Discada (Disco) build

[Scoutman]

Well ever since one of my first work trips to New Mexico and first learned about these things I wanted one. They seemed like a perfect campfire or camp cooking vessel when space allows. On my last trip to Las Cruces I finally found what I was looking for so I nabbed one and brought it back home. Here's the one I first saw back in 2011. It has the lip and the side shoot to store ingredients while the other stuff is cooking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discada



For those who aren't familiar with these they are called a Disco, Discada, Cowboy wok, or the like. It's basically a southwestern derived dish that is made using an old plow disk. They typically start out with a hole in the middle that needs to be welded shut and then the concave side is ground/sanded clean and smooth. A pair of handles are usually added and can be made out of just about anything you have laying around. There are web sites that you can order these from with limitless flair added to them but I wanted one that was pretty basic (keep it simple stupid) and planned to modify my turkey fryer burner to heat it with. I had read that you could get a blank disk that didn't have the hole in it and I found a place that carried them in LasCruces called PMS Inc. which is a welding and metal fence fabricator close to the I-10/25 split. The cost of the disk was $40 and it looked like a 22" sheet of 3/16" steel that had been pressed concave. Here's what it looked like when I first brought it home.







After some time with the twisted wire cup on the grinder and some flap wheel time it shined up and had a little slicker surface. I could have made it super slick but expect the seasoning to take care of some of the finish.

 

[Scoutman]

My original plan for the handles was to buy a couple of chipping hammers from harbor freight for $4 each and use the spring handles as the handles for the disco. After getting them home and cutting one of them apart they didn't look proportional to the size of the disk so I ditched that idea and just went with a pair of #1 HD horseshoes. You can buy bigger springs and I may do that on the next one.

Last night I got the shoes welded on.



Next is I need to clean up the disk one last time and then modify my burner so it has removable legs tall enough I'm not stooping over to cook in this thing. Then it'll be time for seasoning and let the cooking begin. :chef:

 

[nat]

Very nice! I made one out of an ancient disk harrow that had been in my backyard for over 60 years. Fun project!

 

[fourstringfletch]

Now let's see what you can cook on it! I have a paella pan that is quite useful for groups, and can also attest that a well seasoned disk on a 200k btu job site heater makes a fiiiiine taco.



Here's a great article on the science of seasoning. Do this.

 

[Scoutman]

That was an interesting read. I've never heard of using Flaxseed oil before. I've always used lard or crisco and it works pretty well but I understand what she's talking about on it being a softer seasoning. Have you used this method or just read up on it? I'm not sure my oven is big enough for this disco with the handles on it.

Over the past few days I've been figuring out how best to mod my turkey fryer burner to be waist high and allow the convex side to sit in the top hoop. I found a suitable leg and some pipe for these legs to fit into at Lowes this weekend. I'll try to get some picts tonight. I welded the legs on but still have to mod the top ring. Then it's on to seasoning...

 

[Scoutman]

BTW, if anyone has any good dishes to cook on this thing, please by all means post them up. :sombrero:

 

[Scoutman]

Progress from last night.

 

[XTorrey]

Really liking the horseshoe handles. Maybe christen it with some fajita fixings?

 

[Scoutman]

I cranked the burner on the other night after I finished welding and I was smelling propane leaking out of one of the fittings on the regulator line so I need to get a new regulator before I can season it.

 

[Scoutman]

Let me see if I can get this back up to date...

I finally got a new regulator and when I got it home it didn't have the orifice that it was supposed to include so another trip back to Lowes and I had my burner working again. I had rendered some lard down a week or so and I used that one morning to season the blank disc. I wiped it out with alcohol really well to get the grinding funk out and when I had a clean paper towel I started seasoning. It took a LOT longer than I expected. I had watched some YouTube video's on how to season and it was more like an hour and not the 15 minutes that was talked about. I liked the idea of the link that someone posted above but my oven was not big enough to handle this thing so I just did it the ol fashioned way.

Get the disco pretty hot, drop a teaspoon of lard down, let it smoke, spoon it around, paper towel spread it around in circles and repeat till the entire disco is a nice dark brown color.

 

[Scoutman]

First meal.

The family was out of town the other weekend and I was dying to try something out on the disco so I cooked up a little bit of ground sausage, pulled it to the side, fried some cubed potatoes in the grease, added some hatch green chilis, combined everything together and threw a few eggs in. I toasted the tortillas on the side, assembled and topped with cheese. Good eats on a nice cool morning with a cup of coffee watching the horses in the back pasture. :coffeedrink:

 

[Scoutman]

Lunch for the group at work

So our work group tries to cook out or bring something in on fridays. I had been wanting to try out the traditional Discada dish and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I prepped the ingredients the night before and this is what I put in...
-chorizo
-bacon
-ground sausage
-onion
-cubed stew meat (marinated)
-hatch green chilis
-small can of petite diced tomatoes
-a little bit of tomatillo sauce
-cumin
-oregano
-salt
-pepper
-beer/water

tortillas, cheese, sour cream, chips, etc rounded out the dish and everyone enjoyed it. As Alton Brown would say... Good Eats.

 

[Scoutman]

Me

:chef:

 

[Hoover77]

:sombrero: AWESOME!

 

[Scoutman]

The more I cook on this thing the better it gets... I've done butterflied chicken breasts, bacon, hamburgers, french fries and we have another work lunch planned for this friday. One improvement I may make is to replace the small-ish burner with a bigger diffuser. Bayou Classic makes a 4", 6", and a 10" burner. I think I'd like to have the 6" to spread the heat out some. I may also be able to cut a round piece of plate to diffuse the flame too.