How's it going everyone!?
32 Year old guy from Cleveland Ohio here. Hobbyist with a rapidly growing interest in transitioning my hobby into something much more
Newer Smoker here, got into the trade by happenstance earlier this year.
Backstory:
Prior to this year I was abysmal on the grill. I ruined chicken, hamburgers and even hot dogs. A pro in the kitchen, but terrible with live fire.
My only experience was that of a beat-up propane grill. Things never went well, so I avoided it like the plague.
Until September of 2022, when I was reintroduced to the wonders of charcoal.
I had taken our yearly trip to Florida with my lady & the in-laws - ALL of us had come down with COVID within the first 2 days of the trip, leaving us stuck at the condo, isolating. No fun at all. We grew tired of eating the same delivery meals for everything, when my MIL had decided that she wanted to fire up her Weber Smoky Joe. (It wasn't a true smoky joe, just a portable charcoal guy) NONE of us had much of any experience using charcoal, so she lit up a load of some kingsford match light and grilled up some amazing hot dogs. Something about the taste of it ignited something in me that I hadn't experienced since I was much younger. I had forgotten what actual smoke flavor was. She is far from a pro, just a very determined, headstrong woman who wanted a hot dog.
That was it. I needed to learn how to do this.
We returned home from our trip and I busted out our home version of the same grill and went to work on RUINING more than a few dogs, burgers, shrimp. All of it turned out terrible. I spent days in the backyard trying to figure this out in the most stubborn of ways. I refused to turn to the internet as an educational resource. I HAD to figure it out on my own. The year of 2022 closed on me, and I had yet to produce anything decent on that little grill. So I hunkered down for the winter and let the fire die out.
Until my employer's Christmas raffle.
I was lucky enough to have won the 22" Weber Kettle that I had my eyes on for a few months. I was ecstatic. It was still fairly cold outside, being as it was December in Northeast Ohio, so I let the kettle sit unassembled in storage for the season.
April rolls around and I'm home from work on an unforeseen FMLA leave. We had grown tired as we did in Florida, having to have the nightly discussion over where to get food from or what to make in the house. Things had become ridiculously stagnant in that regard. That's when I had remembered the kettle. It was mid-april, and I was feeling adventurous. So I grabbed it from storage, brought it home and assembled it. I was determined to figure this thing out. I had acquired a chimney from my boss a few days after winning the grill, and he had explained to me how to use it to start my coals up. So I oiled my shiny new kettle up to season it, loaded the chimney up twice and got'er burning off. I had FINALLY, successfully started coals in a grill all of my own. (lame i know).
After a few hours of burn off at a fairly high temperature, I figured it was time to try and make something. So I grabbed a pack of Hebrews and a box of frozen patties out of the fridge & freezer and got to work. Everything cooked up so fast and so perfectly. I had finally done it. I made decent food on the kettle after nearly a year's worth of disappointments prior. But something still didn't sit right with me. I looked at my kettle after eating, and realized that I had loaded up such an obscene amount of fuel to cook nothing more than a pack of dogs and half a box of burgers, with there being plenty of coals remaining in the basin. I had overheard my friends discussing "smoking" their meats, but I had figured, ignorantly; that they were all using cabinet and large scale smokers. Either way, I was determined to figure out how to get the most use out of this thing. I knew that it couldn't be limited to direct, high heat searing cookings. So I caved and started doing some research on how to infusing smoke flavor into my food using nothing more than the kettle and perhaps some budget accessories. And so began the second wave of typically horrendous experiments.
I would pour hardwood smoking pellets atop my lit coals in a two-zone configuration, and wondered why my food just tasted acrid or less-than-desirable. So I would move to soaked chips. And then a combination of both, all whilst being still too stubborn to research these things into any further depth than the surface. I eventually found that CHUNKS of wood was the key, and I was off to the races. I decided to try my very novice hand at a pork butt one saturday afternoon. Not realizing that I was about to sacrifice the remainder of my Saturday to the whims of my kettle, I brought the butt home, slathered it in mustard and rub and got it out on the pit. Some hours & many, many beers later, I was left with something extraordinary. My pork butt looked like a damn meteorite, but when I went to transfer it from the pit to a pan, I noticed how soft and unstable it had become. I was praying to the BBQ gods that I had succeeded. And that, I did. As soon as I had gloved up to start trying to pull this space-rock-looking piece of meat, it fell apart in my hands, leaving a juicy, black, white, pink and brown product behind. The pork was so moist and juicy, and the meat just fell apart in my hand. It tasted smoky, like VERY smoky, but not overpowering. I had done it, and that was all that it took. I was HOOKED.
Within weeks (probably days actually), I had purchased a Sky Flame Stainless steel heat diffuser and basket for my coals so that I could reclaim the rest of my cooking surface on the kettle and began to smoke up everything I could, from sliced hot dogs, to smoked burgers, steaks, chuck roasts, beef ribs, more pork butts... everything. Each cook better than the last with no shortage of notes having been taken on my end. Things improved rapidly over the following weeks, so much so that I was recruited to smoke some chuck and pork butt for our 4th of july party - Of which we would typically have 45-55 people in attendance for. So? I bought another kettle. This time, it was an 18", and a display model from our local wholesale club, so I paid a fraction of what it would've cost unassembled. I ran my 2 kettle set up for a few months, seemlessly. I would leave the 18" in somewhat of a 2-zone while the skyflame basically LIVED in my 22". But it still wasn't enough.
In late July of this year (2023), my supervisor had announced his retirement, and as a parting gift, he gave me a bullet style smoker (Think... WSM, but extremely small format. much shorter than the 18" kettle.) Which, to this day has yet to have been in my use for anything other than igniting coal chimneys on, but the format of it was something that I was drawn to. So what do I do next? I start researching barrel cookers, obviously!
I didn't want to break the bank, or really have to do much fabrication/assembly with something like a UDS, although my background is in metal fabrication, I just wanted something that I could easily put together, burn off and cook away on. So I had stumbled upon something called the Big Bad Barrel Smoker. QUITE similar in nature to the PBC, but at a fraction of the cost & weight. I ordered it on a Saturday evening in early August, and it was delivered the following tuesday, which IRONICALLY - was the same day I had decided to try my hand at smoking some spare ribs. I got my racks on the kettle and began to assemble my BBB. (Which... sucked, by the way. If any of you on here has one of these, ya'll know that the assembly and instructions for the Big Bad Barrel are TERRIBLE) But I got it put together. I seasoned it up with some grapeseed oil, and began to burn it off super hot with some Blues Hog Lump while my ribs smoked away directly next to it. I was super happy with how the temps held, but terribly disappointed in the construction of the fire door. The ribs turned out amazing on the kettle, so we ate and went to bed for the evening. The next day, knowing that I would probably be requested to cook again for Labor Day, I decided to fix my fire door problem on the spot. Ran up to Harbor Freight, bought some toggle clamps and a couple nuts and bolts & then drilled some holes for the clamps to affix to. Easiest, most effective mod ever. Now my fire door works perfectly, leaks minimally and actually serves multiple functions for me. Fantastic!
This was way too long winded for an intro, but I was encouraged to just let it all out from the get go.
I've begun to take this new found hobby extremely seriously. So much that my lady & I have begun to provide bbq for friends and pop up events in our community. I've set my sights much higher than backyard and pop up cooks. I'm keeping myself as open minded and educatable as humanly possible now that I've found out what works for what I'm using. Just here to learn and shoot the breeze with other like-minded enthusiasts while I hone and sharpen my own skills. Thanks for taking the time to read this annoyingly long intro post!
32 Year old guy from Cleveland Ohio here. Hobbyist with a rapidly growing interest in transitioning my hobby into something much more
Newer Smoker here, got into the trade by happenstance earlier this year.
Backstory:
Prior to this year I was abysmal on the grill. I ruined chicken, hamburgers and even hot dogs. A pro in the kitchen, but terrible with live fire.
My only experience was that of a beat-up propane grill. Things never went well, so I avoided it like the plague.
Until September of 2022, when I was reintroduced to the wonders of charcoal.
I had taken our yearly trip to Florida with my lady & the in-laws - ALL of us had come down with COVID within the first 2 days of the trip, leaving us stuck at the condo, isolating. No fun at all. We grew tired of eating the same delivery meals for everything, when my MIL had decided that she wanted to fire up her Weber Smoky Joe. (It wasn't a true smoky joe, just a portable charcoal guy) NONE of us had much of any experience using charcoal, so she lit up a load of some kingsford match light and grilled up some amazing hot dogs. Something about the taste of it ignited something in me that I hadn't experienced since I was much younger. I had forgotten what actual smoke flavor was. She is far from a pro, just a very determined, headstrong woman who wanted a hot dog.
That was it. I needed to learn how to do this.
We returned home from our trip and I busted out our home version of the same grill and went to work on RUINING more than a few dogs, burgers, shrimp. All of it turned out terrible. I spent days in the backyard trying to figure this out in the most stubborn of ways. I refused to turn to the internet as an educational resource. I HAD to figure it out on my own. The year of 2022 closed on me, and I had yet to produce anything decent on that little grill. So I hunkered down for the winter and let the fire die out.
Until my employer's Christmas raffle.
I was lucky enough to have won the 22" Weber Kettle that I had my eyes on for a few months. I was ecstatic. It was still fairly cold outside, being as it was December in Northeast Ohio, so I let the kettle sit unassembled in storage for the season.
April rolls around and I'm home from work on an unforeseen FMLA leave. We had grown tired as we did in Florida, having to have the nightly discussion over where to get food from or what to make in the house. Things had become ridiculously stagnant in that regard. That's when I had remembered the kettle. It was mid-april, and I was feeling adventurous. So I grabbed it from storage, brought it home and assembled it. I was determined to figure this thing out. I had acquired a chimney from my boss a few days after winning the grill, and he had explained to me how to use it to start my coals up. So I oiled my shiny new kettle up to season it, loaded the chimney up twice and got'er burning off. I had FINALLY, successfully started coals in a grill all of my own. (lame i know).
After a few hours of burn off at a fairly high temperature, I figured it was time to try and make something. So I grabbed a pack of Hebrews and a box of frozen patties out of the fridge & freezer and got to work. Everything cooked up so fast and so perfectly. I had finally done it. I made decent food on the kettle after nearly a year's worth of disappointments prior. But something still didn't sit right with me. I looked at my kettle after eating, and realized that I had loaded up such an obscene amount of fuel to cook nothing more than a pack of dogs and half a box of burgers, with there being plenty of coals remaining in the basin. I had overheard my friends discussing "smoking" their meats, but I had figured, ignorantly; that they were all using cabinet and large scale smokers. Either way, I was determined to figure out how to get the most use out of this thing. I knew that it couldn't be limited to direct, high heat searing cookings. So I caved and started doing some research on how to infusing smoke flavor into my food using nothing more than the kettle and perhaps some budget accessories. And so began the second wave of typically horrendous experiments.
I would pour hardwood smoking pellets atop my lit coals in a two-zone configuration, and wondered why my food just tasted acrid or less-than-desirable. So I would move to soaked chips. And then a combination of both, all whilst being still too stubborn to research these things into any further depth than the surface. I eventually found that CHUNKS of wood was the key, and I was off to the races. I decided to try my very novice hand at a pork butt one saturday afternoon. Not realizing that I was about to sacrifice the remainder of my Saturday to the whims of my kettle, I brought the butt home, slathered it in mustard and rub and got it out on the pit. Some hours & many, many beers later, I was left with something extraordinary. My pork butt looked like a damn meteorite, but when I went to transfer it from the pit to a pan, I noticed how soft and unstable it had become. I was praying to the BBQ gods that I had succeeded.
And that, I did. As soon as I had gloved up to start trying to pull this space-rock-looking piece of meat, it fell apart in my hands, leaving a juicy, black, white, pink and brown product behind. The pork was so moist and juicy, and the meat just fell apart in my hand. It tasted smoky, like VERY smoky, but not overpowering. I had done it, and that was all that it took. I was HOOKED.Within weeks (probably days actually), I had purchased a Sky Flame Stainless steel heat diffuser and basket for my coals so that I could reclaim the rest of my cooking surface on the kettle and began to smoke up everything I could, from sliced hot dogs, to smoked burgers, steaks, chuck roasts, beef ribs, more pork butts... everything. Each cook better than the last with no shortage of notes having been taken on my end. Things improved rapidly over the following weeks, so much so that I was recruited to smoke some chuck and pork butt for our 4th of july party - Of which we would typically have 45-55 people in attendance for. So? I bought another kettle. This time, it was an 18", and a display model from our local wholesale club, so I paid a fraction of what it would've cost unassembled. I ran my 2 kettle set up for a few months, seemlessly. I would leave the 18" in somewhat of a 2-zone while the skyflame basically LIVED in my 22". But it still wasn't enough.
In late July of this year (2023), my supervisor had announced his retirement, and as a parting gift, he gave me a bullet style smoker (Think... WSM, but extremely small format. much shorter than the 18" kettle.) Which, to this day has yet to have been in my use for anything other than igniting coal chimneys on, but the format of it was something that I was drawn to. So what do I do next? I start researching barrel cookers, obviously!
I didn't want to break the bank, or really have to do much fabrication/assembly with something like a UDS, although my background is in metal fabrication, I just wanted something that I could easily put together, burn off and cook away on. So I had stumbled upon something called the Big Bad Barrel Smoker. QUITE similar in nature to the PBC, but at a fraction of the cost & weight. I ordered it on a Saturday evening in early August, and it was delivered the following tuesday, which IRONICALLY - was the same day I had decided to try my hand at smoking some spare ribs. I got my racks on the kettle and began to assemble my BBB. (Which... sucked, by the way. If any of you on here has one of these, ya'll know that the assembly and instructions for the Big Bad Barrel are TERRIBLE) But I got it put together. I seasoned it up with some grapeseed oil, and began to burn it off super hot with some Blues Hog Lump while my ribs smoked away directly next to it. I was super happy with how the temps held, but terribly disappointed in the construction of the fire door. The ribs turned out amazing on the kettle, so we ate and went to bed for the evening. The next day, knowing that I would probably be requested to cook again for Labor Day, I decided to fix my fire door problem on the spot. Ran up to Harbor Freight, bought some toggle clamps and a couple nuts and bolts & then drilled some holes for the clamps to affix to. Easiest, most effective mod ever. Now my fire door works perfectly, leaks minimally and actually serves multiple functions for me. Fantastic!
This was way too long winded for an intro, but I was encouraged to just let it all out from the get go.
I've begun to take this new found hobby extremely seriously. So much that my lady & I have begun to provide bbq for friends and pop up events in our community. I've set my sights much higher than backyard and pop up cooks. I'm keeping myself as open minded and educatable as humanly possible now that I've found out what works for what I'm using. Just here to learn and shoot the breeze with other like-minded enthusiasts while I hone and sharpen my own skills. Thanks for taking the time to read this annoyingly long intro post!
