Remember this?
That was all that got done, apart from drinking beer. We did come up with a plan for this:
And this:
Which will probably come in to fruition on friday evening when everyone is down for a bbq, etc. Seems like a communal kind of job!
Well, it actually started on a friday! I think. It was a week ago. And I was drinking a lot. It could have been a sunday. /shrug
Anyway, went down the shed an evening after work, Jono sounded like he was in desperate need of company, so I went straight down in my uniform.
Get down there, and he's just bored. -_-
So, crack open a beer, and crack the whip!
Lucky for him, I'm in my uniform which is reasonably flammable I think, so no sparks for me!
Take one gas bottle, remove handle.
Take one compressor tank, remove unwanted fixtures.
Cut slits along the length of the tank after beer and discussion of where the lid should be. Use plasma cutter, because toys!
Then weld hinges on while the edges line up.
Also weld up holes from fixtures. We left the big port for a later feature. We also found some big brass plugs to fill the big port and also the drain tap on the underside.
It works! Cut more holes.
Cut a matching hole.
Melt them together. Dig around the shed for appropriate supports.
Also cut a similar hole in the gas cylinder and add another hinge.
Shelving hooks should work!
Add a tail. Badly. Melt more steel in to the holes so that it's kind of airtight.
It reminds me of a pig. I have christened it such. Jono thinks it's a donkey. I told him to stop assing around.
That was where we got to. We set some stuff on fire inside both tanks to burn off the curse word inside. Jono apparently lit another fire just to make sure the next evening.
Fast forward to yesterday evening and I head down the shed determined to get this finished.
Drag it back up in to the shed from down near the fire pit where it had been moved.
It falls over. It must be drunk, it's off it's legs!
Jono's welding held fine, it was the welds on the washers that failed, haha.
Anyway, next step is to get rid of all that ash in the bottom of the head.
Cut a hole. Add a 'poop chute'.
Another hinge, even a handle! Also a matching handle added to the door on the head. The one on the body was made to match the existing handles on it earlier at some point.
At this point, Jono asked why I hadn't brought any meat down (9PM). Well, there's only one place open this time of night, so off I go for a drive. By the time I get back, he's got the pig stoked up.I should mention that there's a bit of mesh in the head to keep air in the coals and the ash drops to the bottom. There's some mesh in the main body to sit the meat on.
At this point it should be clear that the pig is in fact, a smoking bbq.
It looks just like a bought one, I don't know what you're talking about!
By the time we got it up to temperature and the hardwood had turned to coals properly it was going on 10PM.
Going to be a late one, then! Ended up being about 12:15AM when we pulled the meat from it to give it a try.
We'd checked it every 40min or so in between beers and playing on the shooting range with the air rifle.
So! What's the verdict?
Well, the smoker works. If you open the vent on the poop chute, it allows more oxygen in which makes the flames kick up, which is good if you're adding new wood, or the temp is a bit low.
There is a vent on the tail/flue as well which controls how much smoke exits, and also how much heat escapes the cooking chamber.
That part works pretty well, it'll just take a bit of practice to work out the finer nuances of it. The main chamber door leaks a lot of smoke.
A lot.
So we're losing a bit of heat there. But overall, it works pretty much as expected.
Now the meat...
I was in a hurry, so I just grabbed some blade steaks and drove straight back. So no prep other than pulling them out of the plastic.
Apparently a rub will help greatly with inducing smoke flavours in to the meat, so will have to try that next time.
As for the smoke flavour... did it work?
Yes? It definitely tasted like smoke. Was it the right flavour of smoke?
No.
We used ironbark, which apparently works reasonably well. I think where we went wrong was that it was reasonably fresh, and hadn't been dried.
I also don't think it was burning hot enough. We got nice blue smoke most of the time, but it was hard to control with just wood as fuel, and I don't think it was a hot enough fire to burn away the flavours we didn't want.
It ended up tasting quite eucalypty, which wasn't particularly amazing.
Ah well. Next time I'll be prepared! I honestly wasn't planning on trying it yet, haha.
Next test will involve bbq charcoals to regulate the heat easier, and some proper wood chunks and chips (hickory, probably) to add the smoke flavour.
I will also rub my meat first.
Something about surface area, blah blah meat science.
Anyway, future experiments with the pig will be added to my
Mead/food experiment thread. I just thought that the making of was more appropriate here, without making another 'Other Mods' thread.
Cheers,
Matt