Ugly Drum Smoker

Well... its been a while since i created a new blog so here we go. The picture above although a bit over exposed is a Ugly Drum Smoker or UDS for short. Its all the rage in the smoking world today. Basically its design is that of the Texas open pit style of cooking directly over the coals. Here is a picture that helps explain more about it.



It`s made from a 55 gallon steel drum sandblasted clean inside and out. Drill three 7/8 inch holes for air intakes. One hole needs to have a 3/4th inch ball valve to adjust the amount of air entering the smoker to feed the fire. Make a charcoal basket for the coal and wood chunks, add a cooking great & your set. The drum you can find used from various places such as a restaurant. Its preferred that the drum used to contain food products such as cooking oil or syrup mixes etc... non toxic materials. In the next pictures you can see the ball valve and also the charcoal basket.





The basket is made from a Weber 16 1/2 inch charcoal grate with expanded metal wrapped around either welded, bolted or even wired to the grate. You will also need to add a cheap 16 inch pizza pan to the bottom of the basket 2-3 inches from the charcoal grate to catch the ashes which makes it easier to clean the drum when your done cooking. Weld or bolt some metal rods for handles to lift the basket out of the drum to fill or clean. The size of my basket is large enough to fill for very long cook sessions to smoke briskets or Boston butts for pulled pork. The cooking grate located 6 inches below the lid or top of drum is a Weber product also, measuring 18 1/2 inches in diameter large enough to cook for parties of 50-75 people. The next picture shows the grate & basket inside the drum.



The smoke exits from the top of the drum lid through the 2 inch bung hole. You will also need to add a thermometer to keep track of the temperature inside the drum while cooking.





Here is some of the food you can cook on a UDS. A brisket and two pork butts for pulled pork. Just look at the color on that meat!


As the meat cooks and the fat starts to render out these juices will drip down onto the burning coals and product a natural smoke along with the wood chunks you added in the beginning... man let me tell ya the aroma is out of this world.



Here is the finished products from my first day of using the UDS. Southern style Pulled Pork and Texas style brisket





Moist tender pork and brisket smoked with apple and hickory wood chunks waiting for a party. Well that's about it for the ole BBQ Adventures this time. Thanks for checking up on me.