motorfamilymotorcity, Concur with paddy99 on boiling (get a rope as they say on the PACE piquante commercial). I have a couple of BGE and smoke them also takes about 4-6 hours depending on dome temp 210 - 250 degrees. However on my weber kettle I set it up for and indirect cook with a drip pan under the racks of ribs. At the start of the cook I have the bottom vents half way open and dome vents fully open. I have found this to be around 350 degrees or hotter. I grill the ribs bone side down membrane removed for about 50 minutes at this point I take a look at them and if the meat has pulled back a quarter to half inch I sauce them and put them back in the grill for another 10-15 minutes. Sauce them at the end of the cook if you desire to avoid burning the sugar in the sauce. They are tender but do not pull off the bones as easily as truely smoked ribs do. They are pretty darn good though. Don't know if you have the rotisserie ring for you kettle if you do you might want to try ribs done this way. Not the tradional smoked flavor but darn good also. Very Respectfully, Jeff GO NAVY!!!!!!

Personally (just my opinion) I would skip the grill UNLESS you are willing to spend a decent amount of time and energy cleaning it. You will have to treat it like an outdoor grill, meaning 10-15 minutes warm up and 10-15 minutes afterward blasting the heat to burn off the grease. After that, you've got some clean up to do unless you want it looking all charred. Also, keep in mind that the heat output is not going to be fantastic on ANY residential indoor grill. You'll get about 500 degrees at the surface where a good charcoal or wood fire is about 1000 degrees. Now, that said, if grilling is a way of life and you want the option no matter what then the choice is clear! Just be clear on your expectations. -Stooxie

I have cooked on all three and the TEK IR is the only gas grill that cooks as well as charcoal. It's advantages over charcoal are that it is quick to set up, easy to clean up and does an excellent job of creating the charcoal taste. As many here know, the flavor is created by the smoke from the fat striking the hot surface be it charcoal or something else. The higher the IR energy (from gas or charcoal) and the less the flame, the more smoke generated rather than being turned into additional flame. The TEK creates a great deal of smoke because the IR glass sits between the flame and the dripping grease. On older style IR burners there is still an open flame to ignite the grease drippings reducing the amount of smoke to add flavor. With charcoal, once the embers are glowing red, it is emitting a lot of IR and much less to no flame and hence produces a lot of smoke and flavor. I have owned the FireMagic and I would not purchase another. The burners are cast SS but they still do rust over time and the flavor grills wear out too. They are very hard to clean and the heat was not anywhere near as good as the advertisements. If you are the type that never clean a grill and don't mind a gritty looking grill it may not matter. I am the type that wants it to look clean and inviting each time and the self cleaning feature along with the dishwasher removal panels makes the TEK a breeze to clean and keep looking nice. For me that was worth a lot. The more conventional grills like the Firemagic, even with their ceramic infrared burner are not even a close match.

I agree with Alexa. A thermometer is worthwhile. I have had both electric and charcoal smokers. The electric is more convenient, but the charcoal gives better flavor IMO and is worth the slight amount of fussiness it takes to maintain the right temp. Best piece of advice I can give is to avoid the temptation to look at the food cooking. You may need to do so a couple of times during the cooking, but every time you take off the lid the system cools dramatically and it takes a good while to get back up to cooking temps. As far as wood goes, I really like pecan. You can use pecan shells if you have access to them. Hickory is good, but a little stronger than pecan. I used to live near an apple orchard; apple wood is great, too. I don't care too much for mesquite, but that's just me. Another trick is to put something fatty on the top rack and something that needs basting on the bottom rack. My dad used to do a pork roast on the top rack and as it cooked it dripped fat onto a turkey on the bottom rack. I've done ribs on the top rack dripping on to chickens on the bottom. Delish. I found I could smoke about 6 whole chickens at once. (They make little wire racks that make the chickens sit upright during the smoking, and that does make for a more efficient use of space. I found them worthwhile.) What I would do is smoke them, and then store them in individual freezer ziploc bags. Use a soda straw to evacuate as much air as possible, then seal them and freeze them. When you wanted a quick and yummy dinner, just take a frozen bird in its plastic bag, open the bag and put a couple of ounces of water or white wine in the bird's cavity, and microwave it in the bag for a few minutes till reheated. If you take the smoked chickens and take the meat off the bones, the meat makes a fantastic chicken salad; save the skin and bones, though, and you can make an incredibly rich and flavorful chicken stock that would jack up the flavor of many dishes like beans, soups, etc. What's really nice is that the cooking times are not written in stone, and slightly overcooking the stuff will not ruin it since it's a very moist environment. Another plus is that most of the work is done 3 or 4 hours (or more) prior to serving food. Once you load the smoker and get everything going, it really doesn't take much attention at all--in fact, most of the time it's better to leave it the heck alone. That means that if you're entertaining a bunch of people, you have time to check on everything else without worrying about the main dish. Much less stressful than, say, grilling a bunch of steaks for a crowd.