BBQ Newbie with some questions

Hi all. I'm a newbie to the BBQ scene, but have spent a lot of time in the kitchen, both cooking and baking. I recently finished building an Ugly Drum Smoker with the help of a "Big Poppa Smoker" kit, and have some questions regarding the first few cooks I've done on it.

First off, I started with a brand NEW unlined drum. Seasoned it with vegetable oil, and ran it "dry" at about 325 for about 5 hours on a chimney full of Kingsford briquettes (the blue bag) and some hickory wood chips.

The next day at the suggestion of quite a few, I decided to cook a fatty to help with the seasoning process. So I loaded up the basket about halfway with more Kingsford briquettes, and two good handfuls of soaked hickory chips. Using the minion method, I lit off about 1/2 a chimney full of briquettes until they were ashed over and completely grey. Added those to the middle of the basket and got temps stable to about 240. Set the fatty on and cooked to an internal temp of 165 after about an hour and a half.

All seemed ok, but the smell and taste had a definitely undesirable quality to it. I'd have to liken it to a sort of petroleum type of smell/flavor. Keep in mind that I didn't use ANY lighter fluid or starter at all, had NO thick white smoke during the cook (although a thin white stream of smoke from the wood chips was evident throughout). I don't have a lot to compare to, so I don't know if I was just too heavy handed with the wood chips, or if the briquettes that were cold put off an odd smell (read that's possible somewhere else) or if there is something I just didn't consider.

So I decided to try a Pork Shoulder and go a completely different route. Got a bag of lump charcoal instead, and filled the basket completely. Lit it off with about 20 Kingsford briquettes in a chimney starter and made sure they were GLOWING hot. Poured in the middle of the basket minion method style and got the temps stable to 225 and set the shoulder on for about 6 hours (only a 6 lb butt). NO wood chips at all for smoke this time.

So after 6 hours of low and slow, (very faint smoke the entire cook) a two hour rest, and one more hour out of the foil to set the bark, we pulled it and found it had a really nice pink smoke ring, good flavor, and was tender, but not overly done. However, there was still a slightly off flavor like a background note of the same petroleum variety that was overwhelming on the fatty the prior cook. (only one day apart from the cooks).

So was that just residual flavor that was cooked into the pork shoulder from the fatty the day before? It wasn't nearly as strong, but still was present.

Like I said, I don't have a lot to compare to. The local BBQ restaurants I've been to so far here in South Charlotte just don't have a product I'd consider raving about. If the shoulder didn't have that hint of off taste, I'd say it was better than anything I've had otherwise. But I'm sure that's biased because I've cooked it myself. What chef doesn't think their food is great?

Sorry about the long winded post, but I wanted to be thorough in describing what I've done so far.

Please let me know what your thoughts are, and if you have any suggestions or tips. I'm looking forward to getting better and cooking up some awesome BBQ.

Thanks,
Vinny

Hi to everyone and thanks for the quick replies!

To address a few of the comments: I light the chimney with two sheets of newsprint and a match. That's it.

The second cook was with just the lump charcoal (aside from the briquettes in the chimney to start it off) to take some of the variables out and see if I could determine what was causing the off taste. IE: no wood chips.

I don't have any hardwood chunks yet, but will be looking to get some soon. I was using the wood chips as I had them already.

No I did not clean out the inside of the drum with soapy water.... I was not aware that there was any rust inhibitor used... Although that certainly seems like it should have been obvious now, as there wasn't any rust on the inside (I just figured it was a new drum and shouldn't have any rust on it). The main reason I DIDN"T use any water on it was to prevent any rust from forming. Just used veg oil and did a dry run to start to season it.

Any suggestions now that the inside is starting to get seasoned? Can I still clean it out, or do I need to do a high temp burn in it. The exterior is painted with all high temp paint, but I'd hate to risk damaging it and having to strip it down and repaint it again.

Thanks again guys.

To continue answering follow up questions and comments:

I had read that it was possible the binder in the Kingsford could cause this sort of problem. And that using the minion method essentially continuously caused this problem with the briquettes, as there are always new briquettes that start to catch and so on.

For that reason I went with just lump charcoal on the 2nd cook, but started them with some Kingsford Briquettes. The difference was I let them get completely glowing red hot in the chimney before pouring them on the basket of lump. I figured that would make sure there wasn't any smoldering of the briquettes, or if there were any, it would be minimal.

The results were drastically improved in terms of flavor, but the hint of that off flavor I wasn't sure was just residual from the first cook or not.

Not having cleaned out the interior rust inhibitor due to ignorance I fear may also be a culprit, and 3 cooks in, I will have to decide how best to take care of this issue. A good scrub with a bristle brush as suggested is certainly in the cards before the next cook.

The wood chips were soaked as I was told that this would keep the smoke down. I had noticed in the initial seasoning run that dry chips on the coals would burn fast and smoke a lot! So I soaked them for the 2nd run. I have not used them at all since. If I do use them I will do so sparingly and make sure they are dry. I will also look for chunk hardwood to flavor the meat.

Lastly, the meat has not gone on until I've had temps stable for at least a half an hour, and yesterdays cook was after 45 minutes of stable temps, so I don't think it was a problem with putting it on before the coals got a good start, but then again, I'm the one asking for advice, so If I need to wait longer, by all means, let me know.

Thanks again for all the help guys.

Thanks Foam, I've always run the exhaust wide open, and used only the intakes to control the temps, so sounds like I got that right at least!

This weekend I'll either find a power washer, or just a good old stiff bristle brush and get to cleaning off the inside and re seasoning with lump charcoal. I'll report back after that to see if the results have improved or not.

Thanks again for all the tips and suggestions guys!

Ok, so to update this thread, last week I cleaned out the UDS after the first few cooks that left a seemingly "petroleum" type smell after the cook. Most notably after cooking a bacon wrapped fatty.

The cleanout was with good ol dishwashing detergent, a plastic bristled brush, and several hours of scrubbing and hosing down. That should have cleaned out any residue not initially cleaned. Essentially this was back to clean metal inside, as this was originally a brand new drum.

So I dried off the interior and exterior and about an hour later, did a 5 hour burn with temps as high as 375 to 400 degrees. Used ONLY Lump charcoal in the basket and started to red hot coals with a chimney starter.

The next day I put on another bacon wrapped fatty as it has been suggested is a good first cook to get all the rendered fat to help season the drum. Again, completely lump charcoal in the basket, and a few red hot lump coals from the chimney and smoked the fatty for a couple hours at 220 to 235.

Once done to 195 internal, I opened up the drum to a LOT of smoke (same as first time) and the similar but only slightly less strong smell of what I can only describe as petroleum again.

I'm convinced that it has nothing to do with the drum or the fuel at this point, but the bacon itself. It was the same store bought, commercial bacon used the first time around, and I can say that with all the fat rendered out and hitting the hot coals, it produces a really strong smoke that really isn't pleasant.

So once again, I cleaned out the drum, but basically just wiped it out entirely with paper towel until there wasn't any more residue coming off the inside. I left it open to "air out" for a week, and it doesn't have that oily smell any longer.

Today I'm smoking some baby backs on a charcoal fire with some dry hickory chips (no lumps yet) for 3 hours at 250. I'm halfway home, and so far the smell is pleasant and the smoke isn't overpowering.

Using a dry rub I have used with success on lots of other grilled meats, plus a good coating of brown sugar on top. Every half hour I'm spraying with apple juice, and for the last half hour I'll be mopping with a hickory based but store bought Q Sauce.

No foil for these, based upon reading other forums here that say the best bet is 3 hours at 250. I've seen lots of debate over the 3,2 1 method, or 2,2,1 method, or even less, producing ribs that are literally falling off the bone, and essentially "overdone" So I'm trying this "unfoiled" method to see how it goes. I'm due for another spritz of juice, and I'll give them a bend test to see how they're getting along.

Once cooked, and cut, I'll take pictures and post, and hopefully the problem of the bad smoke will have been taken care of forever.

I'd be interested to hear if others have had issues with bacon wrapped meat causing strong or unpleasant smoke in their UDS cookers. I don't use a diffuser or pan, (which I could easily do, as the Big Poppa Smoker kit I've used has hardware that allows for a higher basket to do grilling on. I could just lay in another grate or perforated Pizza pan on those brackets to act as a diffuser, or even a pan to catch excess fat in the future.

Still learning, so I'm all ears to any advice. Thanks again for all those reading.
Vinny