Back to Basics for Stick Burners- Smoking Blind?

DownHomeQue said:

I think all these electronic device are making people to dependent on them.. Like they wont be able to cook if the device stops working.. wtf.. what happened to BBQing.. i think much to many of our fellow BBQuers have gotten way to dependent on devices.. IMHO

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AMEN!!!!!:thumb:

I smoke old school on my horizontal wood burner, cinderblock pit, underground pit and open flame cooking. My drums have built in thermos though.
Still haven't convinced myself to buy a Thermapen....just haven't found a need for it yet.

I once had an old Mazda Protégé which somehow had lost the function of it's speedometer, but having driven it for so long I knew what the RPMs were at various speeds and I drove that old Mazda for a couple of years like that. Just like with that car, if you know your pit you don't need a bunch of contraptions to know how well it's performing. In my old NB Black Diamond I know by the size of my fire as to what kind of temperature I'll have in the cooking area and I know exactly how often I need to feed a stick to it to maintain the heat. The pit has a thermometer on it but it's off by at least 50 degrees due to the fact that it's a really cheap one and it was placed by the manufacturer at the top of the lid where the temp is way hotter than at cooking grate level. My new pit has several Tel-Tru's on it and they are very accurate but I'm getting to know how big to make my fires and how to maintain them to hold certain temps. In time I'll be able to cook on the new pit with the same confidence as I did with the old NB. I'll never use a Guru or Stoker and at the end of the day it's all about what the meat looks and feels like as to weather it's done or not. I do have a cheap cordless leave in thermometer that I bought at a grocery store for about $15.00 and I use that from time to time to give me a ballpark idea of what the internal temp is on a brisket or a pork butt but it is certainly not a necessity and if it crapped out on me, life would still go on because I know how long it takes to cook a brisket or a butt on my pit. I feel sorry for the people out there that have gotten so dependent on technology. They're missing the really great things about making Q and those are the rewards derived from an awesome piece of meat that you have created from a tough, almost useless cut that otherwise would have been ground into hamburger or sausage and doing it with your knowledge of fire management and your pit. Q is not just a backyard pastime for some of us, it's a tradition and a real art!:wink:

When cooking at home on m Langs we only use the Tel Tru that are on the cooker.

Beyond that it's time, beer, and a chair to watch the fire.

I only use a thermometer, but I am not against other devices. With todays prices of meats if you needs the extra insurance to make the end product come out better with a lower chance of waste due to over/undercooking im all for it.

I am a simple guy, but I don't shun improvements to a process. I look at it this way, I am glad to know that if I had to have a foot removed, the surgeon is not going to break out a common hack saw and tell me to bite down on this stick. The end result of surgeries and many bbq meal preps have greatly improved with a little help from technological advancements.

Do you need to know how to BBQ with out gadgets including pit therms?...YES

Can you turn out a better product with better precision with good therms and remote therms?...YES

Is there anything wrong with temp controllers and therms if you know what is going on and can recognize if something is wrong? NO

I like the analogy of the calculators . Who said that Ron?