I tried something last night that turned out quite well and so I thought I’d post about it. I don’t specifically remember reading about this, but I’m in no way claiming to be original at all.
I put 1.5" two strips over the infrared burners of my Charbroil/TEC grill for charring and placed a foil pouch containing Jack Daniels smoking chips on either side of the two strips. During the charring I had the lid down which is something I don’t usually do. After the charring I placed the packets under the grates and on the burner guards and then placed the strips over them to finish the cooking with the lid up.
The result was a wonderfully flavored steak. I had a bottle of Holly’s Hill 05 Tranquille with this. It was a nice match. The Tranquille was showing a good bit of spice and nicely balanced fruit. It was much better than my last bottle in 2007.
I needed some oak chips recently and the found a bag of the Jack Daniel’s chips on a local store shelf. Used them for smoking up some tri-tip and they worked just fine. Though I’m not sure they provide any additional flavor due to being from Jack Daniel’s barrels (allegedly) or are any better than any other “generic” oak chips which are probably less expensive.
These concentrated flavor pellets do a half-decent job, especially if you want to add flavor when grilling and you don’t have a lot of cooking time for the meat to absorb much smoke from the fire. There is a Jack Daniel’s flavor - see quote below. (I’ve been pleased with the orange flavor when grilling duck).
The process that makes Jack Daniel’s® unique among whiskies is the “charcoal mellowing”. The whiskey seeps slowly through finely ground charcoal for ten to fourteen days before it goes into oak barrels to age. Then, that charcoal…well it’s good and soaked with Jack Daniel’s whiskey, just right for turning it into smoking pellets that enhance your cooking with that one of a kind whiskey flavor. Jack Daniel’s® Smoking Pellets are perfect for grilling hamburgers and many other foods.