What was your biggest BOMB?

[belair427]

Ok kids, just got to thinking about something. Seems everyone is always posting their success stories from the latest session. Wonder if we would be as inclined to describe our personal best.............BOMB? You know what I am talking about, that well thought out smoke session that turned into an undercooked, overcooked or just plain unrecognizable disaster.
This could give the newbies direction, the seasoned BBQ pro a nostalgic feel and all of us a little chuckle as we say quietly to ourselves, " what on earth were you thinkin"? The wife says if I'm gonna open this can, I better be the first to fess up! Here mine.
A couple of months ago I planned a Sunday smoke, as I do most Sundays. The menu included a couple of slabs of Babybacks, a fattie for breakfast while dinner slowly smoked away, some ABTs and my world famous (OK, in my personal little world) baked beans. Sounds good so far does'nt it? NOT SO FAST. After starting the ribs and fattie I started prepping the ABTs and beans. As always, I cut my bacon to into 1/2 inch squares before frying as the first step. I like my bacon bits crispy on all edges. After frying, I let the bacon rest in its grease while I prepare the rest. I then sauted diced onions, green and red bell peppers and chopped fresh mushrooms. Emptied a large can of pork and beans into the pan, added brown sugar, mustard, crushed red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. Added the bacon, and onto the smoker it went. Now, I usually smoke my beans uncovered for 1 hour, stirring occaisionally then cover for the final hour. Dinner time arrives and off the smoker come the ribs, ABTs and beans. Everything looks great until...............I uncover the beans. Resting on the top of my wonderful beans is a layer of grease. What the hell is going on here I say outloud? Seems in my haste to get everything timed right in the smoker so everything would be done at the same time for dinner, I neglected to DRIAN the bacon before adding it to the beans!
Now you have to understand, I feel bacon should be its own food group. I put a whole pound into my beans but a pound worth of fried bacon grease is a little much even for me. No one to give up, I decide a quick stir should disguise my blunder and save the day. Wrong! Imagine if you will, all those wonderful fixins, being ceromoniousely dumped (followed by some tears) into a capped jar headed for the garbage. I did not want this greasy concoction down the disposal for fear of a call to the plumber to open the plugged drain in the next week as a result.
OK, thats my story, Whos the next victim?

 

[gnubee]

I haven't been smoking long and my first full kettle of ribs and chicken was a huge success. I cheated a bit and put the ribs into the oven to finish them off for the last hour. When they were done I took most of them out of the oven and onto a plate for our dinner. There were three large slabs of ribs left in the oven. I lazed it out and instead of wrapping them as I should have, I just turned off the oven and left them in there till after the meal. If I hadn't been so lazy to start with they would have been ok but I forgot about them and three hours later I remembered them, they were dry as a bone and ruined. Chalk one up to pure lazyness.


Belair427 , In your case I would not have stirred them up. Just put them in the fridge to cool down and solidify the fat. Then just Lift it off the top of the pot and viola saved product.

Since you already tried stirring it in It still was not ruined. You could still have put the beans on to barely simmer, all the fat will come to the top where you can ladle most of it off and remove the last little bit of it with a paper towel laid on top and carefully removed.

 

[fatback joe]

43rd out of 44 teams in pork in my 2nd contest.

 

[jond]

So far it was my first fatty which was well to say the least was VERY overdone. It still tasted excellent :)

Problem: Overdone

Cause: On too long and bad temperature control

Resolution: Probe thermometer to monitor chamber temp and internal temp accurately and spending time learning my smoker.

Ongoing: Nothing overdone, far more stable smoker temp.

The above is an anylysis of my biggest screw up so far ;)

Jon.

 

[flash]

Can't consider a bit overdone as a bomb, especially when first trying something new out.
Mine was the 15 ABT's that I left on the Gas Grill while I tended to, then ate our smoked Chicken thighs. By the time my wife and I remembered, that bacon was CRISP alright.....still, the campers that we are, we ate them and you know, they still were not half bad.

 

[walking dude]

smoked catfish............ugh..........dryer than a popcorn fart...........i learned that if i want catfish, FRIED is the best, with a nice beer batter coating..........

 

[desertlites]

a batch of porkbelly bacon that I forgot to put the drip pan under-greese drips in electric element-catches fire & I was bummed & emberassed

 

[erain]

i did the same thing bob did except with ribs, possibly the first attempt at ribs i ever made, if not very close to it. i know i was in early 20's lol, but no grease pan either, in my moms kenmore grill, she was so proud a that grill!!!! it looked even better with the paint burnt off!!!!! was a good lesson no doubt!!!

 

[mike krantz]

my first ham. I added two measures of clove on accident ran out of smoke chips at the begining. Mouth felt a little funny when we tried it and my dogs wouldnt eat more than the first bite

 

[krusher]

first ribs I ever did were on my gas grill, I put them in my jerky racks stacked three high and used the side burners, not the middle, i knew what indirect heat was, but didnt know about time or temps... and the final nail in the coffin was that I did'nt know about trimming or pulling the membrane on them,,,, it was two years before I tried ribs again. but I had a smoker then and the rest is history.

 

[travcoman45]

Way back when I was knee high ta a grasshopper an usin a little sioux smoker that dad's friend gave me I made Bullhead jerky! Nice an salty an ifin I hadn't tossed most of it out would prolly still be here taday it was so dry! My sisiter actually ate a bunch of it (always did wonder bought her)! Learned real quick ya gotta watch yer vittles even ifin yer cookin low an slow!

 

[m1tanker78]

When I was learning the ins and outs of my homemade smoker, I organized a get-together - invited about 8 friends. About 15 people showed up. I made a last minute change to the air intake part of the smoker which completely suffocated the coals. I had a ton of chicken, beef ribs, sausage, fajitas, and I can't even remember what else. On top of that, my brother in law brought two huge slabs of spare ribs. Well, we put the spares at the very bottom (dumb move). On top of all that, I started about 2 hours late due to some setbacks.

So I had a cold fire, spares covering the little bit of heat there WAS, and a bunch of hungry people with no food to eat for a long while. After a long while, most of the food was still under cooked. Man oh man......I still shudder when I revisit that day. It was honest to goodness one of the most embarrassing disasters of my adult life. I've come a long way though and couldn't be happier with my smoker.

Wow, I feel like a huge weight just got lifted from my shoulders.

Tom

 

[fishawn]

Smoked Chum Salmon BY FAR, probably 18-20 years old at the time, my fishing mentor neighbor tried it & said "You can't make ice cream outta sh!t son" Never again for me, but I have tasted some Smoked Chum Salmon that was pretty good.

 

[flyin'illini]

I posted mine up here back in May:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=16888

 

[crusty ol salt]

smoked crappie, I could've made hatch heads out of them

 

[desertlites]

lol tom ain;t life a btch-sheesh if all was good

 

[smokin365]

My biggest bomb was my first smoke in my charcoal burner, first smoke period. I had prepped stuff and loaded the gasser where i worked but never used a smoker that needed attention. This was also about a year before i found this site, so i didnt have the wealth of knowledge form everyone here to refer to. Free turkey, Lots of R.O. lump, a bag of hickory chunks, no mods, Lots of billowing white smoke and a creosoted bird, i knew i did something wrong, but couldnt figure it out. a asked around and got a lil info on what not to do. Since then i have been turning out goof q

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Not a total flop, but...a few weeks back, wait 1 week ago:

My 3 slabs of spares, 1 atomic hot (just so I could say I still got the guts, besides, my buddy accross the street likes 'em too), 2 slabs not hot, were great. Did 'em with my first Brisket on my modded and LPG converted Brinkmann SNP. I'm still puzzled over the brisket...wrong smoke, seasoning combo, both? I figure the first go 'round with anything to keep everything as simple as possible, including the rub. Heavy with Kosher salt and course black pepper, then, moderate with granulated garlic. Straight mesquite smoke, no fancy blends this time with nuthin'. 11 hours total time @ an average temp of 210. I know the time/temp was a choke, especially for a 13.6 (I think) pounder. Was over 195 coming out though...

Texture was weird, too. I did'nt foil as in the 3-2-1 method, just kept on pouring the water into the pot in the side fire box and let it boil the whole time. I thought it would work, but I was terribly disappointed with texture (tender, but sort of grainy). The taste which was almost gamey was not expected at all. Could too much humidity in the smoker (if that's possible) cause any part of this?

Maybe I just don't have the developed taste for smoked beef, as I haven't really enjoyed any of beef I've smoke yet, short ribs, not even the beef fatties. Now, pork or poultry, game meats...well I'll never give up (I hope not anyway) the chance to smoke that! I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, because I grew up eating our own ranch raised beef and it was always cooked in traditional northern styles, well it just might not seem right to smoke it. We didn't eat that much pork, some poultry, and some game when I was a kid. I think it's the things I ate less of that it doesn't seem to matter how it's prepared and it will be good to eat. At any rate, I have sworn to myself not to do another brisket...it seemed that bad to me.

My kid's said my brisket was good. Here again, they are young and anything new will seem good and have a unique quality about it that will seem enticing to thier palates. But I didn't think it was very good. My wife said it was OK, translating into: well, not that good, maybe we don't want to repeat it. Of course, I can be (and have been) my own worst critic. I hope I'm not second guessing anything I did, it was a pretty long day and ran into the evening hours, so it may not have been the meat quality as much as the quantity of alcohol? Gotta have the Q-brew ya know! Perhaps.

Eric

 

[scotty]

I tried ti make hot dogs once--tasted like straw.

 

[kratzx4]

Well I must admit that mine happened long before i knew about SMF. Many many moons ago when I got my first smoker (ECB charcoal) I tried my first country ribs I made up the rub I found on the netand gently rubbed them puppies and followed the instruction for amount of charcoal briqs and water. burned till white, throwed the meat in shut the door and believed that in 4-6 hours they would be a feasting delight. I mean I kept adding briqs to keep that temp gage on the high side of ideal (for those that don't know the stock temp gage reads low ideal and hot no numbers just words) and I was planning on 6 hour cook time just to be sure. Well those babies came out and looked like what bad boys and girls get at christmas coal, need I mention dry. Dogs couldnot even chew them. grilled hot dogs that night. Glad I found SMF and got taught the right way.