Hopefully I'll be doing an initial burn using my drum smoker this afternoon and although I've read through the posts in this UDS section until my eyes are crossed I don't recall any specific instructions on seasoning it. Somewhere I read that you open the vents all the way and let it run wild building the temps up and that you rub the walls with vegetable oil or spray them with cooking spray, but then others say that they do a fattie in it to season it, but I can't believe that you'd do a fattie at high temps

Anyone that's done it care to simplify this for me?

ANY smoker should be seasoned with the oil and run at high heat to drive off any nasties, and coat the metal to prevent rust. Wait on the fatty- maybe after a couple hours of the high heat, knock it down and smoke it then.

I found this and have been taking it as good advise. I used a can of crisco that I melted on the stove at a low temp. then used a basting brush to paint everything and spray pam to help get into areas that the brush could not get to. it works for me.
hope it helps you.
Lang BBQ Smoker Cooker Firing, Cleaning and Seasoning Instructions

1. First time to season: spray cooking area with vegetable oil or PAM (walls, doors, grates, etc.) Every thing inside the cooker. After you have started your cooker, (pre cook in it by letting the oil sizzle and sear and pre grill for about 35 to 45 minutes or longer and then do the spray misting with water as follows.)
2. Build fire: use 4-5 pieces of split, dried hardwood (soda can diameter), leaving all doors and vents/dampers wide open initially, (also brass valve at bottom wide open with gallon bucket underneath)
3. Light fire with kindling, (charcoal, fat lightered, Wesson oil soaked paper towel, etc.) or a propane brush burner; get a large fire going and wait until black smoke bellows out; then close cooker door to "propped open" (i.e. over closed latch). When flames come out of the fire box, close fire box door to "propped open" position (i.e. over closed latch).
4. When temperature gauge reaches about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, open cooker door and spray/mist water inside on all surfaces. (This is the steaming process). Then, let fire re-heat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit again and repeat spray/mist process. Steam cleaning inside entire cooking area. Then, add a large piece or two of split wood, close chimney damper to 45 degrees and fire box vents to almost closed, and let cooker "smoke cure" which creates a hardwood smoke glaze.
5. Oiling process is only done initially. The firing mode (i.e. doors open, etc.) is done every time you fire up. The steam cleaning should be done after each cook or before, by getting the grill hot to create steam.
6. Remember: Great food comes from a clean grill; that is where the consistency comes in.

Other Information
Before each cooking, after grill is hot, spray a little water inside to clean off any dust and if you have not cleaned your cooker from the last cooking, do so now. (If you clean your grill after each cooking, It's A Snap.)
Heat is what does the cooking; the smoke does the flavoring.

Things you will need:
Stainless steel version of a wire brush for use of cleaning cooking racks and a scraping tool for scraping down drip pan.
Do These Things And You Will Have The Best BBQ In The World.
We Guarantee It!

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PO Box 547
Nahunta, GA 31553

Hey John, since your gonna season a burned out drum, gonna be real easy. AFter spraying the insides with a hose or whatever and cleaning out the drum of ashes, etc coat the entire inside surface with oil. You can use practically any kind of cooking oil from Pam, Crisco, peanut oil or even bacon grease. The kind of oil isn't going to make a big difference so don't waste a lot of money on it. Once you have a good coating of oil you need to heat that oil to a temperature that will allow it to seep into every imperfection in the metal surface of the smoker. This will create the barrier that will repel water and keep your smoker from rusting. Heat the drum/ smoker to a temperature around 250 to 275 degrees. Also, make sure you put smoke (use wood chunks with the charcoal) into it. The smoke will also add another protective barrier over the oil. Let this go for a few hours, the longer the better.

Nice find, Bill! poi-nts for lookin' out for other folks!

Hey John, no need to get fancy with it. Coat the entire inside surface with oil. You can use practically any kind of cooking oil from Pam, Crisco, peanut oil or even bacon grease. The kind of oil isn't going to make a big difference so don't waste a lot of money on it. Once you have a good coating of oil you need to heat that oil to a temperature that will allow it to seep into every imperfection in the metal surface of the smoker. This will create the barrier that will repel water and keep your smoker from rusting. Heat the drum/ smoker to a temperature around 250 to 275 degrees. Also, make sure you put smoke (use wood chunks with the charcoal) into it. The smoke will also add another protective barrier over the oil. Let this go for a few hours, the longer the better.




you do not want to use any type of oil that can go rancid for the cure.
vegtable only..preferably with out alcohol in it of any sort.

Hey John, since your gonna season a burned out drum, gonna be real easy. AFter spraying the insides with a hose or whatever and cleaning out the drum of ashes, etc coat the entire inside surface with oil. You can use practically any kind of cooking oil from Pam, Crisco, peanut oil or even bacon grease. The kind of oil isn't going to make a big difference so don't waste a lot of money on it. Once you have a good coating of oil you need to heat that oil to a temperature that will allow it to seep into every imperfection in the metal surface of the smoker. This will create the barrier that will repel water and keep your smoker from rusting. Heat the drum/ smoker to a temperature around 250 to 275 degrees. Also, make sure you put smoke (use wood chunks with the charcoal) into it. The smoke will also add another protective barrier over the oil. Let this go for a few hours, the longer the better.

What he said. :thumb:

After a few hours (you'll have plenty of runtime depending on how full your charcoal basket is :lol: ) throw on a fattie or two and let the vaporized pork fat do it's magic.

Dave

After a good power washin, I took the weed burner an dried it out real well. Sprayed down everthin with the cheapest cookin spray I could get. Started out at normal smoke temps fer bout an hour an then started rampin it up, at 350° I evened it out an let er go fer a couple hours, then slowly brought her back down to 250° an just let er go. The next day I used her like normal. Got a real nice carmel color inside her now.

When seasoning mine I coated the inside with vegetable oil, then also sprayed a coating of Pam. Loaded a full charcoal basket and let her go. I had all the intakes open fully for the first few hours then slowly throttled it back down over the next few hours. Once the temps got back below 300, I threw in a fattie-but the drum was pretty much already seasoned at that point.

You guys are great! I really appreciate all of your help and putting up with the million questions I've had over the past couple weeks. The UDS is almost finished. It needs carrying handles, a paint job and I'm waiting on a temp gauge that I ordered from Bubba. I sprayed it with a whole can of Pam, Lit up a whole basket of charcoal, threw some chunks of hickory on it and let it rip. In 10 minutes it was up to 250º, in 30 it was at 350º and at the hour mark it was at 450º. It's been an hour and a half and I think that in about 15 minutes I'm going to go out and start bringing it out to smokin' temps, then throw a 3 lb log of ground beef in it. I bought an 8 lb pork butt today, 2 rolls of spicy sausage, 2 rolls of breakfast sausage, some bacon and some baby redskins. Tomorrow early I'm going to pull the butt from the fridge (gonna rub it and inject it tonight) and pop it on the bottom rack of the UDS, then I'm going to load the top rack with 2 fatties and a bunch of bacon wrapped redskins. Hopefully it will all be ready for the Michigan game tomorrow. I have a few pics that I'll put on a seperate post tomorrow or Sunday along with pics of the smoke.

It's been an hour and a half and I think that in about 15 minutes I'm going to go out and start bringing it out to smokin' temps, then throw a 3 lb log of ground beef in it. I bought an 8 lb pork butt today, 2 rolls of spicy sausage, 2 rolls of breakfast sausage, some bacon and some baby redskins. Tomorrow early I'm going to pull the butt from the fridge (gonna rub it and inject it tonight) and pop it on the bottom rack of the UDS, then I'm going to load the top rack with 2 fatties and a bunch of bacon wrapped redskins.

Talk about breakin' a smoker in... SHEESH! What they say? "Gettin' after it"? :thumb:

You guys are great! I really appreciate all of your help and putting up with the million questions I've had over the past couple weeks. The UDS is almost finished. It needs carrying handles, a paint job and I'm waiting on a temp gauge that I ordered from Bubba. I sprayed it with a whole can of Pam, Lit up a whole basket of charcoal, threw some chunks of hickory on it and let it rip. In 10 minutes it was up to 250º, in 30 it was at 350º and at the hour mark it was at 450º. It's been an hour and a half and I think that in about 15 minutes I'm going to go out and start bringing it out to smokin' temps, then throw a 3 lb log of ground beef in it. I bought an 8 lb pork butt today, 2 rolls of spicy sausage, 2 rolls of breakfast sausage, some bacon and some baby redskins. Tomorrow early I'm going to pull the butt from the fridge (gonna rub it and inject it tonight) and pop it on the bottom rack of the UDS, then I'm going to load the top rack with 2 fatties and a bunch of bacon wrapped redskins. Hopefully it will all be ready for the Michigan game tomorrow. I have a few pics that I'll put on a seperate post tomorrow or Sunday along with pics of the smoke.

Go for it DUDE, that rocks! :banana_smiley: :sausage: :nana2: PICS!

in about 15 minutes I'm going to go out and start bringing it out to smokin' temps, then throw a 3 lb log of ground beef in it. I bought an 8 lb pork butt today, 2 rolls of spicy sausage, 2 rolls of breakfast sausage, some bacon and some baby redskins. Tomorrow early I'm going to pull the butt from the fridge (gonna rub it and inject it tonight) and pop it on the bottom rack of the UDS, then I'm going to load the top rack with 2 fatties and a bunch of bacon wrapped redskins.

Your drum will have a most beautiful inner coat after all that is cooked, I assure you.:thumb: It will smell damn fine too, even when you are not using it. :lol:

You will love the drum.

Dave

I am sure everything will be nice and seasoned with all that grub.

I have heard on other forums where people claim that seasoning a pit with canola or vegetable oil will put a bad taste in your food.

I don't necessarily believe that to be true but everybody gets an opinion.
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I season my cast iron cookware with crisco and it for sure don't leave a a bad taste.

I season my cast iron cookware with crisco and it for sure don't leave a a bad taste.

I believe ya! They probably had a bad recipe and blamed it on the oil.
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