how do you10-2 BBQ?

[bbqLuv]

Do you plan your cook and cook your plan? As in a cooking log?
List each step from prep to serve and then time stamp and takes notes.
Then judge the final product.

[TripleB]

Yes, that is what I do. I keep a cooking log for all my cooks. Been doing it for about 13 years now. But not just BBQ, I record all new recipes I try out. With BBQ, I do judge the final product using the KCBS judging scoring format - Presentation, Taste, Tenderness.

[Mosca]

Never. In my world, each cook has its own life.

[bbqLuv]

No history of the cook to be logged.

[captainlee]

When I started out I kept a log of each cook to get a handle on cook times. I organized it by type of meat, weight, cook temp and the final time. I haven't done that in years now. I will quickly look back on brisket and butt times just to get a heads up. Ribs I can look at and pretty accurately guess the cook time. Of course there is always one rack that is obstinate.

[Jfrosty27]

I’m like Mosca I don’t keep any logs or notes. I just jump in an run with it. Things turn out most of the time. 😉

[Clark]

I keep a log of each of my cooks so that I know what works best and how to repeat the successful ones. The log includes steps starting with type of meat, weight, it's source, and anything unusual about that cut. Then I detail any brining, what rubs, wood, etc. and the time and temp at each cooking step such as basting, turning, and wrapping. When I'm finished I rate the flavor, tenderness, and moistness. The most important notation is my wife's opinion! If she says its too smokey, too spicey, etc. I can adjust in the future. When she raves about it, then that is noted and hi-lighted!

This is no different than having a recipe or a road map. if you don't know where you're going, than you won't know when you're there.

[bbqLuv]

Excellent.

[Smoker_Boy]

For years, I worked as an advanced lab testing technician.
As such, I had to keep extremely detailed logs of the tests.
(never mind that the engineers couldn't manage to actually write a coherent test plan,
and then would bitch and piss-and-moan when I was forced to modify their drug-induced hallucinations)

So, no, I don't write down very much.
I want to actually enjoy what I'm doing.

[HawkerXP]

No log here either. All I do is look at my past photos of "meat going on" and meat coming off" for a time reference if needed.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I don't keep a log. Sometimes I keep some notes and pics on my Fireboard app, but not usually a lot.

[Mosca]

This is an excellent topic. I’ve often thought about it over the years, while I was cooking, and especially when thermometers became “smart” and started feeding and saving graphs and charts.

I think it depends on how each of us is wired. Like Smoker_Boy, I had to keep track of stuff at work; I had deal logs, daily logs, weekly reports, month end reports, and yearly analyses. I did them, of course, but when things got really busy I had a tendency to just stack the deal logs, then delay turning those into daily logs, and then I’d have to come in for an hour on Sunday, or an hour early on Monday, to have the weekly report ready for the meeting.

Point being, FOR ME keeping a log feels like work. BUT. I get it, that for the next person doing that log is part of the fun! For her/him, it can lead to deeper understanding of what’s happening. For me, the fun is in the variation, and the sensory stuff: the smells, the wind, the sun or rain, the thickness of the cut, the way the rub sticks to the meat, the way the temp stabilizes a little higher than I expected, the telescoping of processes dependent on conditions, the colors and smells, the light breeze…. Over time, I have a memory bank of what is supposed to happen, and another memory bank of what to do when that doesn’t happen. When I get surprised, either good or bad, that gets added to the banks. And that’s the fun.

Gestalt. Oneness. Being here now. Inner peace. On a beautiful day. Because a good cook makes any day beautiful.

[mrteddyprincess]

For normal cooks no. (I spent two years keeping detailed records and methods of every cook but now I don't need to do that.)

But for big cooks, like the Super Bowl this year, I cooked the three weekends leading up to that weekend and had like eleven items I needed to present all at the same time. You can bet that I had to plan that out well in advance to pull it off, and yes, I had it planned out right down to the minute.

So my answer is sometimes--when it's necessary to do so.

B

[Murdy]

Does "10-2" have some meaning of which I am unaware?

[Mosca]

I think it is text speak for “tend to”? Idk.

[RonB]

I tried logging my cooks, but I cook for fun, and logging isn't fun for me.

[TripleB]

Interesting to see so many people refer to keeping cooking logs as work. I don't look at it that way at all, but the ability to look back on what I've done since I usually leave a forwarding note like, "less salt", "more allspice", "keep top poppet open from the beginning", etc. But of course, each to his own. There really is no right or wrong on keeping a cooking journal.

However, the last 10 years I have also kept a mini diary where I record what is going on in my life and our family's in the side margin. Interesting to look back and see that on a specific date my daughter graduated college, or got a new dog or maybe my views on what is going on politically and socially, happy events (e.g. DODGERS WIN THE WS), etc.

Someday my kids will inherit my cooking journals and look back on not only what I cooked, but what was going on in my life and our family.

[Mosca]

I get this.

I’ve written down a lot of things that I cook often, not as recipes but as if I were standing there guiding our daughter’s hand, so she’ll have them.

[dubob]

Good Lord - NO. I just go with the flow. I don't grade my cooks either. BBQing is an end to a means; enjoying good food. I have plenty of other passions like hunting, fishing, and blowing up clay targets with shotguns to get that serious about.