Syzygies' Smoking Pot

[johnnymnemonic]

Perfect explanation, thank you @jeffshoaf for the time and detail.

[David Chang]

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

[Tyrus]

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? 

Edited April 22 by Tyrus

[David Chang]

26 minutes ago, Tyrus said:

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? 

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..

[Tyrus]

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

[Syzygies]

On 4/22/2024 at 5:59 AM, David Chang said:

will this work as a smoking bento box or am i dellusional?

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. 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.

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!

Edited April 26 by Syzygies

[Syzygies]

On 4/22/2024 at 5:59 AM, David Chang said:

Will this work as a smoking bento box? Is Syzygies delusional? 

Mini Cast Iron Bread Maker, Loaf Pan

Lid: 7.9''L x 3.7''W x 0.8''H Pan: 7.9''L x 3.7''W x 2.1''H

I propose this as an example of a category, not a specific product recommendation. I am intrigued by the lip, one might get away without flour paste, perhaps inverted. It's small, could be used where round 1 or 2 quart pots wouldn't fit.

[David Chang]

@Syzygies i just used my lunchbox now and i removed it after 20 min. i placed it over the coals and it was just too much acrid smoke. it was burning too quickly so i switched to wood chunks. what is the placement of the pot? under or over the coals? yes i don't think the thin stainless would last more than 1 cook. i don't think the msr pot would last either..

Edited Saturday at 02:57 AM by David Chang

[PVPAUL]

I’ve been successfully using msr pot for a few years now. There is no red gasket high temp silicone or any other gasket materials. I’ve never had any acrid smoke flavors or smells either. I’m sure the longevity of it is not as good as cast iron. My issue with cast iron is bringing up the cast iron to temperature before placing on coals. It’s a needed separate process in my humble opinion in order for it to work in the KK for low temperature cooks, with low air flow. I’m also hopeful of consistent better results with using the KK cold  smoker attachment using wood chips over pellets after watching Dennis’s video on using this attachment.

Good luck,

 

 

 

 

 

 

[David Chang]

i saw the pellets in my box and in the 20 min, it burned through the whole thing. probably not good to throw on a hot spot.i used to have  a matchbox cast iron smoke box that i bought from amazon a while ago. that is probably the size i'm limited to in a 19. i barely cleared enough space to fir the bento box so space is probably the biggest issue for me. 

[tekobo]

1 hour ago, PVPAUL said:

My issue with cast iron is bringing up the cast iron to temperature before placing on coals. It’s a needed separate process in my humble opinion in order for it to work in the KK for low temperature cooks, with low air flow.

Hi Paul.  I put the bottom half of my cast iron pot on top of the coals to heat up while the KK is heat soaking.  It has eliminated the extra step of heating the cast iron pot separately.  My fail is with the seal at the top of the pot because I rarely get around to making the dough ring to go around the top.  

I now have an MSR pot and am planning to try it out in the next couple of days.  I think it is probably small enough to fit in a 19 or even a 16 but I'll be using it in my 32 and so cannot be definitive.  

[tekobo]

I tried out the MSR camping pot with my chicken smoking cook yesterday.  I had let the fire get away from me and it was burning very hot when I put the pot on the coals.  That is not normally a problem with a cast iron pot but the MSR pot heated up fast and gave off acrid white smoke.  I left it to settle down and by the time I went back to check, all the wood chips were burned and there was no more smoke to be seen!  

Not a good start but I tried again, having got the fire back down to a low and slow temperature.  I decided to use pellets instead of wood chips and this time everything went well.  Once the smoke started to be generated I put my nose next to the top hat of the KK.  No stingy eyes and nice smelling smoke.  I didn't use any sort of screen to keep the holes clear and, as you will see from the photograph below, all the pellets burned well and there did not appear to be any smoke escaping from the top of the pot, meaning that the smoke was hopefully being driven into the coals below to achieve the desired clean smoke.  

This is a relatively small pot and so should fit even in the smallest of KKs.  I bought mine in the UK on Amazon.  LInk here to @PVPAUL's giving details to purchase in the US:

Kudos to whoever first suggested this.  I thought it was @Cheesehead_Griller but I can't find an "origin" post to link to.