Built an Alton Brown smoker. With pics!

[Eli]

So we built an Alton Brown smoker.

For those that have been living under a rock:

Good Eats S7E2P1

Good Eats S7E2P2

When we went in search of parts, we couldn't remember the cut he used, so we picked up the top loin roast. Keep in mind we're completely new to this.

When we got home and realized our mistake, we went out and bought the correct cut of meat to make pulled pork - a pork shoulder, or boston butt.

We smoked it at 180º for ~18 hours. The low temperature is mostly because the hot plate we got is a cheap piece of shit. It uses a simple bi-metal strip as a temperature controller instead of a rheostat. I have since opened the unit up and rectified that situation with a pair of pliers. I also had to remove the 216ºC thermal fuse and jumper the connection with a wire. Now she holds steady at ~220 degrees at the "Warm" setting. This will enable us to crank up the temperature if we want to smoke some fish or thin cuts of meat.

The pulled pork was an overwhelming success, so now we want to smoke this top loin roast too. I've found a few recipes online, but if any of you BBQ aficionados have any ideas I would be very interested in hearing them!

Smoker love

~220ºF


:beer:

 

[OCGuy]

Smoked Alton Brown? Doesnt sound very good.

 

[Dirigible]

Yay!

 

[xSauronx]

wtf, where is pics of the pulled pork?

lame. groovy smoker though. ive long since been convinced that AB has too much time on his hands to come up with so many things (remember the smoker made from a carboard box?) but its nice that he shares his ideas with everyone. how much did the parts totals? sounds like a fun idea

 

[SuperSix]

Alton Brown kicks ass - Love watching his show. Thumbs up on the smoker!

 

[EvilYoda]

Seriously, where are the pictures of the FOOD.

And also, this makes me want to build one - I'm moving into a house and we have a fairly large backyard. Plenty of room to keep one of these.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
wtf, where is pics of the pulled pork?

lame. groovy smoker though. ive long since been convinced that AB has too much time on his hands to come up with so many things (remember the smoker made from a carboard box?) but its nice that he shares his ideas with everyone. how much did the parts totals? sounds like a fun idea

It's all gone! :Q Didn't think about taking pics yesterday.. lol

Parts were a bit expensive; I have no idea how he could have built it for 46 bucks as he says in the episode. Maybe if you bought the pots during the off-season. It was hard to find places that had a big enough selection of terra cotta. The biggest pot Home Depot had was 16", which would have worked fine, but they didn't have any suitable pots for the top. Even another 16" one would have worked, but they only had one.

Lowes had a more extensive selection, but they were more expensive overall. Although we got lucky and they were on sale for 25% off. The pots were about 40$.

The grill was like 10$, the hot plate was 20$, and the pan was 3$. We searched everywhere for a round one that used a rheostat, but were unsuccessful. We found one at Target that is square, but still fit nicely on the bottom of our 18" pot, and I fixed the thermostat problem as mentioned earlier.

Total cost was around 75$ with some wood. We searched at Goodwill for a cheap hoot plate with no luck. It definitely could have been cheaper if you were resourceful, but we wanted to build it that day so we ended up buying everything new.

 

[sygyzy]

Very cool. Congrats!

 

[GagHalfrunt]

You can definitely do it for $50 or less if you use a metal trash can instead of terra cotta pots.

 

[JDub02]

i have set my DVR to record every episode of Good Eats. AB has yet to steer me wrong. my wife and i have tried the meatloaf, biscuits, shortcake, blueberry buckle, fromage fort, and a few others. every one has turned out to be ... good eats. i will be trying the smoker this summer.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: xSauronx
wtf, where is pics of the pulled pork?

lame. groovy smoker though. ive long since been convinced that AB has too much time on his hands to come up with so many things (remember the smoker made from a carboard box?) but its nice that he shares his ideas with everyone. how much did the parts totals? sounds like a fun idea

It's all gone! :Q Didn't think about taking pics yesterday.. lol

ive done that before, sounds good though, i could go for some right about now!

Parts were a bit expensive; I have no idea how he could have built it for 46 bucks as he says in the episode. Maybe if you bought the pots during the off-season. It was hard to find places that had a big enough selection of terra cotta. The biggest pot Home Depot had was 16", which would have worked fine, but they didn't have any suitable pots for the top. Even another 16" one would have worked, but they only had one.

Lowes had a more extensive selection, but they were more expensive overall. Although we got lucky and they were on sale for 25% off. The pots were about 40$.

The grill was like 10$, the hot plate was 20$, and the pan was 3$. We searched everywhere for a round one that used a rheostat, but were unsuccessful. We found one at Target that is square, but still fit nicely on the bottom of our 18" pot, and I fixed the thermostat problem as mentioned earlier.

Total cost was around 75$ with some wood. We searched at Goodwill for a cheap hoot plate with no luck. It definitely could have been cheaper if you were resourceful, but we wanted to build it that day so we ended up buying everything new.

$75 really isnt too bad for a smoker that will get the job done, especially since you can say you built it yourself :thumbsup:

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
You can definitely do it for $50 or less if you use a metal trash can instead of terra cotta pots.

But, but.. metal conducts heat away! We want insulation.

 

[Insomniator]

haha so I finally found someone that actually builds the crazy crap Alton Brown does every episode

 

[lokiju]

Wouldn't this have been cheaper and easier?

Cool smoker though.

:thumbsup:

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: lokiju
Wouldn't this have been cheaper and easier?

Cool smoker though.

:thumbsup:

Hmm... Honestly, I never even looked. Didn't know they were that cheap.

:laugh:

Oh well. Not my style.

 

[Fritzo]

I'm a smokin' fool I slow cook everything on the weekends. It's my "quiet time."

Anyway, pork loin doesn't need much done to it, because it's a fatty/moist meat to begin with. Pork shoulder is actually best- darker pork meat lends itself to smoking better than white meat.

I soak mine in oil and some seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, fresh parsley, maybe some chopped onion) for a couple of hours until it gets to room temp, then throw it on the smoker. 10lbs takes about 5-6 hours depending on how hot your wood/coal gets. You want to keep the heat between 160-180 during that time.

Chop it up on a cutting board, serve with some warm BBQ sauce, and the neighbors will come to your back yard like zombies looking for brains.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
I'm a smokin' fool I slow cook everything on the weekends. It's my "quiet time."

Anyway, pork loin doesn't need much done to it, because it's a fatty/moist meat to begin with. Pork shoulder is actually best- darker pork meat lends itself to smoking better than white meat.

I soak mine in oil and some seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, fresh parsley, maybe some chopped onion) for a couple of hours until it gets to room temp, then throw it on the smoker. 10lbs takes about 5-6 hours depending on how hot your wood/coal gets. You want to keep the heat between 160-180 during that time.

Chop it up on a cutting board, serve with some warm BBQ sauce, and the neighbors will come to your back yard like zombies looking for brains.

That low eh?

Sounds good, I'll keep it in mind!

 

[theknight571]

Originally posted by: lokiju
Wouldn't this have been cheaper and easier?

Cool smoker though.

:thumbsup:

I have one of these I inherited from someone but have never used it.

I'm thinking of using the hotplate method instead of the charcoal method when I do try it.

 

[danzigrules]

I built one of these too, after I saw that episode.

How many times did you have to change the wood?

Did you use wood chunks or chips?

I built one of these too, after I saw that episode.


edit: also which hot plate did you get at Target, I have tried 3 different ones and they all sucked at keeping the temp right.


Thanks

 

[Dr. Detroit]

You do realize you could have bought a electric smoker for $80?


Lowes has a cheapo one that works well.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: danzigrules
I built one of these too, after I saw that episode.

How many times did you have to change the wood?

Did you use wood chunks or chips?

I built one of these too, after I saw that episode.


edit: also which hot plate did you get at Target, I have tried 3 different ones and they all sucked at keeping the temp right.


Thanks

We changed the wood 3 or 4 times. We used hickory chunks and apple chips. :thumbsup:

We got this hot plate from Target. But like you said, it sucked at maintaining temperature until I opened it up and modified it.

Don't attempt unless you know what you're doing.

The problems with these cheap units are;

#1) They use a simple bi-metal strip as a thermostat. This means that when the unit is on, it is drawing full power. As the bi-metal strip warms, it bends. When the bi-metal strip gets hot enough, it bends far enough so that it pushes the contacts apart, cutting power and regulating temperature. This is bad for our application, because the unit isn't meant to sit in the heat itself, it is meant to heat another object. This causes the unit to cycle much too fast, and you never reach the desired temperature.

By bending the bi-metal strip outwards slightly, you increase the amount of heat needed to reach the original position. I bent mine about 1/8" - maybe a little more. Unfortunately, this didn't completely solve the problem. Hence...

#2) Even with the bi-metal switch adjusted to suite our needs, the unit has a safety thermal fuse. It's set to go off(open the circuit) at 216ºC(420ºF). This seems high, but since the whole unit is inside the smoker, it reaches this temperature very fast. I removed the thermal fuse and replaced it with a piece of 16 gauge solid wire, making sure to put the insulation back on it.

This is in contrast with the type of control your electric range uses. It's like a dimmer switch. When you turn the burner to Low, it does not apply full power and cycle off more frequently to maintain temperature.

It would be much easier to just find a hot plate with a rheostat, but we were unable to do so.

 

[Gothgar]

OMG I was totally going to do this!!!

You have reinspired me

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Eli
So we built an Alton Brown smoker.

For those that have been living under a rock:

Good Eats S7E2P1

Good Eats S7E2P2

When we went in search of parts, we couldn't remember the cut he used, so we picked up the top loin roast. Keep in mind we're completely new to this.

When we got home and realized our mistake, we went out and bought the correct cut of meat to make pulled pork - a pork shoulder, or boston butt.

We smoked it at 180º for ~18 hours. The low temperature is mostly because the hot plate we got is a cheap piece of shit. It uses a simple bi-metal strip as a temperature controller instead of a rheostat. I have since opened the unit up and rectified that situation with a pair of pliers. I also had to remove the 216ºC thermal fuse and jumper the connection with a wire. Now she holds steady at ~220 degrees at the "Warm" setting. This will enable us to crank up the temperature if we want to smoke some fish or thin cuts of meat.

The pulled pork was an overwhelming success, so now we want to smoke this top loin roast too. I've found a few recipes online, but if any of you BBQ aficionados have any ideas I would be very interested in hearing them!

Smoker love

~220ºF


:beer:

LOL

smoked loin is called back bacon here. its really nice.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: danzigrules
I built one of these too, after I saw that episode.

How many times did you have to change the wood?

Did you use wood chunks or chips?

I built one of these too, after I saw that episode.


edit: also which hot plate did you get at Target, I have tried 3 different ones and they all sucked at keeping the temp right.


Thanks

A tip about wood- don't use pine or poplar woods (that wood that comes in "campfire" rolls at supermarkets is very iffy). Also, bark gives food a bitter flavor. Take the bark off if at all possible.

If you cruise around the countryside, many times you'll see "wood for sale" signs in people's yards. Get familiar with what apple and (especially) cherry wood looks like. You can often get 50+ lbs for $10 this way. Sometimes you'll have to chop it yourself. Fruitwood gives better flavor when it isn't "seasoned", so if you use a coal base, you don't have to let your wood sit for a year.

Soaking your wood is up for debate. if it's fresh fruit wood, you don't need to. It's already got water in it. If it's seasoned wood, you may want to soak it a bit before burning it. The wood should smoulder rather than be an all out fire, so add wood slowly.

That's about all I do. While it's cooking I cut the grass, play a few guitar tunes on the patio, work on my tan...makes a great weekend

 

[Superself]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
I'm a smokin' fool I slow cook everything on the weekends. It's my "quiet time."

Anyway, pork loin doesn't need much done to it, because it's a fatty/moist meat to begin with. Pork shoulder is actually best- darker pork meat lends itself to smoking better than white meat.

I soak mine in oil and some seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, fresh parsley, maybe some chopped onion) for a couple of hours until it gets to room temp, then throw it on the smoker. 10lbs takes about 5-6 hours depending on how hot your wood/coal gets. You want to keep the heat between 160-180 during that time.

Chop it up on a cutting board, serve with some warm BBQ sauce, and the neighbors will come to your back yard like zombies looking for brains.

You are kidding right??

Typical rule of thumb is 1-1.5 hours per pound between 220-260!
With 10 pounds of meat at 180 for 6 hours, I doubt it is safe to eat anything you are plating.