Addicted to Smokin'

Mention BBQ in much of the of the country and people think of throwing meat on the grill and cooking it over either charcoal or a gas-fired flame. Mention BBQ in the South, though, and the hearer immediately is reminded of the smell of smoke and the long, slow process of properly preparing a piece of meat.

There's a big difference between grilling and BBQ'ing.

Yes, a very big difference.

Now I love to grill and my family loves to gather at the table to feast on the fruits of my labors in front of the grill, but it's not the same as the low and slow process of smoking a cut of meat to tender BBQ perfection. I wanted to tackle true BBQ like the folks on BBQ Pitmasters on Destination HD channel.

I decided to build an Ugly Drum Smoker, or UDS for short. It proved to be a very simple process.

I bought a 55 gallon steel drum from one of our suppliers at work, a grate from the local Menard's store, some miscellaneous parts, paint and a bit of hardware.

With minimal investment and effort over a very short period of time I had constructed my very own UDS.

The name is appropriate.

It's ugly.

Really ugly.

I built a very hot fire in the drum and kept stoking it so it burned for several hours in order to burn off any possible contaminants that remained inside.

Once that was finished it was time to become a BBQ Pitmaster!

The moment of truth came when I decided to tackle a pork butt for my first attempt at using the UDS. I'm still not exactly sure why they call that particular cut of meat a butt, because it is a cut that comes from the shoulder. In any case, Diane and I found a two-pack of pork butt at Sam's Club. I decided to make one of the pork butts and freeze the other because I didn't want to ruin 13 pounds of meat when I could, instead, ruin only 6-1/2 pounds of meat if my first attempt at smoking failed to live up to expectation.

I came up with a starting point for a rub and prepped the butt, wrapped it and allowed the rub flavors to penetrate the meat. A bag of charcoal and a bunch of apple wood chunks made for a wonderfully smoky backyard as I put the meat on for the start of what turned into a nine and a half hour smoke at 250 degrees.

I don't want to brag, but dinner that night was about the finest pulled pork I have ever eaten. I will freely admit that at least part of my enjoyment was that I had succeeded at smoking on my first try. Diane and the boys dutifully praised it as well; probably as much from the shock of knowing that I had done it as the quality of the dinner itself.

While I'm a far cry from the folks on BBQ Pitmasters; I'm well on my way to being addicted to smoking - smoking meat, that is!