Sammy

I had the same issue as you, knew there must be farm butchers about reasonably local but struggled to find one. In the end I got my stuff from Tarelgin Farm Butchers down Ayr way. They do free delivery locally and luckily enough my sister stays in Kilmarnock so was able to get it delivered to her place. Got a few pieces from them to date, you phone them early in the week and got it delivered on a Thursday or Friday. The phone call is alway interesting, the woman who usually answers the phone is a bit of a character, in a good way, if she’s not sure what you are looking for the butcher will get shouted over and you can explain to him exactly what you are after, seemed to have a reasonable understanding of what I wanted and can’t say I was disappointed. I’ve also tried to use Greenhall in Blantyre, this place sell animals literally reared in the fields outside the shop and although very pleasant and helpful, said they couldn’t provide a full brisket due to the way the carcas was split at the slaughter house. I don’t understand the reason for this but I’m not a butcher so what do I know. They do rear wagu cattle tho and I’m sure you could get plenty of other cuts to order, just not a full brisket it seems. If you come up with anywhere else I’d love to hear about it

Thanks for the advice. I’ll need to look into getting another steel sheet this weekend.

Would appreciate any experience with the use of baffle plates in an UDS. Tried it for the first time without any success at the weekend. Last week I bought a piece of 5mm steel, rounded it off and drilled a few holes with the intention of using it as a baffle. Got the smoker up and running, stuck the plate in, it was almost touching the sides and kicked back to let it get up to temperature. After an hour and a half I was only getting a read out of about 212f so went outside for a look and nearly melted my legs off. The bottom third, roughly up to the level of the baffle was incredibly hot so opened the lid and out just see glowing red coals through the holes. Very carefully, and somewhat miraculously I managed to get the plate out without burning myself and closed the lid over, abandoning the use of a baffle for this cook. When I checked the temperature just after I was at 475f at the grate so would never have lasted through the night as intended. I let things cool down, proceeded with the cook as planned and can’t say I was disappointed with the results. I would however like to try a cook with a baffle to see the difference for myself. I’m partly thinking the sheet was too thick at 5mm and there might not have been enough holes in it but would welcome any input.

If you are struggling for gas try Flogas. I couldn’t get any joy out of Calor when I was setting up my fire pit but Flogas were decent. Order online and free delivery, they don’t take a deposit for your first bottle as such but charge a one off fee instead. Calor don’t actually refund your full deposit so it’s not that bad a deal in the long run. When it runs out you just pay for a refill online again, leave the bottle at your door and they swap it over again with free delivery

There is a photo of my UDS when it was first built, haven’t taken anything recently. I’ve had a few good runs lately, I built a fan PID to auto control the heat and have done a couple of through the night cooks. Haven’t taken any photos of it unfortunately but so far it appears to be reasonably good. Managed to get a full brisket last week, 4.5kg direct from a farm butcher and put it in on Friday night. 18 hours later, through the heavy rain and the results were very enjoyable.

Hi folks, New guy here and to smoking in general. Built my first UDS at the start of lockdown and have had a few runs of various different things. Enjoying the learning the process and really enjoying eating the results.