Who or What was your BBQ inspiration?

[OakPit]

Not trying to be touchy feely, but I began thinking about my first days as a BBQ guy. I thought back to my young days and the Santa Maria pit master I had as a good friend and later, a Father in Law that could double as the same. What was your inspiration to get started?

 

[42BBQ]

Great question Tim!

My inspiration was some great Que I had near Bristol TN at a place called Ridgewood BBQ. Small place, well off the beaten path with only a small sign on the highway indicating the place even exists. Had an amazing brisket sandwich that I'll not soon forget.

Couple that with a show on the Food Network about 2 years ago now where some old geezer of a Pitmaster said he learned Que on a home made pit built out of a 55 gallon drum. Last spring I googled "55 gallon drum" and "BBQ" and happened upon The Pickled Pig website, now The BBQ Bug (whose founder is member here). The Pickled Pig had a UDS tutorial that heavily referenced the Brethren Ugly Drum Smoker thread.

So in the process of my UDS build I lurked pretty hard on that thread and was inspired by guys like Norcoredneck, Big Mista, and Thom Emery. Their advice, that I only obtained YEARS after their original posts, was invaluable. Now I look to lots of guys here, guys with years upon years more experience than I have. I count on many but to just name one more I gotta go with Pitmaster Donnie T himself, Barbefunkoramaque. Sorry for the rest of you "babbling farkers" that I missed. Should have summed it all up to just say THIS PLACE INSPIRES ME!

 

[monty3777]

My dad. He never cooked BBQ with me. He owned his own business and due to the demands placed on him in that business he wasn't home much. I'm certainly not complaining. I know he worked hard for me and would have given everything for me and my brothers and sister. He died when I was 12 and because my mom died when I was an infant I was orphaned. Now that I'm a father to three young boys I have an overwhelming need to pass along memories and experiences, and I thought that every kid should learn to Q from his dad. When I found out my wife was pregnant seven years ago I went and bought a smoker. My only aspiration in Q is to hand down a skill to my kids.

 

[jmilleronaire]

I've always liked packing food into my word-hole, but bbq was never much of a special event to me... I enjoyed famous daves and the like. Until my cousin that lives in Texas got married, and her husband's family threw the grooms dinner. Low and slow brisket was absolutely wonderful there, that's what I seek to someday be able to do.

One of the reasons that I like to have people over to enjoy the bbq I make is that I know that it was partly the good company that made the food great.

 

[Shinka]

As a youngster the local Fire Dept would do their yearly cook in the street. You could smell those ribs for miles!

Once I got married, the wife & I would visit Nash TN and no matter where we would end up eating at, we always had some awesome BBQ.

One day figured I wanted to try to see what I could make so I purchased the basic hardware store offset smoker and the results were surprisingly good. Been bit by the Que bug ever since...

 

[Brian in Maine]

I've been smoke roasting for about 25 years on a kettle grill. About 10 years ago I bought a ECB for $15 at the Home Quarters, but I really didn't know any thing about Q. In 2003, I bought a Bandera, and found The BBQ Forum. That was in the days when folks such as Bigwheel. Rick Salmon, Stogie, Jim Minnion, and Danny Gaulden were more than generous with advise for someone like me in the BBQ deprived North East. I owe most of my BBQ knowledge to those gentlemen.

 

[El Lobo]

Not many BBQ-ing shows get aired in Canada. Of the ones that did, Steven Raichlen stood out. He introduced many Canadian's to que and a little smokin'. While I'm self taught, thanks to forums like this one, he's definitely an influence.

I also owe a lot to the fine American folk who came up here for rib fests. I never missed a chance to pick their brains and they were always happy to share their knowledge. I can't put my finger on any one, but suffice it to say you Americans showed us a lot.

 

[rondini]

Back in the early 80's I wanted good Jerky and Smoked Fish so I started out with a Little Chief Top Loader

 

[R2Egg2Q]

After careful consideration, I'd probably have to say the bearded gentleman in this pic:

Bo McSwine (yes his real name), of Bo's BBQ in Lafayette, CA. When he first opened (I think probably 10+ years ago), his place probably seated around 12 people and he and his wife did everything. His brisket blew me away and I got hooked on eating it. This pic was taken 9+ years ago.

Since then, his restaurant was listed on the SF Chronicle's Bay Area Top 100 restaurants list (was the only BBQ joint on the list) and he expanded to over twice the size and added a bunch of staff. We started noticing issues with consistency in quality and after making my own BBQ, I stopped going there.

However it wasn't until a friend bought a WSM a few years later and produced some ribs that I thought to myself "if he can do it why can't I?".

 

[bmanMA]

I'll say my FIL. He doesnt have a smoker but introduced me to low and slow on a gasser. I took it from there and have not looked back!

 

[devious]

ill say it was my ECB that was givin to me by my neighbor.

 

[Bluesman]

Mine has to be my need to cook. Looking for a recipe I found this site. Nuff said. Smoke on!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gtr]

A couple of things - when I lived in Austin, I had a housemate from Vidor who was a great cook and q'uer - first brisket I ever ate was his - I was used to pulled pork. We used to eat at Sam's a lot in Austin & loved it.

Also I worked for awhile in a bbq restaurant in Knoxville TN & the smell and taste of that stuff (which apparently ain't the same these days) made me want to cook it myself. When I settled down one of the first things I did was get an ecb and I've been q'ing ever since. It used to be an occasional thing, but now it's every weekend.

 

[Bourbon Barrel BBQ]

When I bought my first house and got married I went to Home Depot and bought a $50 grill with an offset on the side. I grilled a bunch and dabbled in some BBQ but had no clue what I was doing. When I mean no clue I mean no clue. Nobody I knew cooked BBQ and I hadn't yet discovered BBQ on the internet so I just winged it. My first brisket I kid you not was a corned beef brisket from Kroger. Ribs and Pork were dredged in BBQ sauce and brown sugar at the beginning of the cook. They had a nice burnt candy shell by the time it was over. Its funny and slightly embarrassing now but true. I never got terribly serious about BBQ until a few years later. My hobbies at the time included racing cars but after my son was born I realized I needed a hobby that I could do at home. I found myself cooking more and more on the weekends. My wonderful mother actually bought me a BGE for my first fathers day and the hook was set. I had no idea about competitions I just loved cooking at home and for family functions. I'll be the first to admit BBQ pitmasters got me thinking about comps. I figured I would just do one to see what it was like. Before long it was a sickness. What went from a hobby I could do on my back porch turned into spending more money than racing cars and traveling hundreds of miles on the weekends. My wife god love her has been "fairly" supportive. The conversation on why I need a 24 foot enclosed trailer to cook BBQ was interesting.

 

[NRA4Life]

Never made any Q until I watched Alton Brown do his flower pot pork butt...and I thought, hey I can do that. And it took off from there.

 

[kevine]

A few of the above apply to me...eating "bbq" at restaurants, and wanting to tweak it, and the idea of having a "hobby" that included family and friends hanging out, drinking beer and eating really good food. I also do it to be able to pass it along to my kids, as Monty mentioned above, but never thought of it as my inspiration. Giving it more thought though, it is something I have been slowly teaching my girls what to do. It'll be interesting meeting their first serious boyfriends, and knowing that my girls can out q them boys....I'll make sure to post something about it...in about 15-20 years!

 

[cheez]

Gotta be my dad. They had moved to Texas; first time I visited they took us out for barbecue, I'd really never had anything like that at home in Ohio. On a later visit, dad made brisket on the NBBD he had gotten. No mods on it, hot spot here, cool spot there, started his charcoal the old way -yup, with lighter fluid -, but it was still pretty good. I decided that I wanted to learn to make some Q. I did a little research (my wife hates it when I do that, I never settle for the cheapest way to do something), and decided that a Bandera was a fit for my foray into barbecue. While doing my research I found a group on Yahoo that revolved around the Bandera. I was lucky enough to be a part of the fun farkers who moved away from that original group :heh:
Inspiration from Dad, but knowledge from my Brothers :thumb:

 

[LMAJ]

My Mom bought a small Brinikman for my Dad after they went to the Pacific NW - he wanted to smoke salmon. He passed before he used it and I got re-gifted with the cooker and that's when I started cooking. Since then, Big Al has gotten interested and now we cook together - and I love it.

 

[btcg]

Myron Mixon.

 

[BBQ Bandit]

Sounds a little corny coming from me... its the Brethren community.

Thought I knew BBQ... and burned thru a few ECB's and thought I knew enough to cook smoked meats...although at today's definition... should have been stated "barely edible".

That entire concept changed when finding this forum after buying a BSKD.

The depth of knowledge and content, with a bunch of online supporters of multi-faceted comedic comradery with the depth of character and humanity sealed my fate. Its a place where I can feel at home among my own kind of people.

The inspiration takes on a higher plane of awareness once matching Brethren names with faces. The connection becomes a much stronger bond.

Sharing an hour, day, weekend, among those who have shared their time with me... priceless.