The interior paint will burn when cooking - burnt paint smoke is probably even less tasty than it is unhealthy.
Removing the exterior paint is mostly a byproduct of removing the interior paint. Initially there was a feeling that the exterior needed to be repainted with high temperature paint - but if you don't run w/o a lid - the outside of the barrel should not get hot enough to cause the regular paint to peal.
Seasoning will smoke a bit - might want to at least give it a chance to set before smoking with pam (that said, the lard might make for a tasty smoke...
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All that said, I skipped most of the steps as I had a barrel that was unlined and was previously used to store coconut oil. I did do a test burn for a few hrs however to get a feel for the barrel before attempting to cook it it.
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First full burn this weekend. Brisket came out fine. I changed to pipe nipples, added the ash pan lifter, and a smoke stack - still running cooler than I would prefer. Open valve and 1 nipple was having trouble maintaining 200. If I shook off the ash every hr or so, could maintain 205. 2 nipples open got it to 225. I think I will modify the ash pan next to get a clearer draft flow.
On the lighter side, Sunday afternoon my neighbor came over (bbq'd Saturday night). He will be competing with his tandom axle custom Klose in Houston this weekend - I think he won 2nd last year. He asked a lot of questions about the UDS, and I think we may have another drum head in the works. (The Klose is a lot of pit for single brisket or a couple of chickens. He has a side pit on it, but was thinking the UDS might work even better for a quick BBQ).