Hello to all I hope will be my new friends!
My name is Bob (61) and along with my bride of 39 years, we live in Livonia, Michigan which today happens to be quite cold....-8. We have three grown kids and two awesome grandchildren that we are rapidly spending our retirement savings on in an attempt to make them the most spoiled kids in the world!
Anyway, my working career has been in Loss Prevention with several large commercial insurance companies. I have provided safety services to many large accounts mainly in the area of construction and crane safety.
My background with outdoor cooking goes back to when i was about 8 or 9 when I would help my dad sauce ribs on our family Weber grill. I have had many grills over my life, mostly in the mid price range as you would typically find in the big box stores.
When it comes to grilled food, I'm a bit of a purist. While I will concede a bit of salt and pepper to bring out the natural flavor of food, I'm not much for layering on heavy coats of rub or sauces. If i wanted to eat spices or sauce, I would just eat them by the spoonful or take a swig out of a bottle of Open Pit! After all good meat, cooked properly, should taste good all by itself!
Over the past year I had been in the market for a new outdoor cooking unit and thought I would give smoking a try. After all there are plenty of forums on this subject with many folks seeming to like it so I thought I would do a little research.
Since I was new to the process and rather limited for space, I came across the Masterbuilt 40. And while it had a few operational problems, overall the forum writers seemed to feel that it was a pretty good product. I researched everything I could about the unit and for Christmas 2014 my wife actually got me one.
While my research was very thorough, the only thing I didn't know what what the food that came off of it tasted like.
The first few weeks we cooked ribs, chicken, a brisket and the rest of the usual outdoor fare.
It was horrifying. Everything that was cooked, no matter what recipe we followed, tasted like it was boiled. Not to mention that this unit really didn't function anywhere near what the forums said it did. Granted I might not have given it as much time as some have to perfect the process, but first impressions are usually right and this unit was not going to be for me. Last weekend it got boxed up and returned to Sam's Club.
So, I stumbled on to the Pit Barrel Cooker. And a lot of videos and comments out there point to your forum. So I thought I would join. Interestingly, of all the posts on your website and several others, i have not seen one negative post about this unit. Plus i have gotten to read some really great ideas that you all are doing with your PBC.
And with that, my cooker just got delivered today. Looking forward to unpacking it and giving it a try.
As soon as the weather warms up a bit!
Thanks and looking forward to being a part of your forum.
