- Jun 22, 2019
- 7
- 5
Got pulled away from my offset smoker, when the doctor called and said, "You and your wife need to meet me at the hospital in 20 minutes, we need to induce labor, you're going to be a dad tonight."
Over 10 days in the NICU, I brought in smoked apple dumplings, nuts, and fruit salads (Seriously, smoke some apples, pineapple, grapes and slightly unripe melon, then chill and toss with a sweet yogurt dressing) to my wife and the nursing staff, drawing upon five years of experience with my rusty old barrel smoker.
When we moved back down from the mountains of Norcal to San Diego five years ago, and got our new house, I agreed to a small propane grill for ease of use and to adjust from our 44 acres to a small urban backyard.
The propane grill finally broke, I passed it on to a friend, and two weeks before fathers day, went out and got a new offset smoker, this time setting off on the adventure with my 8 year old son.
I'm far from a master smoker, but living in a diverse mountain rainforest, I know quite a bit about wood fire cooking and doing crazy things like smoking TriTip with wet fresh cut california bay, and two day old, uncured pear trimmings.
My best smoke ever? Kill and field strip 6 quail in your driveway with a bucket of pond crawdads in the back of your truck. Head, vein and shell the crawdads and make a stuffing with King Bolete Mushrooms and some stale french bread, seasoned with some onion flowers. Smoke with HIGH heat (I would build the fire in the main chamber, so it was almost grilling) using mesquite lump charcoal and wet 2"x2" bay branches (probably 350 degrees) for about 90 minutes. That was one amazing meal, and aside from the french bread was made from ingredients scavenged and hunted from our homestead and my job at a nature preserve a mile up the road.
Now, I'm down here in urban San Diego, have a new smoker and am working on using more commercially available woods and ingredients. I've smoked a TON of weird shit, and will definitely share my methods. But I've never successfully done ribs from scratch, or made my own BBQ sauce, and that is my current mission, and want a community to chat it out with.
I think I was a member back when my son was born, but have no clue what my username was.
Anybody in the San Diego area want to meet and drink beers? I'd love to make new friends.
Over 10 days in the NICU, I brought in smoked apple dumplings, nuts, and fruit salads (Seriously, smoke some apples, pineapple, grapes and slightly unripe melon, then chill and toss with a sweet yogurt dressing) to my wife and the nursing staff, drawing upon five years of experience with my rusty old barrel smoker.
When we moved back down from the mountains of Norcal to San Diego five years ago, and got our new house, I agreed to a small propane grill for ease of use and to adjust from our 44 acres to a small urban backyard.
The propane grill finally broke, I passed it on to a friend, and two weeks before fathers day, went out and got a new offset smoker, this time setting off on the adventure with my 8 year old son.
I'm far from a master smoker, but living in a diverse mountain rainforest, I know quite a bit about wood fire cooking and doing crazy things like smoking TriTip with wet fresh cut california bay, and two day old, uncured pear trimmings.
My best smoke ever? Kill and field strip 6 quail in your driveway with a bucket of pond crawdads in the back of your truck. Head, vein and shell the crawdads and make a stuffing with King Bolete Mushrooms and some stale french bread, seasoned with some onion flowers. Smoke with HIGH heat (I would build the fire in the main chamber, so it was almost grilling) using mesquite lump charcoal and wet 2"x2" bay branches (probably 350 degrees) for about 90 minutes. That was one amazing meal, and aside from the french bread was made from ingredients scavenged and hunted from our homestead and my job at a nature preserve a mile up the road.
Now, I'm down here in urban San Diego, have a new smoker and am working on using more commercially available woods and ingredients. I've smoked a TON of weird shit, and will definitely share my methods. But I've never successfully done ribs from scratch, or made my own BBQ sauce, and that is my current mission, and want a community to chat it out with.
I think I was a member back when my son was born, but have no clue what my username was.
Anybody in the San Diego area want to meet and drink beers? I'd love to make new friends.
