Ugly Drum Smoker

Turkey fryer basket

rodneypierce said:

yes, it is standing off the bottom. It does two things for you. One, lets air circulate through the basket, and two gives the ash a place to fall too, instead of gathering around the coals.

And there is no issue using a cut down turkey fryer backet for the coal basket. They dont have to be pretty, just functional. I prefer something with more/larger holes because I want as much ash to fall as possible.

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If I use a fryer basket as a charcoal basket, will aluminum work, or does it have to be stainless?

Rmhardie said:

If I use a fryer basket as a charcoal basket, will aluminum work, or does it have to be stainless?

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Hi. There is no rule that says it must be stainless steel. In fact I almost never heard of that. Regular steel most of the time. (not treated to be stainless). But Aluminum I think would be totally fine; it conducts heat very well though (much better than steel) so just don't touch it.

Based on how thin it is, eventually it may wear down and break. So at that point you make another one. I just use some thin screen and wrap it to make a wide circle. Been using that for almost 2 years now.

Meteor said:

Thanks guys. I figured it was me. Live and learn. I only had to adjust the uds about twice. It held temp perfectly. I can't wait until my experience catches up with the performance of the uds!

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I've done lots and lots of pork shoulder butts. The most important thing is to double the expected time. So plan on like 12 hours if you think your piece might take 6. I've had some pieces take like 16 hours to get there. Depends on size and density of the piece you have. And the nice thing about pulled pork is that after it's sitting around for a few hours, you just keep it warm or reheat it and it's still going to taste really good.

Don't need to wrap it, but if you do it will be really really soft. I did that once it was almost soupy which I wasn't thrilled with, but many people loved it.

It is more important to let it run low and slow and high to rush for a planned eating. However, pork is also one of the most forgiving. Many times I messed up and it was not cooking fast enough (I started it too late over night) and each time I was able to fix it and have it still come out great. Some ways I did that:

- one time I cut it all up with butcher knife and removed the bone. Then put into crockpot. I was doing this in the AM before going to work as it was for a work lunch. At work it was left in the crockpot on LOW or HIGH depending on how much I thought it would need. By the time it was time to eat it was perfect.
- Another few times when the smoker didn't do what it was supposed to do (unexpected weather issues) I put it in the oven and hit it at like 350 for an hour or so.. temp and time adjusted based on when I needed it. Then I ripped it up and it was great.

Pork shoulder butt does not need to rest. In fact, what I do from a tip down south, is rip it apart right away and add a touch of apple cider vinegar and some brown sugar and mix it all up. As it sits in the vinegar is breaks down some more. This works so well and tastes so good.

coewar said:

Hi. There is no rule that says it must be stainless steel. In fact I almost never heard of that. Regular steel most of the time. (not treated to be stainless). But Aluminum I think would be totally fine; it conducts heat very well though (much better than steel) so just don't touch it.

Based on how thin it is, eventually it may wear down and break. So at that point you make another one. I just use some thin screen and wrap it to make a wide circle. Been using that for almost 2 years now.

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I would not be surprised to see aluminum melt or at least lose shape, it melts at 1220 but gets soft at a LOT lower temp. I have used aluminium sauce pans on a hotplate to melt lead and they quickly get a bulge in the middle of the heating coil, and the temp should be 600f or so.

Bill

Thanks for the tips! I put it in the oven and was able to finish it up, and it was fantastic - we tore into it like starving vultures. Good to know the smoke times can vary that widely and that it wasn't a UDS issue.

Can't wait to continue practicing - especially when you get to eat the results and they are amazing, regardless of whether everything goes as expected.

I have not tried it, but was thinking this morning that a tamale cooker might make a good basket. A few holes around the side near the bottom would pass air into the basket. Tamale cookers have a steamer built in. The holes in the steamer tray (which is about 3" from the bottom) would be enough for the fire, but I would probably want to enlarge them to drop ash better into the bottom of the cooker.

It would be an experiment to see if the cooker could radiate heat quickly enough to prevent softening - but as people are already using them for Smokie Joe mini-uds pits, I bet it would work. It would be a self contained ash pan/fire box unit - and probably not all that more expensive than expanded metal would cost.

That said, since I am already planning on making a mini-uds, might try to make something that works for both.

Big Blue Smoker

Being from KY and home of the 2012 National Champs Kentucky Wildcats I am going with a UK theme. I have to add a few small bling details this week but for now she is done.

Had issues with some tape bleed but other than that not too bad. The side diamond plate table is made to rotate down out of the way when not in use. But that sucker is bright on a shiny day!!!

I posted some pics in the gallery thread too but wanted to add a couple here.

Big Blue Smoker

One more pic. Sorry

Starting my Build!

Big daddy

Here is the beast 85 gallon.

More Big Daddy

more pics

I finally found a Weber 22.5 " grill in Thunder Bay last week and today I made my first BBQ (I built my UDS 2 years go).
I did a bacon wrapped fattie ....was ever so pleased with the results.
Thanks to everyone on this forum

My UDS is just the basic model....with just a few changes;
I made my brickette basket 15 1/2 inches wide by 12 1/2 tall out of expanded steel mesh (still normal) but the bottom of the basket is a circular piece of steel mesh welded 2 1/2" up from the bottom edge of the basket.(instead of using bolts for legs). Now if I wish I can flip the basket over and have 10 inch legs with a brickette basket 2 1/2 inches high .
I bolted 3 metal shelf standards equidistant and vertical inside the drum. So by placing the shelf brackets at varying heights around the inside of the drum I can move my fire basket up when needed or by flipping the basket over and raising it to the top I can use the UDS to grill/fry hamburgers(or whatever.)
This makes the UDS much more versatile IMO .
P.S. yesterdays maiden run with the fattie was from 2.00 pm to 5:45 with the temp. holding steady @ 250F (except when I nervously removed the lid every 45 minutes to check on the progress) .The fattie was removed when the internal temp. reached 160F .Got raves from the missus, daughter and SIL .(Daughter wants her hubbie to build one now...hee heee )

Briquette ! Briquette ! Now repeat 100 times Keep....
Today I am doing a rack of pork spare ribs using the 3-2-1 method ....the missus usually does the BBQ'n but she's tickled with my progress sofar

Has anyone tried using the propane start from a Weber Performer on their UDS? I am getting a stainless blue Performer from my sister. My plan was to remove the kettle and mount the drum in its place. Then I came up with the idea of using the propane start in the drum.

MDRex said:

Has anyone tried using the propane start from a Weber Performer on their UDS? I am getting a stainless blue Performer from my sister. My plan was to remove the kettle and mount the drum in its place. Then I came up with the idea of using the propane start in the drum.

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I went through the thought process of adding a propane burner in the bottom early on as I started my planning. I quickly ditched the idea for the sake of simplicity, and now, with hindsight, can't see the advantage.

Also, a lot of people here light the fire by adding a small amount of coals to the top of the basket. I do the same --- add about 1/4-1/3 chimney to a little depression in the coals I make in a mostly full basket. That's it. All done.

I get 14++ hours of cooking @ a solid 250° this way, with the coals burning their way down. It's quite possible using gas to start would get you good results. I couldn't say for sure. But I'm in the KISS camp for a first UDS now. I'm a tinkerer, too, and it was hard not to put my own spin on things. Suppressing that tweeking urge isn't easy. :wink:

I figured I might give it a try since I will have the parts from the Performer anyway. I'll use one of the intake holes to try it, that way if I don't like it or it doesn't worl well I haven't cut any extra holes.

Weed burning is a pretty quick start as well. It is a bit harder to hit the right balance with (in theory) than xx lighted bricketts, but I cheat with a guru.

To those that have a weber lid they use sometimes, does the UDS behave differently with the weber lid ?? IE run hotter with a given number of intakes open ?

Bill

Holy cow. This thread actually has an end. I've spent the better part of two weeks reading this thing. What am I going to do with all my free time now? I guess I actually need to build one of these things.