meatball hoagie
MemberGot rid of the matchlight.
Hey all,
I've been smoking on my 22.5" OTG for years now. Recently I started smoking nearly every week, and my interest in doing a full packer had me measuring up my smoker grate real estate. The Q coming off the Weber kettle was fine enough, but the thought of shoehorning a brisket on there and having to maybe wrestle with the lid open longer than I'd like was intimidating me. I wanted more space.
I have to mention right here that it was about this time that I found a freebie Masterbuilt electric smoker on the street. It needed a can of EZ Off and I removed more rendered fat and blackened grease than the thing was worth purchasing new, but I'm a sucker for a groundscore. It's nice to have for holding food or finishing after an initial hit of charcoal fired smoke, but just doesn't make the grade for what I consider real barbecue.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. It seemed like whenever I found a WSM on Craigslist for a bargain price, I didn't have any expendable cash. I had heard of the DIY UDS but never looked at it further. Until now. I put it together over the course of a couple weeks, picking up the drum ($20), finding a donor Weber ($15), a few trips to HD, and waiting forever for a step bit to arrive.
Apple juice concentrate drum.
Burnout to remove paint and liner.
A good deal of the food grade liner remained, so the wire wheel came out to dispatch what held on.
Expanded metal sheet from HD.
Cut to 2x 24" x 9" pieces. I fashioned a short cook ring out of the remainder.
Weber 14.5" charcoal grate for 18.5" kettle.
72" shelf standard upright.
Cheapo placeholder dial thermo from HD that didn't register out of the package. I'll replace with a 12" probe thermometer.
Almost there!
Seasoned up with shelf supports and grates in place.
Intake: 3x ¾" nipples, two capped, one full flow lead free ball valve.
Finishing touches.
Fire in the hole!
A couple racks of SLC ribs rubbed up and ready to go. I soaked one in pineapple juice for about 12 hours while the other spent that additional time dry brining with Kosher salt.
I pulled the water pan halfway through the cook. Still learning!
And after about 5 hours. They probably could have stayed on a bit longer, but I was hungry *NOW*! I'll try hanging my ribs next.
Happy smoking!
South Philly Tim
I've been smoking on my 22.5" OTG for years now. Recently I started smoking nearly every week, and my interest in doing a full packer had me measuring up my smoker grate real estate. The Q coming off the Weber kettle was fine enough, but the thought of shoehorning a brisket on there and having to maybe wrestle with the lid open longer than I'd like was intimidating me. I wanted more space.
I have to mention right here that it was about this time that I found a freebie Masterbuilt electric smoker on the street. It needed a can of EZ Off and I removed more rendered fat and blackened grease than the thing was worth purchasing new, but I'm a sucker for a groundscore. It's nice to have for holding food or finishing after an initial hit of charcoal fired smoke, but just doesn't make the grade for what I consider real barbecue.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. It seemed like whenever I found a WSM on Craigslist for a bargain price, I didn't have any expendable cash. I had heard of the DIY UDS but never looked at it further. Until now. I put it together over the course of a couple weeks, picking up the drum ($20), finding a donor Weber ($15), a few trips to HD, and waiting forever for a step bit to arrive.
Apple juice concentrate drum.
Burnout to remove paint and liner.
A good deal of the food grade liner remained, so the wire wheel came out to dispatch what held on.
Expanded metal sheet from HD.
Cut to 2x 24" x 9" pieces. I fashioned a short cook ring out of the remainder.
Weber 14.5" charcoal grate for 18.5" kettle.
72" shelf standard upright.
Cheapo placeholder dial thermo from HD that didn't register out of the package. I'll replace with a 12" probe thermometer.
Almost there!
Seasoned up with shelf supports and grates in place.
Intake: 3x ¾" nipples, two capped, one full flow lead free ball valve.
Finishing touches.
Fire in the hole!
A couple racks of SLC ribs rubbed up and ready to go. I soaked one in pineapple juice for about 12 hours while the other spent that additional time dry brining with Kosher salt.
I pulled the water pan halfway through the cook. Still learning!
And after about 5 hours. They probably could have stayed on a bit longer, but I was hungry *NOW*! I'll try hanging my ribs next.
Happy smoking!
South Philly Tim
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