Syzygies' Smoking Pot

[parisbrownep]

Took up Aussie ora's suggestion to use a cast iron prawn cooker for my KK classic. Easy drilling holes and getting it to smoke. I knew I was on a winner last night when my wife (who dislikes smoked food) said how much she liked the pork. Many thanks for your suggestion Chris.


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[parisbrownep]

Took up Aussie ora's suggestion to use a cast iron prawn cooker for my KK classic. Easy drilling holes and getting it to smoke. I knew I was on a winner last night when my wife (who dislikes smoked food) said how much she liked the pork. Many thanks for your suggestion Chris.


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Bloody iPhone auto complete - I have a Kamado Joe classic


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[bosco]

Fereudian slip 

[Aussie Ora]

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. 

 

 

Great effort Jon that should do the trick nicley bugger about the meat but you get that. I'm sure it will work out great on your next cook.

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

[Aussie Ora]

Took up Aussie ora's suggestion to use a cast iron prawn cooker for my KK classic. Easy drilling holes and getting it to smoke. I knew I was on a winner last night when my wife (who dislikes smoked food) said how much she liked the pork. Many thanks for your suggestion Chris.


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That's awesome paris glad to hear it fits and is working good. Robot turds and pure smoking wood is the best combo lol

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

[Syzygies]

 

On 9/28/2016 at 7:48 AM, Jon B. said:

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

Nice idea!

Long term, I have concerns about which metals see the inside of my KK. I've heard that anything chrome-plated off-gases substances one doesn't want on one's food.

My simplistic theory of bolts is that they're either "stainless steel" or "don't ask". There are variations in quality for either, but I stick to pure metals (cast iron, stainless steel) inside my KK. Bolts I have around, I simply don't know.

Years ago, another solution to avoiding flour paste for the lid was to make a "smoke bomb", what would be a pipe bomb if there weren't three little holes along the bottom (don't forget!). Fill with smoking wood, screw on the cap. These were made from stainless steel for the above reasons, and thus very expensive.

I like flour paste. It reminds me of how Moroccans would use pots that didn't fit, steaming couscous. And whenever I flinch at a few steps in cooking, I remind myself that the entirety of my manual dexterity tasks for a day is no match for ten minutes of practice by a concert pianist. Humbled, I just get it done.

[Jon B.]

22 hours ago, Syzygies said:

 

Nice idea!

Long term, I have concerns about which metals see the inside of my KK. I've heard that anything chrome-plated off-gases substances one doesn't want on one's food.

My simplistic theory of bolts is that they're either "stainless steel" or "don't ask". There are variations in quality for either, but I stick to pure metals (cast iron, stainless steel) inside my KK. Bolts I have around, I simply don't know.

Years ago, another solution to avoiding flour paste for the lid was to make a "smoke bomb", what would be a pipe bomb if there weren't three little holes along the bottom (don't forget!). Fill with smoking wood, screw on the cap. These were made from stainless steel for the above reasons, and thus very expensive.

 

Syzygies post above started me thinking.................I was not totally happy with the size of the 1 qt. dutch oven pot in the 19" TT.  A little too big for my liking.  

A light went on when he mentioned the "smoke bomb" .   Started thinking about trying a "black iron" version of that smoking device.  Thinking that black iron is a distant cousin to cast iron & carbon steel and that it may be able to be seasoned like the CI & carbon steel. 

So I picked up a 2" dia. x 5" long pipe nipple and end caps.    Took them home, drilled the smoke holes, washed off the manufacturing oils in hot soapy water, baked them in the oven for an hour, rewashed them and then seasoned them just like I do with my CI & carbon steel pans.  The pieces actually took the seasoning quite nicely.

I stuffed the pipe with 6 pieces of cherry wood and assembled the end caps.

This is what the pipe looks like in the 19" TT.  What I like about it compared to the CI pot, is the overall size and that it will not cover as much of the lit lump charcoal. 

I lit the lump, waited until the KK was at 300*F and then placed the pipe on top of the lit lump.  Put the grates in along with a sweet looking skirt steak to test out.

Didn't get any smoke for about 20 minutes................which was much different from the dutch oven that started smoking right away????  When the smoke came it was similar in volume and color to the CI pot/oven.

I didn't smell any "off" odors coming from pipe or seasoning.  Here is what the pipe looked like after a 1 1/2 hour cook.

Here is what the smoking woods looked like.  There were a few "un-burnt" spots remaining.

The smoke flavor on the skirt steak was very good.  Did not taste any "off" flavors from the pipe (but if you don't hear from me again you know what happened).   My fear was and remains that the manufacturing oils may continue to weep out of the metal, however I didn't see or taste any signs.  Need to research how they manufacture black iron to see how different it is from cast iron.

Assuming I don't grow another head or start twitching uncontrollably................................. It was another fun KK project!   Now lets see.....$30 invested in the dutch oven/shipping  and $17 in the pipe & caps.......probably should have taken that $47 dollars and put it towards the purchase of Dennis's cold smoker & free air pump .     Nah....too much fun!!!!!!

A quick aside.........when I was at the hardware store, essentially buying the components for a pipe bomb, without thinking.........I also picked up a large package of razor blades & some nut & bolts hardware for work.  When I got to the check out counter and looked at all the items, I thought...........holy crap, they are going to think I''m a terrorist and call the police.  Luckily the cashier knew me and just smiled politely.

PS - I did take the Mapp torch to the plated bolt holding the cast iron oven together, to try to burn off any of the plating before the first test.  Hopefully that will buy me a little extra time to enjoy the KK.     

 

[Aussie Ora]

Lol yeah I would have thought what's this bloke up to good to see it work out us bbq people have to look out we are bordering on the extreme lol

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

[bosco]

very interesting.  I am looking forward to hearing more about this 

[Syzygies]

Nice! It sounds like you've got this pipe seasoned nicely. What you describe reminds me of threads I found when the Baking Steel first came out. People who were outraged at the pricing described how one could clean up steel plate from local metal worker suppliers. It took some effort!

I'm happy with the smoke output from a two quart Dutch oven, for low & slow cooks, but I get too much smoke about 275 F. So if you're looking for the same effect at 300 F, a small unit like this could be the ticket.

Another idea for how to do this (I haven't tried this, but I've been meaning to): Replace the original cap on a stainless steel klean kanteen with their stainless steel cap. Drill a few 1/8" holes along one side of the canteen, exactly like the smoke bomb. Even if the cap gets wedged on from expansion and cooling, one can insert a screwdriver through the loop to help free it.

Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Bottle with Loop Cap

Kleen Kanteen All-Stainless Steel Loop Cap

[Jon B.]

4 minutes ago, Syzygies said:

Another idea for how to do this (I haven't tried this, but I've been meaning to): Replace the original cap on a stainless steel klean kanteen with their stainless steel cap. Drill a few 1/8" holes along one side of the canteen, exactly like the smoke bomb. Even if the cap gets wedged on from expansion and cooling, one can insert a screwdriver through the loop to help free it.

I did have to wack one of the pipe caps with a hammer to get it loose.  The other one unscrewed easily.  Hoping it was just the fresh seasoning???   Good idea on the cap & screwdriver!!!!!!   

[MacKenzie]

And here we goooooooooooooo, with pipe bombs.  

[ckreef]

Nice. The one quart is a little awkward in the 19". I'll give you a week to see if you start posting incoherent stuff or not before I make one. 

Edited September 30, 2016 by ckreef

[MacKenzie]

Smart move, CK:) 

[ckreef]

Just think instead of smoking pot now we can smoke a pipe. 

Maybe we should put the pot in the pipe before smoking - just sayin ....... 

 

 

 

 

[Syzygies]

On 9/27/2016 at 8:29 AM, HalfSmoke said:

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.

Yes. The cold smoker sounds to me like the BBQ Guru: One doesn't need either, but if one has either, and doesn't mind the setup, it nails the problem.

I haven't tried the cold smoker yet, though I've been on the verge of buying one. I keep thinking that it doesn't solve any problems for me that I don't already have covered (I don't actually want to cold smoke). On the other hand, for introducing smoke to higher temp cooks where I wouldn't have dared before, or for fresh smoke toward the end of a long cook? I'd believe it if someone told me that the cold smoker makes better brisket, and that alone would be a justification. This is an empirical question...

[Pequod]

For me the cold smoker was an easy sell because I do like to smoke cheese. But I'm with you on the rest. For low and slow I think the smoke pot covers it very well. For higher temps, if I use smoke I'll often toss a chunk of wood directly on the lump. Yes, the smoke intensity is off the charts, but it isn't on that long. Will take some playing around to see what the advantages are of the cold smoker at these temps.  

[Bruce Pearson]

 That's a good one 

[tony b]

On 9/30/2016 at 3:10 PM, ckreef said:

Just think instead of smoking pot now we can smoke a pipe. 

Maybe we should put the pot in the pipe before smoking - just sayin ....... 

 

 

 

 

[Syzygies]

Willie Nelson!

Edited October 3, 2016 by Syzygies