Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[Warpdrv]

LOL Knifemaker....

That looks like s Yoder smoker in the pic.... just a touch different though...

https://www.yodersmokers.com/cheyenne.html

 

[Knifemaker]

Somewhat on topic here...

Spent the afternoon laying out and pouring a concrete pad to put my yet to be completed smoker on. (It's roughly 3' X 2')

 

[Bounce]

No footings? No rebar?

 

[Knifemaker]

No footings? No rebar?

Nope. Just didn't seem necessary for a 3x2 slab. Granted... I know very little about concrete engineering .....but I don't think the smoker will be over 300 pounds.

 

[Fred W]

Been looking at smokers lately, found this one yesterday...

Actually, that looks a lot like the Brinkman Heavy Gauge Smoker they sell at Home Depot for $300

That's a nice pit for someone starting out. You could do a lot worse that that unit.

Fit is with some tuning plates, or convert it to a reverse flow, and you'd have something that would work quite well.

 

[Knifemaker]

Recent work...almost there..

Should be done this weekend...

 

[Fred W]

Hmmm... I'd think about reducing the length of that smoke stack, if I were you. A stack of that small diameter and extreme length is going to create a huge draft vacuum (negative pressure) in the fire box and that might make it a bit hard to control burn rate and keep things cooking along steadily.

Just a thought.

 

[Knifemaker]

I'll ask him about it. He did say he built one from the same size tank for someone else and they love it. Worst case is he can always cut it down...

 

[Fred W]

True. Much easier to cut some off than add some on.

Still looking great. Can't wait to see that pit in action.

 

[Knifemaker]

I do know he uses some type of calculator to build.... Like this one?

https://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html

I don't have all the measurements so I can't plug anything in there, but I trust he did.

 

[TomInPA]

No problem with extra draft from the chimney as long as you can control inlet air. It will pull hard with an open damper, and can't pull more air than you let in as long as there are no leaks.

 

[Knifemaker]

That's about what I thought. Heat rises and the only issue with making it too tall would be having the exhaust condense inside the stack and drip back into the cooking chamber on your meat. As mine has the stack on the side of the chamber that would be more unlikely to happen.

There's a guy down the street that extended his stack to go through the metal roof of a car port...so it's like five feet tall. He says he hasn't noticed any difference in the way the smoker works.

One advantage of the square fire box is I can let air in the box by the front vent, and I can also crack open the door....or...open the ash tray a bit to let more air in.

Again, I can only trust my builder knows what he's doing as he has a few dozen satisfied customers...

and from what I've read, that "calculator" was created by some guy that believed he had "the perfect smoker" and simply extrapolated data from taking exact measurements of his own pit. His own admission that there are "no set rules" means it's just fuzzy science and thus makes building a pit much much more fun.

 

[Fred W]

It will be interesting to see how you make out. I've always thought that the best situation is when the smoke is lazily wafting past the meat, too much draft would be bad because it would promote faster air and smoke exchange, but maybe it doesn't matter, or maybe you can control the speed at the inlet if everything else is tight enough.

Fired up the UDS yesterday for a couple of racks of baby backs. Dry brined overnight, then liberally rubbed with Meathead's Memphis Dust.

Smoked initially for 2 1/2 hours, Texas crutched for 2 hours, and back in the smoke to finish for an hour. They came out pretty darned good.

The only smoke wood that I had on hand was hickory, and in retrospect I'd say that was a bit too spicy for baby backs. I think I'd have preferred them with apple or cherry wood, but that's just being picky.

Our eldest daughter, her husband, and our two grandsons came over to decimate the ribs and watch the Patriots manhandle the Romo-less Cowboys.

Gotta love BBQ'n in the fall.

 

[El Toro Joe]

Nice...now I need to throw some ribs on the smoker...maybe this weekend.

 

[Knifemaker]

Yep...those ribs look good.

I also use a salt-less rub but have cut my crutch time as they have been too tender (yes I said that lol)

On next batch on my new smoker I'll likely skip the foil and go for the apple juice in the spray bottle..and the baste them the last hour with sauce.

I think the only problem with having the smoke flowing too fast over the meat is you end up using A LOT of fuel. I know if it's "too slow" the smoke can get stale and adversely flavor the meat. Getting the right amount of air going in seems to be the key in immersing the food with fresh smoke and maintaining the proper tempature.

Looks like my pit will be delivered Tuesday night....so I'll post a few pics of the finished product. I'm having an Oktoberfest BBQ this Saturday...so I'll be doing the seasoning of the pit and a dry run though this week.

 

[Fred W]

Cool. Don't forget to post pictures of the seasoning run. Geeze, I'm almost as excited to see how your new pit works as I was when I built my own. Of course part of that is because I'm sure the UDS won't be my "final" pit. I'm starting to realize the drawbacks to the vertical smoker and direct heat below.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Yep, me too, going to add a diffuser to my UDS I think.

 

[Bounce]

Mopping your Q? Blasphemy! Buy good cuts of meat and cook them well then you won't need to hide them under sauce.

 

[Fred W]

Yep, me too, going to add a diffuser to my UDS I think.

I tried adding a rack with a water pan in it on the UDS and was not happy with the "steamed" effect. No dark bark to speak of. Then another time I took one of those disposable aluminum turkey roaster pans and set it right on top of my charcoal basket. That seemed to work better, but I had to throw roaster pan out after one use because all the drippings fried in it. I'm thinking something a bit more permanent about 4-5 inches above the charcoal would be the hot ticket.

A while back a few ideas for diffusers were thrown around. The pizza stone idea is a good one, but they are pretty expensive. Someone recommended a big clay pot saucer, but I'm not sure how that would stand up to the heat. The search for the UDS diffuser goes on.

 

[gixxerjasen]

I had a friend who tried three pizza stones (as pizza stones, not diffusers) and they all cracked and broke. He found that a piece of ceramic tile from the hardware store did just as good of a job for a fraction of the price. I've thought about trying to put something like that in there.