Equipment
Primo Oval xl
Slow n Sear (two)
Drip n Griddle
22" Weber Kettle
26" Weber Kettle one touch
Blackstone 36†Pro Series
Sous vide machine
Kitchen Aid
Meat grinder
sausage stuffer
5 Crock Pots Akootrimonts
Two chimneys (was 3 but rivets finally popped, down to 1)
cast iron pans,
Dutch ovens
Signals 4 probe, thermapens, chef alarms, Dots, thermapop and maverick T-732, RTC-600, pro needle and various pocket instareads. The help and preferences
1 extra fridge and a deep chest freezer in the garage
KBB
FOGO
A 9 year old princess foster child
Patience and old patio furniture
"Baby Girl" The cat
"Don’t make friends with the goat." That made me laugh. I knew right away what you meant by that.
I grew up in the suburbs north of Los Angeles and that's where my first Love's was. However, the one at the 22 frwy and Harbor Blvd was still there when I moved to O.C. and I had the opportunity to eat at that one too. Fond memories.
Love’s Wood Pit BBQ. Now there is a memory. That was the place to go to for ribs in Los Angeles in my youth. My family went to the one up on Pico blvd and Beverly. Baby back ribs smothered in that smokey ketchup/brown sugar sauce. Good memories.
My dad wasn’t a guru when it came to grilled meats, he liked grilled food but admittedly was a little lazy (his words). He didn’t like cleaning charcoal grills and always wanted to cook on gas grills, so anytime we ate BBQ it came from a store, given we had Big Bob’s less than 2 miles from the house, so no complaints here. However, what got me hooked on doing my own thing was growing up with the owner of Big Bob’s in our hunting club, he would always bring a pork shoulder to a dove shoot or to the deer club and we would eat like kings. We thought we were all special and we were! Who else gets to eat delicious smoked meats from one of the best to do it?!? Before he put brisket on the menu, we’d happily serve as Guinea pigs. His “worst” briskets were better than my best!
Needless to say, being around that made me want to learn more. So I had the privilege of attending a few Memphis in May events with them and learned a lot. Me and some friends dabbled about 5 years in competitions but raising a family is tough when you’re spending lots of money on the BBQ circuit. So now I just cook for friends and family. I am always wanting to learn more about this hobby, it’s why I am here, I learn a great deal from yall and of course Meathead and his crew.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I thought I would look for a picture online to show what kind of setup I remember my dad using when I was a kid, and it was something just like this.... except for a skinny boy sitting on top of the picnic table looking on, and all the girls being back inside the house, versus outside in the heat....
This is literally the only kind of grill I remember from my early childhood. A few neighbors had old brick built-in grills left from when the houses were built in the 50's, but most of those had rusted out grates and I honestly NEVER saw one used, unless maybe they filled it with dirt and put flowers in it, since they were usually adjacent to the patio.
Those grills had ZERO temp control, but I think some of them you could move the grate to a different set of notches, to move it a little higher above the charcoal. I think grilling like this is why I always preferred hot dogs to steak, when the family was having steaks. I would scarf down two hotdogs and ask to be excused, and disappear back to the great outdoors until dark, while the rest of them sat chewing their dramatically overdone and chewy sirloins.
I really do not recall seeing anyone cooking with a Weber kettle either, growing up, even though it obviously existed since the 50's.
I think my dad's grilling game really improved when he got a gas grill in the later 70's, one with lava rocks, and then REALLY improved when he got his first Weber gas grill - the Genesis - at the local Ace Hardware, the year it came out (1984 or 1985). It was this exact model I am pretty sure (image from Weber history page):
That was around the time he brought home one of the smokers he had been building as customer gifts. That was a game changer as well. I just gave the last one of those smokers to my nephew.
My first memory was dad grilling burgers in the back yard on an ultra cheap grill. I was probably 10 years old. The first thing I ever grilled was 4 bull frog legs. I had come home from frog hunting with just 2 frogs. The grill was still hot from dad grilling burgers so I cleaned my frogs, rubbed them in butter and on the grill they went. No one paid any attention until I was done then everyone wanted to try them. They were good. I bought a few of those square very cheap grills through the years but finally got a Weber kettle in my 30’s. I wasn’t very good with it. Just like dad burgers were my go to. In my mid 30’s I met a fellow who had a smoker made from an old all metal refrigerator. He would smoke several different meats at one time when he fired it up. Usually chicken halves, pork butt and brisket. To my taste back then they were wonderful. That got me started down a long path of very marginal bbq only to be saved by the folks here.
I don’t remember much grilling going on at our house as a kid. When I got my 1st apartment I bought a hibachi for burgers, hot dogs, or the occasional steak. That was probably 40 years ago and it’s definitely taken off from there.
I bought a cheep-o hibachi 47 years ago when I first got married. My wife suffered through a bunch of charred chicken. That didn't last very long. I've come full circle and have a Lodge Sportsman that I use for skewers and the occasional burger or steak.
Lang 48 inch Deluxe Patio Model (burns hickory splits)
PK 360 (burns premium lump charcoal with wood chunks)
28 inch Blackstone Griddle (propane)
Rubs I love:
Yardbird by Plow Boys
Killer Hogs by Malcom Reed
AP Rub by Malcom Reed
Meat Church (any)
Three Little Pigs Memphis Style for ribs
Would love to try Meathead's commercial rub
Sauces I love:
Gates'
Joe's
Pa & Ma's
Killer Hogs Vinegar Sauce
Disposable Equipment I use:
Disposable cutting boards
Tumbleweed chimney starters
Aluminum foil
Aluminum pans (half and full)
Latex gloves
Diamond Kosher Salt
Vice-President of BBQ Security, Roy
He's a pure-bred North American Brown Dog
He loves rawhide chewies
My wife calls me "Teddy" and I call her "Princess" and that's where "mrteddyprincess" comes from.
I remember staying in a hotel with my parents when I was about three, and my mom was ironing her clothing and sat the hot iron on the TV stand in the room. I walked up to it and pressed the palm of my right hand onto the hot iron. No one ate my hand, but I was definitely cookin' meat at age three..
Additional Edit: In Central Indiana in the 1990's the stainless steel gas grills with 20,000+ BTUs (I made up that number) became all the rage. I can't tell you how many parties I attended where the cook used all direct heat and burned the HE!! out of all the burgers and brats. I couldn't understand why anybody would spend so much money on a piece of equipment that turned out such crappy food!
You have to remember too that NO ONE had a meat thermometer back then, unless it was a cheap bi-metal dial (I had one), AND the FDA was telling us to cook meat to something like 180F and get ALL the pink out.
My Dad bought one of those big, black boxy charcoal pits in the early to mid 1970s, might have been a CharBroil. He only cooked chicken and sausage on it, and not all that often.
Hmm, I don't know if I should count the green Coleman stove that we used for camping. I don't even remember what was cooked on that other than breakfast.
22” Blue Weber Kettle with SnS insert
Kamado Joe Jr with Kick Ash Basket
Char-Broil Smartchef Tru Infrared Gasser
Anovo Hot Tub Time Machine with Custom Hot Tub
Wowza…. What a great thread! I did not so much help with cooking and stuff, but I watched. My daddy made two things on the grill. Chicken with the OG Open Pit BBQ sauce that resulted in those little black crispiest edges. And a ribeye. Same crispy edges. When the “juice” ran out of the steak, my sissy and I would mix a splash of ketchup in and say it was steak sauce for the homemade French fries my daddy made, too.
Yeah, I said ketchup. BUT WE NEVER PUT IT ON HOT DOGS OR BURGERS! or eggs for that matter….But I digress……
oh man, and when fresh corn was available…. Cancel Christmas….. corn on the grill was the best. My daddy would wrap it in foil, but it still got that charred sections.
It started in 1969 when my Dad came back from Viet-Nam and bought an original Portable KItchen grill. He didn't cook very many things but the steaks, hamburgers, and chicken he made are still in my mind. He learned how to make chickens from a chaplain he was stationed with who was from North Carolina. The seasoning for the meat was mostly chile powder and the baste was chili powder mixed with diluted vinegar and water. I wish I had the recipe because trie as I might, I can't reproduce that flavor.
My earliest grill memory (actually one of my earliest memories at all) is of "helping" my Dad and Grandpa assemble a square charcoal grill when I was around 3 1/2 years old (summer of 1980). It was probably from Sears, as my father thought the world of that company. Dad was pretty good with the basics on that grill. I don't remember the burgers being hockey pucks or the hotdogs being charred beyond recognition. He never cooked chicken on the grill until we moved to Florida a few years later and he bought a propane grill. He did a good job on that one, too, turning out some pretty solid chicken and flank steaks in addition to burgers, sausages, and hotdogs. I learned from Dad how to grill on that gasser and by the time I was 11 or 12, I was trusted to cook burgers and dogs.
About that same time I crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and learned how to cook over a camp fire as well as how to handle a charcoal grill (Cooking was one of the first merit badges I earned). By the time I was 14 I was Patrol Chef in the troop and full-fledged griller at home. I was getting pretty good in the kitchen, too.
After college, I lived in apartments for while so I didn't have a grill of my own. I'd cook on my parents' grill when I visited them, or at beach parties using the public grills. I didn't have a chance to buy my own grill, a 14" Weber Smokey Joe, until I was 32. A couple of years later, wanting more surface area, I bought a Stok Tower from Home Depot. That one lasted about seven years before it rusted out and that's when I decided to buy a 22" Weber Master-Touch.
I had never slow-cooked or smoked anything on a grill until 2016, when I got a copy of Meathead's book. For my birthday that year my soon-to-be mother-in-law bought me a Slow 'n Sear insert. I used that to smoke some short ribs for Christmas dinner. Boy, were they awful. Overcooked and waaaay too much smoke. Since then, I've practiced a lot with different cuts of meat both grilling and smoking. I'm pretty darn good with hot-and-fast cooking, and I'm getting there with smoking on the kettle.
This site and its members have been invaluable over the past year that I've been part of it. I don't think I ever would have had the gumption to try smoking a packer brisket without the examples I've seen here. I'm looking forward to seeing what I learn next from y'all!
Last edited by PGH_RAM; January 10, 2025, 02:09 PM.
Holy heck, PGH_RAM I can't believe you've only been here a year! I thought you'd been here a lot longer than that! You're definitely a full-fledged contributing member yourself, adding plenty to the whole heap of knowledge and experience in this place!
I remember being a kid in the late 70's and early 80's. My dad would cook up some delicious NY strip steaks over Kingsford charcoal. The char was excellent along with the charred fat. One special memory is when he was finished cooking and took the steaks in, I followed him quickly to the steps, barefooted and all. Stepped on a stray coal that had dropped from the bottom of the kettle. Holy hell that hurt!
Yes, me too. Dad grilled steaks over Kingsford charcoal and basted with butter. And it would create a bit of char. I still do it the same way today - use Kingsford, baste with butter and I love a bit of char on my steaks. And I do remember getting popped by charcoal on my feet in those cheap, foam sandals.
From the time I can remember, my extended family always had Weber kettles. My grandfather raised hogs for local butchers in Oakland, TN and all 9 of his kids learned how to cook over fire and coals. My mom's cousin in TN also raised hogs, and would slaughter and cook one whenever we had family gatherings near Memphis, always buried in a hole in the ground. One of my uncles had one of those big brick monstrosities on his patio; he would do lots of ribs and burgers at once. My mom always had a kettle and she would do hot dogs and burgers on it regularly and occasional ribs. I got my first kettle when i was around 25. My first smoker was a Brinkman when i was maybe 30? Leaked like a sieve. Then i found a WSM. Took me a long time to learn it but it was worth it. Found AR and it took my game up a couple notches.
Grew up in Los Angeles. Getting BBQ was going to Love’s. My mother was an excellent cook (and I learned a lot from her), but my Dad did the grilling. My earliest memories was the circular charcoal grill outside that my dad used and would heat up the Kingsford charcoal with an electric charcoal starter. It was my job to plug it in. Eventually my father built a patio and installed a gas grill with lava rocks. Never to use the charcoal grill ever again.
My father taught me to check for steak done-ness by using the hand test and then by time. Those old techniques that will fail you every time. But still great memories with my dad.
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