00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:18 Speaker 1 Your resume is good in numbers given to give more people.

00:00:07:18 - 00:00:30:00 Speaker 1 You're listening to the Barbecue Nerds podcast, where smoked meat science and flavor is our favorite experiment. Hey, barbecue lovers, I'm David, your resident pitmaster and science geek, along with my co-host Frank. We're diving deep into the world of barbecue where tradition meets innovation. Now let's get to today's episode.

00:00:30:00 - 00:00:30:14 Speaker 2 Hey,

00:00:30:14 - 00:00:34:12 Speaker 2 let's get back to Eric's question here real quick.

00:00:34:12 - 00:00:39:22 Speaker 2 Thoughts on putting old dry or kitty litter in the bottom of the pit? You know, the first time I ever heard. If you ever heard of this.

00:00:39:22 - 00:00:51:07 Speaker 1 I. I've heard of of the kitty litter, but oil dry. I don't know about that. And I know we use that when we have spills on the road. We're told to put that down.

00:00:51:09 - 00:00:55:21 Speaker 2 Yeah. So the first time I ever heard about this was I was cooking the cosmos,

00:00:55:21 - 00:00:58:04 Speaker 2 shop. I brought him a drum, and,

00:00:58:04 - 00:01:06:16 Speaker 2 he first thing he did, he went grab these little kitty litter thing, start dumping some cooler and bottom. I was like, dude, this stuff's not safe to cook with. He's like, wrong. It is. Actually.

00:01:06:18 - 00:01:10:11 Speaker 2 You just have to get the right kind. I didn't know there was a different kind.

00:01:10:11 - 00:01:24:07 Speaker 2 But there is some that is, like odorless. You can use kitty litter that has no odors or and, you know, you think about it, it just kind of makes sense with all the hypoallergenic stuff and all that that's going around, you know, you can get,

00:01:24:07 - 00:01:24:21 Speaker 2 kitty litter.

00:01:24:21 - 00:01:28:02 Speaker 2 That's just minerals is all it is. And,

00:01:28:02 - 00:01:45:17 Speaker 2 oil dry is the same thing. They're not going to lemon scent oil dry, you know, as long as it's like it, as long as it doesn't contain any kind of chemicals or odorants, which it usually does not, because all you're using it for is just to absorb the liquid oil.

00:01:45:17 - 00:02:10:20 Speaker 2 And so and you be surprised how good that stuff works because it'll, it'll like suck it out of the concrete if you leave it there long enough, you know, it's it's really absorbent. So yeah, you can totally put that down there. A lot of guys do. Don't go too heavy with it and make sure you get it out as soon as you're done cooking, like dump it out, because I don't think I think it'll just sit in or get hard if you leave it in there too long, right?

00:02:10:20 - 00:02:17:10 Speaker 2 You know, but shop-vac, that's what a lot of guys do. They'll just shop-vac it out, you know, it's pretty cool.

00:02:17:12 - 00:02:23:19 Speaker 1 So is it anything like these, these TV commercials, when you have the kitty litter that you go in there with?

00:02:23:19 - 00:02:28:02 Speaker 1 Like a, like a sifter, a spoon sifter, and you just sift out the lumps.

00:02:28:04 - 00:02:30:18 Speaker 2 I suppose you could. I've never done it personally.

00:02:30:18 - 00:02:32:15 Speaker 2 I know some guys that have,

00:02:32:15 - 00:02:34:22 Speaker 2 I would just personally just throw it away. I think

00:02:34:22 - 00:02:48:22 Speaker 2 that's where I would be headed. But I don't know that I. But you still have to clean off the baffle plate. You know, I'm thinking in a super 55 or 1 of the drum smokers that I've built, you still got some kind of baffle heat shield in there.

00:02:48:22 - 00:02:52:02 Speaker 2 You got your intakes. That might have got some junk up in there.

00:02:52:02 - 00:03:03:05 Speaker 2 Things like that. You're cooking great. So you still got to scrape all that. But what it does do well is it takes care of a lot of the liquid. These competition guys, I don't know if. Well, I know Eric does, but,

00:03:03:05 - 00:03:09:10 Speaker 2 everybody that like, heavily injects and brines and all of this stuff, you're going to wind up with a ton of liquid.

00:03:09:10 - 00:03:21:14 Speaker 2 That's not going to boil off because it's going to get down below the cook, the charcoal basket in a drum. And that's where you wind up with this issue needing that kitty litter. Whereas on the smoke slinger, I don't know how many.

00:03:21:14 - 00:03:23:14 Speaker 2 I know Dave's in here, David says. But,

00:03:23:14 - 00:03:25:14 Speaker 2 Bob chicken was in here, too. What's up Bob?

00:03:25:18 - 00:03:26:05 Speaker 2 But,

00:03:26:05 - 00:03:35:07 Speaker 2 anyway, I'm not sure that many people have ever had anything drain out of their smoke slinger. It pretty much all just vaporizes, you know, or,

00:03:35:07 - 00:03:42:17 Speaker 2 builds up on the tuning plates and kind of goes away. So I never really had a need for any kind of absorbent material right in there.

00:03:42:19 - 00:03:48:03 Speaker 1 And then, of course, with the smoke slinger, there is a drain right there at the bottom. I,

00:03:48:03 - 00:03:51:09 Speaker 1 I found out that by simply getting a disposable,

00:03:51:09 - 00:03:53:10 Speaker 1 half size catering pan,

00:03:53:10 - 00:03:56:01 Speaker 1 I don't know what you want to call that. It's a half pan.

00:03:56:01 - 00:04:06:20 Speaker 1 And putting that right underneath that, any of the grease that comes down if in the event it was to, to, to pull into the center, it would just drip out of there.

00:04:06:22 - 00:04:10:23 Speaker 1 But I also found that it was very useful yesterday, in the morning after I was,

00:04:10:23 - 00:04:15:20 Speaker 1 had finished up with one of the cooks. I just wanted to clean it up before I was moving all over to play with the plancha.

00:04:15:20 - 00:04:24:23 Speaker 1 That some of the residual charcoal ash, I could just kind of push to the middle. It would fall right through the hole and into the pan.

00:04:25:01 - 00:04:41:01 Speaker 1 It was very easy to clean when I was done completely. You know, done at the end of the day for I packed it up and had any type of argument with my wife about the mess. And that's why I pulled out the shop vac and I made sure, full suction, we got anything that was in there out of there.

00:04:41:03 - 00:04:48:10 Speaker 1 It was extremely useful. But again, you know, I made sure that the inside was once again coated with Pam.

00:04:48:10 - 00:04:50:05 Speaker 1 After I cleaned it out. And

00:04:50:05 - 00:05:03:00 Speaker 1 I recommend, just like you had mentioned, that if you use any type of water like we were talking about with the power washer that you do light a small fire simply to dry your pit out dry.

00:05:03:00 - 00:05:03:05 Speaker 2 To.

00:05:03:08 - 00:05:06:01 Speaker 1 Spray it down with, with an oil.

00:05:06:01 - 00:05:27:01 Speaker 1 Because if you put it away wet, you're asking for rust. You're asking for that metal to oxidize. So it is necessary. And I think you'd agree that you want to be able to dry the pit out, and heat is the best way to do it. And then coated with that oil and maybe heat it up one more time just so that that oil is able to,

00:05:27:01 - 00:05:30:23 Speaker 1 adhere to all the sides and of course, not drip down,

00:05:30:23 - 00:05:33:18 Speaker 1 and put it away seasoned.

00:05:33:20 - 00:05:53:20 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. And, you know, this is where the weed burner comes in. You could actually just use the weed burner to dry the inside of your pit out if you want to. If it's a pretty paint job on the outside, I may not do that because you might get a little too hot in one spot. Brown. Your your paint may be building a fire in the pit and running it for an hour.

00:05:53:22 - 00:05:59:06 Speaker 2 And then re seasoning because you're going to need to re season it anyway right at that point even with some Pam.

00:05:59:06 - 00:06:01:00 Speaker 2 If you go for it there,

00:06:01:00 - 00:06:04:00 Speaker 2 there was another question here from Jojo about degreaser.

00:06:04:00 - 00:06:05:14 Speaker 2 You see it there?

00:06:05:16 - 00:06:18:10 Speaker 1 I saw it a little bit earlier. Here we go. Wondering when he was talking about the degreaser. Are we talking about those chemical degreaser? Does that have the classic acid in it, or are we talking about something that's a little bit more food safe?

00:06:18:10 - 00:06:18:20 Speaker 1 That,

00:06:18:20 - 00:06:27:18 Speaker 1 I guess maybe you'd find that as well as, like a restaurant depot or a Costco or a Sam's Club, I know, yeah, an excellent stainless steel cleaner.

00:06:27:20 - 00:06:32:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, just oven cleaner. Works really good. Yeah. So, like,

00:06:32:04 - 00:06:34:06 Speaker 2 Zep makes a really good one.

00:06:34:06 - 00:06:37:17 Speaker 2 Zep, I get that at menards is what I go get.

00:06:37:17 - 00:06:39:23 Speaker 2 If you can't get that, I know there is a,

00:06:39:23 - 00:06:46:04 Speaker 2 they're usually in an aerosol cans. The one I use the. There's a little squirt bottle of purple degreaser.

00:06:46:06 - 00:07:04:11 Speaker 2 Can work good, but I don't think it's as effective as oven cleaner for some reason. Because oven cleaner is designed to, like, take off the cheese that melted and dripped out and got on the bottom of the the pan down there where the burners at and turned into a rock. That's what the that's what those oven cleaners designed to break down.

00:07:04:11 - 00:07:20:20 Speaker 2 You know, if you get that and then scrape a little bit, it's gone. Yeah. No problem. The only problem I ever had is when I'm doing bingo or cleaning bingo or some other big pit. You got to have like 4 or 5 cans of that stuff, like to really do a difference on your cooking grates, you know?

00:07:20:20 - 00:07:22:19 Speaker 2 So it just kind of depends,

00:07:22:19 - 00:07:24:21 Speaker 2 what my mood is at the moment.

00:07:24:23 - 00:07:41:04 Speaker 2 If I'm, if I'm using that stuff, though, I usually go for the can is up or I think there's a two pack at Sam's. The one thing I'll urge caution is if you're a drum smoker guy and you use like roast solium, high heat paint or some kind

00:07:41:04 - 00:07:42:21 Speaker 2 of solium direct a metal,

00:07:42:21 - 00:07:46:09 Speaker 2 enamel paint, like I always do, when I'm painting.

00:07:46:09 - 00:07:47:06 Speaker 2 Because I hate to paint.

00:07:47:06 - 00:07:50:20 Speaker 2 That stuff that oven cleaner from Sam's will pull it right off.

00:07:50:20 - 00:07:52:18 Speaker 2 So you got to be careful.

00:07:52:20 - 00:07:53:05 Speaker 1 Yeah.

00:07:53:05 - 00:08:00:13 Speaker 2 With that. Don't hate your paint, but, you know, if if you're, like, test a spot, like they say on the bottle, usually.

00:08:00:15 - 00:08:01:05 Speaker 1 So

00:08:01:05 - 00:08:06:19 Speaker 1 I find that those degreaser are are wonderful for, like you were mentioning,

00:08:06:19 - 00:08:15:20 Speaker 1 getting the cheese, getting some of the other things off. I especially with the round bar, it's a lot easier to use a wire brush or to use,

00:08:15:20 - 00:08:16:19 Speaker 1 something that has a,

00:08:16:19 - 00:08:18:19 Speaker 1 a bristle to it.

00:08:18:19 - 00:08:23:10 Speaker 1 But when it comes to expanded metal, it's already quite sharp the way that it is.

00:08:23:12 - 00:08:30:03 Speaker 1 How do you what's the best way if you're using a brush to be able to clean expanded metal?

00:08:30:05 - 00:08:33:17 Speaker 2 So I prefer a nylon heavy like,

00:08:33:17 - 00:08:37:04 Speaker 2 white nylon bristle brush. But what I'm thinking is like,

00:08:37:04 - 00:08:52:06 Speaker 2 push broom for doing concrete. Like rough concrete. You get those rough push brooms. If you can get something that not that long of a bristle shorter, which I found one at menards here the other day that I can put on a pole.

00:08:52:08 - 00:09:11:19 Speaker 2 The reason I say nylon is because if you use, like, a regular wire brush that's got like, stainless steel bristle bristles or something, which I've used a bunch of times, those bristles pop out and they're so small and hard to see. And if you don't get them all, like if you're if for some reason you miss one that could get in somebodys food.

00:09:11:19 - 00:09:15:00 Speaker 2 And so that's that's why I tend to not do that.

00:09:15:00 - 00:09:27:21 Speaker 2 I have used some stainless steel brushes whenever I'm in a spot that I just for some reason I just can't get it clean. I'll use that. Or I'll even get the cup brush on the grinder, which has got, like a braided,

00:09:27:21 - 00:09:30:13 Speaker 2 wire. It's like braided or spun.

00:09:30:15 - 00:09:51:21 Speaker 2 So it's not like individual tools. And I'll put that on the table and go in there and go after it if it's like bad enough, but rarely ever do I have to do that. So I'll use those nylon bristle brushes. If you if you keep up with it, you'll have no problems. But those brush, those bristles will get down inside that expand it as you're pushing.

00:09:51:23 - 00:10:00:06 Speaker 2 And you just got to do both sides and then follow it up with the power washer and your clean expanded metal. Sucks to clean. You know, that's the funniest thing

00:10:00:06 - 00:10:13:23 Speaker 2 you know, it's it's deemed as high quality to people. What they don't know is like 20 years ago or whatever, 18 years ago, however long I've been building bits.

00:10:14:01 - 00:10:15:22 Speaker 2 Let me rewind that,

00:10:15:22 - 00:10:19:17 Speaker 2 2007 once today. So, yeah, almost 18 years.

00:10:19:17 - 00:10:36:09 Speaker 2 We used expanded metal because we were too lazy to make bar grates. That's why we used expanded metal. And it was cheaper because by the time I paid somebody to sit there and weld every little bar, it was just easier to shear out some expanded slap it in the thing done.

00:10:36:09 - 00:11:00:21 Speaker 2 Move on. Expanded metal is has just been used so long that everyone is just conditioned. Why doesn't it have expanded metal? It's not because it's great. It's because it's cheap, but it's also sharp. And so that's the issue with it. So that's why the Smoke Slinger brand, we're moving away from that as fast as we can. If we possibly can to round bar you know.

00:11:00:22 - 00:11:06:18 Speaker 1 Yeah. But then when you you mentioned earlier about using a brush that you might use on,

00:11:06:18 - 00:11:14:17 Speaker 1 on concrete on the outside, here's a brush that we use in pizza ovens. Wood fired pizza ovens?

00:11:14:17 - 00:11:22:05 Speaker 1 Coal fired. Where? Pizza ovens. Where on one side, it has a scraper, and on the other side, it has

00:11:22:05 - 00:11:25:13 Speaker 1 pieces of metal. They they probably about,

00:11:25:13 - 00:11:29:15 Speaker 1 an eighth inch thick piece of metal and they're in there as the bristles.

00:11:29:17 - 00:11:52:10 Speaker 1 And we use that to be able to scrub the fire brick that's at the bottom. Or if it's on fire, break down, it's it's the tiles that are in the bottom so that as we're moving the wood from one side of our pizza oven to the other, from a hot spot to a cool spot, and then putting our dough on there at the same point as you know, you've got all of that ash that's in there.

00:11:52:10 - 00:11:55:21 Speaker 1 So we're constantly scraping and scraping and scraping.

00:11:55:21 - 00:12:01:23 Speaker 1 I would think that a brush like that would probably be beneficial for cleaning the inside of,

00:12:01:23 - 00:12:06:12 Speaker 1 of a barbecue pit, of an offset pit, whether you've got a,

00:12:06:12 - 00:12:18:03 Speaker 1 a backyard pit, 94 gallons up to your 250 500,000 gallon pits that you can get in there and really be able to work all the walls and work all the other areas.

00:12:18:05 - 00:12:20:14 Speaker 1 And those firebox is it's got to be,

00:12:20:14 - 00:12:33:22 Speaker 1 detrimental to the inside of that firebox because of the heat, because of the ash that, that a lot of those little chunks and pieces get stuck to the wall, and you want to be able to knock them off as best as possible.

00:12:33:22 - 00:12:58:04 Speaker 1 That's a wrap for today's episode of the Barbecue Nerds podcast, where smoked meats, science, and flavor always comes first. This episode is brought to you by Smoke Slinger, the craftsman behind some of the best barbecue pits and offset smokers in the game. Whether you're a backyard warrior or a pro, Pitmaster smoke slinger builds custom pits designed to help you cook your best barbecue ever.

00:12:58:06 - 00:13:17:17 Speaker 1 Visit Smoke slinger.com to see their lineup and bring competition quality smoke to your own backyard. A big shout out to smoke slinger fueling our passion and keeping the smoke rolling strong. And as always, keep those pits hot, the smoke rolling and stay nerdy about barbecue.