UpSouth BBQ

After looking at a lot of cookers.  I decided that a WSM 22.5 in. was the way to go.  It can hold a lot of food and even wins at competition BBQ events all the time.  It did not break the bank and I’ll eventually add a Stoker from Rock’s BBQ later.  I have also found one of the best books for beginners “Low and Slow“.  I love this book.  It simply breaks down BBQ into 5 lessons each one developed to teach a different principal building on each other until you have a firm grasp of BBQ and your cooker.  The author even has a forum devoted the the lessons and lots of tips and answers.  If you are just starting out or even a semi-pro get the book.  It’s great.  I will be posting lesson one in the next few days.

Here is my criteria for a BBQ/Smoker

Criteria

1. I love my wife so this cant be so expensive that she would leave me or get steaming mad.  My hope is that the cost of the smoker will be forgotten or forgiven with one bite of brisket.  So it’s got to cook great BBQ and not break the bank. (For now)
2. I like my sleep.  So my thinking is this. “Can the smoker last most, if not all, of the process with out a lot of reloading of the fire box.
3. From what I can gather one of the biggest areas of concern is temperature control.  So we really need to keep it simple and accurate, for both the pit and the meat temperatures.
4. Size.  Its got to be able to cook for a crowd and be viable for the competitions too.  That may mean multiple cookers at a competition. So once again we need to refer to #1 on the cost.
5. Then there is the cool factor.  There has to be something about the pit that is just cool.

I think that’s a good list.  As I look into the options I may add to the list but for now I think this will be good enough.  My next posting will be on what I find and how it compares to my list.