Q B GOOD!

[Michael Watson]

My previous work life as a hightech sales professional, enabled me to travel the USA extensively. The one common denominator was that everywhere I traveled and or lived, I was able to encounter the many different regional approaches in food preparation esp. BBQ. Being raised in SW Louisiana afforded me the benefit of growing up experiencing the fusion of Acadian cooking, Texas cooking, Mex Tex cooking, Soul food cooking and combinations of each. My earliest memories of BBQ come from my paternal grandfather as he owned a screened in breezeway that had a 4ft by 4ft sized grill built out of brick and the flue exited the backside into the home chimney. If one realizes that as per architectural tradition, most homes in the Gulf coastal region do not have fireplaces, then it was very fortuitous for me to have this style of BBQ contraption to help mold my early life fondness for BBQ. One of the unique aspects of this BBQ pit was that the cover/hood for the grill was a galvanized metal sheet which completely covered the pit and entirely entrapped the smoke and heat until the pitmaster, my grandfather, would raise the front end of the cover by means of a rope run through a pulley attached to the ceiling. Once the front of the lid was raised, it would pivot at the back of the pit on hinges, a full blown BBQ smoke cloud attack would bellow out to engulf the entire enclosure until whatever slight breeze was available would push it out through the screens. I can only assume that each of you who smoke meat will be able to imagine what my experience of being often baptized with a cloud of smoke generated by the drippings from meat and sauces onto a charcoal and hardwood fire would do to infuse my being with "feeling" BBQ smoke. This type of repeated early age experience is bound to have a positive effect and alter one's DNA in a manner that is ingrained and predisposed to prefer smoked meat above all other foods. My grandfather made his own rub and sauces which were “spicy”. The time frame for these “old school” BBQ events was back in the early 60’s.

I am impressed with the amount and quality of information that Meathead has gathered on his website. I have read through the bio of the associates and spent much time in some of the comments section discussions, enough to know that there is much collective knowledge shared here. It is my hope that future involvement on my part will add to the knowledge base and benefit some of those in this community.

I am GRATEFUL (pun intended) to have this website to interact with.

Respectfully - Michael Watson

[Jerod Broussard]

Hey man, I was wondering how you nailed "Broussard" in your PBC post.

Thanks for the support.

I ain't never been hightech or traveled the country. SW Louisiana, BBQ, and the PBC will be our connections.

[Michael Watson]

I take it you are involved with USDA inspections. I also worked at Micelli's butcher plant while attending McNeese State College prior to it becoming a University. We butchered beef and pigs plus made some great smoked products as well as boudin. It was located by the port of Lake Charles and has long ago ceased to exist. One of my responsibilities was to stamp the sides of hanging beef and pork with the USDA stamp once the meat dried and cooled in our plant hanging rooms. The plant was built was so long ago that they used an ammonia based refrigeration unit.

I am a big fan of your PBC mods and techniques. I have begun wondering about building a 55 gal drum equivalent of the PBC for hanging the meat while cooking. I do not know if just modifying the 55 gal drum to mimick the PBC would work? Obviously Mr. Glanville must have tried that size while going through 29 different trials to land on the 30 gal drum as best sized for this application. I have 2 55 gal drums that are awaiting me getting a kit from Poppa, but the PBC has derailled that project. I would rather eat great Q than build smokers that might not work.

[Max Good]

55 Gallon drums have worked for many people for many years, but as you obviously read, one of the unique features of Glanville's magic drum is the size.

[Jerod Broussard]

I graduated from McNeese in 1998. Hence me never hearing about Micelli's.

I think the Port of Lake Charles is like the 12th largest port in the country with respect to tonnage, or however they measure that sort of thing. I was around it a little while working for Mosquito Control.

[David Parrish]

Michael welcome to The Pit! It sounds like you have a long history of loving Q. Please take a moment, if you haven't already, to read my welcome letter and tip on how to complete your sig.

As far as the barrels, you've probably seen that Big Poppa's drum kit has an AR gold rating. I think you should go ahead and convert one of the 55 gallons big boys to the BPS drum, then get a PBC, then do some comparison blogging here

[Michael Watson]

David - Your challenge is well received! In fact Big Poppas is one of the pearls of wisdom that I found here on the AR website. My only hesitation was the costs associated with the over all project as the only way I was interested in doing it was the "Turbo Charged" method, with one of BBQ Guru's thermostats = Digi Q DX2 or CyberQ WiFi plus blower. Then very recently I was preparing to pull the trigger and move forward with the UDS and I stumbled across the PBC on AR website. Well needless to say I branched out to many other reviews and then focused in on scrolling through as many of the 1,330+ postings under the review.

What I came away with was afeeling that this was too good to be true! But after digesting many of the precise and specific postings on the finer points to charcoal lighting, temperature control/monitoring and cooking times, I realized that my skepticism was unfounded. The PBC is a real deal set up once then comeback and feast on perfect smoked meat BBQ pitmaster's dream machine. So I now have one on order.

However the biggest drawback to pursuing the PBC and turbo charged UDS is that I do not have a big enough family or circle of friends to cook for. My wife and I can only eat and freeze dry store so much great meat. My level of curiosity is fully kicked in so I will jump on the PBC bandwagon first. Then I will continue to investigate UDS + BBQ Guru results across the internet to see what results are being obtained. From what I have read so far I doubt that the 55 gal drum will be able to replicate the PCB in terms of providing a temperature profile that is so frugal with fuel. I also highly suspect that a naturally aspirated 55 gal drum will ever be able to self regulate oxygen and maintain a temperature range the way the PCB does.

It is my belief that Noah did his best research effort to incorporate the 55 gal drum as his initial design. Homeostasis is the holy grail that Noah hit upon with his R&D effort. The benefit for his design is quicker cook times and fuel savings with little to no people intervention. I am convinced that the meat hanging approach is something that more UDS builders should incorporate into their smokers.

Respectfully,
Michael

[David Parrish]

Michael it sounds to me like you've done your homework and have a good plan for your next stage in BBQ nirvana. The PBC makes great food and is very forgiving. You'd think as much as I rave about it that I was a paid employee but the truth is I'm just another customer. I share your "problem" with cooking big meals. It's often just me and the Dear Wife (DW) eating my cooking. My kids are young and finicky and when they do eat it's so little that they don't make much of a dent anyway. I have compensated for this by showing up to neighborhood parties with a whole bunch or BBQ and throwing Poker Nights at my house where I BBQ for the crowd. Works well!

[Michael Watson]

I'm scheming and will obviously create some party invites once we get our new house built in August / September time frame. It seems like I'll be getting mine possibly mid to late September, just in time to try it out on some Teal ducks. Then deer season will begin too, oh yea and some wild pigs probably. As you can see I working on the protein procurement as once it is smoked I sure it will be only a little problem to get people over to have a brew and some Q.