Hello Everyone,
A little about us; Mike & Tiffany
We are new to the smoking meat craze and wish we knew about this years ago Yummy! We live in the Edmonton, Alberta area. I have always been praised on my grilling abilities but let the next few paragraphs tell you about my smoking abilities……
I was recently introduced into the smoking world by a friend here at work that was trying to brag about his ribs that he did in his smoker over the weekend. I said to myself, self that can’t be that hard so I went down to my local BBQ shop and bought the Vertical Propane GrillPro Smoker. The guy in the store suggested I get a few things (tongs, rack, wood chips etc….)
I then rushed over to the supermarket and picked up some ribs. Got home brewed up some stuff that kind of looked like a sauce and off I went on a smoking rampage that day. I started @ 4pm; many of you now know I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I kept telling the kids hang on they will be ready soon…. Famous last words
I didn’t have any trouble getting the heat right according to the gauge on the outside of the smoker......I had smoke rolling out of that smoker like it was no ones business. I sprayed the meat. Time elapsed 8hrs later (kids fell asleep starving to death...)
I finally got the look from the boss that clearly stated she had enough of this smoker thing already! Now some of you may be saying holy hell 8hrs yep that’s right 8hrs later these ribs were awful. Tiffany grabbed the whole lot of the ribs and into the garbage they went. The kids woke up in the morning and asked where the ribs were I told them a raccoon came and got them lol
Well my smoking career almost went up in smoke that night....
Let’s recap where I went wrong;
1. I used smoke in the smoker for all 8 hrs
2. I started way too late to eat that night at a normal time
3. I didn’t have a meat thermometer.
4. Maybe should have read a little more about how to smoke meat.
So back to work I went on my next shift. I started to read anything and everything. My friend Brett that introduced this to me said I was like a crazed mad person that couldn’t get enough to read or enough YouTube videos. I came across Jeff and his website. I quickly read everything I could get my eyes and mouse on. Let’s just say work was not on my mind lol. I had to redeem myself and become the “MAN” again.
Since I just blew a bunch of money on this smoker hobby of mine and it bombed bad I figured I better make it up to Tiffany, so I sent her to Vegas for the weekend. Back to the store I went and bought a digital thermometer and some other accessories. Grabbed some more ribs and I was determined to get this right….
I bought Jeff’s rib rub & sauce recipe online. I started the process all over again….but wait, what is this I am seeing! the digital thermometer is playing games with my mind. The gauge on the smoker says that I am at approx 500F and the new digital says 235F WTF I say. Not sure what to do now I go to the store and buy another gauge yep the smokers gauge is not correct. Duh!!! Everyone is saying right now. Well I am going to finish this story anyways.
After those first ribs let me tell you I wasn’t inviting anyone over to taste them until I knew for sure that this was going to work. I invited the neighbors over and they tried them and said that they were delicious. Yahoo I did it, I am man again!!!! They asked if I would make enough to feed 20 people at their BBQ the next weekend. Little did they know that those ribs they just tasted were my first ribs that were suitable to eat by humans. I agreed of course and said I would be ready.
I went to Costco and purchased 2 packages of ribs this past weekend and the butcher said that not even I could screw these ribs up that they were perfect ribs for smoking. I prepped them the night before with the naked rib rub and a few of my own additives. Started smoking them the next morning at 8am…. 6hrs later and the 3-2-1 method these ribs looked amazing. My best work so far. I made a double batch of the sauce and added a few other ingredients in it and heated and served on the side.
Yep all 20 plus people showed up, and they were already asking about these ribs that they heard about, well if you thought I was nervous before, now I was really nervous. Tiffany stood beside me as I helped serve everyone the ribs and sauce. We sat over to the side so that we could listen. It was an amazing feeling that came over me when I heard them say things like “These are the best ribs I have ever tasted”, “I’ve tasted allot of ribs and by far these are the best”, “The meat, it just melts in your mouth and I don’t even like ribs”. I was like a little kid I had a grin from ear to ear. I was slapping Tiffany’s leg asking her if she could hear this. She knew that my ego was swelling as the nano-seconds went by. Even the kids were using the sauce to dip their hotdogs in it was amazing. People were already trying to convince me to come over and do ribs up for their next BBQ. And that was only my 3[sup]rd[/sup] time doing ribs.
I would like to give the praise where it is due to Jeff for his e-course and recipes. I might have just given up if I hadn’t got the info that this website has.
Hope you all read this and I enjoyed sharing my first smoking story with you all.
Mike & TIffany