You always remember your first time...

Now that the pit was seasoned, or at least to a point I was comfortable that all the processing crud was pretty much gone, it was time test it out and actually use it for what it was meant.  During the seasoning period I didn’t really get a good chance to mess with the damper and draft controls and since my intention was to use wood I figured there was going to bit of another learning curve.  To my surprise, it really wasn’t too bad.

First off I got a small amount of coals going, (half a chimney give or take), until they were good and ashed over then put them in the middle of the grate.  I flattened them out to give as much surface area as possible for the wood to sit on.  Since I wasn’t real sure what size pieces the wood should be, I started with 3 or 4 pieces about the size of my wrist and 12 to 14 inches long.  I left the door open until the wood caught fire then closed it to see what the temps would do.  Right away I discovered that I needed to leave the door open longer and let the wood really get burning before closing things down and working with the draft.  Once things were burning good and the temp came up, I began to work with the draft and dampers to see how various adjustments affected the inside temp.  It didn’t take long to discover that the adjustments did not need to be very big to make a big difference.  I took about an hour moving the draft in and out and found that the temp could be easily changed by moving the bolts no more than about a quarter of a turn then giving the pit about 10 minutes or so to stabilize.  I also discovered that the damper did not make much of a difference so, for the time being I just left it wide open.

A couple of items of note at this point, it was discovered that the wood splits should not be more than about 10 to 12 inches long and no bigger than your wrist.  If they are too long, once the center of the split burns through the ends have a tendency to fall away from the main pile and will smolder and not burn very well.  If they are too big around it takes a long time for them to get burning adequately and will also cause the fire to smolder.  As has been said numerous times, it is better to have a small hot fire so I can attest to the validity of this.  I also found out that by keeping the wood to this size, I only needed to add more about every 45 minutes to an hour and it certainly didn’t need to be 3 or 4 pieces.  1 or 2 at a time was plenty.  I am at 6,000 ft. ASL so this process may be different for someone else at lower altitudes; it’s all about the combustion.

First Ribs with Rib Tips

I fiddled with the controls and fire size for about another 2 hours trying to get a feel for what it would do and once I was comfortable with it, it was time to get cooking.  For the first cook I went with 3 racks of spare ribs.  Since I knew the cooking time wasn’t going to take all day and if I messed them up I wouldn’t be worried about the cost, I figured it would be a good start.  I had the pit rolling with Oak wood and stuck with my usual way of rubbing them with my own variety of rub with the intent to continue to follow the 3-2-1 method.  The ribs were full spares so I cut them down St. Louis style and besides the ribs I also threw on the tips that had been cut from the racks.

First Ribs

Things started off great once I put them on but I found myself making the same mistake I did in the past; thinking that I needed to be always messing with the controls.  I was hoping to get the temp to hold around 245 to 250 degrees but since I was playing with the controls too much I was getting big spikes both up and down in the pit.  I sat and thought about it for awhile and remembered several places had mentioned some pits just run where they want to run.  So, with nothing to lose, I set the draft at what seemed to be a good point and just let it roll.  Oddly enough, I found the sweet spot to be right around 260 degrees.  I did move the draft and damper a couple of times to see what would happen but it either caused the pit to get quite hot or on the other end it would cause too much smoke.  From that point I have been able to better control the temps with either slightly bigger or smaller pieces of wood or by adjusting the draft and damper but for the most part, it wants to run best at the 260 degree mark.

Coming out of the foil

Overall the cook went pretty well and I was happy with the results.  With me messing with the controls so much and opening and closing the doors and firebox the flavor I wanted wasn’t quite there but my expectations weren’t really that high either considering I knew I would be learning the pits properties and used this more of an educational event.  Don’t get me wrong, the ribs turned out great but I knew they could be better and it was going to just take some time and a better understanding of what needed to be done, or not done, over the course of the cook.  I have also discovered over time that when I do ribs on the pit, the method works better with the times being changed to 3-1/12-.75, (3 hours in the smoke, 1 ½ hours in foil and finish them off for around 45 minutes).  If I cook them for the full 6 hours they come out a bit overcooked.  No big deal…just needed some time to get it all tuned in.

'Tis the Season(ing) of the Pit...

Prepping the pit for first fire and seasoning

Once I got the new pit in place in the yard I had to figure out what to do next.  I looked around several different forum sites to try and figure out if I should do something to season the metal or if I could just turn the key and get to cooking.  I have had several different sizes and brands of Dutch Ovens and have always taken the time to season them.  The information I found online and through a few emails all said that some type of seasoning should be done.

I found a lot of conflicting information on just how to go about this so I figured that since it was just good ol’ steel, (the body of the cooker is made from ¼” rolled steel, not pipe or a tank), I would treat it basically the same way I did with new Dutch Ovens.  Looking at the pit and components, including the grates, it was all new steel.  Some of the things I read said to start by washing everything off, preferably with a pressure washer, but I had some reservations about that.

In my job, the equipment we use is made from many different types of steel, from your basic black iron up to high-grade stainless steel.  One of the things I have seen in our equipment is that heat, steel and water can sometimes not be the best of friends.  If the water used has some variations of particulates in it, it can be bad on steel and start the rusting process.

So, I decided to forego any sort of washing.  I began by using a soft steel brush and dry scrub the entire inside including the grates.  Once that was complete I used light canola oil and wiped everything down.  I continued wiping the surfaces until the towel stopped picking up small bits and was fairly clean.  I gave it one more good wipe down with a heavier amount of oil and let it sit.  As a side note I feel I must mention that I did scrub the firebox with the wire brush but I only put one very thin layer of oil on the surface.  No real reason other than I figured since it was going to be seeing a lot of heat and no food there was no real sense in doing it.

Now that I felt good that the interior was clean it was time to fire it up.  When I have seasoned Dutch Ovens I have always used a good amount of heat for the first burn so that is what I did with the pit.  I loaded up a full chimney of coals and got them going.  Once they were ready I dumped them onto the grate in the firebox.  Once that got going I loaded the chimney with another half load and got it fired up and dumped it on the grate when it was ready.  I didn’t want to use wood for the first fire since I wanted to just go with heat, not smoke.  I will mention that I did not use starter fluid for the charcoal and to this day I have never used it to fire the pit.  I read on numerous sites that if you use lighter fluid it can have an affect on the pit and leave a residual smell and taste.  Whether that is true or not I cannot say, but I went with the better safe then sorry principle and have just never used it in the pit….ever.

Once the temp began to rise I closed the doors on the pit and let it go.  After a short period of time the oil started to smoke and we were on our way.  The smell wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t that great either, just like doing a Dutch Oven.  I watched the temp gauge and at one point the temperature of the pit got up to just over 400 degrees but only for a short period of time.  It took about 2 ½ hours for the coals to burn down so I let it cool overnight.  The next day I wiped the inside down with a heavy layer of oil and repeated the process again.  This time the smoke and smell wasn’t as bad and I was able to get the temp over 400 degrees for a longer period of time.  I was hesitant to get the temp much higher as I was not sure if it would warp the metal or cause some unforeseen damage.  Once again I let it cool and sit overnight.  The next day I opened the pit to find that the metal had turned black, just as I had wanted it to.  Everything looked great.  One more wipe down of the interior with a VERY light coating of oil and we were ready to roll, it was time to see what this thing could do.

Time to step it up

I spent a lot of time throughout this early process going back and forth as to where I wanted to go next as far as a cooker went.  The little brick pit had been an exceptional beginner tool, the Ugly Drum was an even better teacher when it came to methods and flavor development but throughout it all it became apparent that things were going to have to get bigger.

With the work on the patio and outdoor areas coming along I was having to be conscious of where things would have to be placed in the future and what sizes I would be comfortable with so as not to have a lot of bulk in the way while using the space.  Several hours of reading and research once again on the internet proved to be an enormous help with the decision, although it did take some time and many discussions with my wife.  I needed her to be comfortable with what I was doing and make sure she was on board with spending what would more than likely be a sizeable chunk of money.

All the reading and emails and phone calls eventually directed me to a couple of people who live within the state that, at the time, were quickly making a name for themselves on the competition circuit.  They proved to be a fountain of knowledge, on many different subjects, but mostly they always had a good answer for any question I had.  Not to say I always agreed with them, but it was nice to have someone who was willing to answer questions and evaluate my current techniques.  The only real problem was that they are 250 miles away.  No worries, emails and phone calls were proving to work just fine.

Once I had narrowed down the different types of cookers available in a larger scale, it was time to look closer at which direction to go.  I originally planned to go with a pellet type cooker since they seemed to be the popular ones at the time, but the more I looked into it I really didn’t like the idea of always needing a power source available and there was not a dealer in my area that carried pellets for cooking.  Gravity feed styles looked promising but they all appeared to rely almost entirely on cooking with charcoal and seemed to have a few limitations as well.  The final decision came down to an offset cooker.  These seemed to be more versatile, even though it also meant having to tend the fire more often.  No matter, I was used to having to spend a lot of time back and forth with what I was currently cooking on so in my mind I figured the learning curve wouldn’t be as steep.



Johnny Trigg at "Smokin in Mesquite", September 2010



Through discussions with my new friends in the North I found that they had acquired a few cookers from a place in Texas called Jambo Pits manufactured by Jamie Geer.  At the time I had not seen much about them but that quickly changed.  About this time a new program was introduced on television called “BBQ Pitmasters” which was a chronicle of a handful of the top teams in the country and their adventures along the way at different pro style contests.  As I watched the show I realized that many of the top teams, (including the Godfather of Barbecue Mr. Johnny Trigg), were using Jambo pits and a couple of the episodes had Jamie Geer present as well.  I found the website and dug a little deeper and decided that a Jambo was the cooker for me.  My friends up North had what was known at the time as the “competition” or “backyard” model which is slightly smaller than the trailered larger versions.  However, according to what I had read, they cooked pretty much the same and it was hard to find any sort of negative feedback about them, in fact the reverse was true in that I found pretty much nothing but rave reviews.



First fire and seasoning of the new Jambo.



So, through some serious discussions with my wife and a good look at what the patio size was, I contacted the brothers of the north and in May of 2010 purchased a bona fide Jambo pit.  They were getting ready to attend a contest south of where I live that week so they were kind enough to deliver it to me. 

It was great the day it arrived.  The craftsmanship was second to none, solidly built and beautifully finished.  I couldn’t wait to get it fired up.  It took some serious muscle to get it into the backyard from the driveway since we were still in serious construction mode and the patio area was torn up pretty good as well as it being too wide to fit through the door in the garage.  But, with the help of a couple of good friends we made it happen.

Now, I just needed to figure out how to make it cook….

The Flavor Evolution

Many have said that cooking is an art. I believe there is a lot of truth in that, (albeit I hardly consider myself an artist), however like any other form of self expression there is a line that can easily be crossed making whatever you are doing a failure rather than a success. In my opinion this is more easily accomplished in cooking than pretty much any other medium. Add just a bit too much garlic or salt or any other ingredient and the flavor can quickly go from desirable to disgusting.

Being that my wife is a wonderful artist and an amazing teacher, if there is one thing that I have learned from her is that you have to understand the medium of choice before you can master it. Watercolors will not flow like oils, pastels will not give the same contrast as charcoal, etc. so it is important to know what is expected beforehand. Another important lesson learned; you must begin with a good base.

Taking this to heart I began using this mindset to finally hone in on what it was I wanted to end up with in my cooking. By settling with nothing but oak wood for cooking, (mainly for the reasons stated in an earlier post), was the beginning of base and foundation of where I was heading. It was important to me to make sure that whatever I did was easily repeatable and to find flavors that were highly complementary to each other. This was not as easy as it sounds simply because I was slightly limited by supply. In our area, there is no such thing as a high end grocer or the like so I was stuck with what I could find. Although there are places that carry fairly high quality ingredients, they could be troublesome to find at any given time. Thus, the philosophy of K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid), had to be employed.

With limited sources of ingredients locally I turned of course to my old and dear friend the internet. A search of “bulk spices”, etc., brings up several sources of quality ingredients, however, I did not feel it was worth it to buy large quantities of something that I may not be able or want to use in the future and would end up letting it go to waste. So, back to keeping it simple and finding a good base.


The sauce was my first chore to tackle. My thought was that by having a good sauce, the other flavors could be more easily manipulated to complement what I was doing. Many months of trying different recipes, adding a little more of this or a little less of that started to look promising. As things progressed though, there was always something missing or more often than not, standing out too much. Time to back up I guess. I spent some time looking over the many iterations the sauce had gone through and realized that there were only a few ingredients that seemed to remain constant. An epiphany was reached; here was my base. Using the short list of these items I spent some time making a good base that I was satisfied with and once that came to pass, it was a simple process to improve it. It took about 2 ½ years but as it stands, I am very pleased with what I ended up with for a basic “original” sauce and it is easily repeatable and doesn’t require anything really special as far as ingredients.


Next came the rubs. I already had a good base for a rub that worked very well for just about any type of meat. But, with different forms of meat I felt there should be different flavors to go along with them. The only real trick with the rubs was making sure that what was added would complement the meat as well as any sauces, etc., that may be used with them. In an effort once again to keep things simple I was able to start with another base of ingredients and adjust the quantities to make them either more sweet or more savory. It was not a real simple task but once the initial ingredients were adopted, the rest kinda fell into place. I have settled on three different rubs that can be used on just about any cut of meat, however I do use them myself on specific types. I have a sweet rub that I normally use on pork and pork ribs, a more earthy version that works really well with beef and another one that has a bit of a citrus feel that is exceptional on chicken.

Finally, on to the methods of cooking. Since I had spent a lot of blood, sweat and beers slaving over a hot pit, it was easy to see what would and would not work. Most of which was time and good temperature control. Every pit has a certain sweet spot that it likes to run at and I doubt if you could find too many that are the same from pit to pit. This is where patience and simplicity were very important. Patience had to be exercised with the temperatures since it doesn’t do any good to keep messing with the controls or opening the lid. Simplicity in that you don’t need to get overly creative. Heat and time are better friends with each other than you ever will be with either of them. Best to let them decide when things are done. I tried several different methods and even now am still learning little things that seem to help, but the thing I learned the most is don’t rush it. It’s done when it’s done.

So back to the drum and beyond..

The UDS was a simple but extremely effective design once I got the hang of it. The only real challenge came from getting used to the temperature fluctuations that would occur every time the lid was opened or if it was windy.



The drum got plenty of use during the next several months as I found as much time and as many excuses as I could to cook with it. There were plenty of failed experiments that gave plenty of knowledge as to what and what not to do. The biggest of these was that it was very important not to leave the lid off for any period of time if it could be helped. The large influx of air would cause big flare ups and if they were severe enough, would bring about a grease fire that would be a bugger to get under control and had a nasty tendency to affect the taste of the food.

The lessons learned along the way were easy enough to repeat or avoid but the problem with getting the temperatures stabilized needed to be addressed. At first I was still using the old dial oven thermometer and to see it meant having to lift the lid high enough for the smoke to dissipate and leave it off long enough to read the temp, not a great way to insure good control of the heat.



Fortunately my wonderful wife supports my passion in earnest, mostly because it means she doesn’t have to cook and she thoroughly enjoys the fruits of my labor. What it also did was make it very easy to answer the ever present question of, “what do you want for (insert holiday or birthday here)”. Since I was doing all I could to learn and improve my methods, there was always some new tool or gadget that was the do all, fix all barbecue tool that one could not live without. During my endless reading and searching I had found some information about remote digital temperature gauges and decided that is something I could really use. Our anniversary was quickly approaching and this seemed to be the perfect gift. I compared several different models and settled on the Maverick ET-73. Aside from it being very affordable, it included two probes, one for the pit temp and one for the meat temp and the biggest advantage of all being that it had a separate, wireless receiver which meant that I didn’t have to continue to wear out the hinges on the door going in and out to check the temperature. I gave my wife the information and my anniversary gift that year was just what I wanted.



Once I had the Maverick in hand, I drilled two small holes just above the grate level in the side of the drum so the probes could be easily passed into the cooker. There is a short learning curve to using the Maverick, but once the different buttons and settings are figured out, I would never be without one again. I was doing a lot of cooking through the fall and winter so it was nice to be able to sit inside and monitor things. The unit has alarms that can be set for high and low temps so that was a nice bonus for those times I would doze off without realizing it. The alarm was loud enough to wake me in these instances and saved me from a few potential failures.



The drum gave me the opportunity to really explore using different types and varieties of wood and ratios of wood to wood or wood to charcoal. I had pretty much settled on the rubs and spices to use on different meats but the fuel type was still a work in process. I found that by using less charcoal and more wood, the amount of smoke flavor increased dramatically but not necessarily in a positive way. Depending on the type of wood it sometimes became a little overpowering and took away from the flavor profile. I used many different combinations of fruit and nut woods, too many in fact to remember. There were a few occasions where I was using combinations that included Cherry wood. It started off with just a few small chunks and gradually began to add a little more. It got to a point where I decided to use a large majority of Cherry for a particular cook of spare ribs. Things started off great and everything smelled wonderful. I used the same methods I had been using for several months but once all was said and done, suffice to say it didn’t go as planned. The ribs came off the cooker a very bright red color, about what you see on a cooked Lobster. This didn’t bother me much until we started eating and I’m here to tell ya’, for some reason they were hotter than hell. To this day I am still not sure why, be it the Cherry wood or some other unseen force, it was as if I had soaked the ribs in something like Jalapeno juice or Cayenne Pepper. They weren’t just overly spicy, they were freakin’ hot! Lesson learned.

The Cherry wood fiasco showed me that I had found the fine line where you should cook to satisfy your taste and not try to over reach for something that just doesn’t work. I had found that I was trying too hard to get more flavor out of something that didn’t need it and it is best to just enhance the flavor of whatever you are cooking, not change it completely. I stepped back a bit and started concentrating more on woods that gave a subtle, consistent flavor. As this developed I also figured I had better make sure that whatever I did use for wood could be easily obtained and there was plenty of supply.

Since we live in an area that is not known for having orchards of fruit and nut trees this could become problematic. Not that there aren’t fruit and nut trees around, rather there aren’t a lot of places to get a ready supply. However, since we do live where Oak is abundant, I found myself leaning more toward that anyway. I discovered that oak by itself had just enough sweet to it to bring out the mild tones of some of the spices I was using yet not overpower or completely destroy the flavor of what I was wanting to achieve. So, by default, Oak is now the only thing I use since I can get it cheap and there is plenty of it and it was a very simple process to adjust my rubs and sauces so they were better complimented from its use.

Once I came to this conclusion I tried a few different formulas of Oak wood vs. Charcoal. It was easy to gauge and manage the amount of smoke flavor I would get during my cooks since Oak burns slow and consistent and it was easy to keep the smoke from being too overpowering. The best thing I found was that by adding more wood the temps of the cooker settled a little lower than they did with charcoal. On one particular cook I was planning to do a couple of racks of ribs and a brisket flat, something that was much more easily done with the extra grate space in the drum. I got things ready and just for grins, I loaded the basket up with a large amount of wood and cut way back on the charcoal. The cook went well although the temperature swings were bigger than I was used to or expected but all in all it came together quite well in the end. So much so that when I cut into the brisket I was highly surprised to find that I had achieved a very pronounced smoke ring. Up until this point I hadn’t really given much thought about the smoke ring, although I had read many things about how to achieve it and how elusive it could be. Once I sliced up the brisket I was tickled to death to see how well the ring had formed, which also seemed to add to a very good flavor.



So, it had been settled. Oak wood only and plenty of it and a lower temperature in the pit. This process change worked well for all the meats and such that I cooked from this point forward. The drum gave us some great food and I was having a blast using it, although some of the late nights and early mornings in sub-zero temperatures outside almost shut the whole thing down, it was all worth it come dinner time.

About the patio

As was stated earlier, our original plans for the patio were to have the brick smoker and fire pit built along with possibly a Dutch oven pit and grill. As we got deeper into the plan, the evolution started to become quite dynamic and it seemed ever other day brought a new change to the overall design.

One of the websites I had discovered was part of a group of sites called “The Lexington Collection” authored and maintained by a gentleman named Dave Lineback somewhere around Lexington, North Carolina. I was intrigued by his methods and recipes as well as his take on the history of BBQ, especially in his area. What I was most interested in was the smoker he had built on his property which became the basis of what my original idea was.


He had named his creation “Wilbur D. Hog” and according to him, was a good way to get authentic smoked barbecue. It included two separate parts to the structure; one being the coal hearth where the wood was burned down to usable coals and attached to it on the other side was the smoker. The smoker area is two separate chambers, one above the other, with the coals being placed in the lower chamber and the smoking grate above it. Both chambers on the smoker side included doors and the whole thing has dampers built into it to control the smoke and temperatures.

The original intent was to build a reasonable copy of Wilbur with just a few modifications plus the other included items so we got the bricks and began planning our spring and summer project. But, this ended up not coming to fruition.

Once the weather cleared up, we began the process of getting things going. The area we had chosen not only already had an old beat up storage shed on it, but also had a big Pine tree that needed to be removed. Our lot is in an area that has a bit of a slope so there was also a small terrace that was held in place with several large rocks. The design also meant having to remove the big deck off the back of the house and replace it with a smaller, more practical size.


Before we got going the first thing was to call blue stakes and have them mark any utilities that could be lurking below. This is where things started to take a turn. Unknown to us, the phone line from the corner of our lot to our house ran smack dab right through the middle of where we planned to excavate. The costs associated with moving the line, etc., were quite high so we decided to change the plan. This also meant that the original size of the area would be cut down considerably but we forged ahead with the thought that things looked as if they would work out.

We should have gotten a clue as to how things were going to go when we cut the old pine tree down. Because of where the shed was placed and the proximity of the tree to it, the tree had to come down first before we could disassemble and remove the shed. No problem, it was small enough that we could drop it into the corner of the fenced area and in my younger days I was no stranger to falling trees. I had spent many days over many summers cutting firewood with my father so I was confident in my abilities to get the tree down with no harm, no foul.

My wife, the trooper that she is, was enlisted to help. I was a little worried that the way the tree had grown it carried a lot of weight on one side so I placed a rope up in the branches as far as I could get and instructed her to keep tension on it so the tree would fall away from the shed, and her. Little by little I cut away at the trunk and all was going well right up until the tree came loose from the trunk. As the wood cracked and began to separate, I looked up just in time to see the rope go slack and the tree twist about 30 degrees, just enough to transfer all the weight of the branches right over the corner of the shed. The sound of aluminum being crushed is a very unique sound and was only slightly more surprising than the look of complete terror on my wife’s face. I’m sure she thought I was going to be extremely upset but since we had no plans other than to see if we could give the shed away to someone, it actually was more of a help. By tearing open the corner of the shed it gave easier access to some of the structure inside and made pulling it apart a little easier. This story still gets a lot of mileage amongst family and friends. The worst thing about it was as the dust was clearing all I could hear in my head was my father chewing me out and how glad I was he wasn’t there to see this all unfold. For me to miss the mark on dropping such a small tree, I figure he would still be shaking his head.

Once the shed was down and the tree cleared we started moving the rocks around the terrace out of the way, a very cumbersome task at best. More measurements were taken and it became clear that since the amount of area we now had to work with had been significantly shortened, if we stuck to the original plan of putting the brick pit in it would take up way too much of the patio area and not be very practical. So, change of plan…again.

The overall plan was finally settled to include just the concrete for the patio, a concrete retaining wall to hold the terrace back and also replace the deck. All in all it turned out very nice but I was left with what I was going to do for a smoker.
The more I thought about the brick smoker I realized it was maybe not a good plan after all. Besides being too big for the area, it also was not altogether practical in that it couldn’t be moved and once it was in place I was stuck with it. I worried that after it was built that it may not perform like I wanted or might end up being too small or too much work to use. It was decided that we would look for a better solution, one that would be more beneficial to the overall scheme of things and with the money I saved by not building something more permanent, I had a decent amount left over as a good start for one that would better suited for us. So, we got rid of the bricks and the search began.

Boy, is that thing "Ugly"

The old saying goes that “necessity is the mother of invention” and as such, it was becoming clear that it would be necessary to develop or find another invention to accommodate my evolution into the world of slow smoking and BBQ.

As always, I turned to my dear friend the internet for advice. I was looking for something a little bigger that would allow more meat to be cooked at one time yet was portable and easily stored, two things the little brick pit wasn’t. Part of the concern came from the idea that we were gearing up to start tearing into the new patio area and I wasn’t sure what would need to be moved and how often.

I looked through many of the different sites and pages hoping something would jump out and be just what I wanted. So many different shapes and sizes, and prices, then there was the idea that I was still not entirely sure what style I wanted. The little brick pit utilized a direct heat source from underneath and through the many hours of use, I was quite comfortable with the performance and method. The local big box stores had the cheaper offset versions but I was a little put off by the quality and the idea that I would more than likely have to re-learn the majority of what I already knew about temperature control and time, etc.

Many hours of reading and research landed me on the subject of what is officially known as an “Upright Drum Smoker”. Unofficially it is known by some as an “Ugly Drum Smoker” or “UDS”. The more I read I realized this would be the next logical step. It used pretty much the same method I was used to; direct heat underneath, air inlets on the bottom and smoke outlet on the top and would burn either charcoal or wood. Sounds great, so let’s do it.

A UDS can be made from just about any type or size of steel drum. The majority are made from a 55 gallon drum so that’s what I went with. Getting the drum was easy enough, the company I work for uses steel drums to ship stuff in and what made it even better is that the drums are made so they don’t have any sort of lining or coating on the inside. If you get a drum that is not bare steel, it will definitely need to be thoroughly cleaned, you never know what heat will do to whatever is in the drum and there is a really good chance you don’t want it on your food. If we end up with a drum that is too damaged to use as a shipping container, (i.e., rust or serious dents, etc.), they will let the employees have them.

I found a drum that would suit my needs and after filling out the required paperwork, took it home and thus began the process of building, (if you can call it that), my smoker. Searching the net for the terms “UDS” and “drum smoker” netted several good results. As with just about anything like this, there were many different ways to go about it. There were some ideas that I thought looked good so I compiled what I figured were the better of them and got started.

First off, all the paint on the drum and lid had to come off. Rather than spend money on tools and such to remove the paint, I opted for the old fashioned way, a good ol’ hot fire. I found an old pallet and broke it into pieces and got the flames going inside the drum. Adding a little more wood along the way it appeared all the paint was gone after about 2 or 3 hours so I let the fire die and the next morning after it had cooled, almost all of what was left just flaked off. A quick once over with a buffing wheel exposed the steel and the drum shined like a brand new penny.

I had whittled the design down to be as simple and effective as possible. Making a quick trip to the hardware store I was able to find all the parts I needed. The cooker would include a charcoal basket in the bottom made from some expanded metal and a small round grill grate and the cooking grate came from a standard kettle type grill grate towards the top, which were inexpensive. I found some long carriage bolts to use as feet for the charcoal basket and also to hold the upper grate in place. The store clerk pointed out some good high temp stove paint and within about 30 minutes I was on my way home with everything I needed.

A quick paint job of three coats was all it needed so after letting it sit overnight to dry, the building began. It was simple enough; the charcoal basket was done first by rolling the expanded metal into a cylinder just smaller than the diameter of the small grate. Using tie wire I fastened it to the grate and then using the long bolts and washers added the feet which brought it up off the floor of the drum about 3 or 4 inches.


I punched 3 each ¾ inch holes about 3 inches above the bottom of the drum for the air inlets and in two of these holes I added a ¾ X 2 inch nipple and cap. The third hole got a ¾ inch nipple and a ball valve. The idea is that you can add or remove the plugs to regulate airflow and fine tune it with the ball valve.

I installed the other long bolts about 9 inches down from the top and the larger grate fit very nicely in the drum. The lid was a little tricky and decided that since we live in an area that is prone to wind, it would be best to add a chimney rather than just punch holes in the top. This required cutting a 2 inch hole in the lid and bolting a threaded flange on the lid. Once that was done, I screwed a 2” X 12” threaded nipple into the flange. It appeared, for all intents and purposes, that I was ready to roll.

Time to try it out.