***Primal Grill and the Big Drum Smoker***

[swamprb]

OK- Now I've seen it with my own eyes, at first I couldn't believe it when Steven Raichlen fired up a Big Drum Smoker on the Ribs episode with the briquetts on the OUTSIDE of the charcoal basket and cooked Asian Beef Short Ribs. New episode he cooked Mexican Lamb Barbacoa wrapped in banana leaves over a cast iron pan of consomme', once again he's got the briqs on the outside of the ring!

WTF is up with this? Is anyone else cooking this style in their BDS? The charcoal basket size shown is wide and not very deep. I can see cooking this way, it just has me puzzled? Also wondering if the food was cooked elsewere then edited for the show.

Don't get me wrong, I dig the show and it inspires me to cook more than the 4 meats, and it is nice to see him use other methods/cookers besides the sponsors Webers. But it seems like the drums will need a paint job after every cook like this.
http://www.primalgrill.org/index.html

Any Big Drum Smoker users care to chime in?

[Norcoredneck]

Man gotta be hard on the paint. Drum kinda thin, seems premature burn through would be a problem. What channel is that on?

[thirdeye]

I got a advance look at that a couple of months ago......It was kind of a bad deal....there are actually 2 episodes where he cooks on the BDS. (I think he has personally owned one since the time of his last series) Anyway, he just never read the very simple one page of instructions that come with the cooker. He must have done it wrong every time he used it. The BDS drums are thicker than normal drums, but even so, that set-up would smoke the paint in no time.

Rocky said he called him and straightened him out, but by then these shows were finalized.

The charcoal basket is standard issue and may appear to be smaller because of the camera angle.

All that said, he does turn out some great looking food.

[swamprb]

Originally Posted by thirdeye

I got a advance look at that a couple of months ago......It was kind of a bad deal....there are actually 2 episodes where he cooks on the BDS. (I think he has personally owned one since the time of his last series) Anyway, he just never read the very simple one page of instructions that come with the cooker. He must have done it wrong every time he used it. The BDS drums are thicker than normal drums, but even so, that set-up would smoke the paint in no time.

Rocky said he called him and straightened him out, but by then these shows were finalized.

The charcoal basket is standard issue and may appear to be smaller because of the camera angle.

All that said, he does turn out some great looking food.

I took a look at some of the testimonials SR has given on the merits and raves on about the BDS and see he has been using one (or more) for a few years, that's what has me wondering. I want to try the lamb on the drum and the soup with the drippings sounds delicious too! Maybe it's just something he's experimenting with?

[thirdeye]

[quote=swamprb;718776]I took a look at some of the testimonials SR has given on the merits and raves on about the BDS and see he has been using one (or more) for a few years, that's what has me wondering. I want to try the lamb on the drum and the soup with the drippings sounds delicious too! Maybe it's just something he's experimenting with?[/quote]

I don't think so....I don't recall which episode (I think 8 & 12 feature the BDS) it was, but at one point he looks into the camera and says something like '...you don't want to cook directly over the coals...' Then he mentions setting a drip pan in the bottom, which is actually the charcoal basket. This is against the entire philosophy of cooking on a drum.

[sampson]

Gets me to thinkin' though, what if a guy did put a small ring in the middle of his larger one then filled the doughnut that would be formed with charcoal??? Could you then light just one side of it and get a real minion effect going? Would the air getting to the inside of the ring give a cleaner fire? Might have to give this a whirl and see...

[thirdeye]

Originally Posted by sampson

Gets me to thinkin' though, what if a guy did put a small ring in the middle of his larger one then filled the doughnut that would be formed with charcoal??? Could you then light just one side of it and get a real minion effect going? Would the air getting to the inside of the ring give a cleaner fire? Might have to give this a whirl and see...

You mean something like this only putting the coal between the mini ring and the main ring?

[swamprb]

I've got most of the episodes except "Smoke Screen" and the rest scheduled or recorded and so I'll go back and check out his schpeil with the BDS. That is unfortunate, if its the case, I like when he fires up the weed torch, then says you can also use a charcoal chimney-hell its hard enough to get the flaming chimney in the basket, let alone try to dump them on the edge! I can't see many Greenbrier/Tubac resort guests trying that and live to tell it!

[Single Fin Smoker]

Any dude that looks like that shouldn't be cookin on a UDS of any kind. Should be standing proudly, behind a shiny stainless contraption next to Bobby Flay talkin about btu's and chit.
I tell you, these farkers make a mint in selling books---acting like doucheee bags.

[Jeremiah]

It's unfortunate, he mis-represented to the public the whole point of a drum. Oh well, everyone makes mistakes now and then. Significant mistake, however you can't discount his contributions to the hobby. I like his books, How To Grill was one of my first.

[wnkt]

I saw the show yesterday ( Saturday on my local PBS station ) I noticed he was using the outside of the ring and knew that wasnt right. When I saw that he put a aluminum pan in the charcoal ring I knew he was going with what he knew whether he read the instructions or not..when he smokes something in his Weber charcoal grills he always does it indirect with a drip pan in the center, so I figured thats what he was doing there.
I was going to bring this up in a post but as I was reading the unread posts I saw swamprb beat me to it

[JediDog]

Originally Posted by swamprb

OK- Now I've seen it with my own eyes, at first I couldn't believe it when Steven Raichlen fired up a Big Drum Smoker on the Ribs episode with the briquetts on the OUTSIDE of the charcoal basket and cooked Asian Beef Short Ribs. New episode he cooked Mexican Lamb Barbacoa wrapped in banana leaves over a cast iron pan of consomme', once again he's got the briqs on the outside of the ring!

WTF is up with this? Is anyone else cooking this style in their BDS? The charcoal basket size shown is wide and not very deep. I can see cooking this way, it just has me puzzled? Also wondering if the food was cooked elsewere then edited for the show.

Don't get me wrong, I dig the show and it inspires me to cook more than the 4 meats, and it is nice to see him use other methods/cookers besides the sponsors Webers. But it seems like the drums will need a paint job after every cook like this.
http://www.primalgrill.org/index.html

Any Big Drum Smoker users care to chime in?

Ahmmmmm NO! Like Wayne said, Steven didn't even know he was doing it wrong until good ole' Rocky gave him a call to set him straight! Although Steven didn't do the correct method nontheless the BDS pulled thru. I dont suggest trying that though for obvious reasons already mentioned. I'm sure in future episodes Steven will correct his mistake.

[swamprb]

Originally Posted by JediDog

Ahmmmmm NO! Like Wayne said, Steven didn't even know he was doing it wrong until good ole' Rocky gave him a call to set him straight! Although Steven didn't do the correct method nontheless the BDS pulled thru. I dont suggest trying that though for obvious reasons already mentioned. I'm sure in future episodes Steven will correct his mistake.

I can only hope so! Experimenting with what works for you is kind of what Q'n is all about, and being that SR has got some chops and been on the BBQ trail and all, I see that on the show, and see his testimonials praising the Big Drum Smoker which he's had for a few years, just got me to wondering if it must have been a revelation to him to use them as they were meant to be? He obviously enjoys using the torch! Regardless, the BDS is awesome and I hope Rocky sells a ton of them from the show exposure.

[thirdeye]

Originally Posted by swamprb

I can only hope so! Experimenting with what works for you is kind of what Q'n is all about, and being that SR has got some chops and been on the BBQ trail and all, I see that on the show, and see his testimonials praising the Big Drum Smoker which he's had for a few years, just got me to wondering if it must have been a revelation to him to use them as they were meant to be? He obviously enjoys using the torch! Regardless, the BDS is awesome and I hope Rocky sells a ton of them from the show exposure.

They are a good seller, and there are a bunch of models from the 14-1/2" X 27-1/2" Mini to the 31" X 43" Mega. Most users are just like you and me.....regular guys. I've never seen the complete list of well known folks in cookin' circles that use them, and there are many of the competition guys that I would not know anyway.... Other than Steven Raichlen, names that have caught my eye would be Danny Gaulden, Ted Nugent, and Bill Milroy. Here on the forum, I own 2, jazzspot has 1, Thom Emery still has some I think, and I know there are 2 or 3 others that do too.

[swamprb]

Originally Posted by thirdeye

They are a good seller, and there are a bunch of models from the 14-1/2" X 27-1/2" Mini to the 31" X 43" Mega. Most users are just like you and me.....regular guys. I've never seen the complete list of well known folks in cookin' circles that use them, and there are many of the competition guys that I would not know anyway.... Other than Steven Raichlen, names that have caught my eye would be Danny Gaulden, Ted Nugent, and Bill Milroy. Here on the forum, I own 2, jazzspot has 1, Thom Emery still has some I think, and I know there are 2 or 3 others that do too.

Yeah, It's good to see a lot more Big Drum Smoker users here and I recall from an earlier posting that you all had a good chuckle on the BDS forum over the Primal Grill episodes. I had even seen a craigslist ad for a Weber Ranch Kettle in Arizona that was used on the show (complete with a hole drilled for the Grill Cam!) Has me wondering who ended up with the BDS's?? Those would be a score!