"Fireball" my makeshift smoker!

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jimwalter73

StickBurners
Original poster
Dec 14, 2009
25
10
Paulsboro, NJ
I have been researching for several months now, which smoker to purchase, but due to funds, have yet to purchase one. However, I am very eager to start smoking, so today I took my trusty little "fireball", my charcoal grill, and some aluminum foil and created my own makeshift smoker.

I started the fire in my chimney starter and while it was burning, I took some hickory wood chips and placed them in a pouch of aluminum foil, took some more aluminum foil and covered a little over half the cooking grate, then flipped it upside down and with some more foil and made a baffle, essentially creating a firebox. Once my fire was ready, I spread my coals out on one side of my grill and opened my intake baffle a little less than half way. I then placed my pouch of wood chips next to the coals and put on my cooking grate to "close" the box off. The following pictures show "fireball" in action. Later on today, I will post more photos of the end result.

Hey, a man on a tight budget has got to do what he can!!

Please tell me what you guys think!
 
Looks like it is smoking along just fine to me.
Hell, doesn't matter what you are working with as long as you can cook low and slow with some smoke
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Well, this is how it turned out. The hunk of meat on the right is my pork butt, that I injected, for the first time ever I might add! And the mahogany bird on the left is a regular roaster that all I did was put my favorite rub on. I smoked them both on a medium heat (about 200 degrees), for around 4 hours, using mesquite natural wood charcoal and hickory wood chips. Being an experienced griller, I still have never gotten a bark like that on my pork before....isn't it just gorgeous??!!!!!

If I can do this with a makeshift smoker, I can only imagine the possibilities this spring when I finally get my real smoker!!!

Now my house smells like a BBQ Joint!

The wife made some homemade baked beans, homemade slaw and baked apples! We may be eatin' late tonight, but we'll be eatin' good!!
 
Man, if I didn't have some of my own Q fresh outta the smoker and about ready for the table I'd be jealous as hell.
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Instead, I'm just a little bit jealous, that looks wonderfully tasty.

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Just thought ya'll might appreciate one more look! TeeHee! I haven't cut into the chicken yet, that's for tomorrow night. This is what the Butt looks like, sliced and served with my wife's beautiful fixins. Earlier I said that my house smelled like a BBQ Joint......well, I couldn't walk down the hall without my mouth drooling all Homer Simpson like!! Enjoy the photos and thanks for all the replies and the ratings.

I'll be smoking again soon and I will love to share all of my successes and maybe even a few failures
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with everyone here on the forum.

Until next time, keep up the good smoke!





No, this is not a magazine photo shoot!
 
Fine looking food there Jim and don't feel bad about using the grill to smoke with. Started that way myself in the early '80's. Just watch the wooden deck when using the grill on it, I'm a volunteer firefighter and we responded to a deck fire a couple months ago after the owner grilled some steaks for supper one evening. His deck didn't look so good after the fire and the chainsaw after we removed all the burned boards and threw them out in his yard to get them away from his house.
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Now that is a stroke of pure genious I would say. I like how you have taken a standard charcoal grill and thans formed it into a nice smoker and mods too. Then all the food came out looking good too. I will tell you there aren't many who slice a butt but I think it's very good that way. It sometime is hard for people to think of a butt or a hams that isn't red or pink in color. I know I had that problem the first time the kids had one that wa a greyish color.
 
Way to go Ramfan, a true Q enthusiast will find a way to get smoke on his meat. Looks good bet it was good too.

Ramfan, check out post on smoking using the weber kettle, a lot of us have shared techniques for smoking using the weber kettle that would easily apply to your fireball.
 
Way to go! The method looks great, the food looks delicious.
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This is how many of us started. I'd used a Weber 22.5" kettle for smoking for the past decade; it was only in late 2008 that I finally decided to get a CGSP offset. The food doesn't come out any better, I can just produce much more at a time
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Thats a really Nice smoke you did on a great little grill.

I have that same red grill. This is it back when it was shiny and gnu. This was a really windy day as shown by the flame flare at the base of the chimney. I use it as a wind break for my cobb cooker and for the Dutch Ovens. You need far fewer coals if you use the red grill with the Dutch ovens inside them. Sort of an oven inside an oven.




It will easily hold a 12 or even a 14 inch Dutch Oven right inside it with the lid closed. I use mine on windy days with the Dutch Oven rignt inside it to make my Camp bread. I have done Chicken and Pork Butt in mine similar to what you did.

I was looking to buy a stand for my Dutch Ovens which were about $150 when I spotted the little red grill at Wal-Mart. I got it on sale for $22.00 regularly $33.00 One of the best purchases I ever made.

Points for the nice smoke
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PS Check out this thread showing my little red grill in action making bread.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=72049
 
Points for good o' american inginuity!
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Your chicken and pork look great! I have always been a fan of the sliced pork although not many folks ever do it that way...good eatin by any standard - congrats!
 
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