When I’m cooking competition bbq, you better believe I’m using aluminum foil. Call it the “Texas Crutch”, call it cheating, call it whatever you want; but I’m a wrapper. Here’s why: It prevents the meat from absorbing too much smoke so it doesn’t turn out bitter and It keeps the meat nice and moist, so it comes out really tender …
Building A Fire In Your Smoker – creating the positive draft flow
A week ago I had a ton of great barbecue questions come in, so I shot a few videos answering them. On question was all about controlling and building a fire – and feeding the fire vs the the vent at the top of cooker. A Backwoods model is the perfect smoker to demonstrate this on, so I shot this …
How to Get that Perfect “Thin Blue Smoke”
When your BBQing, what type of smoke is best and how do you build the right fire to produce it? Everyone knows that different woods produce different flavor profiles, but the type of smoke that comes off these woods is really what is important. If you’ve been around BBQ enough, you’re sure to have heard about “Thin Blue Smoke”… and …
Smokin on a Pellet Cooker
Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with a new kind of smoker… well it’s not really new, but for a charcoal and wood man, it’s a little different. I’m talking about a pellet smoker. For those of you that don’t know, a pellet smoker is a cooker that runs off of compressed wood “pellets”. This type of grill …
BBQr’s Delight
Wood cooking pellets have been around for many years, and I see more and more teams using pellet smokers now days. There are several companies manufacturing cooking pellets, but the absolute best pellet on the market is made by a company called BBQr’s Delight. BBQr’s Delight is located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and ran by Candy Weaver. You may have …
Awesome Charcoal Chimney
I found a new, heavy-duty charcoal chimney – it’s a beefed up model compared to the ones you pick-up at Lowe’s or Home Depot… and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m pretty tough on equipment and on average I would have to buy at least 2 or 3 new charcoal chimneys each year – and I always hated how …
Pulling Pork With Power Tools
If you’ve got a lot of meat to pull to feed a hungry public and don’t have a buffalo chopper – this little invention works like a charm. It’s called the Ro-Man Pork Puller and you just attach it to a power drill and go to work! Malcom Reed Connect on Facebook Follow me on Twitter Subscribe to my YouTube …
Competition Brisket Method on a Yoder Pellet Smoker
Last week I wanted to try cooking a competition style brisket on the Yoder YS480. I’ve heard when it comes to smoke ring that pellet smokers can’t stack up to traditional cookers. But I had to see this for myself. I picked up a 14lb whole packer from Restaurant Depot at 2.29lb for CAB choice brisket; I was very happy. …
Competition Rib Recipe
This past weekend I had the chance to cook on a pellet smoker for the first time. If you’re not familiar with pellet cookers, they run off small, compressed “pellets” of 100% wood. There’s no filler or other junk to worry about, so what you get is pure, clean smoke. I have to admit that I was a little leery …
What You Need to Know Before Buying a Smoker
Let’s talk about everything you need to know about upgrading your equipment more specifically purchasing a new smoker. Here’s some things to think about before pulling the trigger: What is the smoker going to be used for? Are you buying your first smoker, or is it time to upgrade to a larger cooker? You first need to identify what the …
More UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) Questions
I get questions about building a UDS all the time… and I love it because they are pretty simple to make, they are very inexpensive and work like a machine. I’ve got several of them and always have a few lent out to friends and family. But for my backyard smoking, it’s all I use. So here are a couple …
Pellet Cookers
Got a question about pellet cookers… Malcom, I use a pellet cooker and like it real well but is that the way to go on butts or wood? I see a lot of pellet cookers on the bbq circuit and those guys do well with them. I’ve never actually cooked on one but I do like the idea. One thing …
Modifying a Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS)
I had a question about modifying the plans on my website of a UDS smoker build. (<< you can see the pictures and plan by hitting that link) Is it necessary to install a pan where you could fill a little water somewhere between the firecage and the grid? Thought that could be useful as a dripping pan as well …
Pre-Plan For Smoking A Whole Hog…
Had a question from Jim a few days ago about the planning that goes into smoking a whole hog… and it actually is the reason I decided to do my newsletter on whole hog this week. It’s all about getting ready to serve your hog before you ever start cooking it. Just a little pre-planning goes a long way when …
How to build a UDS – Ugly Drum Smoker
I built my own UDS last summer. And I liked it so much I built 2 more. Right now one is in my backyard, one is on the BBQ trailer and one my buddy borrowed. I finally put all my plans on how I built my UDS – along with the CADD drawing Waylon did for me – on the …