why I Prefer To Smoke Food Using Propane Gas

When choosing the heat source for your smoker there are a number of things to consider. The purist will always say that there's no substitute for wood because this provides the heat and smoke in the most fundamental way but I believe that we have to be a little bit more practical that at. After all we don't all have the ability to build a smoke pit in our back garden - and even if we did, I'm not so sure that our better halves would be that please with us either!

So if we assume that wood is out of the question, what are we left with? Well the choice is electricity, gas (propane or natural) and charcoal. Now I have to admit that electricity is super clean and easily controllable so it makes smoking for the lazy enthusiast quite simple but it does have significant disadvantages. At the other end of the spectrum is charcoal and definitely not super clean! It also can be expensive if you are planning on doing a lot of smoking (as I do) and controllability isn't its strong point either.

For these reasons I prefer to use gas and let me explain some of the reasons why:

Compared to charcoal, gas is on the pretty clean side of the spectrum and assuming that combustion is complete, the by-products of burning gas are simply carbon dioxide and water. Any odor that is present in gas is artificial in that it is inserted so that we can actually smell gas should it ever free flow without being burned but this odor is eradicated during combustion.

Gas is readily available and relatively cheap especially if using piped natural gas. Bottled gas (propane) is also readily available but not so cheap. I prefer to use propane because of its portability. You can buy propane in a tank (there's a variety of sizes) and assuming you can carry tour tank and your smoker in your car then you can literally smoke food wherever you want.

The disadvantage of piped natural gas is exactly that. You'll most likely need a gas engineers to safely plumb in your gas line and connect up your smoker and this means that your smoker has to be sited in a fixed position. It's maybe not quite as limiting as electricity where you would more than likely need to build a dedicated space in your garden but certainly you would need to ensure that it was sited in shelter of the prevailing wind.

If you are thinking that you could just disconnect your smoker and connect up to a propane tank, think again. Propane tanks have a regulator that controls the flow of gas and this flow is different to natural gas so a burner designed for use with propane won't work with natural gas and vice versa.

So propane it is. It's clean, it's portable and relatively speaking it's easy to control. So are there any down sides?

I don't want to scaremonger but the worst that could happen is an explosion. Explosions are rare but they do happen and it's usually through lack of care and attention. The most innocent of causes is if your burner is extinguished by a strong wind however the chances of this resulting in an explosion are small because we are outdoors and so ventilation is good and the build up of gas in a confined space is unlikely. Other causes include faulty regulators and burst pipes so it's worth double checking all you equipment periodically to ensure it is airtight.

The single biggest complaint that I've heard about with propane is when exchanging an empty tank for a full one and the faucet on the new tank doesn't work as well. The simple answer to this situation is that when you find a good tank, hold onto it. Don't do a tank exchange, take it to a refill station. Not only do you get to keep your tank but more often than not you get a greater quantity of gas in your refill.

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Why Electricity Is Not Ideal For Smoking Food

I've been specific in my choice of words (energy source rather a heat source) because technically electricity isn't heat despite the fact that what we're actually going to use this energy for is to heat our smoker.

Heat is desirable in a smoker for two purposes:-

To make heat for cooking (unless cold smoking)To make smoke

Generally speaking the source of the heat is in the lower chamber of the smoker because hot air rises and this creates the draft that passes the smoke over the food in the food chamber. The one exception to this is if you have a remote smoke generator (other than in the bottom of the smoker) and in this case you might want to have a secondary heat source directly in the food chamber.

The fuel or energy source that you use must be a clean source in that the products of combustion are odorless (in most cases just carbon dioxide and water) otherwise you will taint the flavor of your food. Thus the preferred choices for fuel are charcoal, gas (propane or natural gas) or electricity. The one exception to the clean source rule is wood which when burned does give off a flavor but seeing as it's this flavor that we are trying to capture, forgive me if I refer these energy sources as clean, I'm trying to make the distinction to petroleum and oil based products.

The advantage of electricity is that it is super clean, it is pure heat and nothing else. Electricity is also really convenient in that you can just plug it in and go and assuming that you smoker has a method of adjusting the flow of electricity then it also makes for a really easy way to control the temperature within your smoker. If cost comes into the equation then generally speaking electricity is a good source of energy.

The down side to electricity is that it's dangerous especially when used outdoors and or where water is concerned. If you're on a long cookout then you are going to have your smoker outside for long periods of time - what if it rains? For these reasons any electrical appliance should be sheltered and placed on an inert surface such as concrete, so electricity itself might be relatively cheap but if you have to build a dedicated smoking area in your backyard just to use electricity then it puts a different complexion on the costs.

You could argue that provided you have a long cable and your external socket is protected then you have the answer. There issue with this is that the longer the cable, the more significant the voltage drop and therefore the less efficient your heat provision will be even to the point where it might not be sufficient. Another point to mention with long cables is that the cable must have the appropriate current rating otherwise it will get very hot and could potentially catch fire.

One final point about electricity is that it is only as portable as where you have a socket. For sure you can get electricity at most camp grounds but if you're into hunting and fishing than an electric smoker is going to be a challenge. If portability is important to you, then maybe electricity isn't the right way to go.

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