Turn a charcoal or gas barbecue into a Smoker - Napoleon Press Release

Smoked food has been a key food trend in the last couple of years. Its popularity shows no signs of abating and in pursuit of that smoky flavour, liquid smoke and other artificial smoke flavourings are regularly used by chefs to achieve the desired taste. So much so that food writer Josh Ozersky in an article for Time Magazine voted Fake Smoke as one of the 5 worst new food trends for 2013. Napoleon® Grills can produce the real thing, they also know that the act of smoking food, like barbecuing, taps into a basic primeval desire for fire and flame.

If buying a specialist smoker is not an option, achieving a subtle smoky flavour is still easily done with a barbecue. Key to the process is to ensure the food is not cooked directly over the hot charcoal or over the gas burner “ cooking needs to be done slowly and this means cooking the food ˜indirectly. The flavour comes from the smoke generated by wood chips or a plank which have been soaked in water.

GET THE KIT
The PRO Smoker Pipe (£12.99) is surely one of the neatest little gadgets on the market. A stainless steel tube perforated with tiny holes. Fill it with wet wood chips, place on the sear plate over a burner and
close the lid. Thats it! Napoleon® has five different types of wood chip each costing around £5.50 for a 4.5kg bag; Mesquite, Maple, Hickory, Cherry and Apple, each imparting a different flavoured smokiness to the food.

Cedar and Maple Planks (£5.00 each). The choice of wood determines the special flavour associated with plank cooking as the natural oils and moisture found in the wood infuse into the food. The plank is soaked for a minimum of 1 hour, when the grill is up to temperature the plank is placed on the grill for 3-5 minutes until it starts to crackle and smoke, at this point place the food on the plank. For further flavour the plank can be seasoned.

The Charcoal Smoker Tray (£40) is a multi-purpose investment. Not only does it convert Napoleon®s Prestige and most of the LEX gas barbecues into charcoal ones* “ truly “ (see 1 below) but this tray holds both the charcoal and the wood chips. Numerous additional barbecue accessories are available from Napoleon® including pizza stones, cutters and spatulas, beer can chicken holders, woks, toppers, griddles, tools including knives, tongs and forks and a new chopping board and bowl to name a few.