Klose charcoal basket demo w/qview

fourthwind · Jul 29, 2010

Ok so I have had a lot of questions regarding the charcoal basket that is made by Klose. The basket design in my opinion is fantastic. Works really well.

Here is the basket loaded up and ready for the 3/4 full chimney of burning coals. Notice the empty spot in the left hand corner for the burning coals. The burning end is going into the firebox first. The coals I am using are Royal Oak Chef Select. They are about 50% larger than regular coals, so you will get a bit of optical illusion from that. The box is 15 or 16 inches square.

Here we are at 4 hours into the smoke. Almost ready to rake the coals to the one and and start the snake the other way

Here we are at 5 hours. raked the hot coals into the bottom right corner and poured in a bucked of unlit coals. Distributes evenly. Closed the lid and opened the vent wide open for 15 minutes, then shut it down again.

About 1.5 hours later and here we are. Hopefully this will answer how I have been using this basket.

Happy smokes!

Bearcarver · Jul 29, 2010

That basket is Awesome!

Kinda like the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER on steroids !

Whole lot of those baskets being made as we speak !!!!

I can't use one of these in my MES, but I'm curious as to why the two interior walls are double & spaced.

Bear

cripplecreek · Jul 29, 2010

Thanks Fourthwind, crystal clear on the baskt now. I see from your pic that you're a hunter. Been videoing deer, turkey, and waterfowl hunts for 15+ years. About to try smoking some venison this weekend. Give me your thoughts on how to cook the following: slice of jalepeno, slice of onion, slice of bell pepper,and,slice of cream cheese. All wrapped in pieces of tenderized deer steaks. Wrap in bacon. Been grilling these on cheap gas grill for several years. Now that I have an offset, I want to try smoking them. Being new to the smoking game, I need some help. How would you do it?

fourthwind · Jul 29, 2010

Bearcarver said:
That basket is Awesome!

Kinda like the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER on steroids !

Whole lot of those baskets being made as we speak !!!!

I can't use one of these in my MES, but I'm curious as to why the two interior walls are double & spaced.

Bear

The double spaced plates are to keep coals on one side from lighting the coals on the other side. The space is also just right to keep coals from slipping between the plates as well. Woudn't likely work as well with lump since there is no uniformity in size.

cripplecreek said:
Thanks Fourthwind, crystal clear on the baskt now. I see from your pic that you're a hunter. Been videoing deer, turkey, and waterfowl hunts for 15+ years. About to try smoking some venison this weekend. Give me your thoughts on how to cook the following: slice of jalepeno, slice of onion, slice of bell pepper,and,slice of cream cheese. All wrapped in pieces of tenderized deer steaks. Wrap in bacon. Been grilling these on cheap gas grill for several years. Now that I have an offset, I want to try smoking them. Being new to the smoking game, I need some help. How would you do it?

I do a LOT of hunting.. Everything from Big game to Waterfowl with canada goose being my primary addiction and passion. I do a bit of guiding for an outfitter here in Colorado as well.. Come out during the winter and I will take you out..

As for the Venison, that recipe lends itself well to grilling, but not with smoking. By the time the bacon is done, the venison is leather. I use that recipe a lot for dove and goose on the grill. One way you can smoke them, is to take venison cut up into 1/4 inch cubes. Pan sear in a hot pan with olive oil and butter for just a minute. Stuff hollowed out Jap's 2/3 full of venision, top off with cream cheese, and a 1/3 of a slice of bacon draped across the top. Toothpick a hole in the bottom of each one, and then use the toothpick to hold the bacon in place. Smoke at 275 for about an hour.

flbobecu · Jul 30, 2010

Awesome basket, thanks for sharing! How much do these go for?

mballi3011 · Jul 30, 2010

I was gonna ask about the charcoal basket but you showed me how it works. Man that's cool it your own amazing smoker for charcoal. Very Cool

fourthwind · Jul 30, 2010

FLbobecu said:
Awesome basket, thanks for sharing! How much do these go for?

Klose sells them for 125 plus shipping. www.bbqpits.com Thing is made of 1/4 inch plate steel and weighs about 50 pounds

cripplecreek · Jul 30, 2010

Thanks Fourthwind, I'll try that. 1) If that basket were to be placed in a firebox made from a barrell, how would the fact that it sets a little higher in the box due to the circular bottom affect cooking/smoking. 2) If firebox size dictates a smaller basket with same design as yours would it work as effectively as yours....And yes, if I'm up your way I would love to go out with you and video a couple of hunts.

fourthwind · Jul 30, 2010

No worries..

I doubt that if it was sitting up higher would do anything but promote better airflow. If the box was made smaller, I would just use smaller coals and experiment. My guess based on the little amazing smoker that folks are using around here, that the design idea is solid from the small to the large size.

alelover · Jul 30, 2010

I think I'll be making one of those. Gonna have to look around the house for stuff again.

cripplecreek · Aug 24, 2010

Hey Fourthwind, I had one of these charcoal baskets made and have been experimenting with charcoal amounts that will keep temps between 200-220 in smoke chamber. All goes well until the charcoal snake burns about half way thru at which point the temp spikes up to 290-300 even with all air intake shut off. I'm using brickettes. Would it make any difference if i went to the larger bricks or chunks? I also am wondering if the small gap in the hinged door of the firebox are allowing to much air intake even with the adjustments all the way closed. Got any suggestions?

fourthwind · Aug 24, 2010

cripplecreek said:
Hey Fourthwind, I had one of these charcoal baskets made and have been experimenting with charcoal amounts that will keep temps between 200-220 in smoke chamber. All goes well until the charcoal snake burns about half way thru at which point the temp spikes up to 290-300 even with all air intake shut off. I'm using brickettes. Would it make any difference if i went to the larger bricks or chunks? I also am wondering if the small gap in the hinged door of the firebox are allowing to much air intake even with the adjustments all the way closed. Got any suggestions?

I would try to seal the gaps with firebox rope. The other thing to do is thin the amount of coal in the middle section. I started putting coals thicker in the ends, and very thin in the middle. Just enough so that they have contact with each other so they stay burning. I find that the smaller briquttes are harder to manage than the large. I used to use Royal Oak Chef select which worked pretty well. I have switched to Nature's Grilling Hardwood briquette's now which is why I have altered my methods to go thinner in the middle. The nature's grilling is by far the hottest burning briquette I have ever used. The Kingsford competiton stuff was a pain in the butt to keep under control. Once you have the tbs under control you might play with closing down the chimney a bit to slow down the burn rate. Don't know how big your smoker is, so that may or may not work. My smoker is large enough that I can still maintain TBS with the chimney 1/2 closed. Hope this helps.

cripplecreek · Aug 25, 2010

Thanks, Will try all of the above. Where can I get firebox rope you referred to and how do you apply it?

p.s. My rookiness prevents me from knowing what tbs is

mr500 · Aug 25, 2010

cripplecreek said:
Thanks, Will try all of the above. Where can I get firebox rope you referred to and how do you apply it?

p.s. My rookiness prevents me from knowing what tbs is

I ordered my rope off EBAY. You might get it locally at an ACE hardware. Some Lowes/Depots carry it. BUT no here in the Orlando market. Make sure you get stove ROPE. I got 5/8 inch for my application. Forget the blk glue that comes with the rope. Its no good. Jet over to Auto Zone and pick up some high temp permatex silicon. I got the copper for around 6.50. Works great. I took my ~~grill~~ smoker apart, cleaned her up and attached it. You might also consider rivets. Some here have done that. Do a search for stove rope and youll see some great posts.

TBS= Thin Blue Smoke

alelover · Aug 25, 2010

I just got some at my local True Value.

Dutch · Aug 25, 2010

cripplecreek said:
<snip>

p.s. My rookiness prevents me from knowing what tbs is

cripplecreek, TBS in this case stands for Thin Blue Smoke. You should see a very thin smoke coming out of the stack. If it's bellowing and white, you have too much wood on the briquettes.

cripplecreek · Aug 25, 2010

Thanks Dutch!

coyote-1 · Aug 31, 2010

I borrowed the double-wall divider concept. Used it first on a rectangular wok basket. Worked well, but I wanted more burn time. So I made the now-standard Minion type basket, and put a divider in there:

alelover said:
I think I'll be making one of those. Gonna have to look around the house for stuff again.

It works great. I can get 5 or more hours unattended burn; this works out great for an all-nighter butt smoke, it allows me to get some sleep.

fourthwind · Aug 31, 2010

Awesome way to adapt the idea. I did a smoke just using wood last weekend. Honestly it was a PIA compared to using the basket. There was no benefit in flavor in my opinion either.

miketron · Sep 1, 2010

That's interesting to know. So why did you do an all wood smoke? Just to compare?

Klose charcoal basket demo w/qview

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