When I lived with a few of my friends in college, I thought that a smoker would be a good way to tie together my engineering skills and my cooking aspirations. A friend was working for a cidery that was giving away these 55 gallon drums, so I cleaned one up and installed a fire grate and grill grate that I got from Home Depot. I added a temperature gauge, a smoke stack, a fire door, and a bottle opener. The outside had to be sanded, and I painted with hi-temp grill paint. Overall, it was a great use of a weekend and lots of great meals came out of this smoker.

The drum came with a plastic lining to protect the steel from the products inside, namely pineapple juice. I made a fire inside to burn off all the residual plastic after sanding the inside. Once the plastic was gone, I seasoned the inside with Crisco and a blowtorch until a durable coating was made.

Pork shoulder was the choice for the maiden voyage. About 8 hours in the smoker with hardwood charcoal and applewood chunks was a great start!

The smoker also functioned as a grill. All I needed to change was the size of a fire. A hotter fire with charcoal and hardwood was a great combination for these wings.