K
kparrish
Guest
My quest is to someday become a Q master, but tonight it is with humbled apprehension that I must declare, I am nothing more than an amateur, a mere novice at best. My story begins with the purchase of my first Bandera. I have dreamed of possessing one of these beauties for a many seasons, and at last the opportunity presented itself. I brought her home last weekend. I took her out of the box piece by piece careful not to lose any of the hardware. I quickly assembled her in the backyard and the pictures on the box do not do her justice.
I download the brethren’s 101 document and read every word. I was horrified! The thought of seasoning my brand new beauty; How could this be? She was perfect not a flaw anywhere, but I bit my lip and followed the instructions. I gave her a complete shower with vegetable oil, and then a six-hour burn in. Overwrought by the changes that took place I struggled to maintain my confidence. Though her outward appearance had changed, I still felt confident that this lady who was now tried and true, was ready to join me in many hours of smoking splendor.
This afternoon the time was right, I fired her up around 4:00 PM. I knew this would allow adequate time for the seasoned hickory to completely burn down to smoldering embers. I placed two 12# turkeys in her smoke box. It was an unusually cold evening and I struggled to maintain the temperature in her smoke chamber. She was to cold so I stoked her firebox with more wood. It took a long time for the hickory to start to burn. I became impatient and added more fuel. Soon her temperature was rising and smoke was billowing from her stack, blue in color this is good maybe everything will be fine.
The air was rich in the smell of hickory burning. Before long I began to here a noises coming from her smoke chamber. What can it be? What was this blackened lady trying to tell me? The water pan! The noise was coming from the water pan! It was boiling! I checked her temperature and discovered that she was now to hot. I mean way to hot! What should I do? I knew the birds couldn’t take that much heat for long, so I opened the door to her smoke chamber. Smoke billowed out around me. It was so think I couldn’t see the water pan or the birds. As the smoke cleared away I could see that the birds were dark and crispy around the edges. These were not going to be the perfect Q I had in mind.
Although I have stumbled on my journey to become a Q master, I did learn some valuable lessons about the Bandera, and there is one thing more I would like to share. If you remove the skin and bones and cut the meat into small pieces, smoked turkey makes a wonderful Brunswick stew.
kparrish
I download the brethren’s 101 document and read every word. I was horrified! The thought of seasoning my brand new beauty; How could this be? She was perfect not a flaw anywhere, but I bit my lip and followed the instructions. I gave her a complete shower with vegetable oil, and then a six-hour burn in. Overwrought by the changes that took place I struggled to maintain my confidence. Though her outward appearance had changed, I still felt confident that this lady who was now tried and true, was ready to join me in many hours of smoking splendor.
This afternoon the time was right, I fired her up around 4:00 PM. I knew this would allow adequate time for the seasoned hickory to completely burn down to smoldering embers. I placed two 12# turkeys in her smoke box. It was an unusually cold evening and I struggled to maintain the temperature in her smoke chamber. She was to cold so I stoked her firebox with more wood. It took a long time for the hickory to start to burn. I became impatient and added more fuel. Soon her temperature was rising and smoke was billowing from her stack, blue in color this is good maybe everything will be fine.
The air was rich in the smell of hickory burning. Before long I began to here a noises coming from her smoke chamber. What can it be? What was this blackened lady trying to tell me? The water pan! The noise was coming from the water pan! It was boiling! I checked her temperature and discovered that she was now to hot. I mean way to hot! What should I do? I knew the birds couldn’t take that much heat for long, so I opened the door to her smoke chamber. Smoke billowed out around me. It was so think I couldn’t see the water pan or the birds. As the smoke cleared away I could see that the birds were dark and crispy around the edges. These were not going to be the perfect Q I had in mind.
Although I have stumbled on my journey to become a Q master, I did learn some valuable lessons about the Bandera, and there is one thing more I would like to share. If you remove the skin and bones and cut the meat into small pieces, smoked turkey makes a wonderful Brunswick stew.
kparrish