"Good Eats" is a great show. Alton Brown is kind of wacko but that's what we need. A reason to try silly ideas at home (this guy... he did this on the t.v...). At least it was my excuse.
Ceramic smokers are neat ideas. They are pretty costly too... see Big Green Egg. But they are way better than the old flower-pot. They are insulated and regulated and can blast high heat. I would worry about the flower pot over 300º.
The idea is that instead of radiating heat out, (like metal smokers) requiring way more fuel and drying out your food, the ceramic pot is insulated and has barely any airflow locking in heat and moisture. The only downside is the lack of huge plumes of neighbor-attracting smoke. But since this will be on a condominium deck and the neighbors would likely be pissed, in my case, this is another advantage.
I risked the inherent problems of smoking chicken at low temperatures and threw a dozen chicken legs on as a test so that a misjudgement of cooking time could err on the side of :30 instead of half a day with a roast. As it turns out the food was ready on time.
Finding a lid that matched the pot was a trick because what you are looking for is actually a low-slung second pot (with the drain hole). Considering the non-traditional shape it ended up costing more at $13 than the huge ceramic bowl $9.99. The hot plate was $9.99 at Walgreens and did not melt, burnout or nuthin. I did have to crank it contrary to the Alton's suggestion of "lowest setting" but it was chicken and I was somewhat concerned. The top thermo was a meat thermo and that was likely a mistake. It registered 170º-180º as max temp in the oven. That's too low for chicken. Considering you have to open the lid to add chips there needs to be a way to run a constant 220º-260º. I did luck out with a Charbroil grate that has a double ring that allows it to rest halfway between the top grate and the drip pan.
First off I need to work on a dry rub. I tried a really salty texas BBQ seasoning thing (see, I was focused on this oven thing) and that was no good. The chicken was really juicy and really smokey. Big shocker. It was so juicy that I would have thought it was deep-fried. The skin-on factor seemed to potentially not matter. The advantage is it keeps the outer layers from turning into jerky which happened on a piece where the skin coverage was lacking.
I preheated at 12:30, had them on from 1:30 to 4:30 and gave them a quick grill (minute and a half - tops) on the Weber while looking for a pan to bring them inside on. Overall I used maybe 2 handfulls of thin hickory chips 1/2 soaked, 1/2 dry. The lid remained cool to touch which was great. I bought a couple of copper doo-dads to lift a potentially hot lid off but didn't need them.
Since the chicken didn't drip or lose moisture there was little mess on the ceramic. A dump out and wash of the grate was all the cleaning needed and by 6 o'clock I had the thing disassembled and in the back seat of the car.
My car smells wonderful... and what does it smell like?
mmmm...smokey bbq.
**note I added banana leaves around the lid of the base to help keep in the smoke... adds a great flavor as well. My car smells like car again as well.
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I've made a GE flower pot smoker, but I haven't had a chance to really get it to work. Now that summer is here, I should really get back to it...
Posted by: weconway | June 20, 2005 at 04:41 PM
Welcome to the club Josh! I've had mine for two years and really enjoy it. I've made brisket, shoulder and ribs on it, all to broad acclaim. The brisket and shoulder took 8-10 hours, yet remained moist and became very tender. The ribs were approximately 7 hours. As with everything, the more you use it, take notes, adjust your process and try again, the better it gets.
Over at my blog, I've posted on my decision to move up to a "Big Baby". I'm halfway through the manufacturing process.
Posted by: Pursuit | June 21, 2005 at 02:08 PM
damn. I wish I had room for a smoker the size of my first apartment.
Posted by: josh | June 21, 2005 at 02:59 PM
Are you sure that the control mechanism you've created in the radio shack project box isn't just a fancy on-off switch? I've disassembled a different brand of hotplate before (for this very purpose), and the best I can figure is that the rotary dial is an adjustment knob for a bang-bang thermostat, not something that would adjust the level of heat output by the coil. i.e., it measures heat, and if it is less than the dialed setting, it switches on the heat element.
My best guess is that by removing the thermostat from the smoker, all that happens is that if you dial the thermostat above the temperature outside, it turns on, but otherwise, it turns off.
Let me know if you have any evidence to the contrary--I'd be happy to be wrong, as I'd love to have a rig like this with a cheap temperature control.
Posted by: eggmonkey | January 19, 2006 at 04:59 PM
Whoops, ignore that last post, I made it to the wrong blog.
Posted by: eggmonkey | January 19, 2006 at 05:02 PM
What brand hot plate did you use?
I'm thinking about doing that on my condo deck but I heard some hotplates have a fail safe fuse that pops when its gotten too hot for to long.
Any help you can offer would be great.
p.s. Where did you get your wood for smoking? Thanks again!
Posted by: Jeff nicholas | March 15, 2006 at 03:35 PM
I found one at walgreens for $9... also got woodchips at a target-type department store in Racine, WI... you should be good at a home depot even - in the BBQ aisle.
I think the shut-off mechanism still works in mine. I'll have to check that out.
Posted by: josh | March 15, 2006 at 05:15 PM
Does your hot plate have a brand name?
Posted by: jeff nicholas | March 15, 2006 at 07:23 PM
I tossed the box. I believe it was the Walgreen's brand.
Looks like the link...
http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100722&navAction=jump&navCount=8&skuid=sku350528&id=prod350527
Posted by: josh | March 16, 2006 at 09:33 AM
I realize I'm kinda late to the party here, but I've been looking for a roundish bowl to serve as the lid but have had no luck. I read weconway's blog which mentioned Pike's Nursery but I'm in the Salt Lake area and we just don't have them up here. Where did you get the lid for your smoker?
Posted by: cory | August 14, 2006 at 04:50 PM
I went to a Farmer's Market supply store. They didn't have the pot, but they ordered it for me.
Go to your local nursery and if they don't have it ask them if they'll order you a ceramic bowl. They should be able to.
Posted by: Jeff Nicholas | August 22, 2006 at 06:16 PM
I did the exact duplicate that alton brown did on his program, I was able to pick up just about everything at the local walmart. The boston butt was some of the best I have ever eaten, I do like the banana leaves addition, I'll try that next time.
Posted by: CHUCK NORRIS | July 17, 2007 at 04:40 PM
The 1000watt hot plate tekes forevvvvvvver.
Any other ideas?
Posted by: Dennis | March 14, 2011 at 05:35 PM
It shouldn't take too long to warm up if it's not cold outside. Managing a low temp is impossible this time of year.
Posted by: Josh | March 15, 2011 at 09:31 AM