Although I didn’t mention it I do have a double walled smoker, a thinner t-c pot inside a larger diameter thicker one. You can see the double walled base pot in the first picture. That arrangement happened when the thin pot, which used to be my exterior pot, cracked. So I bought a bigger pot and dropped the old one inside. It fit like a glove and now won’t come out.

I would hesitate to use plastics or insulation inside the pot because of out-gassing as the plastic heats and cures. Remember the FEMA trailer problems after Katrina?

There are cheap foam planters. If you really want insulartion get one of those, a large one, and slide the terra cotta pot down inside it.

Separate your charcoal from the terra cotta or the clay will crack. My solution, and how to control the airflow, is described in my previous post.

Cooking with lump charcoal adds a great flavor. And you’ll soon learn how much (…or little…) fuel to use to use. And once the pot heats up it maintains a very steady temperature with little work. I think you’ll really enjoy cooking with fire!

I bought the continental 750 watt burner Model # CE23301from Wal-Mart ($23.95 with tax and shipping) (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8467167). I bought the largest terra cotta pot that Home Depot had ($49.95) which I think is 22.5″, 4 bricks ($0.69 each), an 18.5″ Weber stainless steel replacement cooking grate with handles ($12.99) and an aluminum trash can ($16.97).

For the hardwood I used mesquite wood chunks from Lowe’s. Fairly decent sized wood chunks that are VERY hard. I put two large wood chunks in two foil bread loaf tins that I got at the dollar store. These are the SMALL bread loaf tins…NOT the real big, full size loaf tins. There was some remaining space in the tins which I filled TIGHTLY with smaller wood chunks and chips.

I put the pot on the 4 bricks and put the burner in the bottom of the pot running the electric cord out the bottom of the hole. I put the two tins filled with the hardwood on the burner and put them so they were side-by-side and touching. I set the burner to HIGH. I set the grate in place (comes to rest perfectly in the middle of the pot so it wasn’t too low or too high).

For the meat I used a honey brined 1/2 turkey breast (bone-in) dry rubbed with various herbs and spices. I put the meat on aluminum foil and put it on grate. I covered the pot with the trash can lid (and gave the trash can to my neighbor to use as a burn barrel). I ran the burner on the highest setting for 2 hours until the internal meat temperature was 130-140 degress. It had a nice golden, crunchy crust on the outside. I then turned the burner down to the lowest setting for 3 hours. I have no idea what the meat temperature was when I took it out of the pot but if it was 130-140 degrees 3 hours ago I knew it had to be fully cooked by now. Every so often while it was on high I lifted the lid to check the meat but for the last 3 hours while on low the lid stayed on (because I wasn’t home, LOL).

On high there was a good amount of smoke but on low there was hardly any smoke. The temperature outside was upper 80’s lower 90’s. I didn’t have a thermometer to measure the temperature in the pot although I probably would use one if doing a Boston Butt. But then again I had such good luck just “eyeballing” it I might not.

Meat turned out perfect!!!!!!!!!

I simply routed the wires through the center hole and reconnected them to the burner (which was seated on a brick). If you use the Walgreen’s burner, then no drilling, no soldering and no bending back controls.

I’ve put up a deeper description and a set of photos here:

http://www.naffziger.net/blog/2008/07/05/the-alton-brown-flower-pot-smoker/

You might have better luck doing it the old fashioned way by going to a store!!! Home Depot/Lowes/Ace will probably be your best best for most items.

I did the following (will need to find somewhere to post pictures)
1) I detached the element from the base plate.
2) I placed the element on the bottom of my pot to determine where I needed to drill holes. I then drilled two holes through the bottom of the pot to allow the ends of the element to go through the pot.
3) Went to the auto parts store and bought 14 gauge wire and wire plugs.
4) Soldered four pieces of wire each about a foot long to all the connections. Two for the heating element, two for the wires coming out of the base plate.
5) Soldered the connectors to the free ends of the wire.
6) Placed the pot on little legs then ran the element wires through the bottom of the pot. The element just sits on the bottom of the pot with the stand off legs that come attached to it.
7) Plug the base plate wires to the element wires.
Plug in the base plate and adjust the temp using the rheostat.

That’s it! Took all of 20 minutes, now I can adjust the temp anywhere from 180deg to over 300 deg. The day I did this I was able to get 210 deg, with no movement on a cloudless 75 deg with the rheostat between the first and second dots on the dial. I am using the 1000 watt hot plate from Walgreens.

So I have the adjustibility for hot and cold days. The base plate is no longer exposed to the direct heat.