Soooo, how did you get your start?

[rwalters]

Great story, thanks for taking us along! And old school brick pits… love seeing those!

 

[Beentown]

Another guy from church also competed a good bit grabbed me and said God had put it on his heart that we should do something together and see where it goes. So we started our chapter of the BBQ Brethren at our church. It was a Men's Group that if you wanted to learn how to cook. Be there early. If you wanna have breakfast, hang out and have a great lunch come in the AM. If you just wanted to eat, sure. We are passing around a jar to help with costs.

The group was rather successful and had 18 to 50 people each weekend. We would do theme cooks like this site's "Cook-offs". We would swap recipes and we used all kinds of cookers. Even had a day where we got everyone together and I showed them/had them build themselves UDS's.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[rwalters]

Another guy from church also competed a good bit grabbed me and said God had put it on his heart that we should do something together and see where it goes. So we started our chapter of the BBQ Brethren at our church. It was a Men's Group that if you wanted to learn how to cook. Be there early. If you wanna have breakfast, hang out and have a great lunch come in the AM. If you just wanted to eat, sure. We are passing around a jar to help with costs.

The group was rather successful and had 18 to 50 people each weekend. We would do theme cooks like this site's "Cook-offs". We would swap recipes and we used all kinds of cookers. Even had a day where we got everyone together and I showed them/had them build themselves UDS's.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

What’s your most used pit? Or asked another way, what’s the last one you’d be willing to part with? Just curious.

 

[Beentown]

After years of feeding ourselves and fundraising for the kids at church we felt like it was time to take it to the streets. We started cooking and giving it away. We would go into impoverished areas and just set up some pop-ups, smokers and tables and said, come get it.

This event in particular we had a stack of carts from people collecting scrap parked getting food. It was a great event.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[Beentown]

Another member who also became a leader asked if I would wanna start catering. We gave it a shot and it went well. VCDC BBQ Brethren helped layout plans for our soon to be ordered SDG concession trailer.

Our leaders, the original that came to me to start this has passed of brain cancer and one is now my business partner. He was a Detective and retired early due to us being so busy and his job becoming ever more difficult.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[Beentown]

And now, some pics of today. Thanks BBQ-Brethren, you all were a big part of this for me and my family.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[boomers bbq]

I got my start by helping my dad BBQ when I was kid and was hooked since then. H always called my his right hand man on the grill. I got into doing comps got my team name tattoo on my left arm as a tribute to my dad being on his right side. He passed away about 10 years ago. My love for the grill and BBQ comes from him.

 

[Beentown]

What’s your most used pit? Or asked another way, what’s the last one you’d be willing to part with? Just curious.

The Shirley. Only way it goes is if I get a bigger one.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[Fooball]

Great story Beentown, you are a good man. How's Kat's doing now days? You were killin' it in the pics.

 

[BDAABAT]

My family moved around a lot when I was growing up (7 times by the time I was 10). Heavy grills were not part of this process.

The family grill was this: Swaniebraii Safarai Grill.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304462236955?hash=item46e35d0d1b:g:G24AAOSww2FhvjWr

Very basic cooker. Thin metal that just stacked together. Fuel was balled up newspaper. Cooked burgers on it. I think I started using it one time when I was ~ 13 because I was tired of waiting for my folks to actually get dinner going. Burgers were tasty and I enjoyed being able to make my own food.

Eventually learned how to cook. Was really motivated to learn after going away to college. I hadn't realized how good I had it at home. My folks were enthusiastic eaters and excellent cooks. Once I had early 80s dorm food (which my friends were all happy with), I knew I needed to learn whatever I could from them.

My mom is now 86 and I still will ask her about recipes that we had when I was growing up. She now asks me about the food I'm making!

Bruce

 

[old okie]

Old guy here, born in rural Oklahoma almost 80 years ago. We (mom) cooked inside and we went to the bathroom outside, we sometimes joked that the city people went to the bathroom inside and cooked outside.
In the early sixties we started doing burgers and dogs on those cheap open charcoal grills using gasoline for starter fluid, graduated to store bought lighter fluid but still just burgers, dogs, chicken and an occasional steak on charcoal. I got married in '65 and for the next 20 or so years more of the same on charcoal or cheap gas burners.
About 30 years ago I acquired one of those charcoal/water pan vertical deals and managed to screw up a perfectly good turkey and Thanksgiving dinner, I survived the smoker didn't. I later added an outdoor turkey/fish deep fryer to the inventory and turned out some good turkey and fish with that apparatus, sometimes treating 40 or 50 friends to a fish fry.
Fast Forward to about 12 years ago, our 2 daughters were grown with families of their own, I have everything I need or want (my wife and I had lived a comfortable but conservative life). My wife was struggling with stage 4 cancer, I lost her 10 years ago. The family came for Christmas and surprised the guy who has everything with a 30 inch Masterbuilt electric (wood chip) smoker, I put on a good act but my true thought was "what in the heck am I going to do with that thing". Little did I know I was hooked.
I was homebound, taking care of my wife, so thanks to having time and a good internet connection I learned to put out some decent Q with the little Masterbuilt, still had a gasser. The Masterbuilt inventory grew to two 40 inchers, the original died.
Went through some tough times with the loss of my wife and a grandson and cooking kind of became my primary method of lifting the load.
About 4 years ago I developed an interest in the pellet smokers and purchased a Pit Boss Copperhead 7 series and a couple months later found a can't pass it up deal on a Pit Boss Austin XL. I have modified them both with Savannah Stoker controllers and like the way they cook.
I still have the Masterbuilts, an old gasser and the turkey fryer, although I primarily just use the Pit Bosses. I live alone so obviously I don't smoke every day and can't consume all I smoke. I share some and freeze some for later.
Occasionally get tempted to try my luck with a stick burner but I can probably resist the temptation.
Sorry for the length but I'M old and kind of senile.

 

[rwalters]

Old guy here, born in rural Oklahoma almost 80 years ago. We (mom) cooked inside and we went to the bathroom outside, we sometimes joked that the city people went to the bathroom inside and cooked outside.
In the early sixties we started doing burgers and dogs on those cheap open charcoal grills using gasoline for starter fluid, graduated to store bought lighter fluid but still just burgers, dogs, chicken and an occasional steak on charcoal. I got married in '65 and for the next 20 or so years more of the same on charcoal or cheap gas burners.
About 30 years ago I acquired one of those charcoal/water pan vertical deals and managed to screw up a perfectly good turkey and Thanksgiving dinner, I survived the smoker didn't. I later added an outdoor turkey/fish deep fryer to the inventory and turned out some good turkey and fish with that apparatus, sometimes treating 40 or 50 friends to a fish fry.
Fast Forward to about 12 years ago, our 2 daughters were grown with families of their own, I have everything I need or want (my wife and I had lived a comfortable but conservative life). My wife was struggling with stage 4 cancer, I lost her 10 years ago. The family came for Christmas and surprised the guy who has everything with a 30 inch Masterbuilt electric (wood chip) smoker, I put on a good act but my true thought was "what in the heck am I going to do with that thing". Little did I know I was hooked.
I was homebound, taking care of my wife, so thanks to having time and a good internet connection I learned to put out some decent Q with the little Masterbuilt, still had a gasser. The Masterbuilt inventory grew to two 40 inchers, the original died.
Went through some tough times with the loss of my wife and a grandson and cooking kind of became my primary method of lifting the load.
About 4 years ago I developed an interest in the pellet smokers and purchased a Pit Boss Copperhead 7 series and a couple months later found a can't pass it up deal on a Pit Boss Austin XL. I have modified them both with Savannah Stoker controllers and like the way they cook.
I still have the Masterbuilts, an old gasser and the turkey fryer, although I primarily just use the Pit Bosses. I live alone so obviously I don't smoke every day and can't consume all I smoke. I share some and freeze some for later.
Occasionally get tempted to try my luck with a stick burner but I can probably resist the temptation.
Sorry for the length but I'M old and kind of senile.

Very sorry to hear about the passing of your wife! I do agree, outdoor cooking, especially with smoke rolling through the backyard is very therapeutic

 

[SweetHeatBBQnSC]

Old guy here, born in rural Oklahoma almost 80 years ago. We (mom) cooked inside and we went to the bathroom outside, we sometimes joked that the city people went to the bathroom inside and cooked outside.
In the early sixties we started doing burgers and dogs on those cheap open charcoal grills using gasoline for starter fluid, graduated to store bought lighter fluid but still just burgers, dogs, chicken and an occasional steak on charcoal. I got married in '65 and for the next 20 or so years more of the same on charcoal or cheap gas burners.
About 30 years ago I acquired one of those charcoal/water pan vertical deals and managed to screw up a perfectly good turkey and Thanksgiving dinner, I survived the smoker didn't. I later added an outdoor turkey/fish deep fryer to the inventory and turned out some good turkey and fish with that apparatus, sometimes treating 40 or 50 friends to a fish fry.
Fast Forward to about 12 years ago, our 2 daughters were grown with families of their own, I have everything I need or want (my wife and I had lived a comfortable but conservative life). My wife was struggling with stage 4 cancer, I lost her 10 years ago. The family came for Christmas and surprised the guy who has everything with a 30 inch Masterbuilt electric (wood chip) smoker, I put on a good act but my true thought was "what in the heck am I going to do with that thing". Little did I know I was hooked.
I was homebound, taking care of my wife, so thanks to having time and a good internet connection I learned to put out some decent Q with the little Masterbuilt, still had a gasser. The Masterbuilt inventory grew to two 40 inchers, the original died.
Went through some tough times with the loss of my wife and a grandson and cooking kind of became my primary method of lifting the load.
About 4 years ago I developed an interest in the pellet smokers and purchased a Pit Boss Copperhead 7 series and a couple months later found a can't pass it up deal on a Pit Boss Austin XL. I have modified them both with Savannah Stoker controllers and like the way they cook.
I still have the Masterbuilts, an old gasser and the turkey fryer, although I primarily just use the Pit Bosses. I live alone so obviously I don't smoke every day and can't consume all I smoke. I share some and freeze some for later.
Occasionally get tempted to try my luck with a stick burner but I can probably resist the temptation.
Sorry for the length but I'M old and kind of senile.

Sorry to hear about those rough times. Good to see an individual like yourself here posting with tons of life experience. I'm sure many of us can learn a lot from you and all you have been through in life. There is a lot to say about being contempt in life.

 

[XDAWG_15]

Growing up in the rural south in the 80's my dad and our neighbor would cook pork ribs, pulled pork and sometimes goats on an old electric smoker a few times a summer. I still remember loving the taste of smoke on my food. My dad had a series of cheap charcoal grills and would only grill out a few times a year until he bought a propane grill in 88-89. From that point forward, he would cook almost weekly on that thing. He never ventured further than burgers, dogs, steaks or chicken breasts but it was something. It was about the same time I found the Sunday lineup of cooking shows on PBS and loving Justin Wilson and Martin Yan. My paternal grandmother was a great southern cook. I'll still put her chicken and dumplings up against anyone's. My dad was a pretty good cook and my mom was not a great cook at all.

When I was about 12-13 I would sneak seasonings into whatever my parents happened to be cooking. Sometimes, I would throw too much hot sauce into the chili and my dad would get pissed. During the summers, when my parents would be at work during the day, I'd start experimenting with flavors using frozen burger patties on my dad's gas grill. From then on, I would cook for myself often. Mostly because I really loved good food and my parents just didn't believe in seasoning.

Fast forward to my mid 20's I was married and had my first child. Being broke and no longer being able to just come and go as I pleased, I started to really cook outdoors as much as possible on the gas grills at our apartment complex. This was also about the same time as guys like Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Anthony Bourdain started to become fixtures on television and I acquired Steven Raichlen's BBQ Bible. I poured through all of those recipes while incorporating and adapting many of those techniques into my own cooking. The first grill I ever actually owned was one of those stainless steel propane grills and that's where I learned how to use indirect heat to cook low and slow. That was soon followed by the purchase of an 18 inch weber kettle and that led to a turkey fryer and that led to a cheap brinkman smoker that required me to use a hair dryer to keep the coals stoked. By the time i was 30, I became the defacto cook for my family gatherings. Since then, I've built a UDS using this board as a primary source for advice and purchased an old country stick burner. Cooking has become my hobby, a form of therapy and kind of an addiction.

When my life hit a low point and I'd lost pretty much everything dear to me, I found a group of guys in a similar place. We were all broken and damn near destitute. But, I learned that a good meal shared between this adopted family could do much more than just meet some nutritional need. It fostered community and brought some small measure of healing to our souls. I believe food is one way we share our stories and our lives with others. There's something in seeing people at the table enjoying the food and one another that sets off a tuning fork in my soul like nothing else. It's one of the very few things where my skill level and my enjoyment intersect. For me, it aint about just the fire or the meat. It's about the whole idea of community, connection with others and sharing something of myself with love.

 

[rwalters]

Growing up in the rural south in the 80's my dad and our neighbor would cook pork ribs, pulled pork and sometimes goats on an old electric smoker a few times a summer. I still remember loving the taste of smoke on my food. My dad had a series of cheap charcoal grills and would only grill out a few times a year until he bought a propane grill in 88-89. From that point forward, he would cook almost weekly on that thing. He never ventured further than burgers, dogs, steaks or chicken breasts but it was something. It was about the same time I found the Sunday lineup of cooking shows on PBS and loving Justin Wilson and Martin Yan. My paternal grandmother was a great southern cook. I'll still put her chicken and dumplings up against anyone's. My dad was a pretty good cook and my mom was not a great cook at all.

When I was about 12-13 I would sneak seasonings into whatever my parents happened to be cooking. Sometimes, I would throw too much hot sauce into the chili and my dad would get pissed. During the summers, when my parents would be at work during the day, I'd start experimenting with flavors using frozen burger patties on my dad's gas grill. From then on, I would cook for myself often. Mostly because I really loved good food and my parents just didn't believe in seasoning.

Fast forward to my mid 20's I was married and had my first child. Being broke and no longer being able to just come and go as I pleased, I started to really cook outdoors as much as possible on the gas grills at our apartment complex. This was also about the same time as guys like Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Anthony Bourdain started to become fixtures on television and I acquired Steven Raichlen's BBQ Bible. I poured through all of those recipes while incorporating and adapting many of those techniques into my own cooking. The first grill I ever actually owned was one of those stainless steel propane grills and that's where I learned how to use indirect heat to cook low and slow. That was soon followed by the purchase of an 18 inch weber kettle and that led to a turkey fryer and that led to a cheap brinkman smoker that required me to use a hair dryer to keep the coals stoked. By the time i was 30, I became the defacto cook for my family gatherings. Since then, I've built a UDS using this board as a primary source for advice and purchased an old country stick burner. Cooking has become my hobby, a form of therapy and kind of an addiction.

When my life hit a low point and I'd lost pretty much everything dear to me, I found a group of guys in a similar place. We were all broken and damn near destitute. But, I learned that a good meal shared between this adopted family could do much more than just meet some nutritional need. It fostered community and brought some small measure of healing to our souls. I believe food is one way we share our stories and our lives with others. There's something in seeing people at the table enjoying the food and one another that sets off a tuning fork in my soul like nothing else. It's one of the very few things where my skill level and my enjoyment intersect. For me, it aint about just the fire or the meat. It's about the whole idea of community, connection with others and sharing something of myself with love.

Awesome story… and that last paragraph is gospel truth

 

[Randy3269]

Dad was a builder growing up. I worked for different subs each summer of high school. The framing crew I worked with would always cook over a 55 gallon drum with a piece of expanded metal thrown over the top. Some of the best lunches I can remember. I tried some different grills when I got out of high school...and mom and dad's house. (It wasn't a bad place to be, I was just independent) I finally settled in on an old 22 inch split rim wheel with a Weber grate and lid. It never misses a camping trip or race. (NHRA or NASCAR)

We use a weber kettle, a heavy offset and a pellet pooper at the house. I'll be breaking in a Santa Maria from Lone Star Grillz next month.

It's safe to say I'm hooked!

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

When I was young, I realized I had an uncontrollable desire for live fire (under controlled circumstances)...And I was hungry...One thing leads to another.

X DAWG_15 and old okie. You have my sympathy. My cooking seems to have so much less flavor since I lost my wife.

 

[XDAWG_15]

When I was young, I realized I had an uncontrollable desire for live fire (under controlled circumstances)...And I was hungry...One thing leads to another.

X DAWG_15 and old okie. You have my sympathy. My cooking seems to have so much less flavor since I lost my wife.

First of all, I am so sorry for your loss. I couldn't imagine the kind of grief you may be experiencing. I lost my mom a few years ago and watching my dad navigate life without her was difficult in the beginning. Since then, he's found activities and people that bring him life. He still has his moments and I do too but it does get better. Only thing I can say is keep doing the things that brought you joy. I'd also encourage you to look into the possibility of connecting with a grief share group in your area.

As far as my own life and loss, I was fortunate enough to have much of what I'd lost restored and rebuilt.

 

[rwalters]

Been to long since we’ve had a good story or two (or more) added to this thread!! If you haven’t shared, would love to hear it

 

[WeldonG]

I got started on a cheap Brinkman offset. I don't think it even had a real thermometer, it didn't have degrees just Smoke, BBQ, and Grill, lol. I took it home from the cafe that I worked at in the early to mid 2000s, that my wife and her parents owned. I cooked a couple of briskets and took up to the cafe to sell for a lunch special. Somehow, they turned out great. I looked for recipes but mostly just found "cook for so long per pound", "put a log on the fire after every beer", that sort of thing. But somehow, got lucky. The next few cooks, not so much. I didn't know how to manage a fire and ended up blaming the cooker and ended up buying an inexpensive electric cooker from Bass Pro. I didn't get really good and serious about bbq until I moved back to Texas and got interested in doing a bbq contest that they had in Terrell every year. I went out and bought a 22" WSM and practiced, practiced, practiced - and the rest was history. I only did one contest and never really got going into the competition world, but it made me a better cook. I got most of my tips from forums like this and will always be grateful. P.S. I just recently moved back to Louisiana, so I guess I just moved to Texas to hone my bbq skills, lol.