The idea of building a clone of the commercial Big Drum Smoker was discussed by Tony and myself. Tony found drums for the right price in West Dallas. We picked two weeks ago Saturday to start our build. Me and Melissa went to get 4 of them. We got the lids cut off, air valves on and handles attached that day. We still had to build a charcoal basket and add the brackets for the cooking grate. I completed this with Melissa's help the following Saturday. Cooked some chicken breasts and thighs to see how it performed.
These cookers are desiged as low/direct cooking vessels. As opposed to low/indirect like the trailered pit. When the meat cooks, the fat and juices drip down into the charcoal basket with wood. This imparts a different flavor from an offset cooker as the steam coming back up has the meat flavor from the drippings. I used a few pounds for the first run and it held at 225*-250* with no adjusting. Ideal for cooking BBQ. 10lbs of charcoal loaded up will run for 10-12 hours unattended. Here are a few pictures.
2 comments:
Hey Eric,
Nice job on the BDS clone. Have you done a long cook on it yet?
Brian
hey eric not to sound like a know it all, but it looks like the inside of your barrel is painted or some sort of coating. did you burn it off before cooking? if not the toxins it the coating will get into your meat?
Robert
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