I couldnt help myself, for most of you know South jersey has been slammed for the past 3 days with a "nor-easter" not a real one....... but it has been crappy. I was hankering for some yard bird, and my Wisconsin wifey wanted brats so I fired up the smoker, "homemade" and smoked in the dam rain and blowing, 25+knts.
The repurposed oil tank smoker... looking good. They use those here for that, as well as for boiling mash for hooch.
It makes a hell of a grill and smoker, I use it so much I only get about 5 years out of one then I build a new one. The one in the picture just made it to 6 and the bottoms ready to go. I keep the slide out grate and trash the rest, There easy to make. I usually do two or three pigs a year also for friends and family. I can get a 100 pounder in it fairly easy and it's just perfect I smoke all year long, I ran out of apple and I'm on my cherry stach now, gotta find me a hickory tree
The food looks delicious! So you take the griddle off, fill with wood, light it and away u go. How long is the process from cold start to ready to cook? I love it!
Pretty Much WS, the upper grate is a frame with handles made from expanded metal. In the bottom is a frame, welded in and expanded metal for the coal bed. in the very bottom of the tank is 4- 2" holes drilled in the bottom, evenly spaced across for air and drainage. I put a small amout of charcole to start things off, fire it up, throw the smoking wood on top of the hot coals, put the grate back, put food on and shut the lid.... Check temps on gauges about every hr, not above 225F, and were good. Sit back and have a beer till it's done. I did the chicken in about 3 hr's, slow about 200F
Awesome Dave, that is a sweet setup. Good use of old equiptment. Id have quite a few brews put back in 3 hours...
That's my own design, most smokers have a fire box off to the side. When I smoke, I put the coals and wood far to the right in the bottom so as not to get to much heat, "after awhile you figure out how much you need" and I can still grill if I choose to. I built the first one about 30+ years ago. Got the idea from an old fella from Virginia who make a cooker out of a 55gal barrel and smoked pork butts and fish, I just reconfigured it a bit and made it much bigger. The one in the pic is #6, and all has been pretty much the same..... It work's, ain't gonna change it, and for about $50 in materials and my time, I can't beat it. Besides, It's "much"heavier that anything you can buy at the big box stores, "just isn't as pretty"....
That looks similar to a fuel oil barrel I have been wanting to move out of my basement. Wonder if I can get it out in one piece...
Give it a whirl.... most are 250 gal. I think they were 150, 250, 350 then 500 gal. The 250 and the 350 are just right for a family and a get together, the 500's are nice to get but they take a lot to hot if your grilling. I do my Thanksgiving Bird on this one with one bag of Kingsford 20lb .
I think I will. I would love to be able to get my foods so removed from the fire. Smoke it instead of cooking it. Would probably treat a pizza pretty nice too if done right.
I guess, never thought about that. When I "dont" smoke with it, my wife during the holidays will bake bread in it, she can do 8 loafs "very" easy in it. The biggest thing people have to remember that it's like any oven or grill, everytime you lift the lid, it takes that much more time to cook. I have 3 thermometors in the lid, once you get the science down of cooking on it, it's a peice of cake