Howdy Again Meathead Maniacs!
Today, I'm going to introduce you to a smoking technique that allows you to really simplify placing of smoke wood for optimal effect.
As we stated in the last installment, knowing where to place your smoke wood is really quite a quandary. Even with understanding the general air flow patterns in our kamados, those only evolve over quite a few cooks. So when all is said and done, smoke wood placement more often than not remains hit or miss.
It wasn't until about 2 or 3 years ago that I literally stumbled across a smoke wood placement technique that is so simple and so DUH! that I sat in my chair stunned the first time I saw it. Now I want to know THIS TECHNIQUE IS NOT ORIGINAL WITH ME. It was developed, to theist of my ability to discover, by a Ph.D. Mathematician from the State of New York. He's a real aficionado of kamado cooking. I "met" this man over at the Komodo Kamado Forum and I have appropriated his technique.
So here it is. Get a 2 quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven. Drill 3 holes 1/8" diameter in the bottom of your Dutch Oven. That's right, 3 holes that are 1/8" in diameter. That's it. You then place the Dutch Oven filled with the smoke wood you want for this specific cook right top of your fire in the lump pile, holes facing straight down. Within a couple of minutes you're getting smoke coming our the bottom of the Dutch Oven Smoke Pot. That smoke is straight down into the active fire right below the Smoke Pot. By being ejected out of theft and right into the fire in your lump, all the really bad volatiles are burned in the fire and all you are left with is essentially "Thin Blue Smoke!" How full you pack that Smoke Pot with your choice of smoke wood determines how long that smoke is laid on your cook.
Here is a picture of the original Dutch Oven Smoke Pot I used. It's nothing but a Lodge Cast Iron 2 quart Dutch Oven.
Here it is with TOO MANY HOLES drilled in it. It was only after I drilled these that I found. You only want 3 holes drilled in the middle of the bottom of the smoke pot. I've since had those extra holes welded over.
Now here is a picture of the Smoke Pot filled with smoke wood.
This looks as if its pretty full, right? Well, there is always room for more and in the last installment of Smoke Wood Itold you that there is a place for pellets in a kamado. Here it is.
This is a FULL smoke pot right before it went in the belly of TheBeast on a pork butt cook. I wanted this smoke to lay on a really heavy flavor as the people I was entertaining like a robust smoke flavor in the bark.
Here is a picture of the Smoke Pot right after I placed it in the fire in the belly of The Beast. notice that I tend to nestle this Smoke Pot right down in the burning lump. I want good contact and great smoke production. That's a rectangular heat deflector you see to the right of the picture. After I place the Smoke pot, I place my heat deflector in its usual place. The Smoke Pot is under that heat deflector during the cook.
Here is another shot of the Smoke Pot showing you how it fits in the lump pile.
Finally, here is a picture of what the Smoke Pot looks like at the end of the cook. All you're left with is charcoal in the Smoke Pot. Most of the time I just dump that charcoal back into the lump pile. The pellets will fall through whenever I shape the basket. For those of you with conventional fire bowls, I don't recommend dumping the contents of the Smoke Pot into you lump pile. The reason is that the pellets will work their way down to the fire grate and cold very easily block it. It's just easier and safer to dump the content of the Smoke Pot in the trash after making absolutely certain that everything is extinguished and cold.
Maniacs, this simple Smoke Pot is about as easy as it gets. The Mathematician that came up with this idea seals the lid onto the body with a bead of flour paste around the inside top rim. I personally have never found the need to do that, but you can if you like and if your lid doesn't fit as well as mine.
You can adjust the amount of smoke you lay on your cook by varying the amount of smoke wood you put in the pot. Some folks like a really heavy some flavor. If that's you, load the Smoke Pot up with smoke wood and then fill in the interstitial spaces with the pellets of your choice. If you prefer a milder smoke flavor on your cooks, one or two pieces of smoke wood in the Smoke Pot should suffice.
Now you say my kamado is the Classic size of 18" and isn't nearly as big as TheBeast. A 2 quart Dutch Oven is going to be pretty big! I understand. Kamado cookers with the "Classic" size can use a 1 quart Dutch Oven instead of a 2 quart. Again, no more than 3 holes drilled in the bottom.
So there you have it. This is to my mind an absolutely foolproof means of getting smoke on your cook. You never have to worry again where to place smoke wood if you adopt this method.
Questions? Comments? Thoughts?
Comment