Barbecue

I love to cook and I love barbecue. When I lived in California I’d take a trip across America every summer. One summer I was on the road 23 days and ate barbecue 26 times.

Several years ago I went to Memphis one cold November weekend and trained to be a barbecue judge. Memphis in May is an annual tradition in Memphis. It’s the world championships of barbecue and for many years I got to participate. What a great fun time it is. I have many dear friends in Memphis.

For my birthday one year I decided to buy a smoker and give smoking ribs a try. The first set of ribs I tried smoking was on my birthday that year and it was a disaster. I put cold water in the steam reservoir, I didn’t let the smoker heat up enough and after four and a half hours I had ribs that weren’t all that good.

The next year COVID struck. It was a trying time for all of us. Every Sunday I would smoke ribs. I soon began to understand it was my form of therapy. And with all that smoking of ribs my ribs started getting better and better.

Now I can produce yummy ribs anytime I want. There is nothing like the look on someone’s face when they eat good barbecue. The method I use is in Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room by Melissa Cookston. I met her once in Memphis. Her method of smoking ribs is really great.

The lesson I learned from smoking ribs is patience. You ain’t cookin’ if you’re lookin’ is a famous barbecue saying. Just let the ribs smoke.

The other lesson I learned is that when you try something new of course you’re going to screw things up. That first set of ribs and many after were screw ups. But eventually through trial and error I learned to make good ribs. Hmm, I wonder if I shouldn’t do some soon.