So here I am giving all of this wonderful information to folks, yet most have no real idea who I am or what I am about. So, hopefully when I get done here, people will have a little bit more of an idea.
I bought my first BBQ grill/smoker about 15 years ago, give or take a year or so. Got it home, assembled it, filled it with coals. I had some pork steaks lying in the house that I had been waiting to grill, thought heck, they are probably good smoked too right? Wrong, well I was wrong then. So I put the pork steaks in the smoker, went in the house and relaxed with family. About 30 minutes later, as smoke was billowing from my smoker, I rushed out to the smoker. Found some hockey pucks inside.
What went wrong? Well, one, that wasn't a charcoal basket, it was a water pan, and I wasn't supposed to place my grate 2 inches above it. That was the first of about 5 screw ups. All in all, I think I ended up spending about $100 on meat and another $200 on dinners that I had to buy for the people that came over to eat.
Why am I writing a blog you ask? Well, I don't want others to make the same mistakes I did, and I think the more input a person can get will allow them to take several resources and make their own idea somewhere. There is no 100% must be followed rule about BBQ. it is a matter of individual taste and desire to explore flavors. I myself, prefer to experiment and use my friends as guinea pigs.
Trial and error, as well as a few hockey pucks led me to start working on perfecting the smoker. Once I did, the food had exceptional flavor. It was almost as good as those big BBQ joints around town. Playing with spices I found that I had a talent for getting great flavor out of my sauces and rubs, and the rest is history.
