There has been some curiosity over the clean-up of the Pit Barrel Cooker. I remember when I had my 75 gallon, 100 lb BDS, cleaning was a chore. I would have to use a scraper hooked up to a long handle and mix all the ash and fat together into a stinky sludge. Poor it out on some newspaper (always got breezy when I did that) after that I would lay the drum on its side and climb partially in and wipe out the sludge from the side of the drum.
I expected the same experience but I figured this is a 30 gallon drum and easier to handle and not as deep!!
So yesterday I had the -6- chicken halves in it and I kind of wondered all day at work what kind of mess awaits me!!
Please keep in mind that there is no way to extinguish the charcoal...it all burns down.
I started cleaning at 3:30 p.m.
Here is the bottom of the barrel right after I slipped out the two pcs of rebar
I took out the charcoal basket and used a whisk broom to clean it...here is 8 lbs of Kingsford ashes
Dumped the ashes in the trash can. Used a wide paint scraper and scraped up the bottom of the barrel and re-dumped the used just -1- paper towel and wiped up the bottom and the side of the barrel where I poured the ashes out.
Ready for the next cook!!
The meat seems to drip right on the coals no matter where I hang it on the rebar. The reason why the dripping fat does not put out the fire is 20 minutes went by when first lighting the coals and the fire burns from top to bottom.
Oh, total cleaning time including taking pictures and just cleaning like I normally would: 3:30 to 3:38 8 minutes!!!!!
