Smoking Meat...

[stux]

I've been reading this thread with great interest. Would like to also smoke meat and have looked at a couple of DIY smoker posts. Anyone done the terra cotta pot smoker with electric element? That seems like the cheapest way to start out and then maybe convert and old fridge later on. I have a gas hooded BBQ and someone said you can get a smoker box for these but I have no idea how to use them or if they are any good. Appreciate some feedback on what you guys use other than the brought smokers. Prefer to go the DIY option for now.

I've been smoke roasting in a normal 4 burner hooded bbq for years.

I use a stainless steel smoker box from bbqsgalore

To prep for smoking, I lift the grill/diffuser off one of the burners on the very side, then fill the smoker box with soaked woodchips, and place the whole box right on top of the burner.

to light run that burner flat out until smoke starts coming form the woodchips, then turn the heat right down, and close the hood.

Place your food on the grill in the middle of the hood.

In order to crank up the heat in the bbq to recover after opening hood, crank up the burner on the other side.

Should be good

 

[stux]

PS: the meat is ready when the meat probe says it is , not the clock

 

[Phoney]

I've been reading this thread with great interest. Would like to also smoke meat and have looked at a couple of DIY smoker posts. Anyone done the terra cotta pot smoker with electric element? That seems like the cheapest way to start out and then maybe convert and old fridge later on. I have a gas hooded BBQ and someone said you can get a smoker box for these but I have no idea how to use them or if they are any good. Appreciate some feedback on what you guys use other than the brought smokers. Prefer to go the DIY option for now.

+1 on a UDS. Pretty easy and cheap to make

44 Gal drum (ebay) = $10
Dial thermometer (optional) = $30
Weber hood & grate (found on footpath) = $0
Tin of engine block paint =$20
expanded steel mesh (offcuts) = $20
Other bits of hardware (SS bolts, wire brush grinding disc etc)= $15

TBH unless you never ever have people around for BBQ's, you wouldn't want anything smaller. Once you put down two racks of ribs and a fish, or a fatty... the grate is full and you have to wait until they're done before you can smoke anything else. Which is hours, obviously.

 

[Screwtop]

+ 1 on the Ugly Drum Smoker, I have two weber grills in mine (from Freecycle) and can do heaps in one session.

Screwy

 

[mxd]

I've been reading this thread with great interest. Would like to also smoke meat and have looked at a couple of DIY smoker posts. Anyone done the terra cotta pot smoker with electric element? That seems like the cheapest way to start out and then maybe convert and old fridge later on. I have a gas hooded BBQ and someone said you can get a smoker box for these but I have no idea how to use them or if they are any good. Appreciate some feedback on what you guys use other than the brought smokers. Prefer to go the DIY option for now.

grab an old webber and smoke with that,

do a search on "webber smoker snake method"

 

[jimmyjack]

Weber Mountain Smoker for me. Once you get the hang of the temperature settings using the bottom dampers everything is pretty easy. I like the fact that I can go low and slow or full throttle for Turkeys etc...

 

[Gavo]

I started smoking meat with a Webber compact kettle and still use it when I want to cook hot and fast, It ends up being a little small for doing a complete family roast, including veggies on.

Here is my large offset, I have cooked a number of different meats on it including for cooking meat for a party of 130 people.

I use what timber I get from my mates property but tend to like using yellow box as it gives a lighter and more mellow flavour and it seems easier to control heat without creating billows of smoke. Irnbark is good but requires smaller pieces otherwise it smokes too much.

Here is a brisket I smoked when I first finished building the smoker.

Cheers,
Gavo.

 

[barls]

looks bloody good there gavo.

 

[stux]

I started smoking meat with a Webber compact kettle and still use it when I want to cook hot and fast, It ends up being a little small for doing a complete family roast, including veggies on.

Here is my large offset, I have cooked a number of different meats on it including for cooking meat for a party of 130 people.
[img=[URL="http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h467/Gavo67/BBQ%20Build/18082011046.jpg%5D"]http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h467/Gavo67/BBQ%20Build/18082011046.jpg][/URL]

I use what timber I get from my mates property but tend to like using yellow box as it gives a lighter and more mellow flavour and it seems easier to control heat without creating billows of smoke. Irnbark is good but requires smaller pieces otherwise it smokes too much.

Here is a brisket I smoked when I first finished building the smoker.
[img=[URL="http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h467/Gavo67/BBQ%20Food/20082011054.jpg%5D"]http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h467/Gavo67/BBQ%20Food/20082011054.jpg][/URL]

Cheers,
Gavo.

Is that smaller keg based offset in the background?

 

[Malted]

Truman, take some wood chips or smoker pellets, wrap in several layers of alfoil (or make a pocket to put them in). Put a few pin holes in the top of the wrapped smoking stuff. Place on the grill or burners. Wait until it is smokey and then add meat to the BBQ. I used to use the left burner and put food on a cake rack to the right hand side if I wanted a cool smoke.
It does not work very effectively because most hooded BBQ's have a big vent at the back (mine is sort of inline with the hood hinges) but it can add a bit of flavour to a roast or whatever other meats you choose to grill, BBQ or roast in the BBQ.

 

[stux]

You can put a roasting tray under the other grills on the burners to catch all the juices too. Good for keeping it tidy, but normally i find smoky juices don't make great gravy

 

[Phoney]

You can even make a smoker out of a cardboard box if you're really on a shoestring budget...

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Cardboard-Smoker/

 

[Gavo]

Is that smaller keg based offset in the background?

It was offset mk 1, It is made out of a couple of 44's. The biggest problem with using the 44's for an offset is that the thinner metal is harder to keep a constant heat with, it still gets used for parties, mainly for cooking spuds in the jacket though. The larger offset is made from a 88 gallon sidetank and is 3mm steel while the firebox is 6mm, once the coals are up it mostly requires a block or two of wood every 45 min or so.

 

[mxd]

thought I'd try and put gas on my offset on the weekend, just to see what it was like and if I was ever going to do an 18 hour smoke, the gas would be the only way I would attempt it (too lazy)

As I didn't know what it would be like, I threw a fattie on for lunch and wings and ribs for dinner

 

[Malted]

So I got my 30" Masterbuilt smoker and gave it a 3 hour run to burn off factory residues and give it a seasoning with some mesquite pellets. They heat up quicker than I expected given there is a seemingly small element under the smoker tray, it was up to 150oC (set temp) within 20 minutes. I was very pleased to see that it is in Celsius.


In the smoking photo the top vent is wide open to get any potential nasties out.
I let it cool last night and opened it up this morning to check on the contents of the smoker tray, the first lot were just ash. I can still smell the lovely mesquite smoke as I think I got some residues in my hair or on my clothes. :huh:

Pork spare ribs are a definite for this weekend.

 

[Truman42]

Going to give Malteds idea a crack but like him my bbq has a gap between the hood and base at the hinges so might not get very good smokehouse efficiency (term borrowed from Qldkev). Will play around and see how it goes.

I have a spare keg and was thinking about building a keg smoker. (More so because I enjoy building and making stuff) Ive looked at 2 online builds and one of them has a pipe that goes into the very bottom with an elbow outside up to a valve which must be used as a damper. You have to cut out a slot in the bottom of the keg to fit this in and JBweld up the gap.

Heres a picture and here is the link to the Instructable http://www.instructables.com/id/Beer-Keg-Smoker/#step1

The other just had slots cut around the side wall at the bottom.

Do you need this damper mechanism? Isnt it just to shut off air flow to snuff out your fire or does it actually control the heat as well? If so couldnt you just put an elbow in just above where the keg starts to curve (similar to where you would install a ball valve for a HLT etc?)
Or does the airflow have to be under the charcoal for some reason??

 

[mxd]

Going to give Malteds idea a crack but like him my bbq has a gap between the hood and base at the hinges so might not get very good smokehouse efficiency (term borrowed from Qldkev). Will play around and see how it goes.

I have a spare keg and was thinking about building a keg smoker. (More so because I enjoy building and making stuff) Ive looked at 2 online builds and one of them has a pipe that goes into the very bottom with an elbow outside up to a valve which must be used as a damper. You have to cut out a slot in the bottom of the keg to fit this in and JBweld up the gap.

Heres a picture and here is the link to the Instructable http://www.instructables.com/id/Beer-Keg-Smoker/#step1

The other just had slots cut around the side wall at the bottom.

Do you need this damper mechanism? Isnt it just to shut off air flow to snuff out your fire or does it actually control the heat as well? If so couldnt you just put an elbow in just above where the keg starts to curve (similar to where you would install a ball valve for a HLT etc?)
Or does the airflow have to be under the charcoal for some reason??

the damper is how you can control temperature,
if you put a "basket" in for the coals then you can have a hole down the bottom. If you look at wolfy's build you'll see he has holes and a magnet

another option (just to play) is use an electric frypan for your heat source, someone did that here (bluedog ?), then you just put you wood chips on the fypan

 

[mxd]

for the melbourne'ites

charcoal $1 a kg

http://www.charcoalsupplies.com.au/products/


never used, not known etc..

 

[cdbrown]

I had a crack at smoking some spare ribs in the weber kettle on the weekend. Set up a snake and put some jarrah off cuts on top for smokey flavour. I was trying for the 3-2-1 method (which was more like 2.5-1.5-0.5) and I'm guessing that it was running too hot as it ended up quite dry. Still very tasty but had to chuck the end pieces where there wasn't much meat as it basically turned into blackened cardboard. I had a dial thermometer sitting through the top vent to measure the weber temp and was aiming for 100c, and it was this for the most part so wondering if I should have been measuring that temp somewhere else. Have a wireless dual temp guage on it's way from the US so I can measure the the meat temp as well.

Maybe I should pull the trigger and get my self a Hark Tri fire and get used to cooking with an offset.

 

[stux]

I had a crack at smoking some spare ribs in the weber kettle on the weekend. Set up a snake and put some jarrah off cuts on top for smokey flavour. I was trying for the 3-2-1 method (which was more like 2.5-1.5-0.5) and I'm guessing that it was running too hot as it ended up quite dry. Still very tasty but had to chuck the end pieces where there wasn't much meat as it basically turned into blackened cardboard. I had a dial thermometer sitting through the top vent to measure the weber temp and was aiming for 100c, and it was this for the most part so wondering if I should have been measuring that temp somewhere else. Have a wireless dual temp guage on it's way from the US so I can measure the the meat temp as well.

Maybe I should pull the trigger and get my self a Hark Tri fire and get used to cooking with an offset.

Probably have been a good idea to measure the temp on the grill where the ribs were

Also those dial thermometers can be terribly inaccurate

My Maverick 732 just arrived yesterday