Smoking Pot — A cheap terracotta flower pot smoker ala Alton Brown
Being a fan of Alton Brown, I have always wanted to make his Terracotta Flower Pot Smoker featured on the “Q” episode. The required items include:
- One large terracotta pot approx 17 inches in diameter at the top. This is the base of the smoker.
- One circular terracotta pot that fits on top of the base pot
- Grill grate that will fit into the large pot and hold the food
- Grill thermometer
- Feet for the large terracotta pot so it stands off the ground. (pair of 2×4’s, bricks, decorative pot stands, etc)
- Hot plate for the heat source
- Heavy duty metal tin for wood chips/chunks
The end result, will look similar to this:
Note: My top is not a circular terracotta pot, but rather a terracotta plate. See issue #1:
Overall, it worked out pretty well. I am able to hold a temperature up to 250 degree F, or lower if I turn down the hot plate a bit. My “test case” was a rack of ribs with a traditional Bobby Flay spicy rub with a sweet sauce. I smoked them for about 3.5 hours, which was a little too long I think. They were a bit on the dry side, but they still tasted good and the novelty made it all worth while
Next up is a whole chicken or maybe a Boston Butt. The Boston Butt is a ~10 hour investment, so that will have to wait for a lazy football weekend which is at least two-weeks out.
While the smoker build-out was pretty smooth and successful, I did run into a few issues that I will have to workout eventually.
Issue #1
After a trip to home depot, I found everything but the round pot to serve as the top, and the hot plate. After a trip to OSH and a nursery, I found a hot plate, but no round pots; all the round pots were too small or had a glaze that would probably end up killing me. Others have reported using the same size pot for the pot and the base, but many hot plates cannot heat this large an area. As a workaround, I picked up a large terracotta plate that would fit on top of the pot.
The issue with the plate is that there is no hole for the thermometer. Yet another trip to home depot solved this. I picked up some masonry drill bits for ~$10 and drilled enough holes for the thermometer to fit in.
PS: Save yourself some time and only go to OSH. They should have everything you need.
Issue #2
The grill grate is difficult to pull out. This is a must when you need to replace the wood chips. I need to find one with handles, or invent some handles on my grate. Either way, I recommend taking off the food before taking out the grate. My ribs almost ended up on the ground.
Issue #3
I could use a little more space for the meat. Getting more than 2 racks of ribs might be difficult unless I stand them on their side. (The picture above is one rack cut in half.) If I find a grate with an extra inch or two in diameter, I might be able to have a dual grate smoker.
Issue #4
I turned down the extended warranty on the hot plate. I doubt it was designed to run 10 hours at a time, so it will be interesting to see how it fares during my future Boston Butt smoking experiment. Considering the hot plate was $10, the warranty probably would have been $1-$2!!!
Issue #5
The lid can get very hot to the touch. Since I was able to drill holes in the plate for the thermometer, I should be able to drill some holes for a handle.
on September 30th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
Congratulations. I am very envious. Mine wasn’t so successful:
http://saldetraglia.blogspot.com/2005/08/smokin-pot-on-sunday-morning.html#comments
I’m going to try again tomorrow, but with a slight difference. I’ve tossed out the hotplate, and inserted a small ring-shaped gas burner.
I really hope it works, because I’ve invested WAY too much mental processing into this project.
Cheers!
Sal
on March 15th, 2006 at 6:10 am
I ended up finding a lid at a local nursery. I have the good fortune of living in Atlanta, where Good Eats shoots, so if Alton can get it, I can too.
I’ve written 3 posts on my “Little Brown Egg”. You can find them here.
I too haven’t put in the time to make a whole shoulder, although I’ve made several killer chickens.
on July 1st, 2006 at 9:34 am
I tried a boston butt and it turned out much better than my ribs.
on October 14th, 2006 at 12:16 am
Great job!
on October 17th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Might I suggest (perhaps for others, or next time) making, or have someone else who loves you a lot do it (lol), a ceramic top, its not hard or expensive to do and it’d save a lot of time, since its easier to make holes in wet clay
I love alton brown’s inovative ideas.
on December 24th, 2006 at 5:17 am
Dude, I don’t like to brag, but I suppose that I am the living, breathing, closest thing you’re going to find to a terracotta smokin grill makin guru. Yours is not bad, but you should see mine. I have been making these grills for friends for the last five years. They look so good, that at first clance a person might not realize they are made from flower pots.
Now, I don’t mean to step on any toes, but around our house a Boston Butt is more like a 14 to 18 hour endevor, and just falls apart. Low and slow. Ummmmm, so good.
on December 24th, 2006 at 10:15 am
To the anonymous bragger….
Your comment is worthless without pictures. Give me something to eww and ahh about
on April 3rd, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Smoking Pot — A cheap terracotta flower pot smoker ala Alton Brown…
A fast and great way to create your outdoor smoke oven…
on April 17th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
on May 16th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Just saw your article on topgrubs.
I have to say that this is a great idea for an outdoors person like me.
Great blog overall.
on May 29th, 2007 at 10:18 am
there were two problems on your ribs above… one is that your grill is too close to the hot plate. try a 14 inch bottom pot and a shorter 14 inch for the top… you can find them in stock at any supercenter in the nation. for the hot plate, you will need to go to any wallgreens…(the walmart one is too big for a 14 inch) and… try cooking at 200 for an hour or two longer… worth the wait… does anyone have an idea on brick smokers? do they work as good?
on May 29th, 2007 at 10:40 am
re: your grill is too close to the hot plate.
Yeah. I was able to find a rack that fit much higher up the base. That has improved things a lot. I should probably update this post as a few things have changed. On the to do list….
on June 3rd, 2007 at 3:34 am
i just pulled my “butt” off my flower pot grill….12 hours and the meat is perfect…falling apart. I bought the burner from walgreens and it worked perfectly. Awesome smoker, i’ll be doing this again.
on June 4th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I too am thinking of building this terra cotta smoker. I am however unclear on the size of hotplate. I originally thought I would go with a 1500 watt model but cannot find one anywhere that will fit in the bottom of a 17 inch planter. My next best option seem to be a 1000 watt model that sells at Walgreens.
http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100722&navAction=jump&navCount=8&skuid=sku350528&id=prod350527
Anybody know if this will be adequate?
on June 5th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I am having a problem making my smoker. I bought a 16 inch diameter bottom and 16# top..I have yet to find a grate that sits where it is supposed to. the 14 inch grate sits right on top of the burner and is essentially the same size as the bottom diamter of the pot. The larger 16 grill which fits the 18inch webber grill sits right at the top of the pot. I bought a standard 16 inch terracotta pot and don’t know if I need to exchange it for one with a different inside diameter? I haven’t found one inbetween these sizes inch anywhere. Any ideas?
on June 5th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Kelle,
My pot has a 17.5 inch diameter around the top. I found a charcoal rack for a large webber that fit about an inch below the top of the rim. See here:
http://twothirds.org/2005/09/27/two-level-smoker/
You might want to get a larger pot.
on June 6th, 2007 at 1:08 am
on June 6th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Regarding grill size. These clay pots can be easily drilled with any carbide tipped drill bit. So any grill rack may be used as long as it’s diameter is smaller than the pot diameter. Drill pot (1/4 inch hole?) and fashion some sort of clip such as a small bolt protruding into pot to rest rack on. Or, drill parallel holes and insert small steel rods across pot to hold rack.
Clips or rods should fit loosely so that expansion when heated does not crack pot.
on June 12th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
JohnA,
The 1000 watt hotplate from Walgreens is sufficient, but you will have to separate the rheostat from the hot plate and the cooking area as it has a thermal cutoff. I got a outlet box and a cable outlet faceplate and was able to splice the rheostat without any problems. I am testing everything out right now and making sure I can maintain 210 degrees.
on June 12th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
aggie98
The problem, as I see it anyway, is that if the rheostat is move outside the cooking area we would have an “always on” scenerio because the rheostat would be sampling the outside and cooler air.
Today I test fired my cooker with the Walgreen 1000 watt. I have a 17 inch terra cotta base and the same thing for the top because I couldn’t locate anything smaller. I realize that I have a bit more space to heat but on the plus side I can easily add a 2nd top rack if needed.
I started on the high setting and was up to 210 smoking degrees in under 15 minutes. I then set the rheostat down to low.
Here is where the trouble began. The temp fell slowly back down to 150 without the hotplate cycling back on. So I put it back on high and brought it up to 230. Next, I set it to medium and again the temp fell to 175 and no again it wouldn’t cycle back on. Once more I put it on high and left it there.
On pemanant “high” it seemd to maintain right around 230 degrees. Perfect right?
The problem is on a hot day I can maintain smoking temperature. But, when the weather turns cooler there may be a problem. I am going to try drilling some holes in the hotplate base close to the rheostat to see if that helps it cycle on and off better.
Other options may be a 1500 watt unit (if I can find one that fits) or a different rheostat set-up. I am also considering trying a burner and heat control out of a regular electric kitchen range. I know it’s a 220 volt but that shoudn’t be too much of a problem. Have to research that some. I’ll post back as I make progress.
on June 14th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Okay now. My initial testing is done. A 4.5 lb chicken with mixed results. The chicken took about 5 hours but came out delicious. I could not get the temperature above 200-210 F. It was hot and sunny during testing so I know when the weather changes so will the maintainable smoker temperature.
The weak link is indeed in the hotplate thermostat. Every hotplate thermostat that I looked at (6 in all) had the same set-up. A thermostate beneath the plate that operated using contact points which openend and closed by a thermo-metalic sensor.
The problem is that the hotplate is in a constricted space and does not cool as fast as the oven chamber above.
causing a much too long a time before it recycles back on.As someone suggested, I brought the hotplate thermostat out of the pot but all that did was cause an “always on” situation because the thermostat failed to sense any heat.
In short, the hotplate temperature bears no relationship to the actual temperature in the cooking portion of the flower pot smoker.
What is needed is a hotplate that is controlled by oven temperatures.
Anyway I came across this idea while researching the problem.
see link http://www.finkbuilt.com/blog/get-your-smoker-under-control/
I will post back when I test this out. It shoud be noted though that if one goes this route the thermostat in the hotplate is wired direct. That means bypoassing the stock rheostat.
on June 22nd, 2007 at 10:52 am
I love mine, just fired it up this past weekend for pulled pork. I can’t adjust the rheostat on my hotplate because after a few years of use it is blackened.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dorkyrooster/438229628/
on June 26th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I made mine from two identical 16″ pots and a 750 watt heat plate. I am also using the grate from my little Weber charcoal grill. The grate sits a tad lower than I’d like but I don’t want to buy two new pots just yet.
I’ve grilled 4 Boston butts so far, ranging from 4-8 lbs. I would definitely suggest smoking them bone-in since cutting out the bone first tends to make it a bit dryer later.
With the 750 Watt plate I have to crank it to medhigh/high to keep it between 200 and 225. It tends to go nuts after about 5 hours and climbs towards 250 (gotta keep a close eye on it then). The cool thing is that it takes a solid hour for it to drop down about 20 degrees once everything is nice and hot.
HERE’S MY TIP!!! I was having issues taking the dang butts out and the grate to get replenish the hickory chips. My solution was a simple metal hanging flower pot hanger with the three “legs”. It is very simply to twist them onto the edges of the grate with your hands and voila! you got yourself a handy-dandy carrying handle.
I switched to Bobby Flay’s KC BBQ recipe i found on Foodnetwork.com and liked it a bit better than Alton’s briney butt. Best part so far (if anything can be better than sitting ont he porch drinking beer for 10 hours while watching meat cook) has been making my own BBQ sauce. I would have never guessed it would be that easy to make a tasty sauce.
Thanks,
Vince
on July 2nd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I built something very close to the finkbuilt controller. I found an old electric stove that had been discarded at the local transfer station (where scavenging is not really allowed) so while my wife was watching for the man, I removed the oven thermostat. Thinking back, I should have snagged the cooktop elements, but alas…
Anyway, the oven t-stat has a long sensor on a stiff copper tube. This goes about midway up in the pot. I bodged together a project box from radioshack with the actual t-stat and all electrical connections. I plug the hot plate into the box and the box into the wall.
I still have some of the problems with the hot plate (I’m on the 3rd one), but I’ve bypassed the control on the hotplate with some success (and some short circuits as well).
The next iteration will be the oven controller attached to a stovetop element (I’ll probably buy this one instead of salvaging it). I’ll place this on a couple of firebricks in the bottom of the smoker with the pie plate on top.
on July 14th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
My smoker just had it’s maiden voyage this afternoon. The dish: chicken. Although, I was pleased with the results, I think I can improve. If any of you can give me a few tips that would be great.
My problems.
1. I didn’t know how many woodchips to use, so I basically filled my entire pie tin. Did I use too many. I did get an awful lot of smoke.
2. I used a disposable pie tin to put my chips in. It burnt through in about an hour. Will something thicker still transfer the heat to the chips properly?
3. I ran a test with my hot plate to see if I could get to temp. I was able to get to about 240 with my plate set at max. When I actually cooked my chicken I could barely get to 200. What happened?
I would love any help or tips.
on July 15th, 2007 at 8:20 am
I am assembling my parts to make this currently. I am stoked to try this out. I love that everyone has their own little ideas about improving their smoker. I have ideas of my own.
Tony, did you soak your chips or were they green? A thicker plate (stainless steel) should work better. It will have a more consistent temperature across the surface (it will transfer the heat well and hold it’s heat better when you remove the top to replace the chips) and not have as hot of hot spots like a disposable pie time which is like putting it on the hot plate basically.
Alton kept his smoker between 210 and 220 F so 200 is not that far off.
on July 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Ok guys/gals. I have purchased 3 different hotplates two were 500 watt and one was 1000 watts. I can’t get them to sustain the heat. The toastmaster model 6431 1000w single burner set at max go the 17″ terra cotta pots to about 175 degrees before it shut off and would never recycle back on. What am I doing wrong? Is there something in the hotplate I have to disable to get it to work? If so, I’m not an electrician, I’m an accountant and don’t know how to do that.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’ll check back in a couple of days.
Thanks in advance.
on August 12th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I have the Walgreens 1000-watter and it didn’t seem to produce much smoke. I think I used too thick a pan for the chips, tried to pile in too many chips, and had water in the tray. So I think all of those contributed to the lack of smoke, but I am also worried abotu the hotplate not producing enough heat. Without really becoming an engineer overnight, is there any way this hot plate will work? Thank you!!!
on August 12th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I too, have the Walgreen’s 1,000 watt burner (Kitchen Gourmet), and it wont work for me, either. Not in the pots, or the BBQ.
Yeah, I have a BBQ, and I love it. It works great. But, the temperature gets up to 260 degrees with coals and that’s too high for Boston butts, I feel. (I feel Boston butts? LMAO!) Sorry; had to…
Also, the BBQ needs attention every thirty minutes or so, to tap the white ash off the coals and reignite the hickory and mesquite chunks by fanning the coals that have either gone out or were about to. I saw this pot smoker idea as a way out of spending all that effort. But, no luck.
Why do some of us have success, while the rest of us fail with this project? I’m not aware of a ’safety cut off switch’ or ‘thermal safety switch’ on this particular burner. Can somebody purchase this burner and show us what is causing all the trouble? Is this unit actually shutting down and then turning back on? How do we override this? How about showing us a step by step way of getting this burner to stay on full blast? That’s better than nothing.
Pulling the rheostat sounds great, but how do we do that safely? Can somebody show us with step by step instructions? We could use the help!
BTW, I’m using the unit on full blast with a 9 inch heavy duty aluminum pie pan with medium to small chunks of mesquite and hickory. Maybe the pan is taking away too much heat, and after the wood chars, more heat is needed to keep the smoke going?
on August 13th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Yes, it’s I, again. I figured it out. There is a thermal ’switch’ that will shut off the Walgreen’s 1,000 watt Kitchen Gourmet burner when it gets too hot internally. You can easily bypass it, too. Just bend the piece of metal that has a ‘white hard plastic peg’ on it up and away from the rest of the rheostat. That’s it. It works, too. Here’s what I figured out.
I took my burner apart. It was just one screw! If you try it, make sure it’s unplugged and place your finger on the bottom center of the burner to prevent the nut from falling down, and rolling away like mine did. Once loosened, just lift the metal part of the burner from the black plastic base. They don’t completely separate so be careful. A metal tube fits in the center of the burner internally to shroud the screw. Don’t lose that, either. So, the only parts that come off are the screw, the metal shroud and the nut found on the bottom of the burner. That’s it.
Next, look near the temperature/on/off switch internally and look at the rheostat. Make sure again the unit is unplugged, and turn the switch on and off, going to the max setting. Notice something? The two small pieces of thin metal that have copper colored domes on them move apart when off, and together while on (the copper dome parts touch only). It’s hard to spot, so use a flash light.
A third larger, thicker piece of metal that has a white colored plastic peg on it is near one of these two smaller pieces of thin metal. When this third metal part is heated to a very hot temperature (I heated it up with my 175 watt solder gun), it bends. The plastic peg then pushes the two pieces of thinner metal apart, thus shutting the burner off. So, if you bend that thicker piece of metal farther away, it wont shut the burner off when it heats up.
That’s it. I tested the burner, and it wont come on until the switch is turned to the ‘on’ position. Also, you still have temperature control settings, too. However, the burner could now overheat and melt or be destroyed so be careful when first using it.
I hope this helps. I have yet to try it, so do this at your own risk! I plan to start off with a medium setting, and work my way up from there. If you try it, post the results here!
on August 13th, 2007 at 3:23 am
One last time, I swear. I’ve made a crude drawing of what the Walgreen’s 1,000 watt burner rheostat settings should look like. You can find it by going here…. http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/7335/walgreens1000wattburnerih3.png I hope it helps.
Solid
on August 13th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Solid,
I really appreciate your reply. It makes fixing this issue simple…ish. I am worried that it will destroy itself fairly quickly. I guess unplugging the plate when it gets up to the 220 range would make it stay in check, if it hasn’t already burned itself up by then. Worst-case scenario, I take it back with the 2-year warranty, telling them how upset I am that it melted.
Any idea when you’re going to try cooking with the adjusted plate? Let us know when you plan on using it and then when you do, what happened!
Thanks Solid!
on August 14th, 2007 at 12:13 am
One thing that I noticed when putting together my terracotta smoker, was the difference a pan can make. I started with a thin, but not throw-away aluminum, pie plate to hold my chips. Fired that baby up and couldn’t sustain a temperature above 140 degrees. probably the perfect temperature for smoking sushi? As we all now, it’s a rheostat problem. I assumed the cheap, thin pan wasn’t absorbing enough heat, but rather reflecting it back at the hot plate. So I swapped it out for a relatively thick Japanese Nabe, a cast iron pot about the quart size. It’s round bottom (like a bowl) had many less contact points, but it heats so evenly that smoke wasn’t a problem. I even thought I had an advantage since the round bottom created a little more “open space” above the heating element and allowed the heat to radiate upwards rather than stymied above the element.. Doing nothing but changing the pan got me from 140 up over 210, 218 was the max that I observed. (I smoked a boston butt) But, then I encountered the other problem…..the harsh, bitter conditions of summer in San Francisco. While it was foggy and windy, I maintained an avg. of 190, during the middle part of the day while the sun was out I was in the 205-218 range. So after 10 hours with an avg. temp. 190-200, only over 200 about 3 hours, I finished it in the oven for 3 hours at 240. I don’t know if that was necessary, maybe 12 hours at 190 would have been enough to gelatinize the goodness, but it’s not supposed to. It did come out really well, but I shall now take a run at rigging the hotplate.
It should be noted that I did attempt to insulate the entire thing with cardboard, but it didn’t get me much. Unfortunately for the homeless, it takes more than cardboard to beat off the harsh reality of the marine layer. Hmm, I wonder at what temperature my sleeping bag would begin to melt…….. I’ll report back with pics when I get something more reliable that I can brag about.
Good luck!
funny aside, around 9am I discovered my neighbor a little frantic because she thought our building was on fire. I also overheard the neighbors reporting that they didn’t see any fires or hear any firetrucks. ha!
Cheers,
JD
on August 14th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Jake,
You’re welcome.
I wont be smoking anything for a while. Heat wave is hitting us pretty hard, right now. It was 106 with very high humidity. I don’t feel like sitting outside babysitting a smoker at these temps.
Maybe Saturday or Sunday. That’s when we usually have a big dinner. When I try it, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Again, the mod allows the burner to work as it should. The only difference is make sure you don’t let the burner overheat. Say, get past 220 degrees. Constant observation for the first few times is definitely needed.
Solid
on August 24th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
How often did you have to replenish the wood chunks? When I’ve been doing some cold smoking lately, my 3″ cube of mesquite burns down in about 2 hours. Kind of a pain if you have to smoke for a day or so (e.g., salmon, trout, etc.).
on September 9th, 2007 at 7:11 am
What is OSH?
on September 9th, 2007 at 9:24 am
OSH == orchard supply hardware.
http://www.osh.com/
I think they are only in California.
on October 6th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned is using some black high temp paint on the bottom side of the pan. Plain aluminum will reflect a lot of the heat radiated from the under side. The black base will allow the heat radiated from the burner to be adsorbed. Also, lining the inside of the pot with aluminum foil will help keep heat in.
on October 23rd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Suggested modifications to any 1000 watt hot plate. (got mine at WalMart)
1. Disassemble hot plate, remove internal thermostate control and reconnect wires bypassing outside temperature control knob. Just throw the knob away..
2. Get a GFI plug, standard 600 watt dimmer, plastic 3-gang wiring box and a good grounded applicance replacement tail. 1,500 watt dimmer would probably be better, but those things are expensive.
3. Wire appliance tail, GFI and dimmer in 3-gang box. Use 12 ga wire to connect GFI and dimmer. Mount GFI and dimmer on opposite sides of 3-gang box leaving middle hole open. Trust me, you will want extera room with the appliance tail and 12 ga wire in there. Mount cover on 3-gang outlet. Duct tape over middle hole if you want, I just left mine open. It is GFI protected, after all. For the super fire conscious, you could go with a waterproof exterior surface mount box. That will probably be my next modification.
4. Plug appliance tail into your outlet, hot plate into GFI and presto, grounded, external thermostat. Works great. Dimmer may get a little warm after 4 or 5 hours, but it’s outside, there are no combustibles and hey, its GFI protected. As I said, if the wattage rating on the dimmer really bothers you, go for the 1500 watt unit. You will probably have to special order this.
I have been using this rig with the same hot plate for two years now without any problems. I can hold 200-225 smoking temps for hours on end. Before going this route I melted the thermostat’s solder joints at least half a dozen times.
Good luck and good smoking.
on November 8th, 2007 at 9:31 am
WTF is a OSH?
on November 26th, 2007 at 7:15 am
( I’m from Argentina) Tried these project last weekend. the lower pot is 2
feet tall and 18 inches in dia. I used an 1 kw ceramic (old model) hot plate
placed at the bottom of the pot. passed thru the bottom of pot the screws for connecting the supply and connected two wires and a 220 v. plug. placed over the hot plate is a refractory tile covering all the heating element. I was concerned about some dripping catching fire in the red hot
heating wire. over the tile is placed a little pan for the smoking wood. I used a native hardwood. on the upper part of pot is placed a hand made
heavy iron wire grill. I put two whole chicken 5 lbs each. temperature raised
quickly to 170 ºf (25 min. or so) and after 1 hour reached 205 ºf and remained there 4 hours. at that time I discovered that closing the drain hole
of the upper pot raised temp. to 225 which seemed to be perfect.
after 6 hours the chickens came out perfect brown skin and great in taste.
the whole project took me two hours gathering the parts, one hour for assembling and the six hours of cooking. it was also cheap to build ( the cost of about 40 pounds of chicken) and cheap to operate. the cost here
of 6.5 kw is the same of 4 lbs charcoal bag!!!! my brother, a former farm
manager and a great pitmaster, totally agreed with me that the results are
very close to real wood grilled chicken. anyway I will be experimenting
all these stuff . thanks you all for the inspiration.
on January 6th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Hi there from Australia,
over here we dont really have any off the shelve smokers, so im really keen into looking into your diy version as in my recent visit to the states i fell in love with TGI fridays smoked beef brisket with teh JD sauce - yum!
I’ve read through all the comments but didnt notice if u mentioned if the hot plate survived the boston butt (ie running for 10+ hrs)
Also whats the best ratio for wood chips VS Beef, and how often do u top them up.
Any tips for a noobie beginner would be much appreciated
Cheers, and many thanks for this great blog post
on January 7th, 2008 at 11:15 am
on February 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
on March 4th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Have you ever considered the idea of setting a terracotta pot inside the chimney flue of a chiminea, building a fire and letting the natural wood smoke/cook your meat? I read a few posts stating the difficulty in maintaining heat with a hotplate- with a chiminea providing your heat, you can (in theory) regulate both it and your smoke output (no fumbling with wood chips).
When I stumble across this page, I immediately thought of doing it “chiminea style”, as I’ve often set a small grill grate on top of mine and cooked steaks. An added benefit is the continuous stoking of a chiminea fire which is a pleasant experience in and of itself; not too mention it’s much more aesthetic than a hotplate. Of course the only set-back is that one HAVE a chiminea.
on April 7th, 2008 at 5:32 am
I fooled around with terra-cotta smokers for 2 years and came up with a charcoal-fired smoker. From the bottom: A flat concrete stepping stone. On it place 3 bricks (more about this later). On the bricks place a large terra cotta pot, the base. Get a charcoal starter chimney and cut off the handle and the top, about 4″ above the charcoal rack inside the chimney. Place the cut-down chimney inside the pot. A round grate fits in next, just like Alton’s. Place a round concrete stepping stone on the grate. This gives indirect heat, rather than placing the meat above the fire. On the stepping stone place a pyrex baking dish covered with a wire trivet. The meat goes on the trivet, juices fall into the dish. Fill the dish with water if you’d like. Cover with top pot, insert thermometer.
Before filling the chimney with charcoal and lighting, look down the pot and push one of the bricks in to cover the hole. Mark the pot/brick intersection on the brick. Pull the brick out so the hole is half open. Mark that, then pull it out so the hole is completely open and mark that location too. Now you have a damper you can use to control airflow and, thus the heat.
I have pictures if anyone is interesed in going charcoal rather than electric.
on April 7th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Pictures:
Cut-off charcoal chimney inside base pot:
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h299/raystern/smoker/burner.jpg
Round grill next:
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h299/raystern/smoker/burner-grate.jpg
On the grill: Stepping stone, pyrex dish, trivet, meat.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h299/raystern/smoker/lidoff.jpg
Thermometer on top, bricks on the bottom. One of the bricks is marked and slides in and out to cover or open the bottom drain hole.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h299/raystern/smoker/smoker-inoperation.jpg
Once assembled and heated, one filling of charcoal will last about 4 to 5 hours. The heat is remarkably easy to control, just be aware that there’s a lag time between adjusting the brick and seeing an effect on the thermometer of about 10 or 15 minutes.
In effect, this is a wood-fired oven. You can add more charcoal, leave the bottom hole wide open and the temperature will soar to 350 F for an hour or so. That’s enough time to bake bread.
on April 9th, 2008 at 5:57 am
ray, that is a sweet setup. i’ll have to try that setup on my rooftop (no backyard) one of these days; been looking for something that’ll do double duty as a bread oven during the summertime.
on April 9th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Chopper - A pizza stone placed on top of the stepping stone makes a nice surface to bake bread. And it’s a lot easier to keep clean than the stepping stone. I’ve also baked half loaves inside clean, well-greased 2″ terra cotta pots. Meat loaf also bakes well inside small terra cotta pots, the drain hole lets the grease escape.
on April 27th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Some good tips here I have one to add. After reading this site I had an idea on how to modify the hot plate to both heat the flower pot and NOT melt.
I did the following (will need to find somewhere to post pictures)
Plug in the base plate and adjust the temp using the rheostat.
1) I detached the element from the base plate.
2) I placed the element on the bottom of my pot to determine where I needed to drill holes. I then drilled two holes through the bottom of the pot to allow the ends of the element to go through the pot.
3) Went to the auto parts store and bought 14 gauge wire and wire plugs.
4) Soldered four pieces of wire each about a foot long to all the connections. Two for the heating element, two for the wires coming out of the base plate.
5) Soldered the connectors to the free ends of the wire.
6) Placed the pot on little legs then ran the element wires through the bottom of the pot. The element just sits on the bottom of the pot with the stand off legs that come attached to it.
7) Plug the base plate wires to the element wires.
That’s it! Took all of 20 minutes, now I can adjust the temp anywhere from 180deg to over 300 deg. The day I did this I was able to get 210 deg, with no movement on a cloudless 75 deg with the rheostat between the first and second dots on the dial. I am using the 1000 watt hot plate from Walgreens.
So I have the adjustibility for hot and cold days. The base plate is no longer exposed to the direct heat.
on May 29th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Where do you buy all the supplies such as the steel trash can and grating and temp guage?
I’ve just spent about 2 hours looking online and I can’t find any store that sells them (Especially trash cans)
on May 29th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
> Where do you buy all the supplies such as the steel trash can
> and grating and temp guage?
> I’ve just spent about 2 hours looking online and I can’t find any
> store that sells them (Especially trash cans)
You might have better luck doing it the old fashioned way by going to a store!!! Home Depot/Lowes/Ace will probably be your best best for most items.
on June 28th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Dude, I was very disappointed after being mislead by the title of this thread. Bummer.
on July 6th, 2008 at 12:57 am
@KenP, your post gave me a good idea for my flower pot that I think is generally a lot easier.
I simply routed the wires through the center hole and reconnected them to the burner (which was seated on a brick). If you use the Walgreen’s burner, then no drilling, no soldering and no bending back controls.
I’ve put up a deeper description and a set of photos here:
http://www.naffziger.net/blog/2008/07/05/the-alton-brown-flower-pot-smoker/