Got Hickory ?

[skyhightree1]

I found a source for pecan wood lol
http://richmond.craigslist.org/zip/3601469627.html

 

[Bigfoot]

Skyhigh,

My fire box for my 300 gallon grill is an old hot water heater. It's galvanized, but we haven't died from the fumes yet. I welded it low on one side, and put the flew high on the other side. It runs a pretty constant 225-250 degrees. I put a damper at the top of the pipe. Choke it back it builds up heat. Open it and it let's heat out. Simple but works. My meat grate is some expanded metal. Took half a day tops to build. It's on wheels of course. I've cooked everything from hotdogs to whole hogs in it. No shoveling hot coals. Just build a small hard wood fire in the hot water heater. I like to blend oak and hickory. Mt dew can chickens are my favorite. It's virtually indestructible. I've considered renting it out, but it's hard to find because people borrow it almost every weekend.

 

[skyhightree1]

That sounds like a good design I will see what I can come up with once my creative juices start flowing. I also use oak and hickory to add flavor to meat since I do not have a smoke house what I do is split it in really small slivers soak in water all night long then put the slivers on the charcoal once the fires out and it smokes up pretty well adds the flavor pretty well but not a true smoke. I have never heard the mt dew chicken before lol I will have to try that. I wonder how mr pibb soda would do ? Your design must work or else no one would want to borrow it and it wold be a yard ornament lol

 

[Jogeephus]

Sounds like you are on the right track now. Like Bigfoot said, this kind of smoker is very useful and its easy to cook on. With mine, all I have to do is remember to stoke the box every hour on the hour and all is good. Each has its own coasting temp but as long as you are in that range you are golden. Like Bigfoot said they are easy to build but I'm afraid Bigfoot is probably going to die one day from using the galvanized tank since zinc will melt at 1665F and put off noxious fumes and poison his food. (In other words, don't over think it!) With this type smoke you can cook near about anything and with your supply of wood you are golden.

BTW, pecan is hickory and any hickory is good. I think pecan is a little milder but not many can tell the difference.

 

[skyhightree1]

Thanks for steering me in the right direction. I use white oak and red oak in my mix with the hickory I guess doesn't matter which I use they both will do the job. Just from what you guys have told me I think i could build a fire box on the side of the cooker to build small fires in to cold smoke and use the large compartment for charcoal to cook on and achieve both possibly with one tank.

 

[Jogeephus]

That would be possible cause you can always damper down the fire box to just have a smoldering fire. I ran into this situation with Wilbur I but what I did was since I would be smoking bacon and hams and these need to hang I didn't have enough head space for hanging the meat so I built an upright with another propane tank and this will hold about 50 lbs of bacon or two hams. Dampered down I have to stoke the fire once every 8 hours. Here is what I did.

This setup has four dampers to control the heat flow and the upright on the left cooks at half the temp as the horizontal. So I can cook boston butt or whatever in the horizontal and smoke summer sausage in the vertical at the same time. If I want to truly cold smoke I just damper the fire down and it will smoke at the amibient temp.

 

[slick4591]

BTW, pecan is hickory and any hickory is good. I think pecan is a little milder but not many can tell the difference.

I agree with you, Jo. I always cut my hickory using 2-1 ratio of pecan. And if y'all need some pecan this one next to the utility pole is dead out at the farm. All ya gotta do is come get it. :lol2:

 

[skyhightree1]

Wilbur sure is nice lol... slick im on my way.

 

[Bigfoot]

Jo,

I've always wondered about that. You think I'm in any danger? I actually have two of those grills. Same set up on both. Only difference is the size I cut the lid. I bet the one I smoke on for hours at a time is the dangerous one.

 

[Jogeephus]

Thanks but i have pecan coming out my ears. Gotta burn it anyway so putting it to good use whilst burning it only makes sense.

 

[skyhightree1]

this is design I was thinking of using with the tanks
http://cdn.smokingmeatforums.com/a/a4/a ... moker2.jpg

found this one too i really like it
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... CBwQ9QEwAQ

 

[Jogeephus]

I like the second one. First one, I don't think is a reverse flow and this would be problematic.

 

[skyhightree1]

2nd is my favorite as well and may be able to do a cooker as well as a smoker with that design.

 

[Jogeephus]

you just need to be sure you have a plate in it to disperse the heat evenly

 

[skyhightree1]

I wonder what smoked rabbit would taste like or smoked crappie its almost time to start catching the crappie lol

 

[Anonymous]

I scored a fair amount today.

There's more where this came from. All green

 

[skyhightree1]

Good job is all that gonna be used just for smoking ?

 

[Anonymous]

That's the plan.

 

[skyhightree1]

good plan what meats do you typically smoke?

 

[Anonymous]

Most anything with a face.