Assembling Your Smoker: What you need to Buy

To prepare your smoker, you will need the following items and about $100:

• 1 round grill grate ($5)
• 2 terra cotta pots, that will fit top-to-bottom ($20 each)
• 1 hotplate ($10)
• 1 cast iron smoker box ($7)
• 2 electronic probe thermometers ($15 each)
• 6 pieces of 2x4
• Small piece of plywood
• Small scrap wood to cover hole in top of pot
• Extension cord

Buy your grill grate first, and carefully select the terra cotta pots. Make sure the bottom pot has a "lip" that will support your grill grate. Then you need to find a second pot that will fit onto the bottom pot. Choosing an identical pot, while sounds like a great idea, may not be. Watch the size of the lip on either pot -- you need to make sure you can easily set the top pot onto the second pot without it falling into the bottom one. My bottom pot has a lip of about 1/2 inch; the top pot as a lip of 1", making it easy to line up when it is hot.

The cast iron smoker box is critical. This box is what will actually heat your food. Early experiments with a cookie tin would not get the smoker hot enough. Changing to a cast iron smoker box from Wal-Mart was the answer. Once again, cast iron wins!

You will need 2 electronic probe thermometers. One will be used for the food, the second to monitor the air temperature. Alton Brown's version suggests using a Grill replacement thermometer, but I found that this was not reliable enough to keep consistant heat.

I found that the hotplate needed some extra engineering to work best. You can very easily and safely place the entire hotplate in the bottom of the pot. However, this makes it more difficult to maintain the temperature inside the smoker. I suggest that you remove the hotplate's switch and rewire it outside the smoker's bottom air hole.