How did you start Smokin' Meat?

[czechm8]

CzechM8,

That's a Great story!

It would be good if you went to our "Roll Call" forum section, and copy & paste that same story on there.

Then everyone can welcome you properly.

Then stick around---You'll love it here!

Bear

 Thanks!  I will go to the Roll Call forum and add a post.

 

[diesel]

A women was the reason.  She is from Kansas City.  I traveled to KC with her back in '99 and ate my first "real" BBQ.  We went to Gates and Arther Briant.  From that point on I had to be able to cook like that.  I started with a small charcoal barrel smoker then on to the charbroil side firebox (went through a couple of those) and then I built one.  The building process is how I came across this forum.  Reverse Flow with a 250 gallon propane tank. 

that is how I started.. OH ya.. I married that girl.

 

[realtorterry]

Natural progression for me. Got good at grillin hamburger & hot dogs. Moved up to steak & chicken. Thought how can I take this up a notch. Began looking on the web for hints & tricks. Started reading about smoking. While looking I found SmF late in 2008. Ordered Jeff's then CD course. listened to it over & over. Bought a small charbroil gourmet sale for $69. Stopped looking at SMF, joined & never looked back!!

A BIG THANK YOU TO JEFF & ALL THE MEMBERS THAT CONTRIBUTE!! 

 

[czechm8]

CzechM8,

That's a Great story!

It would be good if you went to our "Roll Call" forum section, and copy & paste that same story on there.

Then everyone can welcome you properly.

Then stick around---You'll love it here!

Bear

 Thanks Bear.... I posted it over in the Roll Call board.

 

[smokey mo]

In the early years of my marriage I met my wife's uncle who has a custom charcoal pit and he cooks roast for festivals and catering.  The problem was he wouldn't show me anything about it. I was an outsider.  I was also driving truck and had been to the south enough to know what real BBQ was suppose to taste like. 

My wife and I were living in my parents house while they were on the road long haul and he came home one day with a LifeTyme offset. He thought this was a grill and never could get the hang of using it.  I knew what it was and started playing with it...

Fast forward. I have had a smoker made out of a telephone company air compressor box. Burned it out. Now have ECB a smoke'n pit and building (albiet slowly) a Reverse Flow Monster out of a 500gal propane tank.

I have always loved to cook but this new addiction was what I always wanted to do.  No one to teach me so I started researching and found the forum.  The product has become MUCH better than I could have dreamed.  

My goal is to meet the Uncle in competition and show him what I know...I am confident.

Big thanks to Jeff and this forum. Truly a great family here. I am glad to be part of it.

 

[africanmeat]

Well all my adult life i loved BBQ in South Africa smoking meat is not a in  ,one day a Friend brought smoke ribs ,and the rest as they say is history .

i was lucky i got a MES 30 just before they stop importing it to south Africa closing stock .i smoked anything theta stood still .but not enough knowledge,

trial and error.i was lucky on day i was looking for a recipe and i found  this forum and for a year i was reading the threads till i got brave enough to join.

 

[thebarbequeen]

What a fun thread!   I'm the only smoker (so far) in my family, grew up with grilling. I started out with a hibachi on our tiny apt. deck in 1979, moved to So Cal in '81 and discovered what a propane grill was. Got pretty hooked on those, but the hibachi was still on the deck. I have always loved smoked meats, and would try any bbq joint we could find. When we were leaving Cal, I planned a big party and was going to cater it from our favorite Q place. The early morning of the party, it burned down!  I ran to my butcher in Whittier and said, "help!". He sold me a bunch of spares and beef ribs, told me to pre-cook them some and them put them on the grill. The rest was all up to me. I went by the seat of my pants, made a sauce with a couple of recipes and a lot of guessing. It was now mid-morning and the party was supposed to start at like 5, so I parboiled before seasoning (didn't know from rubs then, but I more or less did one).  Then I put a bunch of wet chips on my propane grill, set it to med-low and started trying to get some flavor into the ribs. It wasn't a big grill, took quite a few batches. When it seemed like they had gotten enough color and smoke on them, I gave them a dunk in my sauce and put them in a foil covered pan. They finished cooking to tender in the oven.  Everybody was LOVING them! They were asking where I'd gotten them! I'd literally never bbq'd a rib before that day!   After that, almost every party was ribs and grilling for non-believers. I kept trying to refine my techniques and flavor,  I would rub one day, smoke all the next day, just using chips and my propane, and reheat the day of the party. My rib-a-pa-looza's were always a huge hit. I'd get a box of spares, around 32 lb? and 6-8 beef rib racks. My sauce was more memphis style then - thick, more spicy than sweet, but I didn't know anything about that. I now prefer the thinner sauces if I use any at all.

I'm really self-taught, until I landed here at the forum. Didn't have any bbq cookbooks, and didn't know anybody who smoked other than doing their own salmon. Just kept going on tweaking. It was funny when FoodTV started and I saw a Q show, with all the rub and technique stuff and  I thought "hey, I do that!".  I was still making do with my small propane until my birthday 2 years ago- I was so done with my little old grill. I had picked up a used weber kettle so I was also cooking with charcoal (lump), too. I found a real nice used, bigger propane on craigslist for my birthday 2 years ago, but was still itching to smoke. For my birthday last year, I did all my homework, and though I lust in my heart for a Lang, electric was the smart way to go for now. I found a used cookshack smokette on craigslist (how much do I love CL? a lot!) and here I am! I now know how to cook more than ribs. Thanks, SMF!!         Here's my big toys

 

[sqwib]

Been around a smoker since I was young my father had a few over the years I think he had a little chief then a brinkmann, that he smoked mackerel on, I used to love opening that bag of mackerel and the smell that hit you, man, you new you were in for a treat.

Anyhow as soon as I moved out I purchased a gas grill and grilled for years using a chip box trying to impart some smoke flavor into the food, but as far as getting serious about smoking, I think it was late '06 or early '07, cant remember exactly.

I have learned a tremendous amount here and on occasion talk about it with my dad, I'll never forget when I recently asked him if he, Hot Smoked the Mackerel or Cold Smoked, he looked lost.

 

[smokeamotive]

Born and raised in K.C. We're all born with the smoking gene.

 

[coyote1]

I strarted out on a gas grill then started useing a wood chip box on it then a few years ago my wife volunteered me to smoke a brisket for a friends wedding dinner I had never done anything like that but I told her I would do it then I found out I had to feed 80 poeple so I told her I would need some thing better to do it on so she bought me a char broil with a side fire box I did 4 full packers  took me 4 days to cook I could only do 1 at a time but it all turned out great every one said it was the best they had had now I'm building a lang 48 patio look alike I'm hooked for life and thanks to every one on SFM for making me better at it

 

[pops6927]

I was brought up in a grocery store and my dad cured and smoked all his own hams, bacons, turkeys, chickens.. basically anything that walked or crawled, lol.  Our bedroom was above the smoke houses and esp. in the winter we'd wake up freezing (sometimes -20, -30, even -40 below zero) and the room was thick with smoke (leak in the chimney, lol) so much you couldn't see!  Dad would have started up the smokekhouses early; but it always smelled sooo good! He taught me about smoking, pickling, brines, pumping, proper curing methods, etc. all the time growing up and when I worked in the store.  Until he died and mom sold the store we always had plentiful amounts of all smoked products, then the access was gone.  I'd made my own sausages right along but never got real heavy into it until I bought a Cabela's electric smoker a few years ago and joined the site.  it's been wonderful ever since!  Ran into Craig on Facebook and it was a mind meld; we'd both had brain injuries and in therapy, years and years of catching up to do!  (BTW, Craig, i did wave when we flew over the panhandle, didja see me?  lol!)

 

[forluvofsmoke]

For our July 4th 2001 block party, my wife had the idea from a cooking show to smoke spare ribs on my Brinkmann Gas Grill King. So I tossed a couple slabs on, indirect heat, did alot of rotations and about 8 hours later, we had ribs to share with all the neighbors. The following year, I found the small GOSM 3405GW @ wally-world. I smoked a few more slabs of ribs (cut in half) from time to time, a couple whole chickens and a turkey. I never was overly enthusiastic about it...it was just something different, a new way to cook, and a new flavor to savor.

Then, I stumbled in SMF in August 2008 while searching the web for a rib rub recipe. I had been tweeking a dry rub recipe of my own for several years, and I was curious to see what others were using and if it was similar to my own blend. Little did I know what SMF had to offer when I clicked on the link. Long story short, my brain became overwhelmed with the explosion of ideas I was inspired to try after reading many posts here. Oh, and that explosion? Well, it's a never-ending adventure! I'm still smokin' meats, cured meats and sausages, fish, veggies, taters, garlic heads, onions, squashes...the sky's the limit, and a week without smoke is...well, a tough week!,s, t!W It didn't stop ye bu I was curious to see hwat others were using and if it was similar to my own blen..

Since finding SMF, I have acquired 3 additional smokers, 3 charcoal grills, 2 - 6qt camp dutch ovens, scales, about a 25lb stash of spices, and an un-measurable amount of wisdom. I've learned more while hangin' here with everyone and sharing our smoking experiences than I could have learned in a thousand life-times on my own.

So, I sprouted on my own, but I was cultivated and blossomed right here with all you fine smokin' brothers & sisters.

Keep your smokers warm & happy!

Eric

EDIT: Have tons of typos but they don't show in reply/edit box to correct them? What's up with that?

 

[Dutch]

Well, my little sis gave me her Brinkman Gourmet smoker and I started with that-had a lot of trial and error in learning how to use it and basically gave up on it.

Bought my GOSM from a buddy of mine and then found a way early version of SMF in the Yahoo User Groups and thigs really took off from there. And then 2 years ago I boughy my Lang 60 Mobile Deluxe. 

 

[flash]

A friend of mine invited me over for some Smoke Turkey on his old ECB. After that, I had to have one. Probably back in the latter 70's. I purchased mine not long after and it is still going strong to this day. I have taken smoking much further than that friend ever did. He loves to come to dinner.

 

[venture]

For me, it almost happened by accident.  I was a griller.  Then I got interested in cooking with indirect heat on the grill.  Then a friend from East Texas educated me on the difference between grilling and Q, although some of the slow cooked indirect heat stuff off the grill wasn't that bad.  My real downfall was my antique ECB which really got the ball rolling. After many years of that kind of messing around, I came across SMF which is about the worst thing that has happened to me.  Now if I am not at the smoker, I am at the dang computer!

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[smokey mo]

I came across SMF which is about the worst thing that has happened to me.  Now if I am not at the smoker, I am at the dang computer!

The funny thing is my co-workers laugh at me when I am on the computer and call it "BBQ porn".  They never complain when I bring samples though.

 

[mr porky]

I too started out as a grill guy, then got the smoke bug a few years ago.  Subbed to Jeff's course, joined the forum, and got lotsa help from the great folk here on teh SMF!

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[tyotrain]

About 15 years back a buddy and i would smoke jerky all the time.. I started researching smoked meat and boom i was hooked for ever..

 

[justpassingthru]

I remember as a kid going to the county fair and there was a stand that sold deep pit bbq beef, it was the best beef I had ever eaten. I've had a grill for as long as I can remember, was always pretty mediocre at my attempts, ...made sure a grill was in the box when I moved here, continued on with the mediocre grilling and after being here ten years the cravings really started to kick in. One day I stumbled across how to cook beef in the oven at very low temps, I tried to duplicate the fair beef of my childhood, without success, but my wife said it was better than what I cooked on the grill so that was an encouragement.

A few years passed and I stumbled across a recipe for slow cooked pork that lead me to TVWB site and introduced me to the WSM, man I would spend evenings reading and drooling over the Q-view, a couple more years passed and then one day I walked in to our Ace Hardware and there was a WSM sitting right in front, I found the store manager, who is a good friend and said I wanted one, immediately, he tried to talk me out of buying it, said no one likes smoked food, leaves a tingling in your mouth, ...after years of reading on the TVWB I knew what that was from, told him I still wanted one, he said I was his friend and out of friendship sake he wouldn't sell me one, ...I told him if he didn't sell me one I would climb up on the top shelf where he had them stacked and get one myself and if I fell I would sue the store.  LOL

Reluctantly he sold me one and a bag of moldy Kingsford briquettes, on the way home I bought some yard bird, arrived at the house and heard the same story from the FIL, that couldn't stop me, I assembled it, built a charcoal starter and seasoned it for a couple of hours and put the chickens in with a basic salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder rub. I didn't have a instant read thermometer so I used the movement of the leg joint test for doneness and cut it to see if the juices were clear, I was the only one that would eat it, the rest all waited to see If I would keel over or something, truthfully it was not great, just edible, but I made a big production out of how good it was, what convinced my wife to try it was the golden color, it wasn't black like all the other chicken I had grilled.

I switched to lump and bought some BBQ books from the pros and started to turn out what I consider to be good Q, the family became brave and sampled some and now when they smell smoke they conveniently show up around dinner time.

I found SMF and all the great folks here and I'm continually honing my Q'ing skills, thanks to Jeff and to all that make this a great site.

Gene

 

[venture]

Great story Gene.  YOU are one of those who make this a great site.

Good luck and good smoking.