Good Morning all,
I've been lurking around for a little while, fellow member and personal friend Dirtsailer posted some incriminating (in a good way) pictures of my WBO (wood burning oven) so I signed on. I'm a novice smoker, been charring meats for a couple years now. Started with a small plywood smoker built from scrap and garage sale hot plates. She worked great though a little tough to get and keep hot. It served me well until an extra fatty brisket caught it on fire! The brisket was about 2 hours into smoking before the inferno. No damage other then the smoker and I hosed off the ashes the beef and finished in the house oven, not going to intentionally set another smoker on fire but that was the best tasting brisket I've ever smoked. Replaced that smoker with a four drawer file cabinet smoker I built in a weekend.
I use stainless, perforated restaurant steam table pans to smoke in, rungs are made of aluminum (trying to prevent another "indecent" ;-) heat is from a table top propane grill found at thrift store for $5. She smokes well but would like to insulate to reduce fuel usage. Left of the pic you can see my portable wood burning Pizza oven. Built of plain red building bricks and scrap steel, all breaks down to small pieces. You do have to assemble it every time you move it but not difficult or time consuming, from unloading to starting the fire is under an hour. Uses about 100 bricks that fit in ten, five gallon buckets. Cured my first Canadian Bacon a few weeks ago, cannot believe how much better it tastes then store bought. One small mistake though, made only 5 pounds and it almost gone! This weekend I picked up a twin pack, pork shoulder for a try at buckboard bacon. Plan to dry brine one, wet brine the second, will post pics when close to finished. Since the Canadian bacon, I've been lusting for a slicer. Having owned heavy duty home models [was not at all happy with them] I started watching craigslist for a commercial model. Couple days ago I found a 9" Univex.
Loaded in my pickup yesterday for only $100 !! Works perfect and should have the power to handle any of the tasty treats coming from the smoker. There was a small chip in the blade, being a cheapskate and not wanting to spend $150+ for a new blade I used the tig welder to fill in the hole with stainless rod. Little grinding and polishing and looks just fine, yes I did remove some of the temper from the blade but as little use it gets (compared to daily commercial use) it should be fine. While chatting with the seller he told me of an old smoker he used only a couple times, another $10 bill in his hand I loaded up a barely used Brinkman charcoal smoker. Will likely convert to propane in the future and will be mostly used at camp outs.
Not exactly smoking related, I have plans to built a new and lighter wood burning pizza oven out of stainless sheet. a sit come together I'll probably post pics and details about it.
Well, that's enough for now, I have some BBB to get brined :-)
Jetman<<<
a.k.a. Dan
I've been lurking around for a little while, fellow member and personal friend Dirtsailer posted some incriminating (in a good way) pictures of my WBO (wood burning oven) so I signed on. I'm a novice smoker, been charring meats for a couple years now. Started with a small plywood smoker built from scrap and garage sale hot plates. She worked great though a little tough to get and keep hot. It served me well until an extra fatty brisket caught it on fire! The brisket was about 2 hours into smoking before the inferno. No damage other then the smoker and I hosed off the ashes the beef and finished in the house oven, not going to intentionally set another smoker on fire but that was the best tasting brisket I've ever smoked. Replaced that smoker with a four drawer file cabinet smoker I built in a weekend.
I use stainless, perforated restaurant steam table pans to smoke in, rungs are made of aluminum (trying to prevent another "indecent" ;-) heat is from a table top propane grill found at thrift store for $5. She smokes well but would like to insulate to reduce fuel usage. Left of the pic you can see my portable wood burning Pizza oven. Built of plain red building bricks and scrap steel, all breaks down to small pieces. You do have to assemble it every time you move it but not difficult or time consuming, from unloading to starting the fire is under an hour. Uses about 100 bricks that fit in ten, five gallon buckets. Cured my first Canadian Bacon a few weeks ago, cannot believe how much better it tastes then store bought. One small mistake though, made only 5 pounds and it almost gone! This weekend I picked up a twin pack, pork shoulder for a try at buckboard bacon. Plan to dry brine one, wet brine the second, will post pics when close to finished. Since the Canadian bacon, I've been lusting for a slicer. Having owned heavy duty home models [was not at all happy with them] I started watching craigslist for a commercial model. Couple days ago I found a 9" Univex.
Loaded in my pickup yesterday for only $100 !! Works perfect and should have the power to handle any of the tasty treats coming from the smoker. There was a small chip in the blade, being a cheapskate and not wanting to spend $150+ for a new blade I used the tig welder to fill in the hole with stainless rod. Little grinding and polishing and looks just fine, yes I did remove some of the temper from the blade but as little use it gets (compared to daily commercial use) it should be fine. While chatting with the seller he told me of an old smoker he used only a couple times, another $10 bill in his hand I loaded up a barely used Brinkman charcoal smoker. Will likely convert to propane in the future and will be mostly used at camp outs.
Not exactly smoking related, I have plans to built a new and lighter wood burning pizza oven out of stainless sheet. a sit come together I'll probably post pics and details about it.
Well, that's enough for now, I have some BBB to get brined :-)
Jetman<<<
a.k.a. Dan
