Goodbye rust, hello paint (and a thin layer of lard)

The other week, I mentioned in a Canadian online barbecue forum that I was interested in acquiring an offset smoker even though they’re almost impossible to come by in my neck of the woods (unlike our American cousins, my Canadian brethren seem to be relatively slow to turn onto real barbecue). Within a day I had a gentleman who lives very close to me offering to sell me a used offset for the low, low price of $20. And, since the seller has a pick-up truck and a job very near my house, I managed to get free delivery, too.

My wife & I figured it was a great entry level price and, if nothing else, could serve as an acid test to see if I had any aptitude for offset smoking to justify a more expensive unit.

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Brined Chili Lime Chicken

So, it’s recently come to my attention that everything I know about barbecue is wrong. In fact, it told me so on the front cover of Gary Wiviott’s book Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons.

I’m currently working my way through the lessons one at a time with some really great results, partially because I took Chapter 2: Lighting the Low & Slow Fire as a lesson in itself. To me it was one of the most important lessons I’ve yet to learn on the barbecue. Once I learned when to add the burning elements to my firebox I was pretty much set.

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