Smoking a large amount of meat on UDS

T G

New member
Im cooking for our company cookout today, and Im doing 4 butts cut in half for everyone. Ive come across some issues, maybe someone here can help me out.

I had a terrible time getting back up to temp, which I knew would happen since I was putting a large amount of meat into my drum, but Im having to keep all the inlets open, and I pulled out one of our shop fans to blow air into the drum. 6 hours into the cook, and I run out of fuel, I started with about 16 lbs of Kingsford blue using Minion.

Did keeping the shop fan blowing into my intakes to keep the temp up accelerate my fuel consumption? I just had to reload my fire basket, talk about a chore when I have two full grates of meat, and a diffuser/water pan grate. I already know that for future reference, if I am cooking this large a quantity Im going to have two drums, as well as some sort of power draft system.
 

sheepdad

New member
I would say that the fans did speed up fuel consumption. I think that given the amount of meat, you would need to add coals to finish the cook with or without the fans.
A couple of things that could of been done to reduce the amount of energy needed to get the drum up to temp :
-A mix of lump and briquettes would have given you the higher temp you were looking for without the fans.
-Start with hot water in the water pan (one less thing to heat up)
All in all i just think the drum was at its limit and like you said, a second drum was needed.

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Big Poppa

Administrator
YOu dont need a water pan...there is enough moisture with the butts in there. The drum is a pretty humid cooking system as it is....Now I dont want to start a war with the esteemed Scooter but I dont like kingsford blue bag at all...Backwoods goes out of its way to discourage its use...if you want kingsford use kingsford comp as it is purer and burns hotter.
 

T G

New member
I think Im gonna give Royal Oak lump a try, its cheap and got a great review on the Naked Whiz site.

Also, Im wondering if having a taller stack will give me a better draft, since taller chimneys have more suction, you would think the effect would work here on a smaller scale.

I an going to build a second drum in the next few months, I already have a few improvements in mind, we'll see how it works out.
 

scooter

Moderator
Staff member
K blue bag burns real long. Remember, while lump burns hotter, it also burns out quicker. I love the blue bag because it works great, is very consistant and burns for a really long time.
At the risk of causing BP to faint, I agree with him that K comp is a great choice. I'd use it if it was available at a decent price around here. I buy all my blue bag at memorial day when the home depot has it for sale for about .23/lb, it just doesn't get any cheaper than that unless Lowes roles out their 2-13lb bag bundle of blue bag for $7 with a $10 off coupon attached for my next Lowes purchase over $50 which is almost weekly. Lowes is basically paying me $3 to haul 26lb of blue bag charcoal out of their store!
 

T G

New member
I have easy access to the Competition Briquettes, they're just around $1/lb. I've used the comp briquettes before, and like them when I had my offset. I also have access to Wicked Good briquettes, through my local ACE Hardware, it's more expensive per bag than on their website, but the $60 shipping charge is a killer. ACE has 22 lb bags for $21, which still comes out cheaper than the comp briquettes.

What Im thinking is trying to find a "happy medium" blend of lump and briquettes. Does that work?
 

sheepdad

New member
What I'm thinking is trying to find a "happy medium" blend of lump and briquettes. Does that work?

It works out for me.. But i don't have the lump to briq ratio down to a science.

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