The Smoking Lamp Is Lit! Smoke 'Em If You've Got 'Em; Part 2

[Spinaker]

This is a great thread and needs to be bumped up! Thanks for the reminder Breadhead

[fzxdoc]

I miss having CeramicChef around!

Kathryn

[richinlbrg]

Good to hear! Thank you, Pequod .

[LA Pork Butt]

Glad to hear.

[fzxdoc]

Yay!

K

[Sephon]

I'm going to resurrect this thread because I feel it's the most appropriate place to ask my question.

Has anyone had any problem with their temps while using this smoke pot?

I'm using my Primo Oval XL, with a 1 quart CI smoke pot with FOGO lump. I'm lighting a good fire in the middle and setting the smoke pot in the middle of that. About 2 hours in, temps cool down. I open vents, it doesn't help for more than 15 minutes, temp keeps dropping. Eventually it leads to failure, fire goes out.

This last cook, I removed the pot midcook, put my vents back to their 225 positions, fire was perfect. I want to continue to use the smoke pot, but I need to figure out what is killing my fire.

My hypothesis is that I'm setting it in the middle and the fire doesn't isn't catching the surrounding lump after the initial middle fire goes out. So, should I put the pot on one side or the other? Or am I doing something else wrong?

Anyone else have this issue or an idea?

Thanks in advance.

[Pequod]

I have no problem with the smoke pot on my KK's. Is your Primo heat soaked when you put the pot on? I also create a bit of a crater in my lump pile to nestle the pot into. Maybe try it with another charcoal -- like RO -- to see if the size of FOGO lump is an issue.

[LA Pork Butt]

Pequod raise good questions. I haven't had a problem on my BGE, but am wondering if your fire is too weak. I like to get the dome temp up to at least 225 -300 is better before putting everything in.

[Sephon]

Pequod , LA Pork Butt , I have my temperature maintained at about 225-240 for 20ish minutes before nestling it into the coals. I then add my deflectors and grates. The FOGO size may be an issue, I put the smaller stuff in the middle to light the fire, but maybe it's not spreading to the larger stuff. Thank you for the quick responses.

[LA Pork Butt]

I use Royal Oak and the large prices are not nearly as large as those in Fogo. Why don't you see if Royal Oak will fix the problem?

[Sephon]

LA Pork Butt, that is a perfect typo. Completely accurate too. I'll try Royal Oak on the next cook, I have a bag in the shed. Hopefully that works.

[Spinaker]

I finally got around to using the Smoke Pot! The results: I love it! It is a great way to ensure thin-blue smoke. I drilled about 10 small holes in the bottom of a Camp Chef 1/2 qt dutch oven. Then I filled the pot with hickory woods chips and lit the FOGO. With in minutes I had thin blue smoke, it was a thing of beauty. As others have mentioned above, the idea is that the smoke comes out the bottom of the pot, it is then cleaned through the lump fire. (Kinda like the KBQ) It makes it easy to measure out the amount of wood you need, and you can use pellets, chunks or chips.

This is really slick. I am looking forward to using it on a long cook. Tonight was just warm up. I wanted to see how the smoke pot would settle in the KAB. I am wondering if I should put the DO in the bare bottom, then pile lump around it.
(I am also doing a heavy round of CI seasoning on the Kamado tonight)

Anyone else use the smoke pot on a regular basis? I know BH used to use it, as he posts above. I wish CeramicChef would, once again, grace us with his presence. He was the man in this department.

[Pequod]

I use mine all the time. It's pretty much the de facto standard over at the KK forum. An eclectic math professor who posts there under the handle "syzygies" is the inventor of this and other seemingly oddball, but brilliant grilling ideas. As you want the smoke to pass through the flame front, no, you don't want it on the bottom with lump on the sides.

[Pequod]

For long low and slows, I create a normal lump pile, but with a crater in the middle. Light the middle of the crater, let it come up to temp, then put the pot on about ten minutes before you put the meat on. I can get about four hours of consistent thin blue in my 2 qt pot.

[Spinaker]

Awesome. Just what I was looking for. Thanks! Pequod

[LA Pork Butt]

I use mine 90% of the time the. 10% of the time I just put a large lump on the fire. I have three different sizes and use the smaller ones for short cooks.

[Pequod]

I didn't see it mentioned above, so will add it here. Syzygies has found the smoke pot works as advertised - producing thin blue - between 225 and 275 degrees. Below that range and it isn't hot enough for the wood to smolder. Above that range and it seems to burn too fast and will generate white smoke. My experience matches his. Below 225 and I will use my KK cold smoker (really just an external smoke generator). Above 275 and I just throw wood chunks on the coals or use my cold smoker. But in that sweet spot of 225-275, the smoke pot produces consistent, sweet thin blue.

Below is a pic from a rib cookoff I did using my KK23 with smoke pot vs. my insulated cabinet from 270 smokers. My KK brethren immediately noticed the difference in smoke. White on the left. Blue on the right. The real test was the blind tasting. The KK ribs won hands down. The insulated cabinet was sold shortly after.

[Spinaker]

I love that Komodo. Just Gorgeous. I saw you made their Instagram feed too. Nice work!

[Pequod]

Spinaker - yeah, Dennis uses a lot of my pics. I've not been very good about feeding him pics lately, but when I do they tend to show up on Instagram.

[vandy]

So what size pot should I get to fit in my Kamado Joe Big Joe? Or should I get a couple different sizes to use depending on how much smoke I want?

[Pequod]

vandy - yes, three 1/8" holes in the bottom. That's it.

[vandy]

I finally got a 1 qt and q 2 qt pot and need to drill holes in them. My next question is hole placement, do you just drill the holes in a straight line across the bottom or do you drill them in a triangle shape or a circular pattern?

[Pequod]

I just do a centered triangle. Spacing doesn't really matter too much.

[hogdog6]

I think the smoke pot brought to us by CeramicChef is fantastic I used it all the time in my medium BGE. Looking forward to using it in my new KJ Classic II this holiday weekend. The thin blue smoke it produces is perfect at low temps. Since it sits in the coal bed even at low cooking temps it is plenty hot to allow the wood to smolder. I've found that pellets work very well and are what is now my go to wood for the pot.

[RolfTaylor]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread.... this is a good one though. You mention using this in a medium egg. I assume a 1 qt Dutch oven. But doesn't this cut into your cook time? I find I often run out of lump before I want, so I hesitate to give up space for a smoke pot.

[LA Pork Butt]

I use a quart size in my large BGE for long smokes, 2 cup for short smokes of 1-2 hours, and a 1 cup in my MiniMax because of the size of the MiniMx. I think you could use a one quart and get enough smoke, but I think a
1 1/2 or 2 quart would be better. You could start with a 1 quart and add a 2 quart and if you don't get enough smoke and then use the 1 quart for short cooks.

[Spinaker]

So what size pot should I get to fit in my Kamado Joe Big Joe? Or should I get a couple different sizes to use depending on how much smoke I want?

I have a Broil King Keg, it is the same size as a LBGE and I use a 1/2 QT. In a Big Joe, I would use a 2 QT. Breadhead used a 1 QT in his LBGE. I would get a 1 and a 2 QT. They are pretty cheap online.

[vandy]

I am having a problem finding a 1 qt at a reasonable price, apparently they don't make them any more so what I have found they want $100.00 to $200.00 for them, OUCH! I found a 2 qt Lodge for around 50 bucks with shipping which still seams like a lot to me but then again I don't know what they go for.

[vandy]

OK ignore that last one, I found a 1 quart and a 2 quart at Dick's sporting goods for around 37 with shipping for both.

[Pequod]

Just because videos are fun. Here's the smoke from the smoke pot shortly at the beginning of a cook:

And after two hours:

And after four hours:

[LA Pork Butt]

That is far more helpful than a verbal description. Thanks!

[Spinaker]

Bumping this one up too. There is a ton of great info on the Smoke Pot. It is fun to re-hash all of this great knowledge and technique. Great day so far.

[vandy]

So far I have only used the 1 quart with 3 to 5 small pieces of wood in it on the Big Joe and I have had very good results with that. I don't know that I would ever need the 2 Quart to add more smoke, sometimes the 1 qt almost adds too much smoke. Then again I have not done a pork butt, ribs or any low and slow cooks with it yet, so far it has only been poultry in the form of a couple chickens, 2 or 3 turkeys. When I can I want to try a pork butt with the 1 qt to see if that will be enough smoke on a big clod of meat like that.

[Spinaker]

So far I have only used the 1 quart with 3 to 5 small pieces of wood in it on the Big Joe and I have had very good results with that. .

I am using the one quart today. I think it is the perfect amount of smoke for large cuts like shoulder, brisket and chuckles.

[vandy]

I drilled 3 in mine from the recommendation from Cermic Chef, I think according to him 3 holes is optimal so that is what I did and the triangular pattern was also recommended from him from what I remember.

[Spinaker]

Yeah, whoops...... vandy

[vandy]

It's all good man, mine works great like that! Like I said sometimes it is almost too much smoke, I did a turkey last Sat and after most of it was gone you could still smell the smoke from the leftovers sitting on the platter, tasted great though!