Had the UDS up and running again at the weekend but did not go as planned! I tried to use the minion method for lighting it but when I cleaned it out, not much more than the full chimney of coal I had started with seemed to have lit? I rubbed the meat with SPOG before putting it in the UDS when the temp was up to 220 ( got there pretty quickly). I put the cap on the my 1" hole about 180 and half closed both ball valves. It had choked out last time when I tried running it with 1 valve half open when trying to get the temp down so the thinking was having some airflow from either side would stop this happening! Temp continued to rise and seemed to settle at 280 after a while so I closed the ball valves a bit more! Was fiddling with the bung holes on top (one large, one small) and it was in my foolishness of closing both them for a while to try and get the temp down when I think I've ruined the meat ( amateur, I know[emoji]128532[/emoji]). In my defence because the way my lid sits some smoke does seep out the sides so I thought this would be ok to let some smoke out but clearly wasn't.
The meat was in for only around 3-4 hours and I took it out when the temp was 150. It was in and out a bit while I tried to use a pizza pan as a baffle to try getting lower temps and when I was checking how much coal was lit under the pan but for the most part it was cooking around 280-300F. It looked the part but I have to admit most of it tasted like chewing a bonfire because the stale smoke had gotten to it.
From what I've looked at so far I think my problem was either starting with too many coals or letting the temp get up too high before trying to get it down, easier to raise temp slightly than try and lower it once it high, so I hear! This beef was bought on the cheap and expected to go slightly wrong so no big deal but as always guys,any advice is welcome AND NEEDED!
The meat was in for only around 3-4 hours and I took it out when the temp was 150. It was in and out a bit while I tried to use a pizza pan as a baffle to try getting lower temps and when I was checking how much coal was lit under the pan but for the most part it was cooking around 280-300F. It looked the part but I have to admit most of it tasted like chewing a bonfire because the stale smoke had gotten to it.
From what I've looked at so far I think my problem was either starting with too many coals or letting the temp get up too high before trying to get it down, easier to raise temp slightly than try and lower it once it high, so I hear! This beef was bought on the cheap and expected to go slightly wrong so no big deal but as always guys,any advice is welcome AND NEEDED!
