What a fantastic topic! I love all of the stories thus far except for Tee's, he's holding out
I guess I share what a lot of you have already said, I grew up with my Dad manning the grill (not very well mind you) and actually got used to his blackened chicken (not cajun blackened either,lol), meatball burgers and burnt hot dogs and steak. Hell, I thought that's just how it was! Steak was to be very well done and eaten with steak sauce, sometimes even (wait for it)..........KETCHUP! Oh the humanity!
It wasn't until my 18th birthday that I saw the light. My brother came down and cooked me a New York Strip that he marinated in Dale's marinade, cooked it a shade better than medium but not med well and it was THE BEST STEAK I'D EVER EATEN at the time anyway. I was amazed at how easily it cut AND chewed, this was not my Dad's tough shoe leather ribeye, no sir. This was good eats.
That got the ball rolling. I married very young and at the ripe old age of 24 or so I bought a cheap little Hibachi and would cook burgers and dogs on it every once in a blue moon. It wasn't until I was maybe 29 or 30 that I got really into cooking outdoors though. I was renting a house at the time that had a natural gas hookup on the deck so I took a cheap LP grill that I had but never used and converted it to use NG and then I began cooking on that POS gasser all the time! That lead to me buying a little cheapo Brinkmann water smoker and that led to a generic charcoal grill. I had a gasser, charcoal grill and smoker and was happy!
I had MANY failures cooking on that water smoker so I put my BBQ cooking on extended pause for a while and focused more on grilling. I got to where I could feed a crowd and no one got sick, lol. I thought I was the cock of the walk (old school term for you younguns, Google it!).
As time went on, I really wanted to get back into smoking, making BBQ, so that lead me to buy an offset smoker. It was a Cheapo Depot from Wally World but I got pretty good at it or so I thought. My life changing moment came when I went to a customer's house that had a Big Green Egg. I was curious about them, had seen them in the past but never gave it much consideration. This guy though, he started telling me how he would put a couple of pork butts on it and smoke it overnight and take it into his restaurant and serve BBQ sandwiches every once in a while. The idea of cooking unattended intrigued me to no end. I had BGE on the brain! The price is what held me back. You see, at the time I wasn't nearly as adept as I am now at sneaking things past the wife
My big break came while looking on Craigslist of all places. I was looking at used Big Green Eggs when I came across the BIG STEEL KEG! They were cheaper, wouldn't break, were portable via a hitch adapter. I was smitten
I wasn't able to get the used one as it sold quickly but was able to find a new one at a local Ace Hardware. It was $679.00 before tax and I got it as an early b-day present in 2011. From there, I learned how to smoke, grill, bake, etc on it and loved it SO much I ended up getting 2 more!
As some of you know, I became a accidental hoarder. I figured if the Keg was great, what else was I missing out on? That has lead me down the road of always looking for something to improve what I do or at least give me options on how to do it. The cool part of it all is that I got my wife hooked on the hobby as well so she has become a fantastic cook. We have learned together and have really enjoyed the last 7 years or so, learning as we go!
Forums like this make the whole experience even better, no doubt about it!