I'm gonna be making a ~7 lb Boston butt for the State vs. BC game. I'll be smoking it in my newly built terracotta pot smoker. Let's hope I don't burn the house down :O My design is a little modified from Alton Brown's but same in concept. BBQ and Smoked Turkey lovers should check this out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ka2kpzTAL8

10/17/2009 3:41:29 AM

Let us know how it turns out!

10/17/2009 4:18:55 AM

why don't you just use the real thing instead of F-ing around with sesame street safety scissors:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/

10/17/2009 9:12:31 AM

hey where did you get the pot? i looked for one but couldn't find one.

10/17/2009 9:51:51 AM

i see what you did there

10/17/2009 12:37:59 PM

Solinari, I didn't wanna spend $250 on it

Smath74, I got two 18 in pots from the Lowes on Maynard.

Result: The pork was ah-mazing! However, the top pot cracked in 3 places throughout the smoking process It didn't let out any smoke though so I'm still good to go. I started setting up outside and applying the rub around 3:45 this morning. I didn't start smoking til 5. Took it off the smoker at 4 and then left it in alum foil for another hour to retain juice. Ate around five.

Everything was great...with the exception of the medium sized fire that started due to my stupidity of adding extra spices after putting the meat on the grill grate. The wood didn't like the wind + spices + hot plate. Started a fire, which yielded a nice crispy "shell" for my pork. Smelled great, tasted like death. The meat was good though w/ plenty leftover ^_^


I highly recommend this ^_^

10/17/2009 8:18:42 PM

Quote :

"However, the top pot cracked in 3 places throughout the smoking process"

Yeah, that was my first thought while watching the video once he plugged up the hole with the thermometer. What do you think you'll do next time to try and prevent cracking?

10/17/2009 9:16:42 PM

i tried this but with an old charcoal grill i had... the heat never got up past 170... not really hot enough to smoke the pork at the ideal temp. (~225)

10/18/2009 1:35:52 AM

how much did the pots run you?

10/18/2009 1:36:35 AM

I'm working on the same project, but I think I'm going to try the charcoal route instead.

10/18/2009 3:59:25 PM

I thought this thread was about something else

10/18/2009 4:37:07 PM

Hmmm Ive slow cooked a boston butt on a charcoal grill but this method looks interesting. Any updates on how to not crack the terracotta pot during cooking?

10/18/2009 5:55:54 PM

The pots ran me $20/ea., however they were on sale. I went by there today to see if they had more in stock and maybe I could swap mine out They were back to regular price of 29.99. As for the cracking, I might've just gotten the runt of the litter considering the two other people I know that use this method have not had cracking problems. And the strange thing is that the cracks occurred on the outside. Maybe the difference in temps b/n the inside and outside (I was able to grab the pot with my bare hands)? I should have checked the structural integrity of my pots before I bought them. All I checked for was that the lip upper lip wasn't chipped so that minimum smoke would escape. Also, my hot plate (9.99 at Walgreens) ran the temp up to 250 F where it stayed for the majority of the process. I practically had it set on the lowest setting and still had trouble keeping it at ~225 until the wood had started to really burn/smolder through. That's also considering I used two large pots on top of each other rather than a bowl. If you find a bowl somewhere near Raleigh, please let me know!

Charcoal route:

Let me know how it goes! I considered using charcoal but wasn't sure about the level of soot that would build up in a closed smoker. Plus, the wood adds flavor. I'll probably order some better wood chunks online at some point. Lowes/Home Depot has Mesquite and Hickory. I used Hickory chunks with soaked Applewood Chips for this butt, but the chips burned up pretty quickly.

10/18/2009 6:18:48 PM

i think my hot plate isn't good enough. i got one at walmart for 20 bucks, but i should go to walgreens instead apparently.

10/18/2009 6:48:30 PM

^ My hot plate had a thermal safety switch inside that I had to defeat.

10/19/2009 12:09:28 AM

oh how did you do that?

10/19/2009 1:19:37 AM

Yeah the Walgreens hotplate is 1000w w/ no thermal safety switch. you simply screw out 1 screw and pull some tabbed wiring. Also for the safety switch...depending on your model...you should be able to just break a small manual thermometer/sensor looking thing.

10/19/2009 2:06:09 AM