My name is Kyle and I live in a little town in Oregon called Monmouth. The wife and I have been here for about four years. I grew up in Eugene, OR, and lived in the Portland area for 29 years.
I have BBQ'd my entire adult life, but only discovered cooking with smoking woods about eight years ago. It all started with a small Weber Smokey Joe (most apartments I'd lived in previously did not allow grills), and on a whim, I decided to pick up some hickory chips to throw on the grill for cooking. The first time I used them was with chicken quarters. While it was much better than any other chicken I'd previously grilled, the best was yet to come. A couple of months later, I discovered mesquite.
The first time I made chicken with mesquite, I nearly cried. With the hickory, I added salt to the chicken after cooking. When using the mesquite, any sort of seasoning would have been heresy. OMG it was awesome. By that time, I had also discovered the magic of lump charcoal, and briquettes were dead to me. I used a chimney with plain brown paper bags to reduce the chemical in my BBQ to zero. Mesquite became my favorite cooking/smoking wood. Hands down.
A couple months after discovering mesquite, a close friend and I went on a group campout. His favorite meat is pork, and he had purchased some 1.5-inch thick boneless pork loin chops for dinner the first night. We got to the campground around 7 PM or so, and he broke out the camp stove and started setting it up. I asked him "what are you using that for?" He said he wanted to fry his pork up for dinner. My response was "no, no, no..."
We'd taken my '93 Ford Ranger, and I pulled my little Weber out from the back. He was intrigued, but not impressed. He complained he didn't want to wait that long to cook his pork. I assured him it would be worth the wait, and the chimney would have the coals plenty hot for cooking in about 15-20 minutes. He reluctantly agreed to wait. I fired up the coals and as soon as they were ready, spread them on the bottom of the grill. Next, I added a large portion of mesquite chips (I hadn't discovered chunk wood yet). Then I tamped down the grill to cool the fire as much as possible.
After waiting for another five minutes, I pulled the top, quickly added the loin chops, and put the top back down. I then opened the top and bottom vents to let the fire get a bit hotter and allow for a good passthrough of the smoke. I also hadn't discovered temperature probes yet, so I was still in the "cut and check" phase to determine doneness. He was willing to eat it undercooked. I have standards, though, and refused to let him eat undercooked pork. I slow cooked it as much as possible until done (about another 15 to 20 minutes), then pulled it off the grill when I was sure it had hit an appropriate temperature.
On the first bite, I SWEAR my friend had a foodgasm!!
He said that in all the years he had loved and eaten pork, that first bite was the singularly best flavor his taste buds had ever encountered.
This experience launched me into a world of BBQ and smoking I had never previously considered. About three years ago I purchased a cheap ($99) offset smoker from Home Depot. It has been an adventure learning how to improve my BBQ while also learning various smoking techniques. So far I've done beef chuck roast, beef ribs (a personal favorite of mine), pork shoulder, pork butt, pork loin, chicken, rock cornish game hen, shrimp, cheese, asparagus, corn, mushrooms, snow peas, potatoes, and hamburgers. Funny thing about that last one. I tried smoking hamburger once (as opposed to grilling) and learned a valuable lesson; don't bother. Hamburgers on the grill are still way better than the frying pan, but don't try to smoke them. They end up tasting like grilled burgers. A slow smoke does nothing to enhance them.
There are still a lot of things I've yet to do. Pork ribs is one. That's actually next on the list. I have two racks in the freezer right now. I'm just waiting for a day when I have the time to do them. I also want to make mesquite smoked salt. I've had a commercial version and smoked salt is off the hook. Prime rib is on the list as well, and with my previous experience, I'm less concerned about ruining it than I would have been even a year ago. That's an expensive cut of meat and I want to get it right. I've yet to smoke salmon or tuna. I did a tuna trip a year ago and have 10lbs or so I want to throw on the smoker still in the freezer (vacuum packed, so they're just fine). For salmon and tuna, I know a brine or marinade is needed. It's just a matter of getting it done.
As ya'all can tell by now, I'm a loquacious sort. But I'm really excited about smoking and BBQ these days, and this looks like a great place to learn and share ideas. So my tendency to overexplain comes out. I look forward to learning and sharing more!
I have BBQ'd my entire adult life, but only discovered cooking with smoking woods about eight years ago. It all started with a small Weber Smokey Joe (most apartments I'd lived in previously did not allow grills), and on a whim, I decided to pick up some hickory chips to throw on the grill for cooking. The first time I used them was with chicken quarters. While it was much better than any other chicken I'd previously grilled, the best was yet to come. A couple of months later, I discovered mesquite.
The first time I made chicken with mesquite, I nearly cried. With the hickory, I added salt to the chicken after cooking. When using the mesquite, any sort of seasoning would have been heresy. OMG it was awesome. By that time, I had also discovered the magic of lump charcoal, and briquettes were dead to me. I used a chimney with plain brown paper bags to reduce the chemical in my BBQ to zero. Mesquite became my favorite cooking/smoking wood. Hands down.
A couple months after discovering mesquite, a close friend and I went on a group campout. His favorite meat is pork, and he had purchased some 1.5-inch thick boneless pork loin chops for dinner the first night. We got to the campground around 7 PM or so, and he broke out the camp stove and started setting it up. I asked him "what are you using that for?" He said he wanted to fry his pork up for dinner. My response was "no, no, no..."
We'd taken my '93 Ford Ranger, and I pulled my little Weber out from the back. He was intrigued, but not impressed. He complained he didn't want to wait that long to cook his pork. I assured him it would be worth the wait, and the chimney would have the coals plenty hot for cooking in about 15-20 minutes. He reluctantly agreed to wait. I fired up the coals and as soon as they were ready, spread them on the bottom of the grill. Next, I added a large portion of mesquite chips (I hadn't discovered chunk wood yet). Then I tamped down the grill to cool the fire as much as possible.
After waiting for another five minutes, I pulled the top, quickly added the loin chops, and put the top back down. I then opened the top and bottom vents to let the fire get a bit hotter and allow for a good passthrough of the smoke. I also hadn't discovered temperature probes yet, so I was still in the "cut and check" phase to determine doneness. He was willing to eat it undercooked. I have standards, though, and refused to let him eat undercooked pork. I slow cooked it as much as possible until done (about another 15 to 20 minutes), then pulled it off the grill when I was sure it had hit an appropriate temperature.
On the first bite, I SWEAR my friend had a foodgasm!!
He said that in all the years he had loved and eaten pork, that first bite was the singularly best flavor his taste buds had ever encountered.
This experience launched me into a world of BBQ and smoking I had never previously considered. About three years ago I purchased a cheap ($99) offset smoker from Home Depot. It has been an adventure learning how to improve my BBQ while also learning various smoking techniques. So far I've done beef chuck roast, beef ribs (a personal favorite of mine), pork shoulder, pork butt, pork loin, chicken, rock cornish game hen, shrimp, cheese, asparagus, corn, mushrooms, snow peas, potatoes, and hamburgers. Funny thing about that last one. I tried smoking hamburger once (as opposed to grilling) and learned a valuable lesson; don't bother. Hamburgers on the grill are still way better than the frying pan, but don't try to smoke them. They end up tasting like grilled burgers. A slow smoke does nothing to enhance them.
There are still a lot of things I've yet to do. Pork ribs is one. That's actually next on the list. I have two racks in the freezer right now. I'm just waiting for a day when I have the time to do them. I also want to make mesquite smoked salt. I've had a commercial version and smoked salt is off the hook. Prime rib is on the list as well, and with my previous experience, I'm less concerned about ruining it than I would have been even a year ago. That's an expensive cut of meat and I want to get it right. I've yet to smoke salmon or tuna. I did a tuna trip a year ago and have 10lbs or so I want to throw on the smoker still in the freezer (vacuum packed, so they're just fine). For salmon and tuna, I know a brine or marinade is needed. It's just a matter of getting it done.
As ya'all can tell by now, I'm a loquacious sort. But I'm really excited about smoking and BBQ these days, and this looks like a great place to learn and share ideas. So my tendency to overexplain comes out. I look forward to learning and sharing more!