15 gal drum SJS project


 
George Curtis said:
:) there ya go ! those are the reasons that many will put up with the lack of high heat cooking though most say thay have no problem doing that on the sjg. have cooked using it yet ?
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I'll use it tomorrow as a grill on its own and get it all dirty and gunky so the drum will seat and seal nicely on it when I use it as a smoker this weekend. :)
 
A little update:

After a few cooks with the unit, using both the SJS & SJG bottoms I found I am not able to attain temps over 300F or maintain temps close to that for a prolong period. Therefore, I am now planning on cutting out the drilled out drum diffuser bottom entirely. I know that will significantly change the dynamics of the chamber and will be able to reach high temps. As in the case with my 55 gal UDS there is a huge difference in temps achieved and in fuel consumption between using a diffuser (either perforated or solid) and not using one. I expect similar differences in the Smokey Joe UDS.
 
George Curtis said:
is there a need to cook over 300 ?
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Oh most definitely! I always do chicken between 325-350F.

Also, I feel that the diffuser at the bottom of the drum places it too close to the coals. I think the easiest remedy is to simply remove it and give the coals more breathing room.
 
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ok, makes sense of course. yea, on my mini i cut the bottom out as it just sat to far down in the sj and i could see the space left was not enough.
i do use the steamer baffle in my mini though and havn't noticed any negatives though i suspect i havn't tried to cook at that high of a temp.
so you are going to leave the fire open to the meat or are you going to set up some kind of diffuser ?
 
George Curtis said:
so you are going to leave the fire open to the meat or are you going to set up some kind of diffuser ?
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Since the drum is tall and there's some distance between the meat and the coals I'm not going to use a diffuser and see how that goes. I've hung ribs and chicken halves in my big UDS without a diffuser (just like the Pit Barrel Smoker) and had great results. Hanging ribs can come within a couple of inches above the live coals and will magically not burn.
 
Thanks Dwain!

Anyway, as I mentioned a couple of days ago I decided to cut out the drum bottom which I did. I will run the smoker this afternoon and see how it goes...

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Ok, with the bottom of the drum cut out I was able to run temps above 300F. This also enabled me to load more coals in the kettle. I smoked some spare ribs again last night, ran them at 275F until done, about 3.5 hours. They came out great, btw.

The one thing I noticed last night and from previous cooks with the drilled out diffuser is that the drippings somewhat extinguishes the coals and tend to keep the temps down at times. Since the Smokey Joe does not hold a large reserve of coals this makes a difference. With larger drum cookers which hold more coals this would not be a problem.....a few extinguished coals from drippings make no diff. I'm talking about cookers with no heat shield to catch the drippings.

I can, of course, install a catch pan near the bottom of the drum but that may again restrict the heat flow somewhat, if I wanted to cook chicken at 325F, for instance.
I think I will experiment further til I get it right. :)))
 
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i wonder if a drip pan a bit higher or just below the ribs would really make any differance. especially now that you are able to put more coals in the sj now. did the dripping really put out a lot of coals ?
 
George Curtis said:
did the dripping really put out a lot of coals ?
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I would say they partially put out a few coals directly beneath the meat. Last night, for instance, I cooked 2 untrimmed spare ribs so there were quite a bit of drip sizzling going on creating lots of white smoke shooting out the vents. During that period I watched the temp drop as much as 25F. Once the sizzling stop, which BTW signals you're very close to the end of the cook, the temp began to rise as some of those affected coals began to re-light themselves.

I'll probably experiment with a drip pan placed maybe a couple or three inches above the coals.
 
i was thinking more of the pan being placed a few inches under the meat.
but to be honest, i'm not sure i would worry about a 25 deg drop.
 
Since the ribs hang down low the pan must be near the bottom. With chicken and other roasts the pan can be placed much higher up, just beneath the meat. I can install mounts near the bottom and another perhaps mid way up the drum.
 
Yes, it'll take a few more cooks to see what works and what doesn't. I can change only one variable at a time to see what works or not.
 
More hassle doing it this way but I was able to hang 20 wings on a length of expanded metal. This time with a coal basket I was able to maintain 325F, no diffuser. The drippings did not seem to affect the temperature this time. The temp stayed rock steady. Only dry rubbed, the wings came out pretty good.

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looks great from here. but looks like a small pan/dish under the wings would prevent direct heat from getting to it would work. well unless you like the charred chicken. i know my wife would love it. oh, yea, i do like that wing holder, brilliant !
 
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