I woke up on Saturday with the window open and the distinct smell of charcoal and hickory wafting in. Someone was barbecuing, and it wasn’t me. After taking the dog for a walk, the additional exposure sealed it. I had to make something post haste.
…Sort of. Haven’t had the opportunity for much (any) cooking recently, but I’m hoping to do some smaller-scale experimenting in the near future. When making barbecue in the past, the cooking has been easy; it’s throwing the party that’s an expensive PITA. Side note: my first post on Serious Eats is live. (Not BBQ related,…
After all that build-up and building, it’s time to actually put this UDS to use. Payload is pork and chicken. The pork is done in a simple “Dalmatian” rub: equal parts salt, pepper, and turbinado sugar. The poultry is SE’s “Cornell chicken” recipe: marinated overnight in herby white (mayo-based) barbecue sauce. Pork: Fired up the…
This is an after-the-fact post, since the first cook on my new UDS is basically done. (Much quicker than expected, but that’ll be in the next post.) First order of business was a dry run to try to start getting the adjustments dialed in. I ran the smoker empty with about a half-chimney of unlit…
If there’s one thing* that (almost) never fails to make me happy, it’s a new gadget. And this one came highly recommended. * If there’s another thing, it’s using bastard French that my wife will surely call me out on, but that I’m not going to fix.
Finally got the smoker assembled. Except for the vents on the bottom (which I really had to stretch across the curve of the drum), the kit came together really easily. A socket wrench really helps, though. Pictures! Tried to pick up 40 pounds of charcoal at the warehouse club (had a coupon and everything!), but…
Had a few things going on this week, none of which really helped move things with the new UDS along. Though I did get a nice picture of the dog in front of it before assembly: Speaking of assembly, I realized that one of the kit pieces, the shield, only has one of two holes…
I promised a sauce recipe several days ago and have not lived up to that promise. That ends now. This season I’ve been really into fruit-based sauces. If I were really doing this Alabama-style, I’d either stick with a thin vinegar-based sauce, or go for a mayo-based white sauce (which I’m still building up the…
Time for paint. The extra spray enamel came this week, so I could get to work. I also trucked out to Northeast Philly to pick up a dome lid that almost fits. (I think it’ll be for a future expansion, as soon as I need two levels, i.e., when 25 pounds of meat capacity isn’t…
Quiet week around here, barbecue-wise. A bit of stuff going on behind the scenes, though. Think I located a domed grill lid, which would replace the flat drum lid I ground off and allow me to put in another grate, for two cooking levels. Going to try to pick it up in Northeast Philly Saturday…
