A mix of hickory and cherry smolders in my smoker; wisps of a blueish smoke rising gently from the exhaust holes. The aroma overwhelms my nose as I step from the garage.
Yes, the sweet smell of true slow-cooked BBQ is hard to beat.
My home-built smoker started life as a plain old 55 gallon steel drum. I picked it up from one of our suppliers at work and, with a little work and some plans from the Internet, turned it into a UDS, an Ugly Drum Smoker. And ugly it is...
The outside is rusty and dented; the inside well seasoned from many hours of smoking.
To the casual observer, it's just an old drum.
But to me, it's a masterpiece.
I don't know who came up with the original UDS plans, but it really is a marvel of BBQ. A crude, homemade basket holds the smoldering coals a couple of inches off the bottom of the drum. A grate sits on supports near the top. The only other parts of the smoker are three intake holes near the base that I open or close by sliding magnets over part of the holes to control the temperature and several exhaust vents in the top from which the sweet smelling smoke wafts.
The design is ingenious. The temperature typically stays within a couple of degrees for hours with little adjustment once I get it set up.
Two hundred and forty five degrees.
Pretty much locked in.
We'll be feasting on savory pulled pork sandwiches in another eight hours, or so.
Slow cooked in an old drum.
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