HOTBOXING, OR FLASH SMOKING
Hotboxing, or flash smoking, is a combination of grilling and smoking. It’s a fun way to get a lick of smoke on small birds, fish or vegetables – anything that doesn’t take that long to cook. If you pile a few pencil-sized fennel twigs and a couple of balls of hay next to a fillet of fish on a grill and cover that with the barbecue lid, the fish flash smokes. This method might be called something else somewhere else, but flash smoked is what I’ve always called it. I used to use fennel twigs exclusively, but when they ran out I turned to other trees and plants and my options increased.