smokey joe pron and UDS intakes

[pinkelephant]

When I lived in Texas, My ex and I went over-the-road trucking. We were based out of San Antonio but traveling thru all the states and Canada (89-91). I threw this little grill on board (below). it's built like a tank but small. I cooked 100% mesquite branches in it. about half way thru the cooking, the fire would go out and you would have to re-light it and start again, but the food was outstanding! It had the fire dept called on it in Ohio because of how much smoke it put out (another story). After I left TX, my Eagle pass mesquite supply ran out and I went back to charcoal in an old smokey.

I missed the way that cooked, so when I saw a Smokey Joe Silver, I thought of burning pure mesquite chunks in it. I did a quick impulse buy.

T-Bones over mesquite chunks

First I got Mary stir-frying some "kicked up corn"

Then, I loaded the weber chimney with mesquite chunks.

I dumped the chunks too soon and had to get the fire going better before I started cooking

I had to get a taste of Big Ron's bbq sauce on there, but it was real good without it. Plenty of smoke

I love to cook like this. I miss it. you have to work for it a little but it pays back in awesome food. I love the smokey joe but I wish I read about the ash vent clogging before I bought it. I would have paid extra for the Gold version

Then I bought a Smokey joe gold and did the following mod to the silver:

I put UDS style vents on it with 1/2" parts and a 7/8ths hole cutter.
I ran the outside nut as far up the nipple as it would go by hand, then I put rtv on the nut to seal the fitting from the outside. I then tightened the inside nut TIGHT. with a screwdriver and hammer.

I opened all vents. fired it up and left the bottom open and one UDS vent open on the windy side. it worked great.

now for the test:

Round 1 was chicken. I seasoned with Lowry's seasoned salt and threw it on.
I was working on a solar powered deer blind and had a friend flip the chicken after about 15 mins. I asked him if any pieces looked like they were cooking too fast. he said they all looked good. I went over 15 minutes later and found some of it was burning on the bottom and had already burnt on the top before he flipped it.
They were good enough to eat and everything else came out awesome.

A little Big Ron's sauce on top..

"Marv's kicked up corn" inspired side. Frozen corn, Rotel, cumin, chili powder, a cut up seranno from the garden.

Round 2, beef and chicken burgers. Montreal steak seasoning on the beef and Big Ron's original on the chicken.

the chicken was a little dry. I need to play with that. There has to be a way to juice up the chicken.

beef

chicken

home made salsa, using some SUPER hot serannos from the garden

 

[Boshizzle]

Great story, great mods, and great pron!

 

[pinkelephant]

And for the rest of the story of the old box smoker: (pasted from the distant past)

I got a little square smoker with a side vent and a mini chimney. it fit in the side box of the truck and i burned mesquite logs I was buying on the mexican border. I had to take the food off half way thru the cook to re-stoke the wood, but it was small and reliable. by then, I was married to a "76 truckstop" waitress out of San Antonio, TX.

we were staying at a hotel for the weekend in New York with another driver from my company and I suggested that we do a cookout in the parking lot. He said good, lets make some chicken. I kept trying to use barbeque sauce for marinade back then and I told him I gave up trying to cook chicken because i always burned it. That was when a black man from Houston taught me all anyone needs to know about chicken. seasoned salt then water with season salt or just beer for marinade, put it over mesquite and its good to go. lately I started adding bbq sauce 10 mins before I take it off the grill. I put chicken pieces over the coals and I water smoke the whole chickens. My first wife and I were north east of Dayton Ohio visiting her mom. the husband invited us to a cookout. we showed up and he has 10 lbs of leg quarters and he was getting ready to put them on his fancy $700 (around 1991) gas grill. They invited Texans to a cookout and they were going to make us watch them gas chicken!! I asked to be brought back to my truck. I got my gear and I put my little dirty smoker (I still have it in the basement. it needs a new bottom) right beside his fancy, shiny grill. I got the smoke rollin and we were off. he cooked half of it and i cooked the other half. the fire marshall was 2 blocks away and smelled mesquite. being in Ohio, driving thru a seniors mobile home park, naturally, he calls in a fire, turns on his lights and starts squeeling tires. all perfectly normal for Ohio I assume... He comes flying up to a cookout, calls off the fire trucks and visits us for a while enjoying the smell the old grill was pumping out. we finished cooking and everyone ate my chicken with all of that sweet music of people saying its the best chicken they ever ate and the husband was pissed. he wouldn't even taste it. he sat glaring and was the only one to try his chicken. I never liked him so it was a day that I will always remember with a grin.

 

[Hoss]

:laugh: :clap2: :clap2::laugh: BTW,start grindin your own chicken.That storebought stuff can kill ya.

 

[pinkelephant]

:laugh: :clap2: :clap2::laugh: BTW,start grindin your own chicken.That storebought stuff can kill ya.

Already considering that
http://mattoon.craigslist.org/app/2562753514.html

 

[mbshop]

interesting and fun to see. i wonder if it would be better if the "uds" fittings were to be situated just below the charcoal grate. anyhoo, the food looks great !

 

[pinkelephant]

interesting and fun to see. i wonder if it would be better if the "uds" fittings were to be situated just below the charcoal grate. anyhoo, the food looks great !

the intakes on the gold were much higher than that. it works great

 

[Big Bears BBQ]

Looks good.............

 

[tortaboy]

I'd be nervous about high temps boiling the paint off of the baby grill. Isn't it cooking a lot hotter than normal?

 

[Baby Back Maniac]

Are you talking about the smokey Joe? If so, Webers are not painted. They have a porcelain coating that is the same as the bigger grills. That shouldn't be effected by the higher heat.

 

[tortaboy]

Yep...I meant the Smokey Joe. I know they are porcelain coated. I would think that the coating would have a maximum tolerance before blistering? If not, very cool and your mod is genius!

 

[mbshop]

i understand that. one of the issues of the gold is that it don't get as hot as the silver. soooo i wonder if putting the fittings below the grate would make it equal the silver without the ash/vent problem.

the intakes on the gold were much higher than that. it works great

 

[mbshop]

as to the porcelain melting or such, little chance of that at most temps achieved by the sj's. would have to cook at super hot temps repeatedly. then it would probably just spiderweb. so cook away !

 

[pinkelephant]

I can't speak about how this works with charcoal, that's not why I bought it. The SJS with the clogging bottom and one cap open burnt as hot as the SJG. With all 3 caps off, it would be much hotter than the SJG. also, there isn't enough room under the grate for these caps too. Also, the junk falls thru the grate and blocks the vents. that was the whole point of the mod.

the food above tasted better than it looked. not my best pics.

the grills have only been used for the cooks above and they are dripping wet with liquid smoke. they are cool. I have the tamale pot for the mod. when it gets cooler and my yard projects run out, I will mod one of these.

 

[Big Ron]

looks great and nice mods on the smokey joe, great post