Firstly, thank you to the magical admin person who let me in.
I am a newby at the whole BBQ scene, as an Englishman, until recently I thought that BBQing was latin for 'thick black crust but cold inside'.
My girlfriend has spent a lot of time in the states and in the four and a half years I've been with her she has continually drummed in to me that I have NOOO idea what real BBQ is like. She love to cook and is a massive fan of slow cooking and will always cook ribs for several hours in the oven or roasts over night to eat for lunch the next day.
When she said she was going to introduce me to her 'special rub' I was a little upset and shocked when it turned out to be for the food but was far from disappointed. She does an amzing BBQ sauce too I have never tasted anything like this in England and our friends are all hooked on it.
So, after well over a year watching 'Diners, Drive ins and Dives' and 'Man vs Food' and drooling and then her still telling me that she wishes I could experience it, I got on the internet, found some sites and build myself an Ugly Drum Smoker
It remains true to it's name and is a little rough but it will hold 115c-125c for hours on end.
Our first food burn went on some thin pork steaks, WOW!! and chicken thighs, WOWOWOWO, the chicken worried me as the smoke ring went that deep it was pink when you bit in to it so I was sure it was raw, but I put my trust in my thermometer which said it was cooked and my mouth was very pleased.
Then we went on to some bigger foods : )
A small pork shoulder, I think this went for 7 hours
Then we tried multiple items, a brisket and a fatty? (pork mince layed out on a platted base of streaky bacon with a chorizo in the middle and all rolled up) and then we had two rasher of bacon left so put them on
We ate the bacon after 40 mins and it was like a party in my mouth.
Can't remember how long the brisket went on for but I think it was about 6 hours
And the fatty was done I think in 4.5 hours
Her indoors actually welled up a little as we tried each one, she said she'd not tasted stuff like that for many years and it took her right back to being younger.
All the smoking was done with Hickory chips, I'm looking forward to getting loads of tips as I have completely fallen in love with this way of cooking and maybe meeting any people who are nearby.
Cheers and sorry for the long intro
