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Always Smoking in Baltimore

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    Always Smoking in Baltimore

    I finally bought a Pitmaster Membership, as an early birthday present, and wanted to introduce myself. A word of warning, I love to write, so this might get annoying.

    My name is John. I was raised an inner city kid in Baltimore City. I'm 36, married with a 1 year old daughter. And I've been smoking meat for about 10 years now.

    About 11 years ago, a friend invited me out to a BBQ restaurant for dinner. Being an incredibly urban inner city kid, I wasn't even sure what BBQ was, and declined the invite. About 2 weeks later, the company I worked for had a local BBQ restaurant cater a lunch ... and right there, in the middle of a pulled pork sandwich, I found heaven.

    After spending the next year or so trying every type of BBQ I could find, I decided to officially try to smoke something myself. I bought an incredibly cheap--and kind of awful--Char-Broil Water Smoker and a pork shoulder. At the time, I had no real idea what I was doing. I had never even used a grill before, much less a smoker. I had no experience with any sort of flame that wasn't coming out of the top of my stove.

    I had absolutely no tools. No digital thermometers. I just used the built-in thermometer on the grill and checked the meat every couple hours with a regular ole kitchen meat thermometer. I remember hitting the stall and having no idea why the damn temp wasn't going up and staying stuck around 155 for about 4 straight hours.

    It was a waking nightmare. But damn was that meat tasty when it fell apart at the end.

    And I felt very proud of myself.

    About a year later, a BBQ restaurant opened next to my office and they had the best smoked turkey I'd ever had in my life. And I thought "If they can do this, so can I!"

    And that first time, man, I damn near ruined Thanksgiving. And it taught me a very valuable lesson: don't attempt something new for the first time when you're going to have guests over for one of the biggest holidays of the year.

    But the next time, it was pretty incredible. Smoked turkey became a yearly tradition.

    When my wife and I met, she, quite the Northern young lady, believed BBQ was a party where you grill hamburgers and hotdogs. Luckily, because I rather liked her, and because I saw my own previous ignorance reflected in her, decided to teach her the wonder of true BBQ.

    And the three of us became inseparable. So much so that our wedding was catered by my favorite local BBQ restaurant. There's something unforgettable about having your first dance with your beautiful bride less than 20 feet away from a whole smoked hog.

    Anyway, around that time, she bought me a much larger Char-broil grill, which let me attempt new things and really up my game.

    I added smoked chicken and, with the help of Amazing Ribs here, bacon--belly, Canadian, and buckboard--to my menu list. I bought a really nice remote digital dual-probe thermometer and felt like I was just getting better and better.

    The only thing that eluded me at this point was ribs, which I kept failing miserably at, and brisket, which I was too scared to tackle.

    But pork shoulder and turkey remained my specialties. Every year we have a party here, Lamtoberfest (our last name is Lam). It's become well known for the BBQ, my homemade sauces (my specialty is a Maple Chipotle BBQ Sauce), and me drinking slightly too much and trying to drunkenly talk to people about my love of BBQ.

    Our biggest Lamtoberfest yet, which we went all out for because we also used it as a baby shower for our first pregnancy, served about 50 people. Smoking for that many people was a challenge. But thank god for vacuum sealing, which let me smoke everything in advance and reheat to damn near day-of perfection the morning of the party.

    Last year, finally, after my wife spent months begging for it, I attempted to smoke a brisket flat. I was thrilled with how it turned out. So was our dog. Who jumped up on the counter and literally ate the entire thing. It would be almost a year before I tried brisket again and just as long before my wife forgave the dog.

    For Christmas, my wife and daughter bought me a Weber Kettle. It was a thing of beauty, especially compared to my old Char-Broil grills/smokers. I also got the Slow 'N Sear. And, to show my wife how much I appreciated it, I went out and bought a 13lb full packer brisket and did an 18 hour cook. It might have been the most delicious thing I've ever made.

    And thanks to these new tools, and thanks to Amazing Ribs, just last week I finally, for the first time in 10 years, didn't ruin ribs. Not only did I not ruin them, but they were damn great!

    Anyway, that's my BBQ life story--the "short" version, anyhow. This website and the moderators have helped me up my BBQ game at every turn over the last few years. Every single time I've struggled with something, you guys have helped me through it--either with the articles here or through replies in the comments sections.

    I can't thank you guys enough and I can't say how excited I am to finally have a membership here and be a real part of the community.

    And I'll try not to let any of my other posts be as long as this one.

    #2
    Great story and great progression, I can see you probing that stalled butt in that water smoker with that old thermometer.

    Welcome and thanks for the support!

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome to The Pit LamityGrille. Great "short" story! Looking forward to having you around.

      Comment


        #4
        Welcome LamityGrille

        Comment


          #5
          LamityGrille, Welcome to The Pit! You had better print a copy or two of Your BBQ History and Put Them In an Envelope for the Kids! Someday they will have to a Boyfriend or Girlfriend why their crazy old Dad is standing in a Cloud of Smoke in the Backyard?
          Eat Well and Prosper! From Fargo ND, Dan

          Comment


            #6
            You must be a Raven's fan! Welcome. From a Raven's fan about 30 miles south.🍻

            Comment


              #7
              Welcome to The Pit John. Great intro. Loved your quote about this website and the moderators helping you up your BBQ game! I couldn't have said it better myself. Have fun!

              Comment


                #8
                Awesome write up! I feel the same way about this site. It helped me so much over the past couple years, I had to donate and become a full fledged member. Keep up the BBQ and writing, I enjoyed it!!!

                Comment


                  #9
                  Welcome to the Pit and thanks for sharing the story of your journey.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Welcome, LamityGrille , what a GREAT write-up!

                    Look forward to seeing your cooks!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

                      I'm really glad to be part of the community. My wife loves all of the smoked meat, but, man, I think she gets tired of listening to me talk about it. I keep telling her I can't wait until the kid is old enough to understand, so I can teach her all about the exciting world of BBQ.

                      But, until then, I guess you folks will have to do

                      That's my daughter, Amity, with me in my avatar. Pulled pork was one of her very first real foods, and she likes my maple-chipotle bbq sauce even more than I do. In that picture, she and I were taking a day trip to Annapolis and one of the restaurants had a pulled pork sandwich lunch special. We stopped in and shared it. You'll notice she has a very "Are these guys for real with this?" smirk on her face.

                      She's a bit of a bbq snob, I think.
                      Last edited by LamityGrille; February 7, 2016, 10:36 PM.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        LamityGrille - welcome to The Pit and welcome to The Addiction! Amity is a beautiful young girl and there are a couple of observations I can make about her. She obviously gets her good looks from her Mother and she's got a great BBQ teacher for a Daddy! You're a very lucky man!

                        We're bald you and Amity are here. We look forward to your cooks.

                        Comment


                        • LamityGrille
                          LamityGrille commented
                          Editing a comment
                          Ha! Nah, sadly--for her--she looks exactly like me. Even got my slightly oversized bobble head. Poor girl. Just glad she didn't come out with a beard.

                        #13
                        Welcome to The Pit LamityGrille! Wow, what a cool intro, perhaps the coolest I've read yet! Great getting to know you. Your story reminds me something of Aaron Franklin's book and his story within. I LOLed at the brisket/dog story too.

                        Since this is your first post, please check out our homework assignment post for new members, it contains a few how-tos and please-dos. This will help you learn your way around so you can get the best experience from our forum.

                        Also, it's very important that you add the domain AmazingRibs.com to your email safe list in case you are ever drawn as our monthly Gold Medal Giveaway winner!

                        Hope to hear & see more from you!

                        Comment


                          #14
                          Welcome aboard!

                          Comment


                            #15
                            Welcome aboard, I'm right down the road from you @ Ft Meade.

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