Well its been almost a year since I slid by this thread.
I did give up on the hot plate idea as I haven't bothered to look for a better one. I'm using the gas range since SWMBO is away for a couple months.
I have done 2 good smokes in it this month and one that didn't pan out.
I did my pig neck smoke that turned out purty tasty.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/121271/trying-a-pig-neck-for-first-go
Then a couple days later I did some burgers and brats in it.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/121440/another-good-smoke
Thursday I tried to do more burgers and some wings. I found a CI pan at the bazaar and thought that would make a great fire pan. Maybe it will, but I have to leave the water pan idea out next time.
Stupid me, I set the alum water tray in the CI pan and put some oak chunks around the edges and loaded the smokey pot and lit the gas. A little bit later I heard hissing. Hissing? That can't be good. Yup, the water tray boiled over into the fire pan and all I was getting was steam Ok, for a steamer pot, but I want a SMOKEY pot! The good news is I can at least attain 212* but that seems to be my temp limit in this little thin walled alum pot.
I tried to dump out the water and dry the fire pan on the burner, but this smoke was just not meant to be. The grease from the burgers ran into the chunk pan and again foiled any attempts to get smoke. They cooked up nice and tasty, but not smokey. The wings cooked up nice and juicy too. I'm going to fry them off to finish cooking them and drop em into some Buffalo sauce today.
I just finished cleaning up the gooey mess from the smoke that wasn't and will try a different set up with the CI chip pan/water tray deal. I want to try to get a good smoke on a butt then wrap it and finish in the oven at 250* until it falls apart with a slight push.
