Hi, everyone, this is my first post, just wanted to say hello and that I'm genuinely excited to have joined what looks to be one great forum. I'm a chef from Washington state and my wife comes from Kentucky, we own a burger joint in Prague, Czech Republic, but we also do a smoked pulled pork sandwich and one smoked beef burger.
In 2009, before we opened our joint and since my background in BBQ was pretty much one big “crockpot crutch,” we drove the Southern Foodways Alliance trail starting in KY to learn as much as we could about regional BBQ, ending our trip at David Klose's factory. Aside from a diversion in tamales and Cajun, for four weeks we were tasting/trying BBQ for nearly every meal. In Austin we finally decided we'd had enough “learnin',” and I ended up eating so much pizza I got sick. I gained 15 pounds and we did not even make it to Salt Lick. (Which, however, is a great excuse to return to Texas!)
Ironically, there's not much of a “low and slow” smoking culture in the Czech Republic, and the smokers for sale here reflect that. My option was either a Bradley or one of those cheapy charcoal water smokers you get at Walmart for $59.99. The answer was obvious--we bought two of the cheapy water smokers and combined them to make a three-rack version for our bar (in the pic). Which brings me to joining BBQ Brethren: we'd like to do more smoking and BBQ catering.
We looked into a Backwoods Competitor, but they retail for $6000 in Germany, so unless a rich relative leaves us way too much dough, we're going to have to build something! (And then I'm going to have to learn how to cook more than a pork butt.)
Anyway, sorry for talking your ears off, just looking forward to being a part of the community and I hope I can eventually contribute as much as I will be asking!
In 2009, before we opened our joint and since my background in BBQ was pretty much one big “crockpot crutch,” we drove the Southern Foodways Alliance trail starting in KY to learn as much as we could about regional BBQ, ending our trip at David Klose's factory. Aside from a diversion in tamales and Cajun, for four weeks we were tasting/trying BBQ for nearly every meal. In Austin we finally decided we'd had enough “learnin',” and I ended up eating so much pizza I got sick. I gained 15 pounds and we did not even make it to Salt Lick. (Which, however, is a great excuse to return to Texas!)
Ironically, there's not much of a “low and slow” smoking culture in the Czech Republic, and the smokers for sale here reflect that. My option was either a Bradley or one of those cheapy charcoal water smokers you get at Walmart for $59.99. The answer was obvious--we bought two of the cheapy water smokers and combined them to make a three-rack version for our bar (in the pic). Which brings me to joining BBQ Brethren: we'd like to do more smoking and BBQ catering.
We looked into a Backwoods Competitor, but they retail for $6000 in Germany, so unless a rich relative leaves us way too much dough, we're going to have to build something! (And then I'm going to have to learn how to cook more than a pork butt.)
Anyway, sorry for talking your ears off, just looking forward to being a part of the community and I hope I can eventually contribute as much as I will be asking!
