Syzygies' Smoking Pot

[tony b]

Nice. To me, that's the cool part - making your own lump charcoal - albeit only a few chunks at a time, but it's still way kewl! 

[Aussie Ora]

Nice. To me, that's the cool part - making your own lump charcoal - albeit only a few chunks at a time, but it's still way kewl! 

I reckon the 42 could almost get you a bag lol

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

[tony b]

It'd probably need one of these.

https://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-7475-Griddle-6-Quart/dp/B004EWLCUW

 

[bosco]

Well I broke it.  My 32 has been lit since 10:30 and holding steady at 250. Pot has been on since 12 and not an ounce of smoke coming from the grill. Not even a hint of smoke smell almost 3 hours later.  I removed the pot and repositioned it and nothing.  

Ideas??

[ckreef]

Is the pot actually sitting on red coals.  I had it not work once and I found that although the pot was sitting above hot coals there was a few unlit lump pieces keeping the pot from actually sitting down on the coals. 

If the pot and the wood inside doesn't get to a high enough temperature the off gassing of the wood will not occur. Not sure what that exact temperature is and it's probably a little different depending on the type of wood inside. 

 

[MacKenzie]

I believe that the temp is too low. There really won't be a lot if hot coals to keep a KK at 250F. This is where the KK smoker will shine.

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[Syzygies]

I usually light the charcoal with a weed burner, aiming right under the smoke pot, and generously missing, dousing the pot itself with flames. Addressing this issue, I haven't had any problems with insufficient smoke at 225 F, using a two quart pot.

At a friend's house, he was trying to cook four butts on an old K5. I advised a thorough preheat, so to catch up the smoke pot we put in later, we heated it as hot as we could get it in a gas grill, then moved it. This also worked.

[MacKenzie]

Well that is interesting, Syzgygies, that only time I didn't get much smoke was when I did a low heat cook somewhere in the same range as Bosco's. 

[ckreef]

I think you could add the smoke pot just after lighting. That would allow the smoke pot to heat up and get going.  I  get about 4 hours of smoke out of my 1 quart smoke pot. Meat only sucks up smoke the first couple of hours so if I loose an hour of smoke pot time while everything is heating up no big deal. Will try this next time I use it. Also cooking your low-n-slow at a slightly elevated temperature will help. 

[ckreef]

59 minutes ago, MacKenzie said:

I believe that the temp is too low. There really won't be a lot if hot coals to keep a KK at 250F. This is where the KK smoker will shine.

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I totally agree. If I had a cold smoker I would have already figured this out. One day I'll order one. 

[xraydoc]

I think 250 is plenty hot.  Last weekend I did ribs using syzygies smoking pot.  I used the standard 2 quart pot from Lodge that many of us have.  I heat soaked my 32 for about an hour and a half and then put the pot on 5 minutes before the ribs.  I stuffed the pot full of chunk and chips and had smoke for about 5 hours. Also, there has been significant discussion about what to seal the pot with.  I have not sealed mine with anything.  the lid sits on pretty well and I have just left it that way.  Seems to work pretty well.  I may be losing some smoke around the lip, I haven't actually tried to watch it while it is smoking, but it is definitely creating the thin blue tasty smoke we are looking for. Sealing it might get me smoke for a longer period of time, I'm not sure.

 @bosco I think it probably wasn't sitting on the coals right and just did not get hot enough as @ckreef suggested. 

[Pequod]

15 hours ago, ckreef said:

I totally agree. If I had a cold smoker I would have already figured this out. One day I'll order one. 

Planning to (finally) give my cold smoker a run tomorrow with some beef plate ribs. Stay tuned...

[MacKenzie]

HalfSmoke, I will be tuned for the ribs and anxious to hear all about your experience.:)

[Pequod]

5 minutes ago, MacKenzie said:

HalfSmoke, I will be tuned for the ribs and anxious to hear all about your experience.:)

I know the drill. I shall be diligent about documenting with pics! 

[ckreef]

I'm thinking once everything gets going you might be able to close your vents and unhook the air pump. The KK sucking air through the cold smoker keeping the smoker going along with the KK temp. 

Edited September 23, 2016 by ckreef

[Pequod]

1 hour ago, ckreef said:

I'm thinking once everything gets going you might be able to close your vents and unhook the air pump. The KK sucking air through the cold smoker keeping the smoker going along with the KK temp. 

Interesting idea. I could definitely see that. Beef ribs are a long cook, so should have some time to play around with it if all goes well. 

[aiden]

Ok, so all this pot smoking conversation got me really worried about the direction KK was headed, until I read what was REALLY going on.

If I'm about to take the plunge for the cold smoker kit, is there still an advantage to adding a smoke pot like this?

I understand the cold smoker would be for low cooks, below 275 or so. But how do I impart the smoke from my wood using that method versus the cast iron pot? (I'm new to the cold smoking world).

[Pequod]

15 minutes ago, aiden said:

Ok, so all this pot smoking conversation got me really worried about the direction KK was headed, until I read what was REALLY going on.

If I'm about to take the plunge for the cold smoker kit, is there still an advantage to adding a smoke pot like this?

I understand the cold smoker would be for low cooks, below 275 or so. But how do I impart the smoke from my wood using that method versus the cast iron pot? (I'm new to the cold smoking world).

The cold smoker can be used at any temp. Basically, you are generating the smoke externally to the KK by smoldering wood in the cold smoker tube and then forcing the smoke into the chamber via an air pump. Because it isn't adding heat to the cook chamber, you can use it for cold smoking (e.g. cheese, fish), but it also works at high temps as well. You control the smoke intensity.

The smoke pot is also a great innovation, but you probably won't use it above 300 degrees or so because you want the wood inside to smolder, not burst into flames. The smoke pot isn't controllable -- once you place it in the chamber you get what you get until it is done -- and it can't be used for cold smoking because you need a fire underneath it to keep the smoke cranking. These limitations aside, the smoke pot is extremely simple, inexpensive, and produces the highly desirable thin blue smoke we all crave.

So...do you need the smoke pot if you have the cold smoker? Not really, but for only $20 or so it's nice to have around. I can see plenty of times I'll use the smoke pot where I don't want to mess with the cold smoker. For example, an overnight cook where I don't need to control the smoke, but I do want to control the temp using a BBQ guru.

I vote for both.

[aiden]

Thank you for the very thorough explanation HalfSmoke.

[Jon B.]

Look what showed up yesterday.......just in time for a low & slow roast cook.  Decided to try using a bolt to hold the lid on this 1 qt pot instead of flour paste or foil. 

Chopped off the handle on the top.

Drilled the holes for smoke and the bolt.

The only bolt I had was too long but put some spacers on for the maiden voyage.

Washed the excess oil off the pot and got it ready for the cook.  Here is a picture of it sitting in the 19" TT.

Was interested in seeing if the bolt would hold the lid on tight enough to keep the wood from turning to ash.

The bolt method appears to have worked.  I lit the lump and let it get a decent head of steam before placing the pot directly on top of the fire.  Got smoke right away.

At first the color of the smoke didn't look much different from smoking wood directly on the coals but it did start to become "blueish" after about 30 minutes. 

I really can't comment on the flavor of the smoke on the meat.  I didn't realize the 5 pound rib eye roast was still frozen until I pushed in the temp probe.  28*F internal......Crapola!!!!

By then it was too late, so I proceeded to try and cook it. Kept the dome temp at 250* and the roast took 2 hours for the internal temp to start to rise. After three hours, I pulled it with an internal temp of 120*. Hate to think what temp the outer layer of meat was (too sacred to check it).  Needless to say it wasn't the most uniformly cooked hunk of beef that ever came from a KK!!!!!!  Will judge the smoke quality on the next cook.  

Fun little test run.  I'm thinking the bolt concept will work just fine.