Ugly Drum Smoker

249 pages

DO I GET A" DEGREE IN DRUM" I JUST BECAME A PAID SUBSCRIPTION MEMBER AND HAVE NO QUESTIONS TO GET ME ABOVE MATCHLIGHT. LOVE THIS PLACE STEVE:icon_bugeyed

Glade you made it through Steve. First bit of advise...loose the cap lock key brother. Now just start smoking everything in sight. Glad you are here.

stevemiller said:

DO I GET A" DEGREE IN DRUM" I JUST BECAME A PAID SUBSCRIPTION MEMBER AND HAVE NO QUESTIONS TO GET ME ABOVE MATCHLIGHT. LOVE THIS PLACE STEVE:icon_bugeyed

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Sorry Steve, no degree yet, your education is just beginning.

Once you start cooking on the drum you'll find all kinds of mods and improvements to try out so have plenty of extra drums in stock.

I learn something new with each cook. Smoke often, learn as you go, enjoy the ride!

Wow a temperature chart I can actually fully relate to!!!! It's not in them F(unny) degrees.

If you are Steve Miller, I'd'take the money and run

crundle said:

Oh, here is the pdf that I got from a guy on the aussiehomebrewer.com forum about cooking temps and times. I think the times are fairly right (at least for beer can chicken so I am extrapolating that the rest are roughly in the zone), but the temps seem a bit low for chicken so I am guessing they are a bit low overall.

This probably came from this forum originally anyway, but a google search of the forum came up with nothing like it.

cheers,

Crundle

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QuietOne said:

Wow a temperature chart I can actually fully relate to!!!! It's not in them F(unny) degrees.

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for peps that like F(unny) temps 110*C = 230*F 120*C = 248*F 115*C = 239*F 85*C = 185*F 90*C = 194*F 75*C = 176*F

motley que said:

If you are Steve Miller, I'd'take the money and run

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hahahahahaha

http://wyntk.us/smoking-times-and-temperatures

Here is a link that might help for this side of the pond.

Have a question: Read all (or mostly all) of the threads and gathering parts to make my first UDS. I am still looking for a weber kettle lid. Maybe I can buy one but am looking for a free used one. I was going to burn the drum but had a question on doing the first seasoning. If I burn and wash out, will I risk more rust, etc if I have to wait a while to season the drum due to current lack of lid (closed top drum with the top cut off.)
Thanks

Gus throw a chicken in there and you'll have nothin to worry about. If you don't have a lid do keep it covered till ya get one. Rust will be covered by grease soon enough.

I hate to ask a question that I'm sure has been brought up a number of time, but so far I'm only 125 pages into this thread.

I love the Drum smokers you guys are making, and want one (or two) for myself. I'm pretty excited about this project so I did what anyone would do ran out and bought the first 3 barrels I could find. Now I'm having second thoughts.

The problem is I'm not 100% sure what was in these. When I open them there is an extremely faint smell of paint or something similiar. I took a number of pics so hopefully you guys and either give me the ok or the no go. There is some surface rust on the inside of the drums and when I touch the inside of the barrels they are coated with black dust. I was planning on getting a weedburner and burning out the barrels then using a drill to scrub them down.

Here are the pic's what do you think?






Thanks for the help,

Keith

Gus, just a suggestion but might work. Once you burn and clean the drum get some grease of some sort and coat the inside of the drum immediately. One of my favorite is butter flavored Crisco. As long as you seal the top until you get a lid, you shouldn't have a rust problem. Seasoning on a drum is not a real issue. Any fire at normal smoking temps will do that. Let us know what you do...remember pics bro.

I would burn, clean with a detergent. I use regular tide and as hot water as I can get. The reason i do this is any unburned oils and such will run down into crimped seam at bottom. Strong tide mix is cheap , safe and easily obtainable. I blow out with compressed air, shop vac or likes and spray with pam or coat at Meat suggested.

A follow up on my earlier post about having trouble burning out the lining in my barrel.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1052090&postcount=4328

I am still having issues (i think). I burned a good 20 sticks of oak in this baby last weekend and still don't think the lining is totally out. As night fell, I could see a light ring around the barrel glowing red from the heat. I thought this was a sure sign she was hot enough, but once she cooled I can still see some liner in the top half of the barrel. Still looks similar to the pics in the link above.

1) If she got hot enough to glow red, should I just ignore the little bit of liner still in there?

2) has anyone ever laid the barrel on its side while burning? This would force the sides to get really hot. Burn it for a while and then roll it a little bit. Repeat until the whole thing is done.

3) is it ok to use pine logs to burn it out? I know that will burn hotter, but don't know if the pine sap will leave some weird flavors in their?

SIDE NOTE: I live in an 'uppity' neighborhood in the DC suburbs and my neighbors absolutely think I am INSANE! I can see them glaring out their windows as I throw logs and yard scraps into a freakin' barrel that is now starting to show signs of rust on the outside. I must get this thing completed so that I can produce some grub that will redeem my reputation. Otherwise, someone is gonna call the fire marshall on me!!!

Meat Burner said:

Gus, just a suggestion but might work. Once you burn and clean the drum get some grease of some sort and coat the inside of the drum immediately. One of my favorite is butter flavored Crisco. As long as you seal the top until you get a lid, you shouldn't have a rust problem. Seasoning on a drum is not a real issue. Any fire at normal smoking temps will do that. Let us know what you do...remember pics bro.

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I don't think there is anything wrong with a little rust. Personally, I consider it a "safety indicator." If it rusts, its down to bare steel. I wouldn't bother getting it off either. A little surface rust is kind of like rubbing mustard on a butt: It provides a substrate for the barrel seasoning to adhere to.

Burk:

I think oak or hickory will burn hotter than pine as they are denser woods but I dougt the temperature difference is a hughe factor. . And yes, pine can leave a bad residue. Next time, avoid those epoxy-lined barrells.

Does your drum already have air inlet holes at the bottom? They're necessary to really burn hot.

Mark said:

Does your drum already have air inlet holes at the bottom? They're necessary to really burn hot.

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Yes...I have 4 - 13/16th holes.

Sure turn it on it's side and burn some more..... or get a drum like mine:



:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Paul B

Paul B said:

Sure turn it on it's side and burn some more..... or get a drum like mine:

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Paul B

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Paul...you are one LUCKY farker to have such a great SS UDS...Man oh man...that thing is sweet!!!

Paul,

I find that stainless is hard to keep looking nice, my SS Weber always looks like it needs work. How do you keep your SSDS looking so bright and shinny?