I have a modified Gourmet ECB (one with the sealed bottom base and pan), originally was an electric smoker, now is a great little smoker.


Here's my midi-wsm (16 gallon drum + Smokey Joe):
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Shot from a recent cook:
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Took a chicken out this morning that I will brine until tomorrow and then dry out and rub for the smoker Saturday morning. This will be my first attempt at smoking anything!
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:-)
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Excellent my Newfie friend. Once you try it, at least the times when you do it right, you will be hooked.
TOO EASY, too good, too little left after its done. Looking forward to seeing the results. I have a few smoked
chicken legs in the fridge here at work, thinking about firing one up at ten am, lol.
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It's been entirely too long since I've smoked a rack of ribs. And getting tired of the baby backs. Thinking about a few racks of St. Louis spares, on sale for 2.49/lb at the grocery store today.
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I know you will do what you have to do, and I know that is lower than the regular price,
but man, I sure love cutting my own ribs to shape. That extra meat is SO DAMN GOOD
in a pot of pinto beans, red beans, maybe even a pepper steak-type of thing. But like me,
if that is what is on sale and that is what I need, I will make adjustments. They are ALL
on sale today at Krowgur. Thank goodness I got that big ole bag of squirrels out of my
freezer. I DID replace them with 2- 9 packs of english muffins and a big ole loaf of good
quality bread. But I ain't gonna let $3.50 in bread items take up the room for rib stock-ups.
I can eat the bread up, and if they DO get a little moldy, what do I really lose?
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I really need a chest freezer. I have both freezers at work loaded to the gills with pork butts, a few whole lamb legs, misc. packs of chicken thighs/drumsticks/wings, etc.

I hear ya on trimming the racks yourself. But I'll be honest, I've never trimmed a rack of ribs before. I probably should. And - gasp - I've never made a pot of beans from scratch. Though I talk about trying it EVERY time I put something on the smoker.

I don't know what meat prices are in your neck of the woods, but the $2.49/lb is about 30% off. Baby back ribs are normally 4.49/lb around here, the spares a little less. No Kroger, Costco, anything like that up here either. Just locally owned places. So, I HAVE to take advantage of the price break. Maybe buy a hunk of side pork for a side o'beans.
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Speaking of ribs, 5 racks smoked on a little charcoal grill with lump coal, applewood, and mesquite.Image
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You need to stop using that Kingsford Blue.......Try the red, or go to Royal Oak, lol.
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OK, I admit, my big city life has gotten to my head.
That'sa pretty good price for a local market. BUY BUY BUY.
Cutting ribs is easy, and fun once you know where to make that first cut.
You can easily get that info on the Yousetube if you are ever so inclined.
I also cut away the thin flap at the end that holds a tiny coupla rib bones
and toss it into the beans, too. As for scratch beans, just soak the dry beans for
about 24 hours in a container of water leaving enough room for double expansion of volume.
Then proceed along the lines of this recipe, which admittedly is another rambling novel by me.
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My BETTER beans recipe. This one makes more sense....http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showth...82#post1854882
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I recently joined SmokingMeatsForum so I can better prepare myself and my UDS. I ran across a thread where a member in Memphis Tenn area is selling 55 gal drums for $5 each.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/1...rums-5-each/40

Anyway, I did a nice hot burn on my barrel and watch the paint fall off. Yet, when I went to grin off the remaining stuff, it's surprisingly resilient. I spent about 90 minutes and only got the top 1/3 of the inside of the barrel done. The only reason I got that far was I switched from my wire wheel to a 36 grit flapper disc. That seemed to work better but wore out the tip rather quickly leaving it less effective. Now I'm looking for a cheap sandblaster gun/tube setup I can use with my compressor as I'm not looking forward to sanding the bottom 1/3 inside the barrel.

Weird thing is I know the burn was hot, I was shooting compressed air into the intake holes I drilled prior to the burn. :-)
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http://www.harborfreight.com/20-lb-p...ter-68994.html

You can add a 3' to 4' piece of bent pipe between the outlet of the final ball valve and the nozzle so you don't have to stick any body parts in the drum while blasting.
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Problem is I don't have the blaster yet. I found one on Home Depot's site that should work with my compressor's capabilities and it's only $10. But I waited a day before ordering it (no in store pickup) and now it shows out of stock and won't let me order it. :-)
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This one?
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-San...4#.Uc2bJ9nX1c8

I have a similar design suction blaster out in the garage somewhere, along with a gravity feed that came with my compressor. They are actually the same design guns, just one has a tube that goes into a bucket of abrasive and the other with the hose attached to the bottom of a hopper. They're kind of ehhh. They tend to sputter / feed inconsistently, coverage area is kind of small and don't really accelerate the blast media as much as I would like. They do work, but not really that quickly - seem to be designed for quick, small jobs, like blasting small steel parts. From what I remember of the design of the ones I have, I'm not sure if an extension could be fitted to the nozzle because of the way the ceramic fits, and, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be sticking my entire arm down into the drum while hovering my face directly over the top or even in the drum a bit when I'm blasting. Maybe there's a way to mount the gun to the end of a broom handle or something.

Although I can also sympathize with not wanting to spend $40-50 on a tool (pressure blaster) to be used once.
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My daughter turns 16 tomorrow, not sure when that happened :-).
Big party tomorrow for her and her friends, she requested brisket and ham (she's definitely my child). So there is a 16lb brisket and a 9lb ham going on the smoker this morning. I'll take whatever prayers are offered for my survival tomorrow. :-)
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Thanks Andy. I called HD's online customer service number and was able to order it through them. I also ordered a water/oil filter for the compressor to take water out prior to hitting the gun. I've read that makes a big difference for keeping the gun from clogging up. Plus, I found black diamond coal slag at TSC near my house for $8/50lb bag. I've read it does a good job, few clogs, without the safety concerns of using sand (silicosis). I should have everything I need for blasting (including my respirator and other safety equip). I think mouting the gun to a pole of some kind, like my pushbroom handle, is a good idea for the bottom parts of the inside. I hope HD doesn't take forever in getting the order to my local store. It showed 4-7 days plus 3 days processing. Lame, but we'll see. Thanks guys for your help. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.
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Cool.

I've never used that brand of abrasive, I'd be curious to hear how fast/well it works.
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I might have went a little aggressive with 3 pork loins and 2 racks of BB ribs. Wish me luck. If they turn out good ill snap some pictures.
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About to go toss some ribs on the bbq and give Brad's pinto bean recipe a try.
(Don't worry Brad, I actually did read the entire recipe first this time so the beans have been soaking since Friday night).
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