Hi,
I've been lurking around TVWBB for a while, and thought it time to introduce myself. I've had a kettle for years, and I love to cook generally - a couple of years ago the two kinda came together when I tea-smoked some salmon in a wok, loved the flavour (flavor!) and worked my way up from a stovetop smoker through a cold-smoking setup to a 18.5" WSM. I've had it for 18 months or so and - thanks largely to recipes I've found here - I've been happily smoking stuff since then.
I didn't eat meat when I bought my WSM, and hadn't eaten meat for 15 years - not for any particular reason, other than I really, really dislike fat (I was never quite vegetarian - I've always eaten fish, though I don't like seafood). I've always cooked meat for others, especially at BBQs with the kettle - but because I never ate things with legs or shells, and we've also got vegetarian friends, we've always BBQ'd plenty of fish and veg as well as meat. So because I'd been interested in smoking food, I bought the WSM partly thinking about slow-cooking BBQ for family and friends, but also thinking about cooking smoky (smokey?) treats for me. The WSM was my 40th birthday/redundancy present to myself.
The first time I cooked ribs on the WSM was at a BBQ - I've never seen food disappear so fast. The second time I cooked ribs, my wife found me eating leftovers (I made extra!) while cleaning up after everyone had gone home. I've been eating meat again - preferably from the WSM - ever since. I've mostly cooked ribs, beer can chicken (never fails to impress my friends!) and pork shoulder in the WSM, meat-wise. I've cooked a leg of lamb a couple of times, and our Christmas turkey. I've also done sirloin and a small bit of brisket. Also lots of nuts, fruit and vegetables - I've got smoked apple chutney and smoky tomato ketchup in the cupboard at the moment. Funnily enough, I've never smoked fish in the WSM - I'm tempted to do a side of salmon this holiday. There's a lot of recipes I want to try!
I'm prepping two pork shoulders at the moment, to serve tomorrow night - I'm using the Armadillo Willy's Rub from this page (unmodified, as I've got fennel seeds on the shelf) and serving with the sauce from this thread (modified - I don't have molasses so I've used maple syrup, then I've simmered for 10 mins to blend the flavours and added a little water for consistency - got to say it tastes astonishingly good). Smoking over lumpwood with a hint of mesquite - mesquite chips is all I have in the shed, but I'm thinking just a fistful in a foil wrap to add a little bit of oomph to the smoke from the charcoal.
Thanks to Chris and everyone who contributes to the site and forum - I'm looking forward to learning a lot from you guys!
Happy New Year everyone.
Andy
I've been lurking around TVWBB for a while, and thought it time to introduce myself. I've had a kettle for years, and I love to cook generally - a couple of years ago the two kinda came together when I tea-smoked some salmon in a wok, loved the flavour (flavor!) and worked my way up from a stovetop smoker through a cold-smoking setup to a 18.5" WSM. I've had it for 18 months or so and - thanks largely to recipes I've found here - I've been happily smoking stuff since then.
I didn't eat meat when I bought my WSM, and hadn't eaten meat for 15 years - not for any particular reason, other than I really, really dislike fat (I was never quite vegetarian - I've always eaten fish, though I don't like seafood). I've always cooked meat for others, especially at BBQs with the kettle - but because I never ate things with legs or shells, and we've also got vegetarian friends, we've always BBQ'd plenty of fish and veg as well as meat. So because I'd been interested in smoking food, I bought the WSM partly thinking about slow-cooking BBQ for family and friends, but also thinking about cooking smoky (smokey?) treats for me. The WSM was my 40th birthday/redundancy present to myself.
The first time I cooked ribs on the WSM was at a BBQ - I've never seen food disappear so fast. The second time I cooked ribs, my wife found me eating leftovers (I made extra!) while cleaning up after everyone had gone home. I've been eating meat again - preferably from the WSM - ever since. I've mostly cooked ribs, beer can chicken (never fails to impress my friends!) and pork shoulder in the WSM, meat-wise. I've cooked a leg of lamb a couple of times, and our Christmas turkey. I've also done sirloin and a small bit of brisket. Also lots of nuts, fruit and vegetables - I've got smoked apple chutney and smoky tomato ketchup in the cupboard at the moment. Funnily enough, I've never smoked fish in the WSM - I'm tempted to do a side of salmon this holiday. There's a lot of recipes I want to try!
I'm prepping two pork shoulders at the moment, to serve tomorrow night - I'm using the Armadillo Willy's Rub from this page (unmodified, as I've got fennel seeds on the shelf) and serving with the sauce from this thread (modified - I don't have molasses so I've used maple syrup, then I've simmered for 10 mins to blend the flavours and added a little water for consistency - got to say it tastes astonishingly good). Smoking over lumpwood with a hint of mesquite - mesquite chips is all I have in the shed, but I'm thinking just a fistful in a foil wrap to add a little bit of oomph to the smoke from the charcoal.
Thanks to Chris and everyone who contributes to the site and forum - I'm looking forward to learning a lot from you guys!
Happy New Year everyone.
Andy
