Best way to do baked potatoes?

[noboundaries]

Baked potatoes in a smoker are the pork butts of the vegetable world: they take WAY longer than expected, especially if you're used to an oven. Time is your friend. I wash, poke 4 times, coat with oil, sprinkle with coarse salt, and throw on the smoker, no foil. The skin gets crunchy and the inside fluffy, but a baked potato at 300F will take 3-4 hours to finish, possibly longer. I've actually had baked potatoes take longer than an 18 lb turkey to finish when loaded at the same time.

 

[Jonok]

Yeah, you guys that can achieve >275 like to rub it in, don't cha? Bet you can also cook a chicken thigh without having to first take off the skin, scrape off all the fat, and re-apply it to the meat just so (even though it's not close to crisp), it doesn't come off in it's entirety at your first bite.
Well, at least I know that if I set the darned thing at 250, it's likely to stay there without too much intervention (even if it won't cook a damned potato), and when I'm done with my cooks, I'm left with a few chunks of really nice lump charcoal that I can toss in the Weber kettle...

 

[motocrash]

The updated version, the Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven ($49.99), features a warming unit closer to a traditional oven that can climb to temperatures of about 375 degrees while the outside of oven “remains only warm to the touch,” according to the AP.

 

[Jonok]

You're KILLING me, Smalls!

 

[Hawging It]

I do mine like this , but thrown right on the coals in a Weber kettle . Hot fire . Use tongs to feel when they are done .
I've done 3 or 4 at a time , and have also loaded it up . Works great .

Not a scientist project! Put some oil on them and throw on the smoker! When soft, they are ready. Not rocket science. Take care!

 

[Jonok]

So a man might think, but I have yet to produce an "anywhere near" edible baked potato on a MES. I'm a Big proponent of not overthinking things, and I have made palatable baked potatoes on anything from hotplates and community microwaves to Coleman stoves and boat exhaust manifolds. It really does not seem like it's going to happen at any duration in a MES...

(unless maybe I stuck the Spuds in the right lower corner, over the chip loader, and purposely did everything I could, via rapid and intentional overloadingto get an actual fire going in the chip pan...)
It's not like I haven't tried this repeatedly, under all reasonable conditions.
I'm looking for someone who can produce results without sticking the potatoes in an alternate cooker first or after, to prove to me that a succulent MES<275 tater is a possibility.

(I want pictures, and witness statements)

 

[mneeley490]

When my folks used to make baked potatoes, they would shove a large aluminum nail all the way through, lengthwise to conduct heat to the center of the spud. I'm not sure, but they've probably come out and said since then that we were all getting aluminum poisoning, or something. Perhaps there is a stainless steel alternative?

This doesn't solve the low-temp smoker dilemma, but I have made these potato bombs many times, to great acclaim. Maybe coring would do the trick in a smoker?

 

[motocrash]

Perhaps there is a stainless steel alternative?

Now that popped an idea into my head,electrifya 1/4-3/8" stainless rod like the weenie cookers.Potatoes are 79% water so they'd steam from the inside out (quickly),given you poked enough holes in them to prevent an explosion.You could do this whilst baking them in the oven...ahh to be a younger man and have the time for silly experiments such as this.

 

[chopsaw]

Not a scientist project! Put some oil on them and throw on the smoker! When soft, they are ready. Not rocket science. Take care!

If that was directed at me , I don't need any help .