Thank you for comments and the points. I appreciate that!
Not reallly. And I'm not being a smart butt. So I'll answer that in two ways.
First thing I learned from the Smoking Meat Forum is not to be afraid. Anybody can do this! I don't mean that to sound overly silly. But seriously. I've always loved to cook and always been the cook in my house. My wife of almost 11 years doesn't enjoy cooking. And most of what she makes can be done in a few minutes, or with a couple of ingredents. I've learned that the food I really enjoy is BBQ. Whether that is at somebody's house or at a resturant. The SMF has taught me that it's not some "magical mystery" that only someone that was raised doing it can master. Anyone can do this. It's true. It takes a little dedication, a little money to invest in the equipment (I've always cooked on the basic
Weber Kettle), and a little knowledge (maybe even gut instinct) of what is going to work.
I love food. I love food that is a pleasure to eat. Sometimes a bologna sandwich, a PB&J or a hotdog is fine. I had Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for lunch today and thought it was good. But I really love BBQ and I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it myself. And I wanted to do it right. So one day I googled "smoked meat" and I ended up here and I learned a lot, really fast.
But I also believe that meal time is something that is rapidly becoming a "lost art". Maybe that's my midwestern upbringing. But I believe that the family should sit down together, every day if possible, and eat and talk. The center piece of this is not the food. It is the conversation. It's about being together. But I also believe that as long as you're all together you might as well have a "quality meal". Sorry I'm getting off topic a bit. But not totally. If you look at a lot of the posts where you see some trying to get their kids involved, those are the people who are passing on that tradition. You/me may not realize it, but one day our kids are going to say "remember when" then they hopefully will strive to follow our lead and bring their family together for a meal. God willing, BBQ.
Secondly, (LOL yes, only part two) cook low and slow and let it go. In this day of rush, rush, rush, there's something peaceful about a nice long smoke. Everyone who's read this post knows that this last weekend when I did this smoke, it was something I needed. It was about the process. It was about me not really being in control of everything. It was about me planning on allowing the meat and the smoke to do what it needed to do.
Ok, so I know I went on a bit of a Zen-like rant there. But I mean every bit of it.
You want the short answer? Ok, Between 225*and 240* is the target smoker temp for most beef or pork that you will smoke. See, that really wasn't as fulfilling as a lot of the other stuff I got from this little off ramp on the information super highway, was it?
Thank you. I hope I've either educated you or inspired you in some way.
Thank you. I'm grateful you took the time to look.