The first thing you must do when the paint is dry and the hardware is assembled is to light an initial fire and season the new smoker. This charcoal basket can handle an entire 20-pound bag of briquette charcoal. The way to light this smoker is to fill the charcoal basket to about 90 percent. Depending on your taste, you can intersperse chunks of smoke wood all throughout the basket so it will smoke for an entire 12-plus hours. Use a charcoal chimney and about 15-20 briquettes. Light the briquettes using a match and crumpled newspaper placed under the chimney. After about 15 minutes the coals should be lit and mostly ashed over. Dump these briquettes directly on top of the 90-percent-full basket loaded with unlit charcoal and smoke wood. Open all of the air intakes, secure the cooking grate, and close the lid. For the initial seasoning, select a very fatty piece of meat, such as a pound of raw bacon or a tube of breakfast sausage, placed directly in the center of the grate. Close the lid, sit back, and get a feel for how your smoker will hold temperature. If the temperature is too high, close one or two of the air intakes. If the temperature is too low, take the lid off for a while, or consider using more lit charcoal next time. When lit correctly, the ugly drum smoker should hover around 250 degrees F for the entire cooking process. After about one or two hours you will see a good bit of seasoning on the inside of the smoker and you are now ready to use it. At this point you can close the air intakes and cover the exhaust holes with magnets.
For the first-timer, starting on the path to mastering using an ugly drum smoking isn't one that necessarily comes easily. To be sure, it shouldn't. Smoking meat is an art. It takes plenty of practice, as well as some trial and error.
Put simply, every successful smoker started somewhere. And like a master at any craft, having command over the basics of using an ugly drum DIY smoker set the stage for becoming a BBQ virtuoso.
With your ugly drum smoker built, it's not time to start smoking meats immediately. That's probably not the news you wanted to hear. Don't worry -- you'll be putting your drum smoker to good use soon enough.
A quick YouTube search will turn up plenty of tutorials showing the various ways you can start a fire in your drum smoker barrel. In our experience, the best way to get your charcoal burning is using a chimney charcoal starter.
It usually takes a bit for your drum smoker to get up to temperature. The key -- don't rush things. While there is an element of charcoal management you'll need to do, overwhelming the burn is the fastest way to inadvertently dampen the fire or increase its intensity. Remember: it's easier to go up in temperature than to go down.
In order to maintain airflow in a drum smoker, it's important to keep the vents clear of ash and debris. You may also need to periodically adjust the vents -- or even open the charcoal chute -- to ensure that the smoker is burning evenly. To an extent, it takes some fine-tuning to get the right amount of airflow.
If you want a macho looking cooker, skip the cheap offset smokers from the big box hardware stores. Click here to read why. Get a PBC. Looks manly and works beautifully. If you were thinking of building your own UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) feel free, but I have to tell you, this one is very cleverly designed and it will be hard to match its physics or its output on a homemade UDS.
[00:00:00] Ben: Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ben, and in this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, we're talking to fellow BJJ practitioner and founder of Aussie manufacturing business, ugly drum smokers, Australia. That's right. We're talking to Adam York.
[00:05:04] Ben: yeah. Yeah. Good stuff, man. So obviously your, your favorite barbecue would be a ugly drum smoker. Now, do you have a particular grill that you use or do you have like a multi-level grill on your UDS and you just drop that down lower onto the coal.
[00:16:26] Adam: we'd always get together, but one of them, my mates Judd, he had a mate named Calvin that used to go to Texas often and came back, talking about these ugly drums that he saw over there.
And he was making one too. So we were talking about, and he started the ugly drum smoker page. And so, you know, we were talking about that and we were talking about making salamis and small goods and stuff.
You know, he had heaps on his plate, you know, with the doubles a and running, it's doubles a Silverdale, which is an awesome page. And he actually works out there at the range. And yeah, and that's how I got involved with the, the Facebook page and with the ugly drums. Then a lot
UDS parts.com and, and stuff like that. And as things usually go, nothing ever happened and nothing eventuated, but I met a guy on there. He's been a bit of a mentor for me, Steven Powell from UDS, Texas, over drum smokers, Texas. And so I've been talking with him for a long time now, many years now, and he's been a huge help for me.
[00:21:29] Ben: Ah, right. Yeah. Okay. I, I was thinking it might have been a, like another smoker manufacturer or something, so he wasn't allowed to be promoting drum smokers anymore or
[00:24:41] Adam: it was just a, you know, a cheap way of cooking food, which is why it was ugly drum. It's become, they're no longer ugly drums. Now, you know, some of them are works of art.
He's got some beautiful drums that he makes. They're not ugly by any means, but I think originally they were just. Any sort of drum that you could stick a fire in and just, you know, like a, just a poor man smoker. And that's where the name ugly drum came from, I think. And it's just stuck, but they're no longer ugly.
[00:32:17] Ben: Mm. Yeah. That's interesting. what you were saying about about the difference of temperatures and, and just how high the drum smoker can go. my friend of mine, when I was at uni, he had a just a 44 gallon drum.
This is on the third addition of the cast amounts. I started off with one design that I didn't like. And then I went to a second design. That was a bit. Flowing like the hinge. but I didn't like that either. I found that it could be a little bit weak and I had, I sent cast amounts out to mates that were building drums and said, can you give it a test and see what you think?
Look, to be honest, if you can use a drill and you've got a drum, then you've got a, a smoker. yeah, you, you can just drill holes in the bottom and use magnets. You don't need an intake. But, you know, it, that's how I started with my one. I just was just was looking at YouTube videos and bits and pieces and pieces together and build my one.
[00:45:17] Adam: or I don't know, advice, but knowledge I'd pass on is that if you do want a drum smoker and you don't wanna be spending a lot of money, that it is something that is accessible for everybody. as I said before, if you've got a drill and a drum in you've pretty much got a smoker it doesn't have to be a daunting task.
drum, I don't need it. there's plenty of moisture inside the inside the drum. and also I regularly spritz my, any pork or, or beef that I I'm, I'm cooking even lamb. I'll give it a bit of a spritz just to put that moisture back on, but I don't have a water basket or a water pan in my smoker, but people can put 'em in there.
[00:58:05] Ben: All righty folks there, you have it. That was Adam New York from ugly drum smokers, Australia, and he's right. They're not ugly anymore. We need to change that name. We need to start a new hashtag. Wow. What did we come up with?
Was it beautiful drum smoker machines or beautiful drum smoker, mate, something like that. We need a, we need an M on the end. We need to make that. Change that name start a new hashtag. I wanna see TikTok videos. I wanna see Twitter posts. I wanna see all of it. Let's have a new let's have a new name for those drums.
Anyway, check him out. He's got his Facebook page there. Ugly drum smokers, Australia. His shop is actually in his Facebook page. You can go there, check out, check out all his products. He's got 'em all up there. Great looking stuff. you've seen them as I've been running around different barbecue competitions and interviewing different people.
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freefancy meeting you herefancy-pantsfar and away the bestfar be it from mefar from the madding crowd,fashion victim(a) fast buckfaster than a speeding bulletfaster than greased lightningfat as a cowfat as a pigfat chancefeast your eyes on this(a) feather in his capfeed a cold, starve a feverfeeding frenzyfeel like a fifth wheelfell off my plate(the) fickle finger of fatefiddling while Rome burnsFie, fi, foh, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.fight fire with firefight like a manfight like cats and dogsfight the good fightfigure it outfilthy rich,finders keepers, losers weepersfine and dandyfine linefiner than frog hair,fire in the bellyfiring on all cylindersFirst things first.fish or cut baitfish out of waterfit as a fiddlefit to be hungfit to be tiedfits and startsfits like a gloveflag something downFlash as a rat with a gold tooth.flash in the panflat as a boardflat as a long-poured champagneflat as a pancakeflat outflattery will get you nowhereflavor of the monthfleet footed (fleet of foot)flesh and bloodflipped her lidflirt with disasterflog a dead horseflotsam and jetsamflown the coopfly by nightfly by the seat of your pantsfly in the face offly in the ointmentfly off the handlefly on the wallflying by the seat of your pantsfoam at the mouthfob offfollow suitFollow the leader.following in his footstepsFool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.fools' goldFools rush in where angels fear to tread.foot in the doorfoot loose and fancy freefoot the billfor crying out loudfor ever and a dayfor everything there is a seasonfor God's sakefor Pete's sakefor the love of God/Pete/Mikefor want of the nail, the shoe was lostfor whom the bell tollsforbidden fruit,forever and a dayForgive them for they know not what they do.fork outfoul playfour corners of the earthfree as a birdfree reignfresh as a daisyfresh out of ideasfried to one's tonsilsFriends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.frisky as a puppyfrog in my throatfrom day onefrom here to 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town by sundownget over itget stuffedget the peanut butter out of your earsget the show on the roadGet thee behind me, Satan.get to the bottom of itget underwayGet used to it!Get with the program!get your arms around itget your ducks in a rowget your feet wetget your foot in the doorget your goatget your head in the gamegift of the gabgild the lilygimme a breakgird your loinsgive a hootgive a little take a littlegive a wide berthgive an inch, and he takes a milegive and takegive him a run for his moneygive it a restgive it a whirlgive it awaygive me a handgive someone a breakgive the shirt off your backgive them a handgive up the ghostgive your right armgiven to him on a silver plattergiving someone the birdglass ceilingglimmer of hopegloss overglowing like a good deed in a naughty worldglutton for punishmentgo against the graingo and boil your headgo back to the wellgo ballisticgo belly upgo berserkgo by the bookgo figurego fly a kitego for brokego head to headgo jump in the lakego like the clappersgo off at half-cockgo out in a blaze of glorygo out on a limbgo over his headgo overboardgo the extra milego through the motionsgo through the roofgo to potgo to the dogsgo together hand in handgo too fargo where the green lights lead yougo with the flowgo with your gutGod help us.God only knows.God speedGod willing (and the creek don't rise)going against the tidegoing bananasgoing gang-bustersgoing nineteen to the dozengoing to hell in a hand basketgold diggergolden childGentlemen Only, Ladies Forbiddengone but not forgottengone to the dogsgood as goldgood as new(a) good beginning makes a good endinggood callGood fences make good neighbors.(a) good man is hard to findgood men and trueGood one!Good riddance!good rule of thumbgood Samaritangood soldiergood things come to those who waitgood to gogood to the last dropGoody Two-Shoesgoofing offGordon Bennettgot a hole in his pocketgot a leg up on itgot a loaf in the ovengot beat like a drumgot burnedgot him by the short 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Who goes there?hand over fisthandbags at dawnhandle it with kid gloveshands onhang by a threadhang in therehang me out to dryhang on every wordhanging onto mother's apron stringshanky pankyhappy as a clamhappy as a larkhappy as a pig in mud / sh#thappy camperhard as a rockhard cheese,hard to swallowharder for a rich man to go to heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needlehare-brained ideaharp onhaste makes wastehat in handhaul someone over the coalshave a hearthave a nice dayhave an ax to grindhave 'em in stitcheshave the last laughhaven't got a penny to my namehaven't got a row to hoehaven't got a row to hoehaven't seen hide nor hair of himhe breasted his cardshe can't see the forest for the treeshe couldn't hit the broad side of a barnHe doesn't know what time it is,he gave a hundred and ten percenthe got plasteredhe got the short end of the stickhe has a few loose screwshe has a way with wordshe has egg on his facehe is toasthe knows which side his bread is buttered onhe learned his lessonhe left no stone unturnedhe let the cat out of the baghe looks like death warmed uphe made a mad dash for itHe never met a doughnut he didn't like.he put one over on mehe single-handedly destroyed an empirehe speaks with a forked tonguehe spilled the beansHe was Aladdin in an orchard dripping with diamonds!he was just a port in the stormhe was talking into his hat lyinghe was the life of the partyhe went the whole nine / 9 yardshe went to the school of hard knocks (university of life)He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches.He who cannot dance, blames the DJ,he who hesitates is lostHe who laughs last, laughs best.He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword,he will give the Devil his duehe won, hands downhe/she is as dense as a London fogHe/She silenced the critics.he/she was like a brother/son/father/sister/mother/daughter to mehead over heelsheading for the poor househeads upheard it through the grapevineheart of goldheaven help usheavens to Betsyhedge your bets,Heebie-Jeebies,hell-bent for leatherHell has no fury like a woman scorned.hell or high waterHelter-Skelterhem and hawhen peckedher biological clock is tickingHere lies one whose name was writ in water.here today, gone tomorrowhere's mud in your eyeHere's your hat, what's your hurry?he's a bald-faced liarhe's a bubble shy of plumbhe's a corn-fed hickhe's a dark horsehe's a fall guyhe's a smooth operatorhe's all flibberty jibbetshe's all hat and no cattle (added by popular demand!)he's always blowing his own hornhe's an easy studyhe's an inch deep and a mile widehe's bitten off more than he can chewhe's built like a brick shit-househe's changing his tunehe's chomping at the bithe's dressed to the nineshe's feeling his oatshe's fishing for complimentshe's gone to groundhe's got a bug up his assHe's got more money than he knows what to do with.He's got the skills to pay the bills,he's gunning for a fight he's hen peckedhe's milk toasthe's not playing with a full deckhe's not the sharpest knife in the cabinethe's over the hillhe's pulling your leghe's pushing up daisieshe's really laying it on thickhe's really on the ballhe's scared of his own shadowhe's s