I'm such an Alton Brown wh0re

Every time he talks about gadgets and why such and such type is better than the others, I have to go out and buy it. I feel like such a tool, but it is very frustrating, because he is always fucking right.

Then, I'm like..God damn, I can't believe I was using that piece of crap for all these years. throws old gadget in the trash

Some of the things I've bought solely because of AB:

salt cellar

extra wide skewers

kitchen shears

extra wide meat mallet

toaster with double length slots

cast iron dutch oven

various disposable pans and items from the hardware store to create homemade devices

..there's other things I'm forgetting, but you get the point. Does anyone else have this sickness?

I've found that amazon.com has most of the shit I need. Regular housewares stores often don't have the stuff I'm looking for.

As a side note, my coworker is going to make the terra cotta smoker this weekend.

CW, since I know you're reading this, I remember, once before, you saying that the electric burner gets fucked up from all the residue. However, I found a website with the solution. This guy basically cracked open the burner, removed all the electronics, ran high temp wires from the burner assembly to outside the pot and mounted the electronics in a plastic project box (RadioShack, so the thermistor, potentiometer, etc., are external to the smoker. Seems to me that would work pretty well, though you might have to clean the burner itself from time to time.

He's going to try that too, so we'll see how it goes. He lives in an apartment, so we're trying to figure out the most covert way possible to do this, lol. He has a fireplace too, so we may try to run some dryer hose or something from the exhaust vent to the chimney.

He lives in an apartment,

I weep for his neighbors.

I don't buy every gadget he uses, and I've stopped using all the recipes on his show after getting burned by the whole beef tenderloin fiasco.  But I am a huge fan, it's just that I can find things around the house that replicate his tools and gadgets.

What happened with the beef tenderloin?

I bought a beef tenderloin at costco per Alton's recommendation. It was a ton of work to prepare the thing, and it was definately not the bargain Alton claimed it to be.

I believe it was about $10/lb, and the total cost was $60.00.

I easily trimmed a pound of fat and silver skin off the thing, which of course I threw away. Now we're down to 5 lbs of meat for $60 (and about 30 minutes of work), which is $12/lb.

Here's the kicker. Costco sells massive filet mignons for $12/lb. I bought a Saturday project that included filet mignon, a very small roast, and some chain meat for $12/lb. The chain meat was worth no more than $2/lb, and the roast was worth about $8/lb, so I ended up paying a lot more than $12/lb for about 4 or 5 of filet mignon.

I have a similar addiction.

I was looking for those scewers at BB&B the other day. They had none. Where did you find them?

I bought them at BBQ's Galore, but they have them on amazon for the same price.

So the burner is just hanging out all alone in the bottom of the pot?  That's pretty cool.  What's it resting on then?  Just the pot? 

I don't necessarily go out and buy whatever I see used, but when the time comes I need to buy new gear I definately keep in mind what he's said to look for.  If I ever have need for skewers they'll be the wide ones. 

No, the burner is still attached to the housing, but the housing has been gutted and the wires extended so that the guts can be relocated outside with the control knob, etc.

Currently I'm a quest to get one of those oven/meat thermometers he uses.

Oh I see.  It's an empty shell, like a hot plate zombie.  I bet that would work pretty well.  And if the element wears out you could buy another cheapo one and just swap out.