Alton Brown Terra Cotta Smoker

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I was watching a rerun of the "Q" Good Eats special last night and was very interested in the smoker Alton built out of 2 terra cotta pots, a hot plate and a spare grill rack.

I went to Home Depot and Wal-Mart tonight and picked up all the supplies I needed for around $60. I bought a 20.5 standard terra cotta planter and a 18 inch terra cotta lid. Both had holes, one for the smoke and the other for the hot plate cord.

I bought a Weber 18.5 inch rack, round hot plate and 9 lb cryovac brisket at Wal-Mart.

I am going to put a few sheets of heavy duty alumnum foil between the hot plate and the smoker pan (small aluminum pie pan) to catch the drippings.

I have some hickory chunks soaking right now and plan on putting the brisket on tomorrow morning.


The only issue I am thinking might be the lack of water. I was thinking of buying a 15" grill rack to hold a water/drip pan.

I know there are some Good Eats fans on this board, have any of you ever tried this? Any opinions otherwise?

Worst case scenario is a ruined brisket and a new planter for my wife.
 
Ben,

I saw that show yesterday too as was intrigued as well. Heck I have been gearing up to drop $1K into a big green egg when i saw this show and was taken back by the simple shadetree engineering of the whole thing. Its genius really.

I wouldnt worry too much about the water pan. All the research I have been doing about these Earth type kamodo (sp?) grills is that the ceramic properties keep in all the moisture. Its really just a big pottery kiln when you think about it.

If I did anything I would pay particular attention to temp control and monitoring with a good thermometer setup.

Polder has a new (to me anyway) probe. It has two sending units built in. One in the tip and one at the end of the probe. You can get a temp for the meat and for the inside of the oven/grill/smoker.

Please keep us posted how this works out. I am very interested in the results.
 
My first thought would be "seasoning" the pottery. I don't know what process they use to fire the pots, but I doubt they had food prep in mind.

I'd worry about off gassing and tainting the food with the green pottery. Maybe even shattering the clay with uneven temperatures.

I know that when you buy a ceramic chimenea (sp?) you have to very slowly raise the temperature each and every use or you'll crack it. You also get some odd smells the first few fires until the inside is well cured.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Clay J:
[qb] My first thought would be "seasoning" the pottery. I don't know what process they use to fire the pots, but I doubt they had food prep in mind.
[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Most commercially-produced terra cotta pots these days are lead-free, and I would hope if I chose to plant a tomato plant in one that there wouldn't be anything toxic for it to absorb. The problem with the Latin American stuff that we're always warned against using for food contact is because of lead in the glazing.
 
Wow - only $60 bucks! And I just laid out $180 for my WSM /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Seriously, there have been recipes floating around forever for bread baked in terra cotta pots, so I'm assuming its safe.
 
I was hoping to have a glowing report but I am encountering a glitch that I cannot fix.

I have now gone through 2 hot plates, both of which completely died after about 4 hours.

The unit works great, takes about 30 minutes to get up to 225-250, but one it does it stays right there consistently.

I had to change the chunks after about 3 hours. When I took the top off and replaced the chunks it was back up to 225 in no time.

Then the &$#(*& burner went out.

The only place around here that sells hot plates is Wal Mart. None at Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath, Linen's n Things or Oshman's.

Any ideas as to where I might find a different brand that might not go out so quick?

I
 
If you are looking to get more information on this technique, go to Foodtv.com. If you go to the Good Eats page and then onto the message board, there are tons of posts of people who have used the terra cotta pots. It is mixed reviews, some good, some bad. Don't feel bad, there are a lot of people who had the exact same problem as you did with the hot plate.

I was going to do the terra cotta technique, but decided it wasn't worth the risk of spending $60 and it not working. I did use Alton's brining technique and cooked it on my Weber kettle. It turned out great both times I've done it. However, based on most of the information here, it probably is not necesary to brine a Boston butt since it has fat and collagen that keep it moist. Next time I smoke a butt, I will try it without brining.

Glad to see there are others on this board that appreciate Good Eats. I love the show and watch it all the time. Between that show and this website, I am becoming a pretty good cook.
 
Wow Jim, thanks. I can't believe I didn't find that site sooner.

It would have saved me alot of time on the burner. I ended up finding the toastmaster everyone has been using at Sears for $9.99.

I started off easy with some beef back ribs this time just to try her out.

I have good news to report about the Big Red Egg. We had a hail storm tonight in North Texas with winds gusting to around 30-40mph and gumball size hail for about an hour. The egg held at 210-220 through the entire storm and it was exposed with no cover.

Amazing.

Only a few more hours until the final product.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ben J:
[qb] Wow Jim, thanks. I can't believe I didn't find that site sooner.[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>This site is really cool because it has complete show transcripts:

Good Eats Fan Page

Regards,
Chris
 
Sorry matt, I didn't put together a detailed report log, but I did include some pics.

The ribs turned out great, moist and smokey. This was my first try with beef ribs so I don't have any prior experience to compare them to. They cooked at 220 for 6 hours.

I did a chicken today, 220 for 4 hours and it turned out nice and juicy. Suprisingly it had a nice crispy skin.

Tomorrow I am going to set the burner to low and try and smoke some jerky at 150-170 using Kevin's jerky recipe from this site.

Here are the photos:

02.jpg
 
Just finished a batch of jerky using top round and Kevin's jerky recipe from this board.

I used pickling salt instead of kosher and it turned out a bit salty but the texture was PERFERCT.

I threw 5 fist sized chunks of hickory on early this morning and hung the jerky from the rack using toothpicks.

The temp stayed at 163-169 for about 5 hours then crept up to 170-172 for the last hour. I didn't even have to touch it.

I set the burner on the Toastmaster hotplate exactly half way between low and hi.
 
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