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Flower Pot Smoker


 
A

Allen Sharar

TVWBB Super Fan
Saw this recently on an episode of Good Eats... Alton built a smoker out of two flower pots that vaguely resembled a Kamado cooker. Bottom had a electric hot plate for a heat source. Just curious - I was at the Garden Center and was mix/matching pots to put one together, thought I'd check here to see if anyone had any experience with one.
 
i actually tried it. followed what he did exactly and it does not work with a crap. dont waste your time. there are two problems with his "method" one you have to disable the safety shutoff on any electric burner you get. there is a thermostat device on all burners that once it hits around 180-200 degrees it shuts itself off. the second problem is that once you disable it you have to constantly check it since the plastic on the burner will melt and produce acrid smoke. i tried a second burner and removed all the plastic. it still didnt work as it would not hold hot enough temps in the pot before pieces would melt and the burner would shutdown.

your better off getting a wsm as i dont think he actually cooked anything in those pots on that episode.

i dont see how it could be done with current electric burners that are available today.
 
I have used the one I built about 4 years ago, several times with success. Its limits are ambient temperatures. I can't use it at all up here in the bay area. Its just too cool out. But in Salinas, I did at least 5 different pulled pork cooks, along with a few failed briskets ( my fault) and ribs.

I never had issues with any plastic melting, and I didn't have to make any modifications. It really made cooking pulled pork about as easy as one can imagine. I refilled the pan with wood once, half way thru the cook, and that's it.

All in all, it has it's limitations, but it certainly no gimmick. I did have a bit of a challenge finding a domed lid, as apposed to a flat saucer style lid. That definitely helped. And, the raw materials aren't as cheap as he lets on in his show. If you live in an area with an abundance of terra cotta, then you might find some deals, but I think I ended up shelling out close to $75 for the ceramics alone. But the nice thing is my temps never fluctuated once it got going.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Tom Chips:
I have used the one I built about 4 years ago, several times with success. Its limits are ambient temperatures. I can't use it at all up here in the bay area. Its just too cool out. But in Salinas, I did at least 5 different pulled pork cooks, along with a few failed briskets ( my fault) and ribs.

I never had issues with any plastic melting, and I didn't have to make any modifications. It really made cooking pulled pork about as easy as one can imagine. I refilled the pan with wood once, half way thru the cook, and that's it.

All in all, it has it's limitations, but it certainly no gimmick. I did have a bit of a challenge finding a domed lid, as apposed to a flat saucer style lid. That definitely helped. And, the raw materials aren't as cheap as he lets on in his show. If you live in an area with an abundance of terra cotta, then you might find some deals, but I think I ended up shelling out close to $75 for the ceramics alone. But the nice thing is my temps never fluctuated once it got going. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

well what i did was follow his recipe exactly and couldnt get the thing to hit 225 because the safety on it would stop it from getting that hot. when i removed the safety on it thats when it started to melt the parts.

but i am in wisconsin and the ambient temperature is usally around 75-80F.

i couldnt get it to go above 190 with no meat in the pot with the burner as is out of the box. it didnt melt unmodified just wouldnt get to temperature.
 
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