Ugly Drum Smoker

[swamprat]

Decided I needed to learn the art of low and slow cooking and seems the cheapest way for me to do that was to build an Ugly Drum Smoker. I did my first smoke on this thing today and I'm pretty impressed.
Did up one sausage roll stuffed with mushrooms,onions and cheese and a boston butt. Sausage roll was done in about 2 hours and the butt took closer to 6 hours. Good eats!

Looks burnt don't it?

Not on the inside!

All up, I've got about a hundred bucks in this rig. If it keeps putting out good food like this it will be worth every penny!

 

[swamprat]

Hi Johno,
Yeah I was pretty happy with it for my first shot. I can see me doing this a bunch.
I used hickory as that was what home depot had in chunks. Everything else was just little wood chips. I'll have to give pecan a try.

 

[Wannabe]

nice bark , nice smoke ring , pity it wont travel this far in the mail .
hard typing and dribbling at the same time .
makes me think its about time i dragged out my smoker , aint done any for a while and we are out of frozen pulled pork for our pizza's

p.s. what wood did you use for the smoke , i have only tried a few and so far my fav is pecan.

Johno,
I guess ya'll don't have misquite in Aust. do you? That is some fine cooking wood. I have only used the sawdust,chips, and small limbs to cook with. Peices large enough to turn or make something with gets used that way. Beautiful wood. Cooks with a good flavor and burns hot. If I could get ahold of some seeds I would send you some to plant. It mostly grows a good way west of here. You would be more famous than Ned Kelly, but not as highly thought of. :shock:
Bob

 

[oldsparkey]

Around here Citrus is really good , the dry , seasoned wood burns really hot and the coals last forever. The green wood makes for some nice smoke.
In the fireplace I can use a few pieces of citrus and it will burn a lot longer then double the amount and size of the oak , plus the coals from the citrus remain a lot longer.

Fire off the fireplace in the evening and before going to bed let it burn down to coals , close it up and they will keep the place nice and toasty for a long time. Most of the time there are still some coals in there to rekindle a fire in the morning. It all depends on when you go to bed , I do not object to snoozing in front of it on a cold night while the wife wants her bed to sleep in. :lol:

Also with the Cast Iron Franklin Stove ( fireplace I have ) there is a place for a hanger on each side so a bean pot ( Dutch oven ) can be hung ( When the doors are open ) and actually use the fireplace for cooking. The Chile it cooks is not half bad either. :wink:

 

[seedtick]

any tree that has edible fruit makes good smoke wood

pecan. hickory, citrus, apple, cherry, etc.

 

[lil'moe]

in reference to fruit and/or nut trees for smoking, cross walnut off the list. It seemed to leave bitter taste-not good! Threw out the meat and coals!!

 

[Kayak Jack]

After wandering through various kinds of wood, I returned to hickory. It's the standard for a reason. Yeah, others are popular, and tasty, but hickory is the standard.

 

[WDfrmTN]

Hi Johno,
Yeah I was pretty happy with it for my first shot. I can see me doing this a bunch.
I used hickory as that was what home depot had in chunks. Everything else was just little wood chips. I'll have to give pecan a try.

Experiment with apple, peach, and other fruitwoods. You'll be amazed.

 

[dawallace45]

Actually you can get mesquite here in Australia , it's a introduced pest species and also sold in bags at BBQ stores and at Bunnings hardwares

David

 

[oldsparkey]

Actually you can get mesquite here in Australia , it's a introduced pest species and also sold in bags at BBQ stores and at Bunnings hardwares

David

Ha Ha Ha ... You got Mesquite from us and we got Melluica ( Tea Tree ) from you guys. It is running wild and creating a lot of problems , especially in the Everglades area , they can't cut them down fast enough.
You guy's did get the better part of the deal.

 

[Wannabe]

Actually you can get mesquite here in Australia , it's a introduced pest species and also sold in bags at BBQ stores and at Bunnings hardwares

David

David,
Misquite is a pest of the highest order. That is why I told Johno the if he imported it he would be famous, or would that be infamous. Parts of west Texas probally would not have any trees at all if it were not for misquite. The stuff is dimensionally stable. You can turn a green peice of misquite and there won't be much if any distorsion after it dries.
Bob

 

[dawallace45]

Bob

We also got Cholla from you guys as well , Actually I have come across Mesquite trees in Johnos part of the country many years ago , we also got African Box thorn as well

Davod