Old Man 79
Knows what a fatty is.
Hey guys,
I recently found this forum and immediately knew I was at home. I've always loved all kinds of cooking but BBQ is my truest passion.
About a year ago I threw caution to the wind and invested most of what I had into what was going to be Houston's newest, best, most popular food trailer and everyone around was going to love my BBQ. Well, "most of what I had" wasn't enough and I did some things wrong so now I'm "stuck" with what I consider a dang fine cookoff trailer.
Since I've pulled myself mostly out of the depression that came with that failure, I'm now seriously kicking around the idea of a cookoff team and figured I better do more research before jumping too far into something.
I really, really, really like to think I have what it takes to compete on some level. The weekend after the trailer was completed enough to tow around and the pit was built enough to cook on (I had built a fire in it only 3 times) I entered a small charity cookoff at the lodge I go to. There were no pros but a few seasoned vets. I walked away with 1st place brisket and 2nd place chili. The ribs needed more time in the smoke so they didn't place, same thing with the chicken, there was still pink so I didn't even turn it in. The team that got 1st place chili only entered chili and beans and won them both (they knew their strengths).
Now for the good stuff. When I built my pit I just knew I was going to be pumping tons of meat through it regularly so it needed to be really big. "The Beast" (old lady named it) has a fire box that's 18"x18"x72". The cooking chamber is 6 feet wide, 5 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet deep. It has 2 stacks of 6 slide-out shelves that are 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 with a plate that separates the top foot of space for a lower temp chamber that has 2 solid shelves that run the width and depth. I haven't had a reason to finish all the slide outs but when they are all in there it will have 105 Sq ft of cooking surface. I'll find some pictures and figure out how to post them below.
From what I've seen on here so far I can tell I'll be digging through old posts for quite some. I'm sure I left out plenty of info that I should have included so feel free to ask.
Bo
I recently found this forum and immediately knew I was at home. I've always loved all kinds of cooking but BBQ is my truest passion.
About a year ago I threw caution to the wind and invested most of what I had into what was going to be Houston's newest, best, most popular food trailer and everyone around was going to love my BBQ. Well, "most of what I had" wasn't enough and I did some things wrong so now I'm "stuck" with what I consider a dang fine cookoff trailer.
Since I've pulled myself mostly out of the depression that came with that failure, I'm now seriously kicking around the idea of a cookoff team and figured I better do more research before jumping too far into something.
I really, really, really like to think I have what it takes to compete on some level. The weekend after the trailer was completed enough to tow around and the pit was built enough to cook on (I had built a fire in it only 3 times) I entered a small charity cookoff at the lodge I go to. There were no pros but a few seasoned vets. I walked away with 1st place brisket and 2nd place chili. The ribs needed more time in the smoke so they didn't place, same thing with the chicken, there was still pink so I didn't even turn it in. The team that got 1st place chili only entered chili and beans and won them both (they knew their strengths).
Now for the good stuff. When I built my pit I just knew I was going to be pumping tons of meat through it regularly so it needed to be really big. "The Beast" (old lady named it) has a fire box that's 18"x18"x72". The cooking chamber is 6 feet wide, 5 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet deep. It has 2 stacks of 6 slide-out shelves that are 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 with a plate that separates the top foot of space for a lower temp chamber that has 2 solid shelves that run the width and depth. I haven't had a reason to finish all the slide outs but when they are all in there it will have 105 Sq ft of cooking surface. I'll find some pictures and figure out how to post them below.
From what I've seen on here so far I can tell I'll be digging through old posts for quite some. I'm sure I left out plenty of info that I should have included so feel free to ask.
Bo
