Hello from Teesside

[essarem]

Quick intro from me. I live in Teesside but will shortly be moving over to Lancashire. Been barbecuing for over 40 years now but ashamed to say quite a lot of the time it was mistreating perfectly good meat

Just bought an Outdoor Chef Ascona gas kettle and looking forward to getting down to some serious barbecuing - hopefully with advice from this forum

No apologies for coming here to learn

[keith157]

Had one for around 5 years now, it's not impossible to get smoke from them just need a looooooooong length of foil to rest on top of the burner. With the smaller burner and the control you have low n slow is nice and easy. Being 57Cm there are lots of accessories from aftermarket sources available. The best I've found is the Weber Rotisserie, it fits and works like a dream provided you remove the lid from the hinge first .

[Steve]

Welcome on board, good to have you here

[essarem]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

@Keith157: Great idea to take the hinge off. I saw on your "Spit roast leg of Piggy" thread that you had used the Weber rotisserie and wondered how. Hadn't looked properly at the pictures you posted though.
Can you explain more about the long piece of foil please? The Outdoor Chef folks told me I could use it for smoking using the cast iron flavouring pan but when I tried it the chips hardly smoked at all. Where does the aluminium foil come in?

[keith157]

You can make a "smoker box" from foil, with the gas ring system and kettle shape a standard smoker box doesn't work. Basically get a length of foil, double thickness and put your wet chips in it. Fold it into a tube/snake pierce holes in it and place it above the burner, wedged between the outside and the "funnel". You may have to end up resting the foil on the burner. It will generate smoke, but you are reliant on the draught to take it into the actual kettle. If you have the flavour pan, try using the sawdust designed for cold smoking rather than chips.
It is a case of trial and error and at best is only good for light smoking. Not having seen the flavouring pan does it fit in place of the lower funnel section?

[essarem]

Yes, it sits about one third of the way down the small funnel. To be fair I probably didn't give it a fair chance as I was doing Beer Can Chicken at a temperature of 180-190C and put some wood chips around the can but then again I guess you would normally use quite a low temperature for a longer period to smoke? (Haven't done any smoking before). Wish I'd thought about the dust for smoking - just bought 4 different woods to try in chip form

[keith157]

I've had a look at the flavouring pan on the main website (http://www.outdoorchef.com/index.php?na ... prod_id=24) it mentions herbs and liquids but not that it's designed for smoking. You could try cutting down the chips with a craft knife or pestle & mortar or food processor (probably not a good idea).

[essarem]

No, it doesn't. it was the folks at OutdoorChef UK who said:
"In answer to your question, yes you can use the cast iron flavouring pan for smoker chips. Soak them in water first, as you would in a smoker box and then just place the pan inside the funnel"
Your idea of using dust sounds better to me for this design. I'll give the chips to my brother in law and buy some dust. Thanks again for the help.