Meat Smoking Hierarchy Of Pleasures - How Would You List Them?

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It's a long story, and probably better suited for the Discussion and Reflection forums, so I'll post the one sentence version of how I got into cooking Q. We were living in a new state, with new jobs... new everything, didn't know anyone, and I started smoking meat as a way to occupy my mind during difficult weekends. I had no idea it would be so therapeutic. For me, to this day, it still is.

I have discovered that I unintentionally created a mental list of things I do related to cooking barbecue. I thought I would list them here, in order of most enjoyable to least enjoyable, and ask if others here may arrange the same list in a different order.

1. Cooking the meat and tending the smoker.
2. Giving leftovers to family and friends.
3. Eating what I've cooked.
4. Talking about smoking meat with a fellow addict.
5. Cooking something in the smoker that I've never cooked before.
6. Buying a new bbq related item.
7. Catching the holiday charcoal 2-for-1 sales.
8. Setting the smoker up for a cook.
9. Looking at other smokers Online.
10. Prepping the meat to be cooked.
11. Going to buy the meat.
12. Cleaning the kitchen after eating Q.
13. Cleaning the smoker. (No matter how many changes or additions are made to this list, cleaning the Humphrey's will always be my least favorite part of my sickness).

I'm sure I could add to this list if I spent a little more time on it. Originally, it was only 5 items. In the ten minutes immediately following typing number 5, I came up with 8 more. Your thoughts and opinions are welcomed and appreciated.
 
Great list. Therapy for me as well.

I’d add this forum as a line...could be part of 4 or could stand on its own. Either way towards the top of the list. I might order a few differently. Eating my own Q is lower on the list. Shopping and prepping could be a bit higher.

Spot on with last place and include kitchen and dish cleanup too!!
 
Funny that you would mention this site being on the list. I walked away for a minute and as I was walking back to the computer, it occurred to me that I should have included the forums here near the top of the list. I've learned a lot and met some great people here.
 
I also like the list, and the only thing that I would add to it, right above the last one, is trying to explain to the wife WHY I think I need anything BBQ related when I already have xyz. She isn't a member, she wouldn't understand.
 
ronbrad62 said:
I also like the list, and the only thing that I would add to it, right above the last one, is trying to explain to the wife WHY I think I need anything BBQ related when I already have xyz. She isn't a member, she wouldn't understand.
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She just hasn't caught the "disease" yet, LOL.
 
I was talking Q with a fellow Brethren at work the other day (didn't know he was a member here, as he's never posted anything... he just reads), and he said his wife can't handle the odors when they get too overpowering, due to being pregnant and nauseated when he first got into the craft a few years ago. Ironically, she was the one who bought him his first smoker. I imagine that creates some difficulty for him when he's smelling up the house and she can't handle the aroma. But he cooks almost every weekend. He gave me a sample of some jerky he made, and it was absolutely outstanding. I've never made jerky, but now I want to .
 
Foolproof jerky. Www.owensbbq.com and buy their prepackaged jerky cure. I love the sweet and spicy the best but I’ve enjoyed all the ones I’ve tried. 5lbs of top round, partially freeze, slice thin, marinade over night. 3 hours on the smoke and 3 on the dehydrator. You’ll never eat Jacks Links again.
 
I like the list, seems to flow with the natural progression of it all when your cooking.

If I can ever get your help over here on a 90* + hot humid day for a full load cook when you feel like you might melt and die with another 8 hours left to go the task of dishes and prep work in the air conditioned commissary might change out the top and bottom of the list. :p

Some of my favorite time is still spent cooking old school on just the kettle with a lawn chair and few cold beers in the ice with not much to do before or after but enjoy the meal when it's done.
 
I want to post a second list, and it mirrors Cowgirl's list. Well, except I don't cook over campfires. I could try that, but I live in town and the neighbors may frown on it. I guess I need to go camping. I'm sure that would be relaxing and therapeutic too!
 
1 Feeding 2-200 family/friends
2 Tending the fire
3 Beer next to fire
4 Prepping the food
5 Picking out and prepping my wood
6 Eating the que when all is said and done

Clean-up is usually not bad. Most folks offer to help out.

And I don't clean my pits. Just light a hot fire.
 
Texan79423 said:
it is my relaxation the food is just a bonus.
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I couldn't agree more. If I hadn't gotten into BBQ at one of the most difficult times of my life, I honestly believe I could have lost my mind. I told my wife that cooking Q may have saved my life. I was never suicidal, but I was definitely struggling.
 
Thanks for the ideas! This is a great conversation.
1. Cooking BBQ-I like to BBQ for parties and help people get food ready.
2. Methodology- is a double edge sword for me. I am very particular about methods and doing things the right way. (my wife might say OCD or more likely, ANAL) That causes me to stress a little during the beginning. I expect a certain result, and when I fall short, I am very critical. But, I really enjoy learning the methods and tweaking; I always want to top my past results every time I cook something.
3. Eating-I look forward to get-togethers that have good food, whether I make it or not
4. I like to talk about BBQ and pretty much all food, with anybody else who can talk.
5.I like to be gathered with a group, shooting the breeze, chatting food or sports or old stories and having a great time.
6. BBQ Brethren-I am reading or watching the forum with my face against a screen 80% of the time I am using a screen.
7. Two of my favorite smells during cooking are smoke and smoking food coming from a bbq pit, and the smell of peanut oil when a turkey is in the fryer (speaking of which, it has been waaaaaay too long).
 
Eating leftovers should have been somewhere in my list, for sure. But I think I enjoy giving leftovers away as much as I enjoy eating them. I don't know what it is about BBQ, but people just light up when you give it to them. Even when my beginner efforts were mediocre, people went nuts for it. A former coworker told me "Anything smoked is good. You can't mess it up badly enough that I wouldn't eat it." I don't know about that.
 
One of my favorite quotes:

"As a food buff, I find it awkward even to be in the company of a seemingly metabolic person who has no genuine interest in vittles. Not only in food per se, but in the process of making it exciting, esthetic, and enormously enjoyable. Too many of us lack the spirit of adventure inherent in the preparation and consumption of our daily bread...
... every second New Orleanean is an epicure; alert in the appreciation of the art of dining, dedicated to the skillful use of pots and pans.
They are aware that the stomach is at least the basis of our whole existence. It is a source of strength and weakness, of health and disease, of happiness and blues.
Yet the two series of operations which mostly concern the stomach - cooking and eating - are those which many of us devote the least thought and time."

Chef "Scoop" Kennedy, 1967 [/quote}
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