How to Make Your Own Barbecue Smoker

Our smoker saga began as we located the necessary components. We needed two (2) large terra cota or clay flower pots, a hot plate, a grill rack, a heavy duty 8" or 9" cake pan, a replacement grill thermometer, and a 2'x4' large enough to cut into sections for support. Good Eats indicated these components should cost less than $10. Our bill went a bit higher:

Pots = $30
Hot Plate = $6
Grill Rack = $9
Cake Pan =0 (already had one)
Thermometer = $9
2'x4' = $5

Now that we had our components, we could proceed to Part 2. This step meant putting everything together and testing it. One pot sat upright, perched upon 3 sections of the 2'x4'. The hot plate sat inside of this pot with its cord pushed through the drain hole at the bottom of the pot (this is why the 2'x4' sections are needed). Baking pan goes on the hot plate and will hold the wood or wood chips used to create the smoke. The grill rack sits inside - half to two-thirds of the way up. The second pot is turned upside down as a lid. Place the thermometer on the drain hole for the 'lid'. Once assembled, plug the hot plate in (hopefully you turned it on before placing it into the pot) to make certain it works. Let it sit for 30-minutes to an hour and monitor the temperature using your thermometer. If the temperature exceeds 210, then your probably good to go... more below.

Our Results: While the host used a couple small chunks of wood for smoking, we went for wood chips. This was our first mistake - the chips burned up in 30-minutes, requiring frequent opening and thus loss of heat. It did generate copious amounts of smoke. We used a 1000-W hot plate but could not get the temperature above 175; we're not sure of the cause. At 175, we could not cook the meat - we failed to test our full setup prior to putting the meat on. We ended up smoking it at 175 for 1-hr to 1.5-hr. The meat was then placed into a baking pan, covered with aluminum foil, and baked at 325 in an oven. We let it cook for about 8-hrs.

Despite not being able to cook the meat in the smoker for the desired 10-to-12hrs, the pulled pork came out really well. The chips produced so much smoke that the flavor completely penetrated the meat. We tossed it on buns with cole slaw and a little barbecue sauce. Our guinea pigs gave it 2-thumbs-up.