What got you into smoking?

Big Poppa

Administrator
What got you hooked on smoking? was it an accident? a Buddy? A TV show?

I stumbled onto it looking for a safer way to cook turkey other than deep frying...
 

nepas

New member
Hunting and fishing when i was a yonker in S Calif. Started smoking at 17. Started with a top load Luhr Jensen which i still have. Have had many stick burners, charcoal, electrics and now pellets.
 
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jimsbarbecue

Moderator
What got us into Pellet Smoking

First home 562 square feet.Present home 1200 square feet. Which means cooking outside a lot as not to heat up the house. Went from a Weber kettle to the gasser and then a Weber Smokey Mountain so I could make good ribs.That was 2003. A little over a year ago was at a meeting in St Louis with others from California and they told me I had to buy a pellet grill.They assured me that my WSM would be pushed to the side and I would find cooking on the pellet grill much easier and couldn't explain why the food tasted so good , just that it did.Both of these guys have given good advice on business in the past so I took the plunge.
 

SilverBullet

New member
My job for the last 8 years takes me to a neighboring town 35 miles away twice daily. I started doing business with a family owned meat market out there that sold Traegers. I thought "what a neat idea" since I already been heating my house with pellets for years now.
Broke down & bought one a couple years ago. Then my GMG about 8 months ago.
Its totally changed my life. Never thought I would devolop a passion for it as I have.

Years ago I used to use wood in my weber kettle.

BTW I got my Brother & my Daughter n Law hooked. Nothing like keeping it in the family!
 
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SmokinMAK

New member
I made a similar progression as others - Hibachi, Weber Kettle, Gasser. Just never got real excited about the ribs I did on the Weber or Gasser. No way would I consider a low-and-slow: Just no patience for it, and trying to maintain the right temp on my Weber!

Started seeing some Pron posted by a friend of mine with an old-school Traeger. Started talking to him and decided I wanted a Traeger. 50th birthday was coming up and my wife was going to let me buy one for my B-Day. A couple weeks before I was going to buy, I stumbled on the GMG. Made-up my mind I wanted it instead of the Traeger. Still not happy about the made in China thing.

My wife kept talking about a company in Dallas, OR that made pellet grills. I looked into it, found out what the price was and thought "no way could I get my wife to buy-off on that". Turns out - that was about the figure she had in her head! I called MAK and talked to Bruce. A week later, I was over there with a trailer picking-up my 2 Star. Had to grill on a Weber and a gasser when I was visiting other peoples houses, but haven't touch mine in 6 months since I bought the MAK.

There is just no going back...
 

TentHunter

Moderator
I used to live in North Carolina and learned to LOVE Eastern Carolina Pulled Pork (in fact I'm getting ready to post some pics in the Gallery :) ).

About 8 years ago I'd seen a television show where a guy showed how to use a weber kettle using indirect cooking method as a smoker. My co-worker brought in some meats he'd smoked on his WSM and I couldn't take it anymore. Remembering everything I could about making Carolina Pulled Pork, the next day I went and got a pork shoulder, fired up the Weber kettle. I was hooked from the very first smoke... the rest is history!

What a grand journey its been and still is!
 

HoDeDo

New member
I grew up with it. My Dad, Uncle, and a few friends had a "BBQ Team". Originally, it was a reason to get together between fantasy football and handball nights.... (planning of course) But as they cooked some of the early (pre-KCBS) charity BBQ contests, that popped up, they really got into it. I remember contests/events from my childhood... so that puts them at roughly 30 years cooking low and slow... IT really was part of our social fabric; fundraising events for the fire dept, or community college athletics, on top of bragging rights against your buddies. I was hooked at an early age. By the time I was in high school, I was the pit b*tch for their team (The HoDeDos) and the first of the sons to get involved. :) And my love for it grew from there...

So it was more than just the food for me. It was a great way for my Dad and I to find some common understandings. Like every teen, you want to let your ideas shine through, and butt heads with your Dad sometimes... BBQ, got me past that point in time with him pretty quickly... so I could focus on learning as much as I can from him. I still had alot to learn from my grandparents before they died... so I feel lucky to have the relationship I do now with my Dad, alot of which I owe to some life lessons I gleaned standing around the pit. It opened my ears to hear other things.

BBQ is really pretty amazing... we use it to raise awareness (fund raisers for cancer, united way, etc.), we use it to promote community, and create new friends, we use it as a creative outlet, and we use it give back (via organizations like Kookers Kare).

Now my Dad and the guys get to come out and sit and watch me do the cooking at contests and enjoy it. I'm also slightly competitive, so you know I'm trying to beat my best... I think they enjoy the level I've taken that to also. Even if they did originally think I was nuts, buying an RV specifically set up so I could go cook almost every weekend. They don't think its nuts now. ;)

Hopefully it all gets to come full circle.. My daughters love to spend time cooking with me, and I hope some of the silly things we argue about (school, keeping thier rooms clean, etc, etc) are trancended by the important things I want them to learn; humility, compassion, caring and sharing... and how to have fun while they are at it :) If I am lucky, my grandchildren will get to share in the magic too.
It's definitely about the food, but it can be about alot more... My girls have already made friends all over the country (and in Canada!), so they are headed down the right path I hope. Both Low and Slow, and being lil grillmasters, and in how they choose to let it help shape their lives.
 

Deb

New member
Walked through Sears one day and saw the smokers. Went home did some googling, came across the Bradley Smokers and the Bradley forum. All the info on that forum helped make my decision . A little later I learned about pellet grills on the Bradley forum, saw a Traeger Lil Tex in action at the First Annual NEPAS smokeout and a little less than a year I had my Traeger.
 

Trooper

New member
Well I spent quite a few years of my life searching for
- The highest quality doughnut shops
and
- The highest quality BBQ restaurants/joints/dives.

Several years back I became incredibly intrigued by a Southern Living special edition on BBQ. I decided that I would like to try it and began smoking some pork shoulders in my Weber grill for 3 hours or so and then finishing them off in the kitchen oven.
Sound familiar??
The rest is history. The next step was a small Cookshack 08 electric, and then, a few years later, the purchase of my MAK.

No looking back. A wonderful journey.
 

squirtthecat

New member
Similar story to Deb's... Talked to a buddy about borrowing his smoker (Smokin' Tex) after helping him do a big party, and he turned around and bought me a Bradley OBS w/ his Amazon points. Bradley forum turned me on to the Traeger Lil' Tex and the MAK. All 3 are cohabiting in my back yard.

Dipping my toes in my first 'curing' experiment this weekend!
 

CarterQ

Moderator
Have some friends who have built offset smokers out of old propane tanks (500 gal) and while these were cool for mass quantities of meat it was a pain and a waste of wood for small cooks.

Wanted to get the same flavor on a smaller scale so I started out using the weber smoke box attachment for my gasser, This never maintained temp well and the smoke output was hard to manage with chips.

Recieved an ECB a few years ago as a gift and thought this would be easier but again same problems and too much babysitting for my tastes and the results were hard to keep consistent. Didn't pay too much attention to smoking forums as the inconsistent results of the smoking were kind of a turn off.

Then the light bulb went on, I visited a friend in the bay area and he was cooking on a Traeger Pro and the food was amazing, I was blown away. Went home and started researching pellet grills and my eyes were opened to the light. Got inches away from pulling the trigger on a Traeger when I found out that they had moved manufacturing to China, nothing against China but I wanted something American made, so it was back to the drawing board. After more research I came upon a bunch of Rebels out of Oregon with a vision for a new kind of pellet cooker and the rest is history! I can't believe how excited I get about using my MAK now, it has opened up a whole new world of fun for me and I've only just begun!
 

jimtorl

New member
When I was younger we had a 250 gal oil tank cut with hinges that was our party gill & smoker. Took a break for a few years and found good smoked BBQ was hard to come by in the NorthEast. Then I found the Traeger and the rest is history.
 

doodles

New member
We enjoy the various cooking channels, and I was drawn to various bbq sites. And in our area we listened to Mr. BBQ (Bruce, who works for MAK). When I first started listening to him, he worked for Traeger, and that's what he cooked on. He sang the praises of pellet cooking, so when I decided to get a new Q, I started looking at pellet grills. When I saw the Memphis Pro, when it first came out, it looked fantastic, so I bought one. Whereas before getting it I didn't cook anything at home, now it's typical for me to whip up something wonderful on the MP. Love pellet cooking!
 

dmarotta

New member
I am the landlord of a year old restaurant (The Monterey Cookhouse) .When they opened , I got the tour of the outdoor cooking area( all traegers) big ones! After I sampled the food I was hooked. Almost pulled the trigger on a Traeger until BP set me straight and I purchased a MAK.
 
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