Bone headed mistakes...

[petehalsted]

Tell me I am not the only one that makes some kind of bone headed mistake with every smoke.

Yesterday I had two.

First, was with my method of adding charcoal to the smoker. I have my camp chef 2 burner explorer stove next to my smoker. When I am running the smoker I pull of one of the griddles and expose that 60K BTU burner. I add my briquettes to the chimney, set it on the burner, light the camp chef for about a minute, shut off the camp chef and give the briquettes a few minutes to completely light, then add to the smoker. Here's where bonehead move came in, I light to go ahead and have the chimney filled and ready for the next time I need to add (with the All-Star I add around 25 briquettes an hour), I sit the chimney on the burner, then I have a feed scoop I use to get a load of briquettes and dump them in the chimney. Once yesterday, I am back out about 15 minutes after adding charcoal and wondered why there was smoke coming from my chimney. Turns out there was half briquette that got stuck in the wire when I dumped it and I didn't notice so when I dumped the next load in the chimney that half briquette had managed to start lighting the chimney. arrrrggggggg

Second one yesterday, the All-Star has a vertical door that opens upward, it has welded in fitting for a temp gauge that puts the probe just below the top shelve. Of course the short probe on the normal dial gauge reads way low since its pretty much reading the temp right at the door. I found a post from another All-Star owner that used a compressing fitting to use a long digital probe in place of the dial gauge, so I did the same, that got the probe into a pretty good spot to get good readings, its right below the shelf with the door is closed, so I don't have to worry about placement, and I don't have to worry about probe wire (at least for smoker temp) when opening and closing the door. It worked perfect until I pulled some the PBBE out of the smoker yesterday and then swapped the top and middle shelf around. I spent about 10 minutes wondering why the heck the smoker wasn't coming back up to temp. It usually does pretty fast. Then I finally notice that it was the same temp as one of the turkey breast probes. Opened the door and sure enough as I opened it you could feel the probe pulling out of the turkey breast. move the turkey half an inch and all ways fine.

Long winded explanations, but if you stuck with me, how about sharing some of your bonehead stories, come on, this is a safe place, I promise.

To get the ball rolling a little more, am I the only one that looks like this after running the smoker all day? Along with all the stains you can sure tell those PBBE are helping me keep me at my fighting weight. LOL

 

[SonnyE]

I always eat my mistakes, Pete.
So I hide the evidence, and I'm not talkin.

I wear the wife's apron. So any... um... irregularities in the pattern must be from something she did. ;):rolleyes:

 

[gmc2003]

Sonny, I just read your post and had an image flash through my mind. Of an older man wearing bermuda shorts - hiked up to past his belly button with a white patent leather belt. Wearing sandals and and argyle socks. Donning a Giligan style or straw hat. Of course there was the June Cleaver apron.

Sorry about that. It just happened.

Chris

 

[SonnyE]

Sonny, I just read your post and had an image flash through my mind. Of an older man wearing bermuda shorts - hiked up to past his belly button with a white patent leather belt. Wearing sandals and and argyle socks. Donning a Giligan style or straw hat. Of course there was the June Cleaver apron.

Sorry about that. It just happened.

Chris

You have a very Flamboyant imagination. :D
But do describe something one might see on TV. LOL! :eek:

I have what has been described by one woman as, "The cutest little butt".
So my pants and shorts rely on a well tightened belt to hold them up. No white belts in my wardrobe. Just black and brown, and mostly plain to Western styled.
My thought was a flowered apron. Although, to be honest, I don't recall what her apron looks like. She dawns it for Christmas Cookies. (Generally once a year)
I have a leather and a canvas aprons, but honestly, can't recall the last time I took either from the hook on the door in the garage. Preferring to wipe my hands on my pants or shorts like some sort of a slob.
Only cotton socks generally, white crew style, or black crew style. (Oh some dress socks, and some wool socks, rarely see the light of day.) No Argyle.

I feel so out of style... :(;):D
But people do tend to mistake me for someone who gives a darn. LOL! :eek:

 

[chopsaw]

I have what has been described by one woman as, "The cutest little butt".

Moms don't count .

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Love the stories Pete. Most of my disasters have occurred on my gas grill because I ran out of propane at the most inopportune time. Of course the second tank is always empty at those moments as well. For me it’s not the meat keeping me at my fighting weight it’s the amazing sides that my wife makes. Today we are trying fruit sides with our Q.

George

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Most bonehead thing I ever did on a smoker was stalling out my first brisket by trying to collect drippings for au jus. So much juice built up that I ended up stalling my own smoke out..

Now if we want to discuss bonehead moments related to other forms of cooking..

*I once when drinking adult beverages decided to see if I could deep fry a can of beer in the turkey fryer, ala King of the Hill. It ended up launching in the air and across the street, lighting the drive way on fire. My friend's wife was Irish. When the Fire department responded, they spent a good ten minutes laughing at me and my friend as she was yelling louder then they could. No ticket was issued, we were upset they left us to -that- fate instead of booking us..

*Decided to try and flip shrimp etc in a wok all sauve like to impress people. I had a oil fire in front of 12 people. I had this happen several times, I am not a smart man..

*My mother was terrified of grills, so she had me light them. What she failed to tell me is she had opened the gas for a full 5 minutes before asking me to light the grill, I was unaware of this. My teenage self goes to light the Dukane, and promptly lost my eyebrows and almost my head when the thing went flying into the yard.

*I tried to eat maple tree bark thinking it would taste like maple sugar cookies. I wasn't a toddler, I was about ten. Proving at times, if I think pioneers did it, it must be true.

*I sat on a hot burner on a stove. I knew it was hot because I had just done the cooking on it. This was just a few years ago at my friend's house. Her now 9 year old daughter still remembers when 'Uncle Tom Burnt his Butt'. I don't think I'll ever not be reminded of it.

 

[motocrash]

To get the ball rolling a little more, am I the only one that looks like this after running the smoker all day?