UDS Capacity

[motoeric]

Hi,

What is the capacity on a standard UDS?

Can you use one UDS to cook a comp?

If you were to do so, how much of each would you recommend cramming in there (ie. how many racks of ribs, how much brisket, etc.)?

Thanks!

Eric

 

[biggs98]

....

 

[biggs98]

Here's a gauge to look at and maybe you'll get an idea.

If you have a 2 level drum with a Weber kettle lid you'll definatley be able to do it all with the UDS. Not saying it'll be easy but it can be done. You'll wanna practice timing so you don't have to open the lid that much. Too much lid opening on the drum can cause major temp spikes. Hope this helps Eric

 

[landarc]

Humboldtsmoke might have a better handle on this, but, after watching him cook at the Placerville event, I would say a single UDS for a comp would be tough. Unless you are truly in it just for the fun, I think getting everything done and turned in properly cooked is gonna be too hard with a single drum. Maybe two drums, I can see that working out pretty well.

 

[Butts-n-gutts]

We did our first comp with a WSM and ECB, our last comp we did all 4 meats using 1 UDS and 2 22" kettles. The key to knowing what you need to bring is to practice and see how much room is being used at any given time.
Can it be done on 1 drum, yes, but will you have the room to cook extra just incase something goes wrong, most teams cook a couple of butts, several racks of ribs, and 20+ thighs just so you can choose the best, not settle for what you had room for.

 

[Skidder]

We did our first few comps. with a WSM and one kettle grill for the chicken. No problems at all.

 

[hav]

We did our first comp with a WSM and ECB, our last comp we did all 4 meats using 1 UDS and 2 22" kettles. The key to knowing what you need to bring is to practice and see how much room is being used at any given time.
Can it be done on 1 drum, yes, but will you have the room to cook extra just incase something goes wrong, most teams cook a couple of butts, several racks of ribs, and 20+ thighs just so you can choose the best, not settle for what you had room for.

You forgot to mention the kitchen sink that you made out of PVC, wish I had a picture of that.

Back to the question at hand, having a back up cooker helped quite a bit, one UDS, too hard.

 

[leanza]

Ive done six whole chickens spatched, two levels, three on each level.

 

[Tweedle]

Now we have only done one comp and we used two UDS's and a Cheap'o offset. Our second comp is coming up in June and we are planning on using 3, We could prob do it with 2 but with 3 I know we won't have any issues if something goes longer. Plus that way I can use different woods for the chicken and ribs than the butt's and briskets. One of my UDS's is a 2 rack the other two are single racks.

 

[Chef Jim]

Interesting, some day I'll build me one.

 

[motoeric]

Thanks for the input everyone!

Eric

 

[Melrod59]

Good afternoon everyone!

I've done 9 slabs of St. Louis Style ribs in my UDS with a rib rack.

Thanks,

Mel

 

[brer rabbit]

yesterday i did 4 small butts, 3 whole chickens, 3 big sweet patatoes, and 6 small potatoes on one rack in the uds. as long as theres a little air space for the exhaust to get thru, i have found the uds works better at capacity than just a fatty or a single chicken. it takes alot more heat to cook all that tho, so turn the stuff more often. i was running 300*+ under the rack, but my exhaust temp never topped 200* till about 6 hours into the cook. all that meat was really soakin up the fire.