Built a cheap smoker

[wasilvers]

Last weekend between my kids 4 soccer games I built an UDS otherwise called an ugly drum smoker. I had an old soybean oil drum that I ground the lid off off.
Then I drilled 4 3/4" holes in the bottom, 8 1/2" holes around the outside of the lid for air flow. This bit makes nice rounded holes.

I used bolts to mount the grate about 8 inches below the lid. I had a charcoal basket from my other smoker so I made a handle out of rebar and welded it in. For a baffle (to even heat out) I welded a few shelves ti the handle and dropped on an old grate. I'll foil the grate and poke some holes in it for even heat.


The grill was seasoned on Monday and ran a steady 225 for 4 hours.

Right now im doing the biscuit test to find hotspots( so far none) then these butts are going on overnight to be smoked on charcoal and applewood. MmmMmm

Hope I remember to get some after pics!

 

[Jim]

AWESOME!

Lets see more!

 

[wasilvers]

Looks like the photos are in reverse order, oh well. This one will be in the right order...

 

[overboard]

Looks like you'r going to get some fine eating out of that!
Some good stuff can be made in a smoker! =P~

 

[wasilvers]

Left the grill at midnight running 227, up at 5:30 to check and she was sitting at 225. Can't be much more consistent than that. The meat is in the stall at 160-166. Can't wait to pull the pork tonight.

 

[wasilvers]

Alrighty, the smoker did great. Started with 16 lbs of charcoal and about 8 applwwood chunks and ran at temp from 7 pm to noon the next day. At noon, the pit temps started to go down and I thought it was done. Turns out I just had to knock the ash away, I had 1/3 of a basket of fuel left!!! Took the butts off at 202 internal (2pm) and let them sit in a cooler for another 2 hour. Then I pulled them out and let cool for an hour. This is the result...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Hp-rmbWSI

It was delicious and pulled easily. The only thing I will do differently is remove the fat cap before smoking. This will give me more of the flavor full burnt ends

 

[vahunter]

Mmmm! That's very consistent on the temp and love the burnt ends on BBQ!!!! One question, why the cooler trick?

 

[vahunter]

Man you're wanting me to fire up my smoker!!!!

 

[wasilvers]

Mmmm! That's very consistent on the temp and love the burnt ends on BBQ!!!! One question, why the cooler trick?

I use the cooler so the meat stays in the range longer, the connective tissues continue to break down as it slowly cools. So I put a board in the bottom of the cooler (so it doesn't hurt the plastic), put the meat in and cover it with 2 towels. At 2 hours after i pulled it from heat, it was still over 170 degrees. My view is any temp over the stall point is still breaking down tissue. It makes them so juicy and tender, Mmmm And then letting it rest after that lets the juices redistribute. I read it is juiciest when at 120 degrees, but my fam wouldn't let me wait that long

 

[fool4fish1226]

AWESOME :beer: I just posted in Gill's tread gotta love some pull pork