Mar 26, 2017

BBQ: First smoke of the season: BBQ Failure.

Last weekend I cleaned out the smoker and spent nearly $100 on fresh meat.  Specifically, brisket and ribs.  My two favorite food groups:  Pork and Beef.  After trudging to the corner gas station to fill two propane tanks I've been avoiding for months, I was ready to start the smoker and already dreaming of the deliciousness that would send my taste buds into bliss later that night.   

My smoker of choice for the last few years has been the Smoke Hollow.  It is wide enough to fit a full rack of ribs without cutting them in half and has about five shelves.  It's perfect for smoking chicken, ribs, and attempting to cook brisket.  I'll admit I'm still in the attempting stage as far as brisket goes.  And probably will ALWAYS be in that stage.  But I digress...

It was cold outside, but shouldn't have been cold enough it disrupted the smoker's abilities.  But it did.  It took forever for the temperature to get up to even 150 degrees.  I put the brisket on around 3 a.m. and for many agonizing hours, viewed the temperature gage hovering around 200.  Nothing worked to get it up.  Eventually, I gave up the fight and moved the meat to the oven.  

As you can imagine, both the ribs and the brisket were not even in the category of "good."  Bummer.

Instead of troubleshooting, I decided I'd gotten all the love out of the Smoke Hollow I'd purchased years previously and went through the agonizing decision making process of replacing it.  

Having four BBQ's on my back patio made me hesitant to rush into anything.   I didn't need a duplicate of what I had...and if per chance I got the Smoke Hollow working, I didn't need two of the same brand.   How do you decide what to buy?  That's the million-dollar question.

I'll run you through that process in my next post.  

(Nothing like a blog teaser, eah?)  

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