attempting a weber Q300 as a smoker. also smoke cone just because

[DeusDingo]

I've always wanted to see if i could turn my grill into a smoker if i really had to. you see the Q300 has a center burner that goes through the whole grill and a ring burner that goes around the whole grill. not ideal for 2 zone cooking. it's not a big grill do i didn't expect much. however, i always wondered what temp this thing reaches with just the outer ring and the burner set to low. i decided i would figure this out with St. Louis style ribs, since i had some and i needed something that would thaw quickly. this was kind of a last minute experiment.

in addition i wanted to try this Smoke Cone that my father in law got me for christmas one year. it's something you are supposed to put into your grill and it will turn it into a smoker. so in a very unscientific manner i decided to change 2 variables at the same time.



so the smoke cone is supposed to give you ~30 minutes of smoke. i figured that would be pretty good for ribs. plus it's cherry wood which is good with pork. the directions tell you to "light it like a candle" and it is supposed to just work. and you are supposed to put it on the coldest part of the grill. they even say you can cold smoke with it. we'll see about that.



so the setup is as expected: just the outer ring burner on low, with a water/drip pan in the middle, with a rack over it with the ribs on it.

i dry brined the ribs the day before (because i was going to make them the day before, plans got in the way)



i put the rub on a few moments before putting it in the grill. i used the same rub i used on my last butts (from pintrest)



i lit the smoke cone like a candle, put it in the grill, and hoped it smoked. it said to put it on the coldest part of the grill, well, when i have the whole outer ring as the spot with the burner and that is the only spot left, i didn't really have the coldest part available to me.



as you would expect the smoke cone did nothing. it burned that fabric part for a little bit and then nothing. when the whole thing was done i saw what the thing actually was. it was supposed to set some pellets to smolder but it never happened. as a result there was absolutely no smoke flavor on these ribs. a real disappointment.



the grill held up great though. i am trusting the weber thermostat here but it got up to 250 and just stayed there the whole time. it did cook the edges of the ribs a little faster than the middle but that's because the ribs were longer than the rack. i cooked them for ~3 hours, wrapped them for an hour, unwrapped, spread on some BBQ sauce, cranked up the burners and let it caramelize a bit.



the ribs were tasty and tender but no smoke flavor.

i think this is an easy way for me to make ribs and the cleanup was a lot less than using the smoker for 1 rack. i have to figure out if i could get wood chips to smolder but i should be able to figure that out.

[Nate]

Interesting concept. Now you know.

[Jon Solberg]

Great test! Love it. Maybe an Amazing Tube on the smoke thing?

[kmhfive]

Good-looking ribs.

[bten]

It takes a lot of heat to get pellets started. I use a propane torch to get the pellets started in my smoker tube. Once they start, they usually smoke for a long time. The ribs really look good. Not easy to do on a pit like that.

[DeusDingo]

i've never worked with pellets but it didn't seem likely that the felt material type stuff would have been able to get hot enough to start the process. i think it's a scam.