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My Christmas Eve dinner smoke on the UDS.

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Time_1

Knows what a fatty is.
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Well here it goes, gonna try to do my own cook thread. Ill try to make sure I get pics of the finished product. I'm cooking 4 racks of baby backs on my UDS, they barely fit! Rubbed em down with commercially bought rub (I'm not to the point where I can make my own) and lit the UDS using the minion method with blue bag and apple wood chunks mixed in. Tryin for the low and slow method of cooking these. Trying to keep the temp around 225-250 (having a lil trouble for some reason). Here some pics I have so far.

20121224_081922.jpg

20121224_114317.jpg

20121224_114447.jpg

20121224_114950.jpg


Than plan is to smoke for 4 hours or so. Made a homemade BBQ sauce for them as well. Wish me luck!
 
Pron will come in the form of cell phone pics, luckily my phone takes decent photos lol!

I always have a lil trouble gettin the UDS to just cruise, temp wants to fluctuate a lot. Sometimes if I leave just one ball valve open about half way to get the temp down it almost seems like it wants to die out. Hardly any smoke comes out of the exhaust and the temp drops. I'm always afraid of lettin it do its thing like that cuz I don't want the fire to go out. Should I just let it ride and see what happens? Also, can I put my et732 BBQ probe in the center of the grate under the meat?
 
It looks as though you have all the ball valves open? The drum looks set up ok using the large bung as the exhaust and the ball valves appear to be positioned correctly. You show the drum smoking with the top off. Are you starting the coals with it open and trying to slow it down after it is going? I like to start out by dumping my chimney of lit coals on top then closing the lid. I have all the intakes open and I monitor the temps and as the start rising I start closing off the intakes until I have it around 225-250. Usually I only have one open at this point. When you take offthe top shut them down and pull the whole rack out to do whatever you have to do if it is not a real fast thing, and close the lid to prevent the air from flooding the charcoal and flaring up. When you are done open the valve back to where it was and give it a bit of time to stabilize. Adjust a bit at a time, to prevent the fluctuations, dont open the top except as needed and it should be stable. Patience is a good thing to have and learn your drums particular habits. Start her low and adjust up. Also I like to use lump charcoal as it does not choke itself off with ash. If you are using briquettes you may need to be more than half open to maintain the desired temp, I dont know because I dont use it in the drum but once you figure it out you should be able to trust the drum...................
 
Lookin' good so far. There's no shame in using a commercial rub. There are some good ones out there, especially the ones made by some of the Brethren here.
 
Simply marvelous has some excellent rubs. I made a homemade temp controller for mine for around $30. Set it and forget it! The main thing I learned with a UDS is keep the lid closed. The longer you keep it off, the more the temps will skyrocket.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
cheapbeer said:
It looks as though you have all the ball valves open? The drum looks set up ok using the large bung as the exhaust and the ball valves appear to be positioned correctly. You show the drum smoking with the top off. Are you starting the coals with it open and trying to slow it down after it is going? I like to start out by dumping my chimney of lit coals on top then closing the lid. I have all the intakes open and I monitor the temps and as the start rising I start closing off the intakes until I have it around 225-250. Usually I only have one open at this point. When you take offthe top shut them down and pull the whole rack out to do whatever you have to do if it is not a real fast thing, and close the lid to prevent the air from flooding the charcoal and flaring up. When you are done open the valve back to where it was and give it a bit of time to stabilize. Adjust a bit at a time, to prevent the fluctuations, dont open the top except as needed and it should be stable. Patience is a good thing to have and learn your drums particular habits. Start her low and adjust up. Also I like to use lump charcoal as it does not choke itself off with ash. If you are using briquettes you may need to be more than half open to maintain the desired temp, I dont know because I dont use it in the drum but once you figure it out you should be able to trust the drum...................
Click to expand...

The pics I posted of the lid off and all the valves open was when I first started it. I catch my temp when it's on it's way up and seems to work. Maybe I should start closing intakes earlier. I haven't had much issue with the charcoal gettin choked out by ash. If I close all the intakes down and leave one about half open it seems like the fire is gonna die out. There's hardly any smoke coming out of the exhaust (maybe that's normal?) so I open the intake some more to "keep the fire goin" and then my temp goes crazy. I'm wondering if I should just let it go and see what happens. Just don't wanna have to relight it with a bunch of meat on the grill ya know?
 
The smoke went good! Everybody was impressed with the rib! The FIL even wanted to take the half rack that was left over. Now on to the cell phone pron. two pics because they were two different pans of ribs.

20121224_171559.jpg

20121224_171855.jpg


I'm in love with my UDS!:thumb:
 
Carolina gamecock said:
Simply marvelous has some excellent rubs. I made a homemade temp controller for mine for around $30. Set it and forget it! The main thing I learned with a UDS is keep the lid closed. The longer you keep it off, the more the temps will skyrocket.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I would like to see this temp controller. I've been thinking about buying one but I'm totally for making one! Got a run down of how it's made?
 
It doesn't look like you got any some ring on the ribs, are you putting your ribs on cold or at room tempature?
 
I'd say you nailed it. Those look great. If your weather was anything like ours, today would've been a tough day for smoking, even for the most seasoned veteren.

Matt
 
slammmed said:
It doesn't look like you got any some ring on the ribs, are you putting your ribs on cold or at room tempature?
Click to expand...

These went on cold. They sat out of the fridge maybe twenty minutes? They had a great smoke flavor to them and my guests said they were the best ribs they've had.

el_matt said:
I'd say you nailed it. Those look great. If your weather was anything like ours, today would've been a tough day for smoking, even for the most seasoned veteren.

Matt
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Your north of me where all the rain was. I had a nice sunny day to do my smoking. I think this cook is the 6th smoke I've ever done. I've always been interested in learning how to smoke meat and came across this great forum in search of UDS plans. I can't get enough now!
 
Time_1 said:
The pics I posted of the lid off and all the valves open was when I first started it. I catch my temp when it's on it's way up and seems to work. Maybe I should start closing intakes earlier. I haven't had much issue with the charcoal gettin choked out by ash. If I close all the intakes down and leave one about half open it seems like the fire is gonna die out. There's hardly any smoke coming out of the exhaust (maybe that's normal?) so I open the intake some more to "keep the fire goin" and then my temp goes crazy. I'm wondering if I should just let it go and see what happens. Just don't wanna have to relight it with a bunch of meat on the grill ya know?
Click to expand...
You should probably let it go and see what happens, if the temps stabilize then you are good. If it starts really dropping then open it up a bit. But you do not need to have a lot of smoke puffing for a good flavor, just a thin smoke will do the job. Small adjustments once it is going and give it time to settle in. Spend more time cooking and you will find the sweet spot. My drums are very predictable and repeat temps well at the usual settings. Give yourself some more time to get comfortable with the way your drum runs and you will be very happy with the results.
 
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