How'd you get into barbecue? *****


 
I got married, and with the money I received from the wedding, I bought a Q100 to grill on in our tiny apartment patio in San Diego. The wife did all the cooking, both indoors and out, and needless to say, my friends wouldn't let me live it down.

One day I was watching TV and caught a few minutes of BBQ Pitmasters. The food looked really good and I thought, I could learn how to do this, so I started researching and bought a WSM. Came across this site about a year ago, and I've been cooking every since. The Q has been improving and my friends stopped making fun of me. No regrets!
 
Well, nothing as glamorous as most of these posts but started grilling in the 60's on the front porch of our cabin on Lake Texoma out Preston way on an old barrel grill, then a Weber. Graduated to BBQ in the 70's when my brother in law built a stick burner out of an old propane tank. We didn't have the fancy thermometers and all then, just had to smoke briskets by feel but turned out some pretty good groceries. Things have come a long way since then, I use some of the new stuff, some of the old, don't have much use for blower fans and all that stuff, wouldn't want it to be too easy (actually for me some of those things make it more complicated and take away from the fun of it) Oh, well, suffice it to say I like to play with fire. Moved from Texas to Northwest Arkansas a few years ago and found that if you want good brisket you gotta do it yourself.
There are some awfully smart and talented grillmasters and pitmasters on this site, my hat is off to you guys that have made it such a science. I learn something new everyday from the members here, thanks for letting me lurk around.
 
I was a just a backyard griller and BBQ'er until I met some guy named Jim Minion on-line who invited me to judge at a local BBQ contest. He mentored me through competition cooking, credentialed me as a KCBS judge (through one of the KCBS judging classes) and trained me as a KCBS Contest Rep. He's one of the greatest guys (and pitmasters) I ever met.
 
I started grilling in the parking lot at school during lunch, hotdogs, brats, and burgers. We were using a smokey joe and a cheap fold and go. We would just leave the grills on the edge of the parking lot till the end of the day. Then I bought a house when I was 21, when sumer came around I wanted more reasons to be outside drinking beer. So I found a 18.5 ots at a garage sale for 10$. I replaced the cooking grate and started cooking the same things as high school with the addetion of steak. Then I found a 22 ots at a garage sale for 3$ and I was off. I found this amazing website, I got my 18.5wsm threw the trading post and a 22otg. I love to cook, bake, grill, and smoke. I compeated in my first backyard comp. this year and finished 8th overall and 4th in ribs.
 
Sorry guys I had to add to this! I was looking at a old cooking log and was thinking about where it all started and remembered this post from some time ago! Great subject by the way!

(this is the short version)Ok my journey started by a couple different things! Back in 99 my wife bought me a brinkman gormet smoker for fathers day(looking back now she probably would have opted for the lighted fish tie!) any way never could get the thing to smoke slow and low and finally have up!

Moved into a new house and the smoker got lost in the garage! Started doing deep fried turkey for turkey day soon after the new house purchase and did that for a couple years, year number 3, little overconfident(and red wine) and a little ice in the turkey cavity and that was the end of turkey frying! Good tasting Turkey but still hear about how high the flames were!! Decided to try smoking a turkey instead! Lots safer and better for drinking! Found this web site
http://www.randyq.addr.com/.
Made the mods to the brinkman... Many sleepless nights, thousands of beers and a few calories, several sub-par smokers later and here we are still obsessed and loving it! (and of course webers are the cooking rigs today).

Thanks Chris for this great website!
 
Always been grilling (that's a given).

I started watching Man vs Food and every single thing he enjoyed seemed (in most cases) to be smoked in some manner.

I just had to get me a smoker and it was a toss up between a WSM and all the others. WSM won and I've been a happy camper every since. Thanks to Adam for my conversion.
 
One day my wife made pulled pork in the crockpot it was good but I thought just think if you made this the real way. I bought a smoker on CG that week and the rest is history.
 
Growing up my dad was a griller, and we would go camping and cookout on Coleman cook stoves and over fires, Dad would grill everything Salmon, Flounder, oysters, vegies. Well I was always moving one place to another and had a BBQ but was not good at it. My Wife is Korean and have learned a lot from her as she will try anything, so over time I have gotten better and tried more things. I started reading on this fourm and others way before I ever posted anything.On this fourm I was impressed with the knowledge and imagination of all of you with your ideas for grilling. Looked at other sites and they have some good info, but this site is more of a homey atmosphere that makes me keep coming back. I just hope I can contribute one thing here that people will enjoy.
Kevin
 
Like quite a few of you here, I started tinkering around on camping trips making food outside of a kitchen at home. Eventually graduated from the el-cheapo hibachi used during camping to a 22.5 kettle and knew even back then as a young lad I would always prefer to cook over a live fire. What made it into an obsession is about 5-6 years back while on a business trip in middle of nowhere Mississippi I had the pleasure of tasting some amazing BBQ and I was determined to try to recreate that style and flavour (low and slow).

Then I found this board and have been learning from you guys ever since
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Great topic….

For starters I guess you add the ingredients – Love fire, love being outside, love eating – how does one make that work? Grillin’
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Over the years, I always liked being the grill guy at tailgaters and parties, got a Weber Genesis about 10 years ago (still cranking of course) and use 75-100x per year, but just basics, steaks, burgers, sausages, kabobs, the occasional bone in pork chop. Tried other things - Chicken experiments continually failed, ribs were “eh”, basically really started to struggle with variety.

And then I stumbled on this site…and knew I needed to purchase a WSM. For the last 5 weeks or so I’ve been grilling better – the photo gallery is an amazing inspirational place…and of course I’ve been smoking each weekend. And finally I feel like I can successfully cook chicken and pork.
 
I’ll jump in late on this one. Sorry for the long story.

Since growing up a kid I have always enjoyed cooking. Growing up most of my family lived near me and the men in our family did a lot of the cooking for the gatherings.

Once out of high school I spent a lot of time helping my uncle’s cook for parties, which usually including grilling. One of my uncles had a Cajun Bandit electric smoker that we used to cook pork. The BBQ in Atlanta is subpar so we always cooked our own.

I wanted a smoker of my own and wanted something that I could adjust the temperature. The electric was always @ 220° unless it was really hot out, then 230°. My family always had weber gas & charcoal grills, so when I found the WSM I bought one at a local Ace. Like others here I opened the directions and tossed them. Found this site & the minion method and didn’t look back for a few years (but I did lurk on here very often though).

In 2009 I cooked a pork butt for a local pub cook off with about 20 people entering. There I met a guy that was involved with a local bbq group and he told me I had just missed their 1st festival. At the cook off I took home 3rd and was very surprised (until I tasted some of the other pork). I got a performer when I got married the next summer and finally joined this site as I started to grill daily.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon I did not feel like cooking and had always been told that a certain local BBQ joint was the best in Atlanta. Now for me, best BBQ in Atlanta isn’t a high bar, but I thought I’d give it a shot and called in an order. So it is pouring rain when I get there and I have to park nearly a half a mile away because the place is so packed. People were standing outside underneath the patio umbrellas while the waited for a seat inside. I picked up my order and called my wife on the way home and told her this better be the best BBQ I’ve eaten, or at worst, better than what I could make, or I was opening up a restaurant.

The pork had no flavor. The ribs were dry but at least the rub was decent. The brisket also had no flavor and was also dry. The sauce wasn’t great, but at least added some flavor & moisture to the meat. The next Monday I found the festival’s website and sent in my application for the backyard wanting to see if people actually liked my food.

I did a few test cooks of chicken and ribs leading up to the event. I asked questions on here and everyone of course was extremely helpful. I had a pop up tent, 2 tables, an 18” WSM and a performer. Looking around at the other backyard teams we were some what intimidated by their $5k-$10k smokers (Yes, there was a backyard team with a $10k smoker). We ended up 1st place in chicken, and 10th in ribs. We did people’s choice (you serve the people at this event) and people loved the pork and people asked to buy my sauce. We weren’t exactly ready for that, but geared up for the next year as we were hooked. Last year we did a few events, both competing and vending with mixed results.

For us we are more focused on the public than the judges. We are still doing some events and one day look forward to opening a small restaurant of our own. I think of myself as a pretty decent cook but I wouldn’t be near what I am today without this website, it's memebers, and my WSM that led me here.
 
Must have missed this thread for a while..

Learned to grill from my dad on the big gasser that he had growing up. But he was a big fan of the high heat method, for pretty much everything. Anyways after "proving" myself to him and the family I started taking over the grill duties at my home, that then pushed into more food duties in the kitchen as well. I learned a lot watching my Ukranian grandmother in the kitchen while the rest of the family talked in the other room. Once I met my wife I started cooking with her parents for their family.

After having a business trip to Houston in 2008 I fell in love with traditional low n slow smoked bbq, and started the quest for a smoker. I thought I wanted a snazy looking offset with a great big cooking grill and pipes and horns and what-have-you. But my parents for christmas one year decided that a WSM would be the perfect gift. From that point on I have been living the charcoal dream and spending many an afternoon/day/weekend smoking my wife out of house and home.

She loves the food but hates the smell of smoke so I am relegated to the far reaches of my yard but that doesn't bother me at all (unless it's an overnight smoke during the winter and its -20c, but I make due
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Long ... Long time a ago ... In a land far ... far away. OK - It's the early 1960's and far away is Akron, OH. - it's only 380 miles.
My Dad always had some kind of grill - probably those old cheapie Patio Classics. Mom would let me and my buddies cook hot dogs every now and then for our lunch. Half bag of charcoal - half can of lighter fluid. WHOOSH! In the guy across the streets back yard was one of those old big brick barbecues with a little grid space. We'd sleep out - gather leaves and sticks and a couple charcoal briquettes - more hot dogs at midnight. Live fire cooking in Scouts.
Dad bought a Weber in the early - mid 1970's - still has it - I cleaned it up a couple years ago and bought a new grate for it. Going to use it Father's Day and I'm going to have to remember to llok for the date code.
I've had many grills and smokers over the years from cheapie table tops, to hibachies, to my 1st Weber kettle in 1979 (lost it when me and the girlfriend broke up) and didn't get another until 1982 (that came back all mangled when I lent it to somebody in 1984 or 1985. Got my current 22 1/2"r to replace it - I don't lend out my grills or smokers anymore.
Got a Luhr-Jensen Little Chief in 1982 to make salmon and jerky. Cousin from Seattle sent it to me. Wore it out and bought a Big Chief in about 2000. Had a power surge one day and actually melted the cord. Replaced it with a Masterbuilt Digital that I've never really liked and rarely use. These were for cold smoking and jerky making only.
Wanted to learn about barbecue and bought a New Braunfels offset in 1990 - used it for several years but burned up a lot of lump and wood making mediocre barbecue. Gave it away but didn't learn and bought a CharGriller Super Pro - did some basic mods and used it for a couple years but still burned massive quantities of lump and wood - it's now at my step-son's and he grills on it.
Bought one of those barbecue baffles to make my 22 1/2" OTS into a smoker - didn't like it and just started building smaller fires and using my charcoal baskets - started to make some decent barbecue.
Bought my 1st WSM in 2006 and started to lurk here a little until my computer caught a virus that I thought I picked up here.
Was doing a couple other sites where I've learned a lot.
Have had a couple of gassers that I no longer have - one was a cheapie that burned out and my CharBroil Commercial Series is now at my step-son's.
Every time I'd look at new grills or mention I want this or I want that, wife would say "No more grills!" Funny ... She bought my 26 3/4" OTG last year for my birthday and my 22 1/2" WSM last Christmas.
I'm now complete with everything I need - a 22 1/2" OTS, a 26 3/4" OTG, a 18 1/2"WSM, and a 22 1/2" WSM. Plus the old Weber kettle at my Dad's house.
Oh yeah ... There's an old Smokey Joe and a 18 1/2" Weber kettle in the garage.
50+ grilling an barbecue cook book collection and more tongs, spatulas, and gadgets than I'll ever need. Whole shelf in the pantry is dedicated to barbecue and hot sauces - I'll never use them all bt guess I like to collect them.
PS - I like the Maull's and get a bottle or two whenever I can find it. It's my pork steak barbecue sauce.
 
One time at Fish Camp...
One of the guys had brought an El Cheapo Brinkman smoker. We caught a lot of lake trout and Salmon and he was smoking it. The smell and taste was awesome and I just hung around pumping him for info. I was his bestest friend all week, getting him beers while he tended the smoker and he filled me in on the finer points of smoking meats.
As soon as I got home (and before I even showered) I was filling my wife in on the awesomeness of smoked meat. So the next day I went to Lowes and bought one. What my bestest friend at Fish Camp didn't tell me was what a pain in the @ss the El cheapo was to keep running! The first month I had it I must have ruined 60lbs of meat. I tried various mods but was never happy with the end product. I kept it for about 5 years using it off and on. I read up on other smokers and settled on a Large BGE...over a thousand dollars. My wife said "not this year dear...or next...maybe the year after." In a way it was a smart move to hit her with the BGE first because I saw the WSM and told her how much it cost. It was an easy sell. It's been 6-7 years I guess now.
And I'm the guy at Fish Camp thats has people bringing ME beers!
 
I grew up grilling with my mom most summer days. No air conditioning, plus small kitchen windows equals cooking outside. I took over cooking duties at about 16 because my moms version of done was dead and grey. Familiar with BBQ, but seemed to be a restaurant item here in Omaha. Nothing I grew up with tasted like that.

Fast forward to the College World Series in the early 90's. Wound up hanging out with a group form 'Bama that brought their smoker along. And revelations...they turned out tasty pork! Still meet up with them on occasion at the series, but they opened my eyes. Bought a crappy smoker during my marriage, but couldnt get it to behave. Resigned myself to the grill. A series of el cheapo grills. Replaced about every year or two. Lots of good comes off of the grill, so life is still good. Kiddo and divorce followed, but kept grilling to spare my A/C bills. Starting raising a kid that thinks a dinner that is completely cooked over fire is better than almost anything, and wants to help. Met up with my 'bama friends, and they told me about their water smoker, and their love of Weber. Did a lot of research. Decided that I NEEDED a WSM, and (yes, I realize that this sounds very silly) started selling AVON on top of regular work to fund my smoker dream.

Saved up enough money, and kiddo got really sick. Smoker fund went to pay for the ICU and docs. Kept on selling AVON. Finally a few months back was able to get my 18.5 WSM. Havent looked back. Been so happy with all of my cooks so far. Some have been less than I hoped, but all have been eaten happily. Just got a OTS, and loving it as well. I am soo happy to have fire related cooking items that wont go to crud in a few years. And have been nominated to be the pork wench at the company picnic. So life is good, and I love my weber family. I also know that I would not have had the successes that I have had without this site!
 
Thanks, Ray. The humor for me is that I work in surgery. We dissect muscle (and other things of course, prior to fixing!)for a living. And we live for food. Lots of copious good food! And for the last 6 years, the meat of choice at the gatherings has been fried chicken from anesthesia. This is the first year for a deviation. To convince a bunch of type A personalities to change their preferences without a major campaign is nearly an act of god...the BBQ gods apparently! I will take it. At least I know that I will enjoy the meat at the summer fling!
 
Always enjoyed cooking outside since I was a kid, and made attempts to through adulthood although apartment life limited it. Finally moved into a house where I could expand my horizons, when one day rummaging through a friends garage, I discovered a generic Brinkmann sitting in the corner. Used once. He wanted the space more than the smoker so it came home with me.
I was able to produce pretty good results and even though I made the usual mods I still wasn't happy. Did some research on the web, chose to zone in on the WSM as well as finding this site and haven't looked back. Looking forward to many years of smoked goodness!
 
Norwegians are very outdoorsey as a people, so I grew up with my family grilling outside at the cabin, sausages over the campfire, and grilling on the patio at home when the weather was nice. I come from a foodie family, so been into cooking since I moved out when I was 19. Bought my first grill (WGA) when I was about 29, and have been grilling ever since, on my gasser and last couple years on my beautiful kettle. Next step is a WSM, because this is the only way to really cook, methinks. Started the "season" in early January this year, making BBQ leg of lamb, low and slow, in -5 degrees (C)and snow. There really aren't enough good summer days in a Norwegian year to satisfy my need to BBQ, so I've decided any weather is BBQ weather. I also have a terrace above my deck, so if it's raining I'll stay nice and dry...
 
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