Questions...

lcbateman3

lcbateman3

is Blowin Smoke!
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
Durham, NC
Instead of doing about a hundred million threads, I'll try to keep them here.

My father in law built me a right nice cooker for Christmas (yea, great father in law I know). It is made out of a 120 gallon barrell. It is set horzintal and from grate to coal bed is about 28 inches. Works great for pretty much slow and low cooking. I usually cook on it around 250~ish and have had some pretty good results with it.

One issue I have had with it is there are no vents in the side doors near the coals so I am getting them cut out and putting standard pie shape vent in it. That is unless you have some other ideas.

I have also been toying with the idea of sliding a water pan in it and giving that a try. Should I go for it or is it just a waste of time and material.

I think I am going to break down and make a UDS or something similar to it. You guys have me hooked. I can't tell you how much I have read and learned over the past few weeks! :thumb:

One more question for now. I have tried cooking whole ribeyes. While they turn out taste wise great, they are a little on the dry side. The one I tried this past weekend, I cooked for about 2 hours unwrapped, and then 2 hours wrapped. This brought it about a medium-medium well throughout (people I were feeding like there meat more done then me). Is there anything else I can try to keep it from drying out?

Thanks in advance. You guys rock around here. Have made me feel like home and addicted like never before. Sometimes my wife looks at me like I am crazy. Def when I told her about a fattie :)
 
Is this a direct heat grill or does it have a side fire box? Can you post a pic? That should draw more responses.
 
I can't help with you pit question, but for the rib roast I have some questions.

1. What temp did you cook it at?
2. Bone in or boneless?

I cook mine at a minimum of 275 until the internal temp is 130 and then rest it for 30 minutes before carving. If someone want a slice done more I toss it onto the grill for a couple of minutes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ron_L said:
I can't help with you pit question, but for the rib roast I have some questions.

1. What temp did you cook it at?
2. Bone in or boneless?

I cook mine at a minimum of 275 until the internal temp is 130 and then rest it for 30 minutes before carving. If someone want a slice done more I toss it onto the grill for a couple of minutes.
Click to expand...

Going back over it my mind I overcooked it. I cooked till about 145 and it set for a while afterwards wrapped so it kept cooking. Its a learning thing, I'll get it right soon!

As for pictures of my Pit here we go:

img054.jpg



img055.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c122/just_lionel/img055.jpg
 
I have started checking out the threads on the endless discussions of water pans (pretty interesting reading). I think mainly at least I need something to block of of the direct heat it am getting from the flames being completely under the meat. I am open for all ideas!
 
lcbateman3 said:
Instead of doing about a hundred million threads, I'll try to keep them here.

My father in law built me a right nice cooker for Christmas (yea, great father in law I know). It is made out of a 120 gallon barrell. It is set horzintal and from grate to coal bed is about 28 inches. Works great for pretty much slow and low cooking. I usually cook on it around 250~ish and have had some pretty good results with it.

One issue I have had with it is there are no vents in the side doors near the coals so I am getting them cut out and putting standard pie shape vent in it. That is unless you have some other ideas.

I have also been toying with the idea of sliding a water pan in it and giving that a try. Should I go for it or is it just a waste of time and material.

I think I am going to break down and make a UDS or something similar to it. You guys have me hooked. I can't tell you how much I have read and learned over the past few weeks! :thumb:

One more question for now. I have tried cooking whole ribeyes. While they turn out taste wise great, they are a little on the dry side. The one I tried this past weekend, I cooked for about 2 hours unwrapped, and then 2 hours wrapped. This brought it about a medium-medium well throughout (people I were feeding like there meat more done then me). Is there anything else I can try to keep it from drying out?

Thanks in advance. You guys rock around here. Have made me feel like home and addicted like never before. Sometimes my wife looks at me like I am crazy. Def when I told her about a fattie :)
Click to expand...
On the rib eyes, did you Marinade them with anything? And did you keep checking the water pan?

Also ( don't try to open the lid ( door often for the smoker/grill that does dry out the meat as I'm learning )
 
img072.jpg


img069.jpg


Those are views from the top looking down.

This is going from side to side through the door. I am also going to cut vents into the side doors as well so I can have better control on temps.

img071.jpg
 
Last edited:
You can easily end up with a dry steak going too low for too long. Meat thickness is important here. Anything less than 1.5" thick should be grilled over a hot bed of coals. With thicker steaks, I like to go indirect at 300-325 until almost done. Then go direct for the reverse sear, a couple minutes a side.

I'd also suggest adding a charcoal grate so the ash can fall through. That ash buildup could choke out your fire on longer cooks.
 
What you have based on your last cook is a Direct cook setup. Meaning the fire is directly below the food. Picture a smaller drum attached to the side (where the door is) with an opening into the main chamber, this would become you firebox. That would make it an Offset smoker with the heat not directly under the food but moving over the food. If it was mine I would damper down on the exhaust vents, the one closest to the fire to have a smaller opening than the one at the other end.

I would also install a damper where the entrance is into the main chamber with a set of plates the full distance of the chamber. 6" -12" wide plates that you could space apart at different points to guide the heat along the chamber for more even cooking.
 
Thats what I have been thinking about doing. What size drum would work do you think? Thinking about making it detachable so pulling it down the road isn't a problem. Don't want the offset in the other lane knocking car mirrors off or hitting people on bicycles/mopeds. Works out fairly decent right now Because I can keep the heat around 250-275 even on direct. Have setup indirect as well with some success.

I'll work up some drawings and see what I can come up with.
 
lcbateman3 said:
Thats what I have been thinking about doing. What size drum would work do you think? Thinking about making it detachable so pulling it down the road isn't a problem. Don't want the offset in the other lane knocking car mirrors off or hitting people on bicycles/mopeds. Works out fairly decent right now Because I can keep the heat around 250-275 even on direct. Have setup indirect as well with some success.

I'll work up some drawings and see what I can come up with.
Click to expand...

Ic, I have a set up just like yours is now that I have cooked a few hogs on. I built it "pre-Brethren" so I wasn't completely sure what I was doing and just going on what I have personally seen hogs cooked on. It has funtioned fine for that purpose but was considering making the same changes you are asking about.
Thanks for posting the thread and I'll be watching it grow with you.:thumb:
 
Just a guess, I would say a 30 gallon. But I do not know that a drum would be the best idea, maybe something a little heavier gauge.
 
Garyclaw said:
Ic, I have a set up just like yours is now that I have cooked a few hogs on. I built it "pre-Brethren" so I wasn't completely sure what I was doing and just going on what I have personally seen hogs cooked on. It has funtioned fine for that purpose but was considering making the same changes you are asking about.
Thanks for posting the thread and I'll be watching it grow with you.:thumb:
Click to expand...

Thats how I was, I kinda told my father in law what I wanted and he built it. I am like you, it works well for what it does now, but I want it to do more. One thing I am wondering is instead of building the box on the side how about if I came up from the back side of the grill?

I have plenty of room on the trailer that I could make a box roughly as wide as the grill, or making it smaller and baffle it out. Would this work as well? See crude picture for my thought :biggrin1:
crudedrawing.jpg
 
If I go with the way above I could install butterfly valves on the pipes feeding the main chamber to also limit the amount going in. Would there be a reason not to do it this way?
 
I like it! The funkabbq guy (somebody help me out w/ his name) showed a build similar to that and thought I could abapt that to what we have. His fire box was in the back with 3 tubes going into the cook chamber.
 
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