Construction of the Pot Smoker
Since this blog is about BBQ and unusual cooking methods then I feel I should share how I made my 'Pot Smoker' or 'Flower Pot Smoker'. Basically one of my friends, Arthur, had mentioned to me that he'd heard of someone trying to make their own 'Big Green Egg' out of terracota pots. The idea was intriuging so I did some scouting of the local hardware stores and after pricing and sizing a few pots I felt I could come up with a workable design. The initial sketches came out a bit more Tandoor oven than green egg but I felt that was alright.
The design evolved from the nature of the pot itself, and how big of a hole I could make.
In a move of complete serendipity a replacement grill I bought for a 22.5'' Weber fit perfectly.
You have to have a good foundation. This one mode of old concrete pavers.
CMU for the foundation wall, and a few long pieces of flagstone for a nice lintel over the shoot.
Here we are with a good amount of the brick and flagstone base, which has since been upgraded with random sample brick from our material library at work. I hope nobody was using them! Also I've added some thin gauge sheet metal over the fire shoot to keep the smoke from seeping out of the flagstone.
Ok BBQ'n I know, blogging I'm getting the handle of. The pics sideways but you get the idea, this was my 'topping out' with the second chamber where the grilling happens. I think this is one of the things that makes this smoker unique from an offset barrel smoker, the lower chamber holds all the fire where the upper chamber really captures all the heat and smoke evenly through the meat. And the Terracotta holds the heat very well, and if you soak the walls of the pot before hand it acts like one giant water pan. There's no flipping meat around to be on the hot side. Although only one 18'' rack of ribs fits on at a time.
There it is, a thing of beauty if you like homemade smokers made of junk and flower pots. Another act from god was that the top to my 18 1/2'' Weber just fits on perfect and with the addition of a 10$ temp gauge I'm set.
Well the proof is in the pudding, or in this case the pulled pork! So far I believe there might be 2 new 'pot smokers' in the works. Hopefully they can improve upon the design some. My next posting will be about what I'm cooking tommorrow, a 8lb Turkey and a 10lb Pork Shoulder for an early Thanksgiving feast. I plan to even smoke the cornbread stuffing in the cavity.
The design evolved from the nature of the pot itself, and how big of a hole I could make.
In a move of complete serendipity a replacement grill I bought for a 22.5'' Weber fit perfectly.
You have to have a good foundation. This one mode of old concrete pavers.
CMU for the foundation wall, and a few long pieces of flagstone for a nice lintel over the shoot.
Here we are with a good amount of the brick and flagstone base, which has since been upgraded with random sample brick from our material library at work. I hope nobody was using them! Also I've added some thin gauge sheet metal over the fire shoot to keep the smoke from seeping out of the flagstone.
Ok BBQ'n I know, blogging I'm getting the handle of. The pics sideways but you get the idea, this was my 'topping out' with the second chamber where the grilling happens. I think this is one of the things that makes this smoker unique from an offset barrel smoker, the lower chamber holds all the fire where the upper chamber really captures all the heat and smoke evenly through the meat. And the Terracotta holds the heat very well, and if you soak the walls of the pot before hand it acts like one giant water pan. There's no flipping meat around to be on the hot side. Although only one 18'' rack of ribs fits on at a time.
There it is, a thing of beauty if you like homemade smokers made of junk and flower pots. Another act from god was that the top to my 18 1/2'' Weber just fits on perfect and with the addition of a 10$ temp gauge I'm set.
Well the proof is in the pudding, or in this case the pulled pork! So far I believe there might be 2 new 'pot smokers' in the works. Hopefully they can improve upon the design some. My next posting will be about what I'm cooking tommorrow, a 8lb Turkey and a 10lb Pork Shoulder for an early Thanksgiving feast. I plan to even smoke the cornbread stuffing in the cavity.
posted by Newell at 7:14 PM
3 Comments:
this is the awesomest blog ever!
Hey
this is very cool-is the pot smoker transportable? will we be eating thanksgiving dinner that was smoked on the smoker? I certainly hope so--love-a
I second that. Newell, I smell the next million dollar idea!
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