Building your own BBQ pit

[brisketluvr]

Next to pizza, BBQ (any kind) is my food-reason for living.  I get real[/font] Texas BBQ Brisket when I visit my relatives down in Bastrop, TX (Billy's BBQ).  That is the Shangrila of brisket! 

Being stuck here in Virginia,  BBQ (especially brisket) is mediocre at best.  Sure, there's Red Hot & Blue (a chain), but it's too clean and prepared for me. 

I've tried cooking brisket in the oven and smoke cooking it on the grill.  For the most part, it's a waste of time.  The briskets are too lean and too small (I will go to a butcher in the future), and there is no substitute for slooooooooww  cooking.

Which finally leads me to my topic:  I want to build a real pit smoker on my property.  Luckily, I have no communist homeowner's association to deal with and I have enough land to do it.

I have found one really great website of a guy who built one and then posted the plans on his website

http://www.ibiblio.org/lineback/bbq/wdh.htm

This looks like a Cadillac of smokers and it's got me psyched-up to do it - but it'll have to be next spring now 

Does anyone have a pit in their yard, and if so, how about some pics and comments?  Any other sources for this type of thing would be good, too.

Thanks - Mark

[Randy]

Mark before you build your own pit you should do a taste research and decide what type of pit suits your taste buds.  The link you provided is a pit that operates on hot coals just below the meat rack.  A separate burn chamber is used to burn the wood down to coals.  These are not normally associated with brisket being used primarily for pulled pork.

Find what you believe is the best barbecue place around and ask to see the pit.  If they are not busy, most people will be proud to show off their work. 

Now go out there and eat, eat barbecue until your research is complete.
http://www.bbqpits.com/
http://www.realtime.net/~wash/kreuz.html
http://www.southwestsmoker.com/
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-CaseSC

Randy

[brisketluvr]

Randy - thanks for the links and yes, MUCH more research is needed!  I will be spending the winter eating and thinking and eating some more bbq wherever I can get it. 

Since I like pork as much as beef bbq,  I have my work cut out for me in trying to come up with a compromise.   Maybe I could design a modified version of the Wilbur D. Hog model http://www.ibiblio.org/lineback/bbq/wdh.htm that also has a smoke chamber pipe coming from the fire box he has on it.  That way, I could have either direct or indirect cooking.  The fire box would need its' own door though, to control the temp/burn of the wood.

Lots to think about, but I have plenty of time.

Here's a link  http://www.texacan.com/  to a place I frequent on occasion.  They are mainly a commercial outfit that prepares bbq for local restaurants, but they have a walk up retail side, and it's pretty good.  He uses pecan wood trucked up from Tx.  Very high-tech.

Mark

[LaSalle5647]

I'll have pictures of my smoker on the internet shortly! 

[Randy]

Great!  Always interesting to see other works of barbecue art.

Randy

[LaSalle5647]

here are the pics

[LaSalle5647]

some more

[LaSalle5647]

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[LaSalle5647]

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[LaSalle5647]

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[LaSalle5647]

  

[brisketluvr]

LaSalle - that's an awesome and original smoker!  Wow!  I'd like to hear about it.  How much and what type of meat do you cook?  It looks to me like you can directly bbq above the firebox and/or indirectly smoke out through the front of it.  Very artistic design.  Must be a welder!

[Randy]

LaSalle, that is a great looking rig.  Very inovative!
How does it cook?
Randy

[LaSalle5647]

It cooks very well , the vertical smoker cooks as good as the horizontal smoker. The success of this smoker is the design of the internal working parts.  Alot of people think that the vertical cooker is a bbq'er ,  but it is actually a smoker. I have never used this rig to bbq on. Both horizontal and vertical cookers have water pans in them . On the vertical smoker there is a 14" round plate that pivots on a bolt which is attached to a pull handle on the outside of the smoker. 
when the pull handle is pulled back very little  the flame from the fire box hits the bottom of the water pans and creates steam for the moisture in the meat.  The ratio of the firebox to the vertical smoker chamber volume is just right , that is why i can use the vertical and horizontal at the same time. The ignitor system is propane powered and gets the wood at the right temp. of 225-250 in about 45 minutes. I  can cook anywhere from 100-250 lbs of meat on the smoker. I like to use red oak ,  pecan ,  and a little hickory. All seasoned of course . I like cooking ribs ,  boston butt pork roast , hams ,chickens , turkeys , and brisket .

p.s. I am a welder and pipe-fitter with 22 years of experience.

[LaSalle5647]

If you would like to talk to me about the smoker , email me at [email protected] . Also i will have some videos up at ftp://192.168.1.47
(broadband recommended )