I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
barbecuing?

In my own case, my folks would get ribs from a black beer joint a few
blocks away (Bruner's). Ocey cooked the ribs slow over smoke and sauced
them with his own KC-type sauce. I'd almost eat the bones they were so
good. I was just a grade schooler when my dad let me purchase my first
shallow tray-type of charcoal burner. I'd not cooked before, but
quickly learned how to cook burgers and steaks over the charcoal.

Later, my dad and a friend laid up a block/firebrick wood cooker out
back. It was made for grilling, unfortunately, but back in the 50's,
that's about all most people did there in my area. Following marriage,
there was a succession of grills, hooded grills and gas grills until
after a move to NC. Back then, ribs were preboiled and finished over
charcoal or gas, slathered with KC Masterpiece sauce. It was good and I
still do that today on occasions when we want nostalgia food.

With our move to NC, smoked, low and slow, meats were the hit, and after
a number of attempts, i laid up a smoker that worked like a charm using
preburn hardwoods. I also kept my gas grill and used it several times a
week for grilling. Ribs, butts and briskets were done low and slow,
however, and I played around a lot with rubs, mops and sauces.

Following a move to NV, where I cook outdoors almost every evening, I
move between a large gas grill with side burner and IR rotisserie, IR
char/rare grill and a Bradley smoker. If I were to do preburn, the fire
department would cite me, and the slight benefit from charcoal is offset
by the hassle of disposing of the ash and lighting the chimney. I've
found my Bradley, now fitted with a Pitboss digital controller to be an
ideal smoker for my quantity of meat, and low hassle factor.
--
Nonny

Nonnymus
A penny saved is obviously a
government oversight.

Nonnymus wrote:
I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
barbecuing?

In my own case, my folks would get ribs from a black beer joint a few
blocks away (Bruner's). Ocey cooked the ribs slow over smoke and
sauced them with his own KC-type sauce. I'd almost eat the bones
they were so good. I was just a grade schooler when my dad let me
purchase my first shallow tray-type of charcoal burner. I'd not
cooked before, but quickly learned how to cook burgers and steaks
over the charcoal.

Yowza! Check out the Jameson book Smoke and Spice for information on the
legendary Bruner's. I cut my childhood KC barbecue teeth at another
legendary joint, Boyd's.

MartyB in KC

Nunya Bidnits wrote:
Nonnymus wrote:
I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
barbecuing?

In my own case, my folks would get ribs from a black beer joint a few
blocks away (Bruner's). Ocey cooked the ribs slow over smoke and
sauced them with his own KC-type sauce. I'd almost eat the bones
they were so good. I was just a grade schooler when my dad let me
purchase my first shallow tray-type of charcoal burner. I'd not
cooked before, but quickly learned how to cook burgers and steaks
over the charcoal.

Yowza! Check out the Jameson book Smoke and Spice for information on the
legendary Bruner's. I cut my childhood KC barbecue teeth at another
legendary joint, Boyd's.

MartyB in KC

Ocey's place was just 2-1/2 blocks from my dad's house and 3 HOUSES away
from Mrs. Nonny's. His sauce was commercially marketed for a while, but
I've not seen it in years. It was a really "jumping" beer joint back in
the '50;s. This was during the days of semi-segregation, so most of the
white folk would call ahead and Ocey would bring the ribs, wrapped in
the Democrat News newspaper out to their cars.

I believe that his niece or some other fairly close kin still has a
place there in Marshall- behind the Wood and Houston Bank branch on
Arrow Street. My daughter "discovered" it while attending Missouri
Valley College, and we felt that the ribs were as good as we remembered
old Ocey cooking. We're going to be in Marshall this August for a class
reunion and I'll report in about whether the place is still there and is
as good as it was in the 90's. It was in a single family residence
then, and it's probably still in the same place.

Local legend has it that Ocey sold his sauce recipe back in the early
50's to the good folk making Hunt's (now Hunt's original), but I have no
proof of that beyond legend. I don't have the book you mention, but if
there's anything about Bruner's online, I'd sure appreciate the URL.
--
Nonny

Nonnymus
A penny saved is obviously a
government oversight.

"Nonnymus" wrote in message
...
I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
barbecuing?


grew up grilling on the great plains of NFD---moved to Wisc about 30yrs ago
started getting lots of salmon in the freezer so bought an orange ECB and
started smoking a gazillion lbs of fish it seems. Then about 15yrs ago the
internet appeared at our house and somehow ended up on some cooking lists
then to the bbq forums--the old Thead forum was a marvelous resource!!!
Now it seems most everything we do has something to do with bbq--last
weekend was a quick trip to Miss to hang a bit with friends and cook abunch
of food.
Don't even want to know how much is 'invested' in this hobby!!!\
Buzz






In my own case, my folks would get ribs from a black beer joint a few
blocks away (Bruner's). Ocey cooked the ribs slow over smoke and sauced
them with his own KC-type sauce. I'd almost eat the bones they were so
good. I was just a grade schooler when my dad let me purchase my first
shallow tray-type of charcoal burner. I'd not cooked before, but quickly
learned how to cook burgers and steaks over the charcoal.

Later, my dad and a friend laid up a block/firebrick wood cooker out back.
It was made for grilling, unfortunately, but back in the 50's, that's
about all most people did there in my area. Following marriage, there was
a succession of grills, hooded grills and gas grills until after a move to
NC. Back then, ribs were preboiled and finished over charcoal or gas,
slathered with KC Masterpiece sauce. It was good and I still do that
today on occasions when we want nostalgia food.

With our move to NC, smoked, low and slow, meats were the hit, and after a
number of attempts, i laid up a smoker that worked like a charm using
preburn hardwoods. I also kept my gas grill and used it several times a
week for grilling. Ribs, butts and briskets were done low and slow,
however, and I played around a lot with rubs, mops and sauces.

Following a move to NV, where I cook outdoors almost every evening, I move
between a large gas grill with side burner and IR rotisserie, IR char/rare
grill and a Bradley smoker. If I were to do preburn, the fire department
would cite me, and the slight benefit from charcoal is offset by the
hassle of disposing of the ash and lighting the chimney. I've found my
Bradley, now fitted with a Pitboss digital controller to be an ideal
smoker for my quantity of meat, and low hassle factor.
--
Nonny

Nonnymus
A penny saved is obviously a
government oversight.

2fatbbq wrote:

Don't even want to know how much is 'invested' in this hobby!!!\
Buzz

It sure isn't about money here at the Nonnyhouse. It's about food,
company and pleasure.

--
Nonny

Nonnymus
A penny saved is obviously a
government oversight.

2fatbbq wrote:
"Nonnymus" wrote in message
...
I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
barbecuing?


grew up grilling on the great plains of NFD---moved to Wisc about
30yrs ago started getting lots of salmon in the freezer so bought an
orange ECB and started smoking a gazillion lbs of fish it seems.
Then about 15yrs ago the internet appeared at our house and somehow
ended up on some cooking lists then to the bbq forums--the old Thead
forum was a marvelous resource!!! Now it seems most everything we do
has something to do with bbq--last weekend was a quick trip to Miss
to hang a bit with friends and cook abunch of food.
Don't even want to know how much is 'invested' in this hobby!!!\
Buzz

You've got it down as an "investment" too? Dang, we musta met the same
salesman!

MartyB in KC

2fatbbq wrote:
Then about 15yrs ago the internet appeared at our house and somehow
ended up on some cooking lists then to the bbq forums--the old Thead
forum was a marvelous resource!!! Now it seems most everything we do
has something to do with bbq--last weekend was a quick trip to Miss
to hang a bit with friends and cook abunch of food.
Don't even want to know how much is 'invested' in this hobby!!!\
Buzz

My first experience was on a trip to North Carolina to train a salesman at a
new plant we had in Durham. We went to lunch and had "barbecue". Until that
time (about 1986) I though barbecue was grilling a chicken and putting that
bottled red sauce on it. The barbecue has some clear sauce and was just
shredded pork. What a way to learn about barbecue. I had it for lunch
every day that I was there.

That started me on a quest to make it myself up here in Yankee land. I
found a couple of books, and later, the internet. I too, was on the Thead
list and it was the best source of barbecue knowledge assembled in one CPU
and Monitor. Met some great people and learned quite a few skills.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

Strange.. sitting here thinking about it, I can't recall. It seems
there has always been barbecue in my life, but I sure didn't start as
early as Nonny! It was just one of those things we all took for
granted.

When we were kids and different families got together for whatever
reason that might be, there was always grilling, barbecue and cold
beer.

I was laughing about this the other day with my aged father. When we
were kiddos around 1960 we would go see my uncle and he would put out
a huge spread, and would grill and smoke all day. Our laugh came when
I told my Dad how I thought the grownups got screwed when they had
steaks instead of all the grilled hamburgers and hot dogs we ate. In
my mind, I was watching them struggle with cutting up a solid piece of
meat instead of just being able to slather a bun with mustard and get
after it.

To make things worse, they had to drink beer instead of Nehi or HiC.
They didn't even get ice in their drinks!

Somehow I don't think they minded.

Robert

On 26-Mar-2008, Nonnymus wrote:

2fatbbq wrote:

Don't even want to know how much is 'invested' in this hobby!!!\
Buzz

It sure isn't about money here at the Nonnyhouse. It's about food,
company and pleasure.

--
Nonny

Ditto what Nonny said. It's all about food and company. At my house
it ain't about contests and/or braggin rights, it's all about who wants
to bring some beer and sides and eat some of Brick's 'Q'.
--
Brick(Youth is wasted on young people)

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
. net...

2fatbbq wrote:
Then about 15yrs ago the internet appeared at our house and somehow
ended up on some cooking lists then to the bbq forums--the old Thead
forum was a marvelous resource!!! Now it seems most everything we do
has something to do with bbq--last weekend was a quick trip to Miss
to hang a bit with friends and cook abunch of food.
Don't even want to know how much is 'invested' in this hobby!!!\
Buzz

My first experience was on a trip to North Carolina to train a salesman at
a new plant we had in Durham. We went to lunch and had "barbecue". Until
that time (about 1986) I though barbecue was grilling a chicken and
putting that bottled red sauce on it. The barbecue has some clear sauce
and was just shredded pork. What a way to learn about barbecue. I had it
for lunch every day that I was there.

That started me on a quest to make it myself up here in Yankee land. I
found a couple of books, and later, the internet. I too, was on the Thead
list and it was the best source of barbecue knowledge assembled in one CPU
and Monitor. Met some great people and learned quite a few skills.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/


I was on the OLD THEAD list too.
I too just got back from the weekend in Mississippi.
I built my first brick BBQ pit when I was 15 or 16 (50 years ago).
--
James A. "Big Jim" Whitten

www.lazyq.com

Big Jim wrote:
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
. net...


snip

Don't even want to know how much is 'invested' in this hobby!!!\
Buzz

My first experience was on a trip to North Carolina to train a
salesman at a new plant we had in Durham. We went to lunch and had
"barbecue". Until that time (about 1986) I though barbecue was
grilling a chicken and putting that bottled red sauce on it. The
barbecue has some clear sauce and was just shredded pork. What a
way to learn about barbecue. I had it for lunch every day that I
was there.

I saw "smoke and Spice" on a bookstore shelf in the Atlanta Intl Airport in
1993. I bought it, and after reading about 3 chapters, sought out some
Georgia style BBQ.

Up 'till then, I was a griller. I had produced a few briskets, by accident,
which were not bad, but were not BBQ.

I am way better now. (15 year apprenticeship)

In article , frohe says...

Nonnymus wrote:
I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
barbecuing?

I started when I was knee-high to my dad so I guess that makes it about 1952
or so. He had an old 55 gallon drum he cooked in every weekend.

I cannot remember when my Dad didn't grill stuff. I can remember him standing
out on a little patio in the San Francisco fog and grilling chicken or steak. He
bought a ceramic cooker like the Big Green Egg back in the 1960s that was
imported from China. He used to grill on that all the time.

About 4 years ago, I was in Las Vegas and ended up at Memphis Championship BBQ
for dinner. I had just purchased my own ceramic cooker--a GrillDome. Once I
tasted their BBQ I was hooked. So I bought Mike's book and started smoking ribs,
butts, and brisket.

My DVR is programmed at home to record anything with BBQ in the name or title.

I guess I'm hooked on BBQ.

Mark

Mark Filice wrote:


About 4 years ago, I was in Las Vegas and ended up at Memphis Championship BBQ
for dinner. I had just purchased my own ceramic cooker--a GrillDome. Once I
tasted their BBQ I was hooked. So I bought Mike's book and started smoking ribs,
butts, and brisket.


Memphis Cnampionship BBQ has multiple location here in LV, including one
we routinely visit. Some local barbecue pundits say that there are
better places in town, usually unknown and out of the way, but I've
never come away from Memphis Championship thinking they'd let me down.
We also now have Salt Lick BBQ, of Texas fame. From what I've seen and
heard, it too has a following.

While on the subject of BBQ in Las Vegas, one of our other favorites is
one of the little places that attracts only locals and has no Strip or
casino presence. It's a joint called Barbecue Masters
http://www.barbeque-masters.com/.\ The folk who own it cut their
teeth in TN, but also have culinary ties to Barbecue Lodge and Don
Murray's in Raleigh, which explains why we so like the place. They had
two locations, but closed the one nearer to us to seek a location with
more visibility. They feature all wood cooking. I cannot say that
their sauces are my favorites, but the meat is just like at home,
portions are generous and the owners will take the time to visit with
the regulars.

--
Nonny

Nonnymus
A penny saved is obviously a
government oversight.

Nonnymus wrote:

I believe that his niece or some other fairly close kin still has a
place there in Marshall- behind the Wood and Houston Bank branch on
Arrow Street. My daughter "discovered" it while attending Missouri
Valley College, and we felt that the ribs were as good as we
remembered old Ocey cooking. We're going to be in Marshall this
August for a class reunion and I'll report in about whether the place
is still there and is as good as it was in the 90's. It was in a
single family residence then, and it's probably still in the same
place.

Do you recall the name of the place by chance?


Local legend has it that Ocey sold his sauce recipe back in the early
50's to the good folk making Hunt's (now Hunt's original), but I have
no proof of that beyond legend. I don't have the book you mention,
but if there's anything about Bruner's online, I'd sure appreciate
the URL.

I didn't find anything else about it and it would probably take a trip to
the library or hall of records at city hall to get much more. ButI asked my
Dad about it, he's an 87 year old rolling history of KC, and of barbecues,
chocolate malts, and soda fountains in particular, and his work in
broadcasting and as an author includes information, recommendations, and
history of KC restaurants. Unfortunately, he didn't recall it. His memory is
still pretty good, just a little slow sometimes. When I mentioned Boyd's to
him he gave the Prospect address and recalled taking me there for my first
taste of barbecue ever. So you never know, he may think about Bruner's a
little more and come up with something. I'll see him later today and ask
again.

I checked the Star's (KansasCity.com) and NewsLibrary.com's online archives
and didn't hit anything.

However I highly recommend the book, and you would like it in particular
because it delves into history and people of significant areas in barbecue
history, including KC.

http://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Spice-Ba...ng/dp/15583206
1X

MartyB in KC

Nonnymus wrote:

I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
barbecuing?

In my own case, my folks would get ribs from a black beer joint a few
blocks away (Bruner's). Ocey cooked the ribs slow over smoke and sauced
them with his own KC-type sauce. I'd almost eat the bones they were so
good. I was just a grade schooler when my dad let me purchase my first
shallow tray-type of charcoal burner. I'd not cooked before, but
quickly learned how to cook burgers and steaks over the charcoal.

Later, my dad and a friend laid up a block/firebrick wood cooker out
back. It was made for grilling, unfortunately, but back in the 50's,
that's about all most people did there in my area. Following marriage,
there was a succession of grills, hooded grills and gas grills until
after a move to NC. Back then, ribs were preboiled and finished over
charcoal or gas, slathered with KC Masterpiece sauce. It was good and I
still do that today on occasions when we want nostalgia food.

With our move to NC, smoked, low and slow, meats were the hit, and after
a number of attempts, i laid up a smoker that worked like a charm using
preburn hardwoods. I also kept my gas grill and used it several times a
week for grilling. Ribs, butts and briskets were done low and slow,
however, and I played around a lot with rubs, mops and sauces.

Following a move to NV, where I cook outdoors almost every evening, I
move between a large gas grill with side burner and IR rotisserie, IR
char/rare grill and a Bradley smoker. If I were to do preburn, the fire
department would cite me, and the slight benefit from charcoal is offset
by the hassle of disposing of the ash and lighting the chimney. I've
found my Bradley, now fitted with a Pitboss digital controller to be an
ideal smoker for my quantity of meat, and low hassle factor.
--
Nonny

Nonnymus
A penny saved is obviously a
government oversight.

Grilling, too far back to remember. Q'ing when I moved to Texas (I think
it's a state requirement).