- Dec 27, 2013
- 2
- 10
Howdy y'all, Mark here...
Just joined today, but meat smoking has been in my family probably as far back as the Germanic tribes roaming through Europe several millennia ago. My Mom's side came from Germany to Texas in the mid-1800s and brought their sausage and jerky smoking traditions with them. All I remember as a kid was deer hunting and all the processing, stuffing, smoking, and hanging that came after a successful hunt. My cousins and I kept our eyes open and memories on and are still hunting and continuing those Texas Hill Country traditions and recipes. Except now we've started graduating away from our ancient smoke shacks to the higher tech toys...
My dad still has a smoke shack that has a 4'x6' footprint and stands about 8' tall...it's rigged to hang as much as 500 pounds of venison sausage and jerky for smoking and drying. Comes in handy when we combine our harvest every other year or so, or when we run out altogether. As for me, living in the 'burbs away from the volume structures, I've been relying on an ECB for my 5 pound mini-batches of jerky and the occasional venison ham or roast. That all changed this Christmas when I received a digital 30" MES... Got it seasoned on Christmas day and plan on adding either the homebuilt mailbox cold smoke box or the OEM version from Masterbuilt...want to do the homebuilt, but time constraints may push me toward the other option.
Anyway, that's what got me here...really excited to expand my smoking experience beyond just the old timey venison stuff and break into everything else, especially the cold smoke arena. Will be starting with a whole chicken this weekend and likely a brisket soon after. Glad to be here, looks like a great bunch of folks with a ton of experience!
Thanks for having me...
Just joined today, but meat smoking has been in my family probably as far back as the Germanic tribes roaming through Europe several millennia ago. My Mom's side came from Germany to Texas in the mid-1800s and brought their sausage and jerky smoking traditions with them. All I remember as a kid was deer hunting and all the processing, stuffing, smoking, and hanging that came after a successful hunt. My cousins and I kept our eyes open and memories on and are still hunting and continuing those Texas Hill Country traditions and recipes. Except now we've started graduating away from our ancient smoke shacks to the higher tech toys...
My dad still has a smoke shack that has a 4'x6' footprint and stands about 8' tall...it's rigged to hang as much as 500 pounds of venison sausage and jerky for smoking and drying. Comes in handy when we combine our harvest every other year or so, or when we run out altogether. As for me, living in the 'burbs away from the volume structures, I've been relying on an ECB for my 5 pound mini-batches of jerky and the occasional venison ham or roast. That all changed this Christmas when I received a digital 30" MES... Got it seasoned on Christmas day and plan on adding either the homebuilt mailbox cold smoke box or the OEM version from Masterbuilt...want to do the homebuilt, but time constraints may push me toward the other option.
Anyway, that's what got me here...really excited to expand my smoking experience beyond just the old timey venison stuff and break into everything else, especially the cold smoke arena. Will be starting with a whole chicken this weekend and likely a brisket soon after. Glad to be here, looks like a great bunch of folks with a ton of experience!
Thanks for having me...