huminie
is one Smokin' Farker
I was shopping at one of my local big box hardware stores...the one with the LOWESt prices...and I walked down the main BBQ aisle. In this aisle they have a number of various BBQ supplies and a few smokers. A couple of Brinkman bullets, a flimsy gasser and a smaller and just as flimsy electric. That is it.
I stop to look at some stuff and I overhear an employee talking to a customer about one of the smokers. I hear the customer asking questions that told me he had no idea how to smoke and the employee trying to answer them, but not doing very well at all. The customer opens up the gasser and asks how it works and the employee stumbles through it. I have been biting my tongue the whole time, but when I notice that the thing is assembled all wrong in the inside, I have to speak up.
So I tell him I know how one of these works and I proceed to remove the water pan from being next to the burner, move the woodbox down, move a shelf to where the wood box was and put the water pan above the wood box. I explain how it is supposed to work and the customer seems grateful that I stepped in. He then tells the employee he has plans to smoke 12lbs of tri tip and he asks him how long that should take.
The employee tells him he smokes tri-tip for 14 hours. :shock:
Whoa! So I ask him what temp he cooks at and what the final temp of the meat is. He says he cooks at 220 and pulls when it is 137! So I let the guy know that tri-tip won't take longer than an hour and a half and that he needs to check on it at about an hour to see how it is doing. I also explain how to put a thermometer inside the unit so he will know what the temp is inside the unit. As I am explaining this, another employee comes up and corrects me, stating that "this unit has a thermometer on the door" so another thermometer isn't necessary. :doh:
So the customer then points to the smokers on the rack and asks me which one I would buy. The small electric, the gasser or one of the brinkman bullets. Oh man, what a question. So I look at the employee and tell him to plug his ears. I then tell him that I would by a WSM. He then tells me he wants one today, so which of these would I buy. So I choose the lesser of evils and point to the gasser. At least it has the space he needs and he will be able to control the fire easily enough. I then point him to the wood chunks over the chips and I am on my way.
I run into him a bit later in another area of the store and he asks me about the thermometers again as he is confused between internal of the smoker and internal of the meat. I get this all cleared up for him and he is now on his way to his BBQ journey. I also invited him out to a local contest I will be out in a couple weeks, so hopefully he will show up and I can help him some more!
I stop to look at some stuff and I overhear an employee talking to a customer about one of the smokers. I hear the customer asking questions that told me he had no idea how to smoke and the employee trying to answer them, but not doing very well at all. The customer opens up the gasser and asks how it works and the employee stumbles through it. I have been biting my tongue the whole time, but when I notice that the thing is assembled all wrong in the inside, I have to speak up.
So I tell him I know how one of these works and I proceed to remove the water pan from being next to the burner, move the woodbox down, move a shelf to where the wood box was and put the water pan above the wood box. I explain how it is supposed to work and the customer seems grateful that I stepped in. He then tells the employee he has plans to smoke 12lbs of tri tip and he asks him how long that should take.
The employee tells him he smokes tri-tip for 14 hours. :shock:
Whoa! So I ask him what temp he cooks at and what the final temp of the meat is. He says he cooks at 220 and pulls when it is 137! So I let the guy know that tri-tip won't take longer than an hour and a half and that he needs to check on it at about an hour to see how it is doing. I also explain how to put a thermometer inside the unit so he will know what the temp is inside the unit. As I am explaining this, another employee comes up and corrects me, stating that "this unit has a thermometer on the door" so another thermometer isn't necessary. :doh:
So the customer then points to the smokers on the rack and asks me which one I would buy. The small electric, the gasser or one of the brinkman bullets. Oh man, what a question. So I look at the employee and tell him to plug his ears. I then tell him that I would by a WSM. He then tells me he wants one today, so which of these would I buy. So I choose the lesser of evils and point to the gasser. At least it has the space he needs and he will be able to control the fire easily enough. I then point him to the wood chunks over the chips and I am on my way.
I run into him a bit later in another area of the store and he asks me about the thermometers again as he is confused between internal of the smoker and internal of the meat. I get this all cleared up for him and he is now on his way to his BBQ journey. I also invited him out to a local contest I will be out in a couple weeks, so hopefully he will show up and I can help him some more!
