Hi everyone,
My name is Mark.....and I'm a smoke-a-holic.
It first starter when my father bought a "lil cheif" electric box smoker, I was just twelve years old.....been hooked ever since. At first, it was a fun thing we did together, ya know....go fishing, catch a mess of trout, clean em up, brine em with kosher salt, brown sugar, and black pepper mixed with water and smoke those fish 'till they were succulent golden brown. We'd eat those trout together and laugh and tell jokes and he'd tell me stories about the good old days when he was my age back in the great depression. Then I started smoking with out him....I just couldn't get enough of it. My smoking addiction was getting bad, I was taking everything out of the freezer and smoking it. I experimented with just about everything.
Then came the day when my dad had to sit me down and "have a little talk" with me about my "smoking habit". He said, if I'm going to continue to smoke this much, then maybe it's time I take a good look at myself.........and get a bigger smoker!!
Needless to say I've had a few smokers in my day, all different shapes and sizes. Now a days my main smoker is a Cookshack 0M66 "amerique", it's electric and really nice to use. I built an indirect heat, offset style smoker out of stainless steel that I use when I want that "lump coal" flavor to satisfy my "addiction".
Like any "addict", I will get my thrills on just about anything....so I also have a passion for grinding meat and stuffing it into casings ( folks around here call that"making sausage"), I call it another addiction. Jerky is another weak spot for me....that's gotten to the point of where I have to package it and bring it to work and "take donations" from the guys to support my habit. No, it's not easy being like us....I'm just glad I've found "others like Me".
That's my story......
My name is Mark.....and I'm a smoke-a-holic.
It first starter when my father bought a "lil cheif" electric box smoker, I was just twelve years old.....been hooked ever since. At first, it was a fun thing we did together, ya know....go fishing, catch a mess of trout, clean em up, brine em with kosher salt, brown sugar, and black pepper mixed with water and smoke those fish 'till they were succulent golden brown. We'd eat those trout together and laugh and tell jokes and he'd tell me stories about the good old days when he was my age back in the great depression. Then I started smoking with out him....I just couldn't get enough of it. My smoking addiction was getting bad, I was taking everything out of the freezer and smoking it. I experimented with just about everything.
Then came the day when my dad had to sit me down and "have a little talk" with me about my "smoking habit". He said, if I'm going to continue to smoke this much, then maybe it's time I take a good look at myself.........and get a bigger smoker!!
Needless to say I've had a few smokers in my day, all different shapes and sizes. Now a days my main smoker is a Cookshack 0M66 "amerique", it's electric and really nice to use. I built an indirect heat, offset style smoker out of stainless steel that I use when I want that "lump coal" flavor to satisfy my "addiction".
Like any "addict", I will get my thrills on just about anything....so I also have a passion for grinding meat and stuffing it into casings ( folks around here call that"making sausage"), I call it another addiction. Jerky is another weak spot for me....that's gotten to the point of where I have to package it and bring it to work and "take donations" from the guys to support my habit. No, it's not easy being like us....I'm just glad I've found "others like Me".
That's my story......