Quick tips for newbies- offer up your's


 

Jeff Holmes

TVWBB Super Fan
I've learned so much between here and Amazingribs.com

What are some of the simplest tips you could offer up to newbies like myself? Here's a few that stand out for me:

- When your done grilling, shut your vents off and you'll save some of your coals to use in your next cook

- Use more than one lighter cube, it helps to get the top coals lit before the bottom ones are about 1/2 gone

- Even though lighter fluid brings back great childhood memories of dad grilling (special occasion), and I love the (are you sitting down?) smell of it, don't use lighter fluid

- use salt on your burgers/steaks and sear the up real good, add your pepper and a little more salt right before you pull them off the grill, this will help with all the salt that fell off and help keep your pepper from burning

What can you add?
 
Best tip I can come up with; if you're going to cook something for the first time, come to this forum for ideas how
 
I don't use lighter cubes. I use a chimney with 2 pieces of newspaper. Fold the newspaper diagonally and then roll into a long snakelike shape. Then take the two ends and put them together to make a donut shape. Put that in the bottom of the chimney, and do the same with the second piece of paper. Never need more than 2 pieces using this technique.
 
Always start with good quality food for the grill. You will never be able to make chicken soup out of chicken poop.
 
Until you can get a good feeling for your cooking times use a good quality digital thermometer to make sure your food is cooked to the correct temperature. Also use your grills analog thermometer if you have one as a reference only as the are historically very inaccurate some off 50* or more.
 
I also love the smell of lighter fluid for some reason but I don't use it anymore. I think it's a nostalgia thing. I think my biggest tips are

1. Learn how to set up your grill for 2 - zone cooking.

2. Use a digital thermometer.

These are mainly grilling oriented but HUGE.
 
If you're cooking on a WSM, my tip would be, DON'T chase temperatures, if you want to cook at 250℉ and your cooker drops to 244, don't worry about it. Or if it goes up 258, don't worry about it. 5-10 variances in temp won't hurt your cook and
you'll stay sane a lot longer.
 
Best tip I ever received is to keep a smoking journal. Document times, temps, rubs and results. It always helps to be able to refer back to what you have done.
 
The best tips are what you gain with trial & error learning how your equipment behaves in your backyard.
The Minion Method and catching your temps on the way up is a great starting point.

Tim
 
Someone here taught me this- I don't use starter blocks or paper- The side burner on my old gasser for about 5 minutes or less works great. Otherwise, I am not sure I have used the gasser in awhile, since I converted. Otherwise, I couldn't agree more with Chuck O. - this forum is the best resource.
 
As ChuckO said, this forum is your new best friend.

Other thoughts:
  1. Get good digital thermometers for both your pit and your meat. Don't trust the lid thermometer - both of mine are way off.
  2. Better yet, get an ATC (Automatic Temperature Controller). You'll have good digital thermometers, and the controller will give you good even temps without having to tend the smoker the whole time. Doing some math in my head, I've probably smoked a couple thousand bucks worth of meat this year, so spending a couple hundred on something that improves the consistency of the results and lets me get some sleep during long cooks is money well spent.
  3. Build your confidence with cuts that are easy to cook. Pork butts are almost impossible to ruin. Ribs are a little trickier, and brisket is, as Steven Raichlen says, "the Mount Everest of barbecue."
  4. Use your imagination and come up with new ways to cook the traditional cuts, and new uses for your smoked meat. I use my pulled pork to make sweet potato hash, and I make chili with my mesquite-smoked brisket. Variety is the spice of life.
  5. Try both low-and-slow and high-heat methods. If you can master both, you can fit your cooks into just about any schedule.
 
1. You will get conflicting advice from people on TV, in cookbooks, on the internet, etc. BBQing is a craft, and craftsmen often have differing opinions on the best way to do things.

2. Your own common sense is probably pretty good. Trust it. You'll find what works for you over a short time as you become a craftsman.

3. It's actually fairly difficult to ruin BBQ, so don't worry about it too much. If craftsmen over hundreds of years have done it, you can, too.

4. BBQ cooking temp is a range. Control your pit temp but really, anywhere plus or minus 25* is fine. Don't chase temps. Close enough is good enough.

5. Have patience. Give it the time it needs to cook without you watching, mopping, spritzing, etc every five minutes.

6. There are a bazillion gadgets and gizmos on the market. Though they're fun to play with, very few are actually required to produce great BBQ. A long lasting, clean burning fire and good technique is more important than expensive equipment. Famous Dave started by cooking in a trash can.

7. Cook easy stuff first. Try other's recipes before modifying them until you gain confidence. Then feel free to experiment based on principles you've learned.

8. Backyard BBQ for your friends and family is not competition "one bite" BBQ. You would not want a whole meal of competition BBQ. Careful which recipe you use that you saw on Pitmasters.

9. Have fun. Relax. It's just cooking. It's not suppose to be stressful.

10. Cook to your family and friends preferences. If they like fall off the bone ribs, cook them that way. If they like what you cook, you'll be asked to cook more.
 
1. You will get conflicting advice from people on TV, in cookbooks, on the internet, etc. BBQing is a craft, and craftsmen often have differing opinions on the best way to do things.

2. Your own common sense is probably pretty good. Trust it. You'll find what works for you over a short time as you become a craftsman.

3. It's actually fairly difficult to ruin BBQ, so don't worry about it too much. If craftsmen over hundreds of years have done it, you can, too.

4. BBQ cooking temp is a range. Control your pit temp but really, anywhere plus or minus 25* is fine. Don't chase temps. Close enough is good enough.

5. Have patience. Give it the time it needs to cook without you watching, mopping, spritzing, etc every five minutes.

6. There are a bazillion gadgets and gizmos on the market. Though they're fun to play with, very few are actually required to produce great BBQ. A long lasting, clean burning fire and good technique is more important than expensive equipment. Famous Dave started by cooking in a trash can.

7. Cook easy stuff first. Try other's recipes before modifying them until you gain confidence. Then feel free to experiment based on principles you've learned.

8. Backyard BBQ for your friends and family is not competition "one bite" BBQ. You would not want a whole meal of competition BBQ. Careful which recipe you use that you saw on Pitmasters.

9. Have fun. Relax. It's just cooking. It's not suppose to be stressful.

10. Cook to your family and friends preferences. If they like fall off the bone ribs, cook them that way. If they like what you cook, you'll be asked to cook more.

Read the quoted post three or four times and remember it.
 
For indirect cooks bank your coals on one side with the meat on the other side. Place the lid vent over the meat. If high heat is desired cock the lid a bit to get a higher temperature.
 
Relax, have a beer and dont stress. Pick a method and try to master it. Don't jump around trying new ideas until you master one. And make a list of what you need so you're ready once you start! That helps with the relaxation. You tend to learn as much or more from your failures than from your successes so accept the fact that you will inevitably screw up and that it will make you a better BBq'r.
 
This is some good stuff, I would have loved to read through something like this.

Someone care to jump in on the snake/fuse and minion methods? I've used the snake/fuse 3-4 times now and love it. Everyone thinks I'm a genius but I always credit here. I'm still not sure I understand the minion and sometimes I see a tin can....both of these were hard for me to grasp when I first came here.
 
The minion is simply adding lit charcoal on top of unlit charcoal. Variations include a tin can with both ends cut out. The can is placed on the charcoal grate and charcoal filled in around it. The lit is added to the can and the can is removed with a pair of pliers or channel locks which places all the lit in the center to burn outwards. It looks cool but I've abandoned the technique after only a few uses because it's just easier to dump the lit onto the unlit.

The snake, "C", fuze, etc are all the same thing. Instead of dumping lit onto unlit as in the Minion, you simply light one end or start three or four piece of charcoal and add it to one end so the charcoal will light in succession like a row of dominoes. I use this technique with lump as well. This technique can be used in the Kettle for a low n slow smoke for a pork butt or ribs or anything really. I use it in the WSM to go really low and slow for drying jerky or smoking sausage when you don't want to cook the food - just dry it and add smoke flavor.
 
Learn to cook without using gadgets and this includes thermometers. If you learn to cook by sight, touch and feel you can cook just about anything on anything.
 

 

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