My mom was a good cook with a lot of things so I grew up eating tasty food, but she liked her meat well done. I don't think I had good bbq until I was college-aged and had already moved to VA. After trying to make some myself, I'm wondering if I've ever had really, really great bbq and it made me curious about all you fine folks' experience.
What was your first great bbq experience? Where'd you find it?
We were eating at an uncles house when I was 10 - 12 YO, and he BBQed some chicken. I thought it was amazing. My folks never had an outdoor grill of any kind, so I was totally impressed.
And I was also raised on well done everything. I didn't have anything less done until I moved away from home, and grew up thinking chicken should be so dry that it would suck all the moisture out of your tongue when you took a bite.
I can tell you that I probably did not have any *GOOD* BBQ until I was an adult.
Growing up as a child of the 60's and 70's, most cooking was done by my mother, or my grandmother if she was over to help, all on the stove. My dad's contribution to BBQ back in the day was one of those portable charcoal crappy grills - the round flat charcoal pan with a round grate at 2 or 3 positions above it. All open with no temp control. He cooked everything to very well done. A few people in the neighborhood had crumbling built in brick grills on their patios, left over from the 50's, but very few people I knew cooked out a lot. And this was in the south! I actually HATED steak as a kid, because it was always tough and too hard to chew, and they would grill a hot dog for me, so that I can wolf it down and run back outside to play.
Sadly the first good BBQ I had was probably at a restaurant - Williamson Brothers BBQ in Marietta, Georgia, and prior to that the chain Sonny's BBQ.
Only when I was in college and my dad got one of the first Weber Genesis propane grills at the local Ace hardware (bright red and wood side tables I recall) did the grilling situation at the house improve, likely due to temperature control he never had on the old crappy charcoal grills he would buy.
EDIT: I come from several rural South Georgia clans, and you might think BBQ would be the thing at family get togethers in Waycross and Blackshear in the 60's and 70's. Not so. All the women did all the cooking in the kitchen. It was only in later years at family reunions in the 80's and beyond that I saw BBQ (pulled pork or whole hogs smoked) become a thing.
Last edited by jfmorris; April 23, 2018, 03:01 PM.
Apple wood smoking a spatchcock turkey for Thanksgiving. It was a battle to keep the Weber going since we always seem to have winds when ever I want to cook outside. It finally got done and was a hit with friends and family.
When I was in the service I got stationed in the Bay Area. At about the same time, my best friend and his wife moved to San Leandro, so I spent a lot of time in their neighborhood. One day I walked into a place set up behind a gas station called "Old South". It blew me away. I'm still chasing the taste of their spicy bbq sauce.
The next time was when I was dating the current Mrs. Wonderful and we walked by a place near her home in San Jose. The guy was cooking on an offset smoker. I never tasted the food, but I remember seeing the logs burning in the smoke box and thinking "I gotta get me one of these."
Two classes with CBBQA taught me that I don't need to concern myself with competition bbq, and really helped me decide on the equipment I wanted in the back yard. Amazingribs.com gave me the blueprint for rubs and technique. I'm now at the point where friends, family and coworkers ask me to cook for them and their families.
I first experienced pulled pork at a convention in Memphis in the late 80s. And I worked that buffet line hard! Then more locally, it was pork steaks and pork burgers and bratwurst cooked in offset style smokers ran hot. (350-400) that a group used as fundraising for summer youth baseball. Everything prior was over cooked till extremely well done over charcoal as growing up. I am so glad to have found Amazing Ribs, my cooking is in a good place now.
My former BIL had a trailer in a park in NY state. Had us up one Saturday for a cookout. Corn right off the stalk and a giant steak (no idea what) covered with a mustard concoction cooked on,(?) can't remember. Mustard would burn off but he swore it kept the meat moist. Man! it was sooooo good. He is gone now so its lost. How is that for some worthless information?
Mine was at the Weston Mills volunteer fire department in Western New York. Twice a year they would have a chicken BBQ to raise money. The chicken was/is marinated in vegetable oil, white vinegar, eggs, poultry seasoning, garlic and salt & pepper. Then they are slowly grilled over charcoal and served with garlic and onion foil wrapped potatoes and salad in the spring and beer soaked corn on the cob roasted in the husk in the fall.
This was in the early 80's. I remember going as a kid with my mom and sister. They still do it to this day.
1983 or so. Had a cookbook I really liked, and it said "grapevine smoked turkey". Went and bought a cheap charcoal "water" smoker cylindrical thingie. Hooked immediately and forever.
I don't know if it was really a great bbq experience but it's probably the one I remember most clearly. When I was a kid we went with my dad who was attending a professional convention. Part of the schedule included what was described as an "outdoor barbeque social hour." They served grilled moose and bear along with sides. I remember the moose was pretty good. But I think I'm still chewing that damn bear and that was 60 years ago.
I went to Kansas City in 1997 as a Systems Engineer to help a guy install some software. He was not happy about paying to have me there - and he let me know it, but the software vendor required it because he wasn't certified. Well, long story short, I saved his butt. He would have gone down in flames without someone there who had done it before. And to thank me, he took me out to Jack Stack for dinner.
He ordered up a sampler platter for each of us. I don't think it was even a menu item, but he was clearly a regular. My tray was loaded with a ribs, brisket, ham, pulled pork, sausage, half a chicken, beans, coleslaw, fries, and a salad. I stuffed myself to the danger point getting through less than two thirds of it, and that was all I could handle. He finished his. Then he sent me home with 2 bottles of sauce.
About 5 years ago, I'd heard from a co-worker they were opening up a BBQ joint in my city, the first of its kind down here. The owners had travelled to North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, learning how to make BBQ, and bought a Yoder smoker to bring down here. One day I asked him about the opening and he said, "Oh, that's today if you feel like going", so we did. We got there around 5:45PM, and the place still hadn't opened, but they let us in. We were the place's first paying customers in its history, and everything was great that night. Great brisket, pulled pork, ribs, we tried everything and it was the first time I tasted some great BBQ. I'd tasted BBQ before while travelling in the US, but these guys were killing it when it opened. I'd lived in NY and Virginia, but had never had great BBQ, not that I was actively looking for it in those days. Today, I'd be all over the place looking for great BBQ. Sadly, the place has gone downhill, lower standards, re-heated food, a way-too-big menu to be using only 1 smoker for 2 branches... But it was great while it lasted.
I was then struck by the BBQ bug. I used to grill all the time, but once I moved out on my own about 2 years ago is when I really started working on improving techinique, using science (much thanks to this site!), so its been fun.
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