All Activity

I've made countless experiments over the years, including attempts to adopt ideas that have worked for others. I keep coming back to cast iron. One can find arbitrarily small cast iron pots with effort. The most common mode of failure I've experienced is a breach, where either the lid displaces or a space opens between the lid and pot. Now convection burns the wood in the way we're trying to avoid. Thin steel deforms easily. An unsecured cast iron lid usually stays on, but smoke pots can tip as the fire shifts. I don't care how small the chances are here, I would find it unacceptable to lose a cook, particularly if it's for an event where others are depending on my BBQ. The flour paste seal for a cast iron lid is easy once one establishes a routine, and reminds me of the romance of using questionable pots in Moroccan cooking. I've never actually seen my three 1/8" holes clog, even though my wood could be in contact with the holes. A single hole would probably work, but one never wants to build a bomb, and three holes is not a liability. Do the holes need to face down? This was based on watching how one makes charcoal, where the exhaust becomes a self-sustaining flame at temperatures well above low & slow. Dunno how important "down" is, but down is better than up, and I have to point the holes some way. (I came up with the smoke pot idea after some ill-advised experiments at making charcoal...) If I had investors for a state-of-the-art BBQ restaurant in Manhattan, I'd design a method of heating wood in external chambers, and feeding the gas produced to a modified standard gas oven. I'm surprised that no one has tried this. Usually when people are unhappy with smoke pots, they're having trouble getting them going. I like starting my fires with a weed burner propane torch. For low & slow one wants a fire in one spot, so the fire doesn't run away. If one lights that spot under a smoke pot, one can arrange to get the smoke pot going too. This is fire tending, not fundamentally different from any other form of fire tending. One learns with practice. I don't give up. Alternatives? A mandatory PSA is required here, not all metals belong in a smoker. Galvanized metals in particular off-gas toxins one doesn't want near food. The poster kids here are Alaskans that fermented in seal skins for centuries, then saw Homer buckets and said "Why not?". They died of botulism, Alaska contributes a big slice of the pie chart for botulism deaths in the US. Never break with tradition without understanding what one is doing. Long ago, others followed my smoke pot experiments by building "pipe bombs", stainless steel threaded pipes with caps, with multiple holes along the bottom edge. These were expensive, but avoided the flour paste lid sealing ritual. For a bento box one would want a smaller pipe, bringing down the expense. Could one use other metals? See above. Texas oil rigger BBQ recycled job-site drums. I'd just go with stainless steel, to be sure. With several holes and ordinary wood as filler, I can't imagine sufficient pressure building to create a bomb. On the other hand, in math we observe that lack of imagination isn't a proof of anything. It was popular at my high school to pack match heads into a similar pipe, for a homemade pipe bomb. I had two classmates who kept one hand in a pocket for their senior year. I knew someone later who used better materials for an experiment at the end of a street. They survived uncaught and uninjured, but were astonished at how many nearby houses lost windows to the explosion. A reasonable design principle is that you can never design something not to break, but you can and should design how it breaks. Would pipe caps really need to screw on, or could one rig something that slid together, perhaps with enough overlap that there was no need for flour paste? Try multiple ideas, with care!

Thanks @MacKenzie The ragu di corte turned out super tasty.

I forgot to respond to this point about olive trees being expensive. Mine was free! A friend gave it to me many years ago because she thought it needed to be in a greenhouse. It was taking up too much space after a couple of years and so I planted it outdoors in the garden. It hasn't looked back and keeps reaching for the sky. Our escapologist cat used to tut at my husband whenever he pruned the tree to keep the kitties from using it as a bridge to the outside world. What's even better than home grown olive wood? Single varietal smoking apple wood chips, that's what! I had a good giggle, thinking about labelling up bags of apple chips with the name of the variety, the tree's pet name and selling them at a premium to people with more money than sense.

😍

look what i found in my trash today. my neighbors olive tree 😂 i don't think this does well in jungle weather..

Yesterday loafs for friends. I’ve been eating a little less bread as I’m trying to keep my weight down due to BP issue 😵‍💫 But I typically feed my starter once a week and keep it in the fridge. These are just my standard loafs, nothing fancy.

Those muffins look almost as sad as the ones my wife typically buys. I made these to show her a real muffin. Problem is…I think I just signed myself up to a new weakly (not misspelled) duty. 😳

Or perhaps just keep the "warding off evil spirits" project separate from the "cooking food" project...

@Tekobo, WOW! My mouth is watering.

Halo 4B is amazing you will love it. It’s a lot more than just a smash burger and breakfast maker. We just last night used it to blacken some swordfish steaks and wife said the best she ever had. Enjoy 😉

Low and slow sauce making on the 32. The first is a simple beef ragu that I cooked for eight hours and the second is some soffritto that cooked for four hours. The latter came off the KK at close to midnight, too late for me to care about taking any more pics! And yes, there is a lot of olive oil in that soffritto. It takes on an amazing flavour from the vegetables and imparts a lovely unctuousness to the ragu di corte that I will be making next.

Even these upmarket supermarket muffins don't look anywhere as tempting as yours @Pequod. For reference, some crumpets. Great when dripping with butter.

Thanks @Tyrus. I looked up "burning olive leaves" and got lots of hits for Cypriots burning olive leaves to ward off evil spirits. That would seem to tie in with your view about acrid smoke - evil spirits are unlikely to like a cloud of smoke coming at them. I might just abandon that idea without ever trying it!

I just had my Ha!o 4b delivered last week and converted it to natural gas last Thursday - I've had my Fontana pizza oven for several years now. Looks like we're about synced up!

@jeffshoaf @Tyrus thanks guys for all the great info. Your cooks look amazing. We are building and my wife strongly suggested we wait until our new home is completed. She’s right the rental we are temporally living in has enough stuff to cook on. KK, 4B Halo, Fontana Pizza Oven. Isn’t is amazing how the cooking bug bites and we can’t get enough. Keep sharing and keep smoking!

Hey @DennisLinkletterDennis L - again thanks for the intel - now back from beautiful Cleveland, I do have a couple of questions as we wrap up this topic. Actually, I haven't had any issues starting the KK or dialing in a temp. I will however, only start the charcoal in the middle (1 orange size) moving forward per you suggestion. I don't use the lower grate for cooking low and slow only for searing either with the splitter or without. Agree, not interested in ramping up the temp to 600f - that was just a test and I was lucky I didn't have to chase the temp down since the KK was not yet heat soaked. One area for clarity is when we cook with the splitter in a 2 zone set up, I believe many others including myself may be doing this incorrectly. Scenario, right handed so cold side of splitter on my right. I have put the foil on the middle grate on the cold side and upper grate for the protein but ALSO on the cold side. I believe you wrote somewhere the best set up to eliminate uneven indirect cooks is to always cook on the coal or hot side separated by foil deflector in a 2 zone set up. Is this correct? Lately, I have not used the splitter and just cook indirect center grate top and deflector center middle. Seems to give me a better crispy outside or bark on beef. lastly, as far as having fun... I LOVE cooking in the KK any chance I can get.

I've always used wood chunks or tiny splits stacked inside the MSR, all thats left is charcoal pieces, have never used any screen and it's never clogged. Maybe with pellets because they have little continuity and once consumed only ash remains. Good luck

i actually just made it so i have no idea how it will hold, but it's thin stainless so probably not a long time. but if it works well, i will be in pursuit for a more sturdier lunch box as my grill is too small to accommodate bigger smoke pots. curious to know how long it lasts in such a little box. the empty side is for the punched holes. left empty so ash or pellets don't clog it. the divider is adjustable but after applied heat, i doubt that thin divider will even hold shape..

Whatever floats your boat David...light years ahead of those perforated cylinders that they place in pellet and gas grills. It checks the boxes, so is it reusable and how does the gasket hold up? What's up with the empty side? Longevity looks to be a concern, would it remain dimensional stable under heat and retain it's shape under a number of cooks?

Hate to be a pest Tekebo but I have to warn you about the leaves. Around here were allowed each year to burn outdoors before April 1st any accumulation of twigs and branches that have come down during the fall and winter season. You have to call into the fire dept for permission if you choose to burn, keep in mind there are rules. One of them is that leaves are prohibited, the smoke instant, thick, acrid and makes a quick flying ash that is dangerous and they fill the neighborhood with a thick smoke. I don't think any leafy parts would do you well and could spoil a well layed out cook. Now I know nothing of olive leaves and what bouquet they may in part, however those chips look good for the pot.

will this work as a smoking bento box or am i dellusional? the red caulk is high temp silicon there is a divider in the box to keep the pellets from covering the holes. the divider does not hit the ceiling of the lid. there are two 1/8” holes on the empty side

Great looking muffins you have there !!!!

No olive wood here but I have used grape vine too. I lay some in the middle of the lump and it catches gradually throughout a long cook. I typically add it for long cooks like pork butts along with peach wood. If you add a lot it smells really nice in the yard , I think it smells like a really really light version of apple😁

it's crazy you guys burn olive wood. they are so expensive to buy at the garden shop here. like thousands for a living olive tree..

I think you are right about the olive wood that we chipped @Tyrus. I will keep shaking the bucket and it should be dry quite quickly. As you can see from the picture above, the wood that we harvested is a relatively small haul. Just one cook's worth I reckon. I was going to throw away the leafy twigs on the right but I am wondering if they would do well on the fire once dried. I love the idea of food flavoured with a wonderful, gentle Mediterranean smell.