Weber Smokey Joe ~ Tall Boy Smoker Modification

[thirdeye]

I've had a couple of Smokey Joe kettles over the years, they are my camping and fishing BBQ grill, and also my overflow cooker at home. If any of you have one you know how neat of grill they are....

Well, I've seen some modification posts on barbecue forums to turn a Smokey Joe into a smoker, and I ordered the center section earlier this week. It's actually a tamale steamer. Today was my test cook and I'm real happy with the results, and look forward to fine tuning this cooker in the next few weeks.

It's a simple mod, you cut the bottom out of the steamer, mount the original cooking grate higher in the unit (eventually I'll go with bolts, but for now I have clips until I decide where I want it). The steamer is a perfect fit to the base of the Smokey Joe, as is the lid. Next I built a charcoal basket.

I need to try using a heat shield/drip pan and see how that affects the heat. Today's cook was raised direct, I was cooking abput 9" above the coals and got 3 hours of burn time from one basket of charcoal.

[McGurk]

Nice mod. How's temp control?

[thirdeye]

I have a 12" thermometer that I lowered in the top vent and the end was below the cooking grate.

It was easy to get and hold 275°, I was cooking strips of pork loin so that was a good temp for that. Playing around, I closed down the vents and brought it down to 250°, then toward the end I wiggled the lump and opened both vents up and it settled in at 400°.

On one hand (because I like the smells of fats dripping in the coals) I like cooking direct on my drums, and raised direct on my Eggs, but I don't want to overlook trying a heat shield of sorts.