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Howdy KKers! Here are pics of my smoke pot that I use while smoking in TheBeast. As you'll see, this little 2 qt Lodge Dutch Oven really won't fit well in Beauty!, my 19" Hi-Cap; she is too petite. When it comes to smoking meats, that is strictly within the purview of TheBeast, my KK BB 32". However, when you see the Lodge Dutch Oven smoke pot in the belly of TheBeast, you can see that it fits quite nicely even with a heat deflector in place. So, let's cut to the chase. Here is a bottom view of the drilled bottom. These are 1/8" holes drilled about every 1.25 inches around the perimeter of the DO. Here is the pot flipped over looking down inside the DO. Here is, hopefully, a better view of the hole pattern in the drilled DO. Now here is the DO smoke pot sitting on top of a full fire box in Beauty! As you can see there really isn't any room in Beauty! for the DO smoke pot and a heat deflector. Here is that same DO smoke pot sitting in the belly of TheBeast. Here is a look at the coffee wood i'll be using later today in a cook. This stuff is tremendous in conjunction with a coffee/cardamom rub. Finally, here is the DO smoke pot ready for action later in the day. Here is what you get at the end of every smoke. I just dump the charcoal back into the firebox for the next cook. There are not very many volatiles left so it makes good fuel. Waste not, want not. All I do before I put a cook on to smoke is move half of the heat deflector to one side, put the DO smoke pot directly over the lit charcoal and wiggle it to seat it well in the burning charcoal, move the heat deflector back into place, put the cooking grate back in place, put the cook on the grate and shut the lid. No waiting to thin blue smoke. It happens from the first instant you get smoke as the smoke generated by the DO smoke pot is injected directly down into the charcoal fire thus burning off all the foul tasting volatiles that you see in the initial gray smoke that is produced by laying the smoke wood directly on the coals. Now, what you may need to do is make certain that the cooks you smoke with this DO smoke pot is make certain that your cook, i.e. butt, brisket, ribs, etc., is really cold when you put it on the grate. Because this technique gives you a milder version of smoke at all times, your cook may not have the deep smoke taste many people want. You can combat that by cooling the meat your smoking thus doing a couple of things. First colder meat will condense more smoke on its surface for a longer period of time. Second, you may want to use woods that are not as sublime as alder, fruit woods, etc. Rather, look to hickory or mesquite. The originator of this little DO Smoke Pot runs a bead of flour paste around the rim of the DO and then puts the lid on. It seals the DO and forces all the smoke out the holes drilled in the bottom. I have not found the need to do that with this DO. I'd say about 95%+ of the smoke generated by this incarnation goes straight out through the holes in the bottom. I wasn't worth a damn with paste in the first grade and I haven't gotten any better with age! Finally, a disclaimer here. This IS NOT an idea that is original with me. Rather, I got this from a thread here at the KK Forum. And God help me, I can't find the original post where this smoke pot is described!. It originated with , I believe, @Syzygies, a KK owner and member of our Forum I'm certain most of you don't know that you know. Remember the movie "A Beautiful Mind"? I've been told by a reliable source that all the mathematical notion that you saw on chalk boards, windows, etc. is the work of our very own mathematician, i.e. @Syzygies, who came up with this technique. Who says mathematicians are out of touch and don't live in the real world!? This is about as real world as it gets! Syzygies, I give it up to you for this technique! It's aces. I owe you more than a couple of beers.

Here is a recipe I adapted for the KK that was originally obtained from Sunset magazine (Oct. 1997). This is my first recipe post that I decided to do to get experience with this editor. I've had challenges managing pictures with prior posts but I hope to get that worked out today. I prepared this dish on my 23 inch KK for Cinco de Mayo 2016. The attachment is a CPAP machine that I'm using as a billows to get the fire going quicker. Preheat your KK to about 325 degrees. This supplies about the right amount of heat to obtain a simmer. Ingredients: 2 pounds pork shoulder or butt 1 onion 3 cloves garlic 2 teaspoons cumin seed 1 cup chicken broth (or water) 2 can (19 oz. each) red chili or enchilada sauce 2 or 3 canned chipotle chilies 1 bag (1 pound) frozen corn 1 red bell pepper (3/4 pound), stemmed, seeded, and chopped 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro salt - to taste 8 flout tortillas (10 inches diameter) 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend 1 cup (about 5 ounces) crumbled cotija or feta cheese 1 firm, ripe avocado (about 6 oz.) cilantro sprigs (for presentation) Trim and discard excess fat from pork. Cut pork into 1/2 inch cubes. Alternative: It's much easier to cook the pork whole and then trim the fat. Target 165 degrees (F) internal temperature because we're not aiming for pulled pork yet, it will become fork tender when it simmers. In a large dutch oven, combine pork, onion, garlic, cumin seed and 1/2 cup broth to boil for 10 minutes. Then boil, uncovered, stirring often as liquid evaporates and a brown film form on the dutch oven bottom, 5-12 minutes. Add another 1/2 cup broth and repeat. Add 1 can red chili sauce and stir browned bits free and then reduce heat to simmering. Finely chop the chipotle chilies. Add the corn and red pepper and stir the chilies to taste. Move to the preheated KK at 300-325 degrees (F), uncovered. I placed the dutch oven on a kiln shelf placed on the lower rack after adding mesquite wood chunks. The wire rack between the kiln shelf (heat deflector) creates an air gap provide more even heating around the dutch oven, and to prevent the mixture from burning to the bottom in the event the heat deflector gets too hot. Let the mixture simmer for about 75 minutes, then stir and add chopped cilantro. Grill the tortillas on the lower rack of the KK and set to the side when done. Assembly: Remove the mixture from the KK. Pour the remaining chili (enchilada) sauce into a rimmed pan at least 10 inches in diameter. Dip 1 tortilla in in the sauce and place in a round dish, 12-14 inch diameter, that suitable for the KK. Cover tortilla with about 1/7 of the pork sauce, Mexican cheese blend and cotija (or feta) cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas, ending with a tortilla on top. Place the pie on the KK at 350 degrees (F) until the internal temperature reaches at least 140 degrees (F) - about 25 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining Mexican cheese blend on the top and cook until melted - about 5 minutes. Remove from the KK. Peel, pit and slice the avocado. Also heat the remaining chili (enchilada) sauce and drizzle about 1/4 cup over the pie and garnish with the avocado slices and cilantro sprigs. Cut into wedges and serve. Notes: Any oven-safe item is safe in the KK when using a heat deflector, but I like to wrap mine in foil to make cleanup easy and and my wife happy. I found that I didn't need as many flavor wood chunks as I used due to the long cooking time. Of course it tasted great when done, after a long day breathing the smoke, but the smokiness was much more evident the day after (we had a guest cancel so there was a slice left). Next time I'll only add flavor wood for the final bake of the pie and rely on the great natural charcoal flavor for simmering the mixture. The consistency of the mixture should be like a thick chili when ready for assembly. Vary the liquid additions and simmer times to achieve this. You may need more broth or water because we're simmering with the lid off, but we don't loose much moisture in the KK anyhow and we're after flavor. When assembling the pie, try to keep it level for each layer and bias the amounts added toward the perimeter of the tortillas. This will help prevent sagging at the edges and loss of filling. Well, that wasn't so bad! I figured out how to place the pictures but also, more importantly, I found out how to delete them. The "Remove this attachment" icon in the uploaded pictures (Uploaded Images pane) wasn't visible in the photo in previous posts, so I didn't know how to delete them. I see that option shows up as hover-text. Hope you enjoyed the post!