UD Smoker?

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SSing

SSing

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A customer of mine who picked up some ribs the other day, praised his Ugly Drum Smoker, and I was thinking, well maybe I build me one… The thing is though I don´t like this method of briquettes turning into glow in the barrel under the meat. Some say unhealthy gas develop during this process.
Is this an issue or concern or at all a question around you bbq-people?

If I was to build one, I was thinking of making a door at the bottom of the barrel, where I can put in glowing hard wood or coal. It would call for more attention but… well, what do you say?

Please share some of your secrets around this type of barbecue...
Thank you,
Stefan
 
I've been using a UD smoker with charcoal for several years and I'm not dead, so I guess its safe. I have tried a couple other types of smokers including a propane cabinet type, and the UD is my favorite by far. In my experience, it works good because it is a completely sealed chamber. The only combustion air that is introduced is whatever you let in. Mine is pretty simple, I have 3 pipe nipples at the bottom, two have caps and one has a valve. I have found that allows enough adjustability to be effective. The lid on mine has a threaded hole, so i have a piece of 2" rigid conduit threaded into it as a chimney. I've had plenty of good eatin' come out of it!!
 
When it comes right down to it. Any combustion process produces unhealthy gasses. We were screwed when Awk the caveman decided he liked his Wooly Mammoth BBQed on Hickory. :rofl:
 
Crude but very effective.
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I still fire up the old Brinkman Water Smoker now and again to drive the neighbors nutz. The smoke flavor happens in the 1st couple hours with the help of the wood flavor of choice. After that it's just the low heat that does the work. The water pan between the fire and the object of consumption catches the drippings and prevents flare ups and the steam keeps the temp pretty steady. Keep the fire box low and cook it slow is my personal opinion. For big cuts like Tri Tip or a Top Block (whole Top Sirloin) on an open wood fire, if I can't hold my hand over the grill for a 10 count, it's TOO hot.
 
I bought a Pit Boss a couple years ago. It works well.

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I've been using a UDS since about 2008 and have built close to 30 of them for friends and family members. I use lump mesquite coal and apple wood in mine. What I like about them is that they are almost idiot proof. I teach welding at the local college and at the end of each semester I do a bar b que of pork shoulders for the students. I can fit up to about 40 lbs of meat on it. I wonder sometimes now if the students are taking the class to learn to weld or for the bar b que at the end of the semester LOL
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<~~~ going to Mopar74's welding class. He must teach TIG. 62 year old JC student :rofl:. If not there then it's to Hancock for their TIG class :rofl:. I don't think Ray does a BBQ for his classes at Hancock though :rofl:
 
Unconventional, Teaching GTAW (TIG) this fall. I've had students as young as 15 and as old as 73 so 62 you'll fit right in. Santa Maria would be a bit of a drive thou to San Marcos LOL. Teaching GMAW/FCAW (MIG) this summer class starts on the 25th of this month.
Kevin
 
Yup Low heat at around 225-240, at least 6-8 hours in the UDS, internal temp of about 205 degrees for pork shoulders, meat falls off the bone, wrap in foil, set in a dry cooler for about 45min to an hour. Pull it apart with forks, slap it on some big rolls with coleslaw and sauce(optional) eat and go back for 2nds and sometimes 3rds LOL. with lots of good adult beverages of course... except at the college for some reason they frown upon adult beverages on campus grounds.
Hit me up and I'll post my rub recipe if any one likes.
To the OP in my opinion you can't go wrong with style of smoker. I've done fish, chicken, lamb, venison, goat, turkey, corn and just about anything I can fit in it. I'm on my second one as it sits outside year round uncovered and as I said have built many of them. Wife works at a bakery and I have access to food grade barrels.
 
I love my BDS (Big Drum Smoker - same style - the guy who built them had a great website and amazing customer service - like responding to cook questions on Super Bowl Sunday (back before I gave up watching the NFL)) - faster cooks - tastes great - no adding fuel during the cook
 
Unconventional said:
I still fire up the old Brinkman Water Smoker now and again to drive the neighbors nutz. The smoke flavor happens in the 1st couple hours with the help of the wood flavor of choice. After that it's just the low heat that does the work. The water pan between the fire and the object of consumption catches the drippings and prevents flare ups and the steam keeps the temp pretty steady. Keep the fire box low and cook it slow is my personal opinion. For big cuts like Tri Tip or a Top Block (whole Top Sirloin) on an open wood fire, if I can't hold my hand over the grill for a 10 count, it's TOO hot.
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Yes, agree of what you are saying… also I like the meat to be wiped of and dry in order for the smoke to stick better during this first hours...
 
mopar74 said:
Yup Low heat at around 225-240, at least 6-8 hours in the UDS, internal temp of about 205 degrees for pork shoulders, meat falls off the bone, wrap in foil, set in a dry cooler for about 45min to an hour. Pull it apart with forks, slap it on some big rolls with coleslaw and sauce(optional) eat and go back for 2nds and sometimes 3rds LOL. with lots of good adult beverages of course... except at the college for some reason they frown upon adult beverages on campus grounds.
Hit me up and I'll post my rub recipe if any one likes.
To the OP in my opinion you can't go wrong with style of smoker. I've done fish, chicken, lamb, venison, goat, turkey, corn and just about anything I can fit in it. I'm on my second one as it sits outside year round uncovered and as I said have built many of them. Wife works at a bakery and I have access to food grade barrels.
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Thanks, yes a good rub recipe would be nice. Haven´t done that much. Mostly I offer good sauce as side dishes.
 
toolmanmike said:
I bought a Pit Boss a couple years ago. It works well.

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Got kinda the same set up with my Char-grille. Had it for over a decade now.

As a grille it's too big for me now. As a smoker, I can throw fifty pounds of meat on it and let it ride. The thing about the side box is having to rotate the meat. No big deal.

Guess I'm kind of a grille snob. I only use hardwood lump charcoal and a chimney starter.

I also have about face cord and half of apple I cut from a neglected apple tree when I bought the place. Perfect for pork. Also have some maple laying around I'll throw on the coals if I'm doing a quick grilling of pork chops.
 
Here you go S Sing
This is basically the All American Rub from the smokering.com web site with my take on adding dry mustard.
2 tablespoon Salt
2 tablespoon pepper
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoon dry mustard
4 tablespoon paprika
mix all ingredients in a bowl, I like to rub the pork down at least 12 hours before smoking. this is enough rub to do approximately 20-25 ils of meat. I use pork shoulders with bone in (picnic roast, pork butt) seal in an air tight container in the refrigerator for a min of 12 hours. Leftover rub can be stored in a container and used for your next cookout. I have used this rub on chicken, pork, beef and pork ribs just about all meat I've done in the smoker. This creates a nice spicy bark on the meat and once pulled apart and mixed together it mellows out to a great flavor.
Enjoy
Kevin
 
mopar74 said:
Unconventional, Teaching GTAW (TIG) this fall. I've had students as young as 15 and as old as 73 so 62 you'll fit right in. Santa Maria would be a bit of a drive thou to San Marcos LOL. Teaching GMAW/FCAW (MIG) this summer class starts on the 25th of this month.
Kevin
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My mother is only 20 minutes away from San Marcos. If for instance the classes were Tuesday and Thursday nights, take the Surfliner to Oceanside, stay with mother, go to class, hang out for Thursday class, Friday home on the Surfliner. She would get so sick of me :rofl:. I've been welding since I was 12 or 13. If it could be gas welded or brazed my friends brought me their broken pieces to get put back together. Burned a lot of sticks in my 40 years in the Operating Engineers. Played at MIG a little. Never got to play with a TIG welder or Aluminum, rock plants don't use much aluminum. Since rock plant bosses prefer to remain in their offices, built MANY BBQs and other useful projects, some even for the plants :rofl:. I never could talk them into buying a TIG welder though. Narrow minded of them. Our Regional Production Manager was retiring and moving to Oregon. My partner and I decided to build him a BBQ to take with him. We scrounged the bone yard for days to find the right used up parts. The firebox was a well used tail pulley from a conveyor with shaft and bearings so you could just roll it half over to dump the excess ash. Exhaust rain caps for air flow control on the chimneys. Wheels were discarded v-belt drive pulleys with the grooves filled with discarded v-belts so they rolled quietly. On one of his last visits while he was busy in the office with our boss we took the skip and drag tractor, loaded it in his company truck, tied it down and went back to our plant unnoticed. It wasn't long until he was standing on our office porch with this big silly grin on his face. "Don't deny it. I know it was you 2 that did this."
 
Well unconventional your luck the classes are on Tuesday and Thursday night from 6:00 to 9:00 each night. Check out Palomar's web site and registration will start sometime in late July or early August. Classes fill up fast, so try to get in early or at least get on the wait list and if all else fails you can crash the class. Secondly if you oxy-fuel weld and braze you will be a natural at GTAW. You already have the hand and eye coordination and I'm sure you can read the puddle. You'll just have to learn to control the heat input with your foot instead of moving the torch in and out to control heat as in oxy-fuel welding.
Hope to see you there and keep me if you have to crash the class I'll make sure you get in LOL... 12 years there as an instructor and I have a few tricks up my sleeve to get people in class.
Kevin
 
We have numerous local entities that market rubs. Google "Monkey Spit", that is the most creative of them from a marketing point of view. I like the rubs like Mopar74 noted. The cayenne, paprika, and chili powder give everything a nice color. Note, if you use a red rub on the pork for Chile Verde, it turns it into Chile Café (brown). Tastes great. Looks odd, for Chile Verde anyway.
 
mopar74 said:
Here you go S Sing
This is basically the All American Rub from the smokering.com web site with my take on adding dry mustard.
2 tablespoon Salt
2 tablespoon pepper
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoon dry mustard
4 tablespoon paprika
mix all ingredients in a bowl, I like to rub the pork down at least 12 hours before smoking. this is enough rub to do approximately 20-25 ils of meat. I use pork shoulders with bone in (picnic roast, pork butt) seal in an air tight container in the refrigerator for a min of 12 hours. Leftover rub can be stored in a container and used for your next cookout. I have used this rub on chicken, pork, beef and pork ribs just about all meat I've done in the smoker. This creates a nice spicy bark on the meat and once pulled apart and mixed together it mellows out to a great flavor.
Enjoy
Kevin
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Thanks for taking the time Kevin...
Other than brown sugar and some fresh dry mustard, I have this on the shelf. Will try it this weekend when we celebrate Midsummer here in Sweden.
 
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