H
Howtobrew
Guest
Okay, I have completed my UDS build and yesterday I seasoned it with a full can of Pam Grill Spray.
Sorry no picts yet, but y'all know what a good UDS looks like.
Anyway, my drum has a bung hole on the bottom side and I utilized this instead of the 1/2" pipe and caps for air supply. The bung hole in the lid is the exhaust port. I placed an aluminum electrical supply cable cap over the bung hole on the inside so that the incoming air is diverted 90 degrees and swirls around the inside of the drum. Finally, I bought a 2" dia cast iron pipe cap to act as my regulator. I drilled 8: 1/2"dia holes in the side/threads so that as I screw the cap in and out of the bung, the holes are covered/uncovered. (I will post a picture tonight.)
Okay, on to seasoning - I filled the fire basket with 1 9lb bag of briquettes and set it on top of the side burner of my Weber gas grill to start it. I let it burn for 15-20 minutes, and by that time I think most of the bottom middle third of the charcoal were burning. The ones on top and the sides were not lit yet, but I figured that would happen later during the "cook."
I lifted the fire basket in with a hook, and had lots of white smoke to contend with until I took the regulator cap out completely and put the lid on. The temperature got to about 300 at grill level, but I wanted it hotter for seasoning, so I put a fan in front of the inlet bung and before too long had no more white smoke (no smoke at all in fact) and a temperature of 450F. I let that go for an hour while I made beef ribs on the gas grill. I removed the fan, and let it go for another 20 minutes. Still 450.
I put the regulator cap in and dropped it down to about 300F over a half hour and then threw on a couple oak chunks to see how that whole process worked. Gray smoke...
I checked the temperature and it was down to about 275F. The smoke was still whiteish/grayish. I was thinking that anytime you open a UDS to add wood that you will probably get white smoke for a while until the wood heats up. Eventually I did achieve thin blue smoke but by that time dinner was over and I had other things to do and I shut it down for the night.
Questions:
1. Should I have let the charcoal basket start more completely before placing it in the UDS? It was about half full but many of the coals weren't lit yet. Or is it a matter of giving adequate time for whatever coals are in there from this-time/last-time to offgas the white smoke before you even think about starting the day's cooking?
2. Should I have added my wood chunks at the beginning, when I placed the basket in the UDS, so that the white smoke would be over and done with before I placed the food in the UDS?
3. Is thin blue smoke limited to a temperature range? like 225-275F?
Thanks,
John
Sorry no picts yet, but y'all know what a good UDS looks like.
Anyway, my drum has a bung hole on the bottom side and I utilized this instead of the 1/2" pipe and caps for air supply. The bung hole in the lid is the exhaust port. I placed an aluminum electrical supply cable cap over the bung hole on the inside so that the incoming air is diverted 90 degrees and swirls around the inside of the drum. Finally, I bought a 2" dia cast iron pipe cap to act as my regulator. I drilled 8: 1/2"dia holes in the side/threads so that as I screw the cap in and out of the bung, the holes are covered/uncovered. (I will post a picture tonight.)
Okay, on to seasoning - I filled the fire basket with 1 9lb bag of briquettes and set it on top of the side burner of my Weber gas grill to start it. I let it burn for 15-20 minutes, and by that time I think most of the bottom middle third of the charcoal were burning. The ones on top and the sides were not lit yet, but I figured that would happen later during the "cook."
I lifted the fire basket in with a hook, and had lots of white smoke to contend with until I took the regulator cap out completely and put the lid on. The temperature got to about 300 at grill level, but I wanted it hotter for seasoning, so I put a fan in front of the inlet bung and before too long had no more white smoke (no smoke at all in fact) and a temperature of 450F. I let that go for an hour while I made beef ribs on the gas grill. I removed the fan, and let it go for another 20 minutes. Still 450.
I put the regulator cap in and dropped it down to about 300F over a half hour and then threw on a couple oak chunks to see how that whole process worked. Gray smoke...
I checked the temperature and it was down to about 275F. The smoke was still whiteish/grayish. I was thinking that anytime you open a UDS to add wood that you will probably get white smoke for a while until the wood heats up. Eventually I did achieve thin blue smoke but by that time dinner was over and I had other things to do and I shut it down for the night.
Questions:
1. Should I have let the charcoal basket start more completely before placing it in the UDS? It was about half full but many of the coals weren't lit yet. Or is it a matter of giving adequate time for whatever coals are in there from this-time/last-time to offgas the white smoke before you even think about starting the day's cooking?
2. Should I have added my wood chunks at the beginning, when I placed the basket in the UDS, so that the white smoke would be over and done with before I placed the food in the UDS?
3. Is thin blue smoke limited to a temperature range? like 225-275F?
Thanks,
John