When Did You Start Smoking?

[BGKYSmoker]

After a chat with my mom who still lives in Calif, She said 1976, I say 77. So i will settle on 1976.5....LOL

After all these years i still have the first smoker she bought me.

Bought at K-Mart she said for like $18

Its a little rusted and beat up from being all over the country and its still works. Cant tell you how much fish, chicken, rabbit, quail, rattler i did in it over the years back home.

Inside. All original.... Yeah sentimental

My wife says she cant watch me when i take this around with us cuz it makes her cry, thinking about how i was as a boy just starting out in this hobby.

Just thought i would share with y'all

 

[kydave]

That's cool! I started last year. 

 

[harleysmoker]

Yea pretty neat. Hard to believe you managed to hang onto it all these years.

I started "smoking" about a year ago, and don't laugh, my first "smoker" was an Orion cooker. I know, I know many frown on that but it actually turns out some pretty good food and it cooks fast.

Anyway I wanted to get deeper into it and learn more so I just bought the Master Forge propane a month or so ago.

 

[boykjo]

Thanks for sharing rick.......... I couldn't let something like that go and if you had to you can call up the Smithsonian and they'll probably take it........

Joe

 

[BGKYSmoker]

I keep it stored in my big smoker. Which dont seem to get much use since moving  

 

[solaryellow]

2003 with a horizontal offset. I gave that to a friend of mine a few years back but now that we built him a UDS he doesn't need it anymore. So, I am gonna pick it back up and turn it into a small RF.

 

[venture]

To the best of my memory, except for some extended indirect cooks on a grill?  It must have been mid 1980's on this:

It obviously hasn't been used for years, but I just don't have the heart to throw it away.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[sprky]

Wow that's 1 old smoker.

Gee I don't remember exactly when I started some where between 16 and 18 years old, I'm now 48 do the math.  My first smoker, was an old all metal  fridge, It's still in my dads garage and gets used once in a great while. My second and 3rd was an ECB, they rusted and burned out so bad they went to the dump( I may have had 3 of these). My 4th was a WSM still have it and use it. My 5th was 1 I built out of 1/4 inch steel double walled fire brick lined, LPG burner, was extremely heavy, some rotten SOB stole it, while we were at the lake. My 6th was a perfect flame single door LPG, still have it and use it. My latest is  a master forge 2 door LPG it gets used the most. I can't say I have been smoking all the years straight there was periods of time where I didn't smoke; The 4 years I was in the navy, several years after getting married, several years after smoker got jacked, and numerous shorter times in-between when I simply didn't have the time. When I came to SMF I learned I was smoking all wrong, so I had to start all over from scratch and am still learning new stuff here. I think it was back in 2007 when I joined SMF. There ya have a summery of my smoking years don't want to bore ya to death with a novel. 

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Wow that's 1 old smoker.

Gee I don't remember exactly when I started some where between 16 and 18 years old, I'm now 48 do the math.  My first smoker, was an old all metal  fridge, It's still in my dads garage and gets used once in a great while. My second and 3rd was an ECB, they rusted and burned out so bad they went to the dump( I may have had 3 of these). My 4th was a WSM still have it and use it. My 5th was 1 I built out of 1/4 inch steel double walled fire brick lined, LPG burner, was extremely heavy, some rotten SOB stole it, while we were at the lake. My 6th was a perfect flame single door LPG, still have it and use it. My latest is  a master forge 2 door LPG it gets used the most. I can't say I have been smoking all the years straight there was periods of time where I didn't smoke; The 4 years I was in the navy, several years after getting married, several years after smoker got jacked, and numerous shorter times in-between when I simply didn't have the time. When I came to SMF I learned I was smoking all wrong, so I had to start all over from scratch and am still learning new stuff here. I think it was back in 2007 when I joined SMF. There ya have a summery of my smoking years don't want to bore ya to death with a novel. 

If i was to say when have i not smoked something i would say the moving transitions from state to state or when the DOD had me on the time clock. Hmmm 35  years now, maybe one these days i will learn something....HA

 

[DanMcG]

never smoked a sausage till about 4 years ago

 

[mballi3011]

I started back in  the late 90's. If I wanted some hot food we had to grill or smoke it. Then took a break and started it all up again about 6-7 years ago and really got into it pretty hard again about 4 years ago till now and still going. I'm suffering from ADHD the wife says. I go in an out of things but when I do things I go all out all or nothing. This habit has just lasted a long time for me.

 

[michael ark]

I first started smokeing meat with my dad .I was around 13 useing a large grill like a offset .He made this one when i was 16.I'm 36 now and still use it.

 

[mossymo]

I started making sausage in 1987 and would bring my sausage to the local meat locker to have them smoke it for me. After my wife and I met she asked me why I didn't just smoke it myself... So in about 1999 or so I started smoking sausage. Then about 7 or 8 years ago the wife and I decided we need to use our smoker more and started also smoking turkeys. Then in 2007 I found this site, now everything gets smoked!

 

[smoke king]

I started about 10 years ago.  My wife said that she liked smoked food.  So I bought her a smoker for Christmas one year.  She never used it once.....but I did, many times over.  She often said it was one of the best gifts I ever got her, because I did all the cooking with it!  It was an el cheapo vertical water smoker.  Switched to using my Weber kettle for many years because it was easier to control the heat.  Got a 40" MES about 1.5 years ago, and got a Weber Smokey Mountain from Santa this year!

 

[azron]

I started about 6-7 months ago with a chargrill w/sfb, now i have a MES30 as of a few days ago

  Look out

 

[backsmokin]

Back in the 80's I had the chance to visit an old Swamp Yankee who smoked hams in a barrel. He told me about heat, wood and smoke temperature. I ended up building my own smoker set up based on what he showed me. First off - at that time we had textile mills around so I could get barrels that held starch and nothing else. Got a 35 gal and a 55 gal starch barrel and burned them out. Cut a flange into each one and fit an aluminum dryer vent hose to connect them. (Wish I had pictures)

The 55 gal was the smoking chamber. Weber grill rack fit perfectly. I suspended them with chains and s-hooks to adjust them. Hot smoke was a slow fire at the bottom of the main chamber. Using the 35 gal barrel and the vent hose I could cold smoke at any temp I wanted by extending or contracting the vent hose length. When not in use, everything packed inside the 55 gal drum.

Results were awesome! Especially for fish. 

When it rusted out I stopped smoking until my kids gave me a Brinkman's Electric last fall. I fitted it out with a real thermometer and have had much fun. For Christmas I served smoked salmon, smoked oysters and smoked mussels. Even the daughter tho doesn't like salmon was digging in to the smoked version!

 

[venture]

Smoke King, you remind me of my dad.  He bought us train sets for Christmas.  Then he played with them more than we did! 

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[missed-em]

Last August, got a MES 40--did my first all nighter w/ a brisket for Christmas.  Everything I kow came from this site, guess I'm in trouble!

 

[magikben]

I guess I started a couple of years ago on an improvised set up using my propane grill. I then tried my Weber 26 inch kettle which worked great, but the burning embers just feet away from my 25 year old deck always gives me pause when I use it. My Weber Summit has a built in smoker box and it did ok for me for a while, but the Smokin-it #2 is keeping the Summit doing grill duty. 

I am amazed you have the Little Chief still in one piece! I'ved moved around a lot and it is always a challenge keeping these things whole. 

Thanks for sharing!