The Start Of A Smoker

I just got home today from buying a 55 gallon drum. It's time to build my first UDS and I'm going to walk you through everything I do. I was lucky enough to find a food grade drum that did not have the liner in it. Unfortunately it had a lot of rust on the inside that needed to be cleaned out first. After a lot of sand paper and several hand cramps I got most of it out. My hands were angry with me so I decided to take a break. I had a lot of tumble weeds that I needed to do something about so I decided to throw them in the drum and I fired it up. I had a bunch of smaller mesquite branches that I wasn't planning on using to smoke with so I burnt those too. As you can see the paint came off from the bottom. I was actually hoping for this because I don't plan on leaving it black.

Homemade Smoked Paprika

Paprika
Paprika usually comes from bell peppers. The flavor of most paprika I've found in stores is slim to none, so I decided to try and make my own. This of course meant that it was going to be smoked paprika. After a quick trip to the store I had three red bell peppers ready to be made into a nice smoky paprika to use in BBQ rubs, etc. I rinsed the peppers and then sliced them up getting them ready to throw out on the smoker.

Jack Daniels Charcoal

Jack Daniels holds a special place in my heart when it comes to BBQ. It’s no surprise that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try out their charcoal when I saw it at the store the other day. I didn’t go home right away and smoke anything so I felt like a little kid around Christmas time trying to figure out what’s in the bag.

Maverick Redi Chek Smoker Thermometer

If you’re into bbq and smoking then chances are you’ve heard of or already have one of these thermometers. If not, read on to find out if this is a Smokin’ product.

Contents
1 – Remote Transmitter
1 – Receiver
1 – Meat thermometer probe
1 – Smoker probe
1 – Grill clip for smoker prong
4 – AAA Batteries

Root Beer BBQ Sauce

Bad News
To start off I have to report that unfortunately we could not find Hanks Root Beer anywhere in Phoenix. We used to get it at BevMo or AJ’s Fine Foods. The only thing we found was diet Hanks. In my opinion that’s just not root beer.  The good news is that we had other options. We decided to use another one of my favorites: Berghoff Root Beer. Berghoff is another rich flavored brew.

The Setup
1 – 12 fl oz Berghoff Root Beer
Magical ingredients to sauté
Magical base ingredients
Making our sauce is done in two stages. We sauté some of the ingredients and at the same time we mix up the base. After the sauté is done we add the base to the sauté.