We took a trip to the roof top of Daisy Mae's Barbeque restaurant on West 46th St. in Manhattan where Adam Perry Lang showed us how to make a smoker out of an old cooler and a real good rib rub.

For the smoker you'll need:

-An old insulated plastic cooler - the bigger the better!
-5 Metal rods to span the width of the cooler
-Drill with a bit large enough for the rods and a hole saw the same diameter as the stove vents
-2 Small roof vents
-Cooling racks
-Meat thermometer
-An electric hot plate
-Replacement plug
-A cast iron frying pan
-Lava rocks
-Cedar chips that have been soaked in water (make sure they're not treated with any chemicals)
-Hotel pan

Start by drilling through your cooler on the long sides about half way down with the small bit and mount the rods evenly spaced to create a mid level on which to rest the racks. Then, using your hole saw, cut through the top of the cooler and insert your roof vents. Also drill a small hole in the top to hold the meat thermometer. Cut the plug off your hot plate, place it in the bottom of the cooler and run the cord through the drainage hole, then attach the replacement plug, plug the hot plate in, put the lava rocks in the skillet and the skillet on the hot plate and turn it on. Once it's heated up (about 15 minutes) put some of the water soaked wood chips (never use dry chips in your smoker, they can catch fire) on the lava rocks and you're ready to barbeque. The cooling racks are the surface you put the ribs on, and the hotel pan goes under the ribs to catch the drippings for some down home gravy!

Now that you're all set with your smoker, here's that tasty rib rub recipe!

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and mix well. Wearing gloves, take handfuls of the rub and massage it into the rack of ribs until you've formed a nice crust. Then cook your ribs in the smoker. You want the barbeque to be at least 185° and no hotter then 225°, anything higher is cooking, and anything lower is smoking.

Episode 102 Main Page