Forum Idea

SandRaven,

I have never kept a record of any kind smoking, BBQing or grilling. I just use other cooks records and then play it by ear. One thing, our cooking is seldom repeated exactly the same, and it sure puts some spice in life not knowing if the Q will be good or not. It was a problem once when I had to recook two butts in the kitchen oven at 4oo degrees for over an hour. By that time our company, eight people, were all well inebriated and full of appetizers, but no one complained.

smokemullet

I think you have a good idea. I make mental notes and discuss the final product with my wife and son. The more opinions I get, the more objective the results will be. My 10-year old son has no problem telling me Sonny's BBQ Restaurant ribs are better then mine. My wife is also a gourmet cook so she gets a bigger vote then I do.

On my last smoke, my smokette never got over 195 degrees F even though the smoker was set on 225 degrees. I had 4 slabs of baby back ribs on the top shelf in a Weber rib rack, and a cut up chicken on the middle and bottom shelf. I had to trim about 3 ribs per slab to get them to fit. After 4-hours of smoking, the ribs were probably done at the 3 - 3 1/2 hour point and the chicken needed more time. It would have been nice to see other people's posts and what to expect with two full shelves of meat. I do not want to have a big party and get embarrassed that the meat is not done. In the future, I think I'll stick with pork loin ribs as they turned out perfect when I made them. Any help I can get would be great. A section like Dave in Maine would be great. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Number one idea for new smokers is to keep notes. If you don't you're doomed to failure. You'll either repeat your failures or you'll forget what you did for your success.

Sharing your notes with the world, may be a bigger challenge.

SandRaven, you can certainly report this way as a ground swell effort, lead by example. If a few people take that format and report it, then it's helpful -- that's usually how it happens. Maybe with some specific posts it might appear to be more helpful.

Just my thoughts, but I think it's expecting people to report more details than they keep themselves, and in reality a little too much information. Not that it wouldn't help some.

The problem is words are subjective and up to interpretation, no matter how much you put into it.

I've posted that we have a log available for use (just email me) and a few have asked.

I ask for people to post photos, but we still don't get a whole bunch.

As for details, really the best is not to read my notes but to ask me. I can help you out a whole lot more than letting you see my notes. And I've posted almost 4,000 entries here and I think a lot of that information wouldn't be in my notes, as I don't have the learning curve some people do.

In the end, with 20,000+ posts in this forum, learn to use the search function and you'll almost always find an answer.

But that's just my opinion.

Smokin'

As always,Smokin' is right on the money.

I made a long post a few days ago about temps and times being individually distinct, for many reasons.

I think that a search, from the top of the page, will give much of what the group knows.

Reading the archives,as time permits,gives much of our general discussions and why we come up with some of our answers.

These steps should get most folks to the point they will almost never not have an acceptable cook.

The few pipointed questions will bring directions/guesses from our individual experiences,that may not apply in many other cases.

Lots of cooks are a lot like carrying around a ten foot long water filled ballon.

We will all cope from our experiences and use different words to describe the experience.

My journals are meaningful to me and my wife,if at all.

Just my $0.02

Sonny's ribs are better than cookshack ribs!?????
OUCH Man! We gots to do something about that kid! Round here Sonny's is to ribs as Mcdonalds is of burgers.

sand
i like the idea and have normally given my times and temps when posting replies for either the fec or sm (and the more i am using the sm the more fun i am having!!) i got the idea for notes from chef walter achatz when i was in school. he was a tough old german classically trained chef and still bore the scar of a sous chef hitting him with a saute pan. but at least i was smart enough to listen to him and to this day i have all of my daily specials from 15 years back along with info on the charaticarists of forgien meat and its cooking differences from domestic.
sonnys ribs???????
man time to change the rub there papa!!!! lol just kidding
jack