Howdy all. I live in St. Augustine, FL w/ my beautiful wife and four kids. I'm not even sure how I got into smoking, but if I recall correctly, several years ago I bought a cheap electric smoker thinking it might be fun to try. The wife and kids seemed to enjoy the food the few times I used it (maybe a 8-10 times over the years), but I never really enjoyed the "set it and forget it" style. Then for Christmas two years ago my wife bought me Franklin's BBQ book and I instantly wanted to jump into "real smoking". I scoured Craigslist and bought a Brinkmann Cimarron; I know it has flaws, but it's at least made of some solid metal! I used it three times and it was frustrating to say the least. You read a book like Franklin's, see the pictures of burning logs, and try to replicate it in a small smoker and it doesn't always work out so well. As a result, the smoker has sat for almost two years until this past weekend. I saw the grocery store had Boston Butts on sale and we were already planning a party for the Jaguar game, so I figured I'd give it another try. I searched online, stumbled across this forum, and read that you should really be cooking w/ charcoal and embers than burning actual logs! I cleaned the smoker, fired up some charcoal and used Apple wood chunks for flavor. Maybe I just got lucky, but it was some of the best pulled pork I've ever had! I received lots of compliments and my passion is completely reignited now. I'm hoping to garner lots of new information, recipes, and hopefully share my smoking successes (or failures) w/ the group.
