It's never too late to start smoking
Fourteen hours. Low and slow. Your first time is always the hardest, and then it has you. We are here to make sure you get through the hardest part and never look back.
Smoking worldwide, right now: 4,062 briskets and climbing
You're already thinking about it
They told me to quit. I bought a bigger smoker.
Everybody's doing it out back.
I started for the weekend. The weekend never ended.
My wife asked when I'd be done. I told her honestly: never.
The Warnings
The Gateway
Nobody starts on purpose. That is the first thing they tell you, and the only honest thing. You did not wake up one morning and decide to spend your weekends standing over a steel drum at temperatures you cannot legally discuss at a dinner party. It came for you slowly, the way good things do. A free sample. A folding chair. A neighbor who said "you should really get one of these" and then would not look you in the eye. This is the lifestyle. We are not going to pretend it is anything else, and we are not going to help you out of it. We are going to help you in.
The Free Sample
It is by the register at the gas station, next to the lottery tickets, where they put everything that will change your life. A single piece of jerky on a toothpick. Free. They are always free, at first. You tell yourself it is just one, because you are forty miles from home and the radio is bad. You finish it in the parking lot with the door open and one foot still on the asphalt. You do not buy gas. You came in for nothing and you are leaving with a beginning.
The First Rack
A cookout. Somebody's cousin has a setup. You were not going to have any because you already ate, but a man you do not know hands you a rib on a paper plate that has gone translucent in one corner, and he watches your face while you eat it, the way a man watches a fuse. You go back for a second. You go back for a third and pretend it is your second. On the drive home you are quiet. Your partner asks if you are okay. You say you are fine. You are already thinking about heat.
The Smoker, For Guests
You buy it for entertaining. That is what you tell the delivery driver, your spouse, and yourself. It is for the holidays, for when people come over, for hosting. It arrives in a box larger than the agreed-upon dimensions of a hobby. You assemble it in the garage at night. You season it the next morning, alone, with nobody coming over and no holiday on the calendar, and you stand in front of it for two hours while it does nothing but get hot, and you have never felt more useful.
Four in the Morning
You are in the yard in the dark. You set an alarm for this. You set an alarm to come out here and crouch by a metal box and lift the lid one inch and lower it again because the temperature dropped four degrees and four degrees is everything. You are whispering to a brisket. You are telling it that it is doing great, that it is almost there, that you are proud of it. You are also telling yourself that you can stop anytime, and the brisket, to its credit, does not argue with you.
You Are Home Now
There is no version of you that does not do this anymore. The patio furniture is arranged around the smoker, not the view. Your calendar is organized by cook times. People ask what you did this weekend and there is only ever one answer, and you have learned to give it quietly so they do not ask follow-up questions. You are not lost. You knew exactly where you were going the whole time. You are home. The fire is lit. It is always going to be lit.
He looks directly into the camera and does not blink. He started smoking three years ago, on a Tuesday, with a pork shoulder he is no longer in contact with. It has cost him every weekend since. He has missed weddings. He has stood in his yard at sunrise while everyone he loves was still asleep. He has no regrets. When asked, gently, to clarify what he means by smoking, he holds the silence for a long time and says only that he will not be clarifying that.
— Testimonial. The interview ended here.The Support Group
Hi. I'm Dave, and I'm a smoker. I want to be honest with all of you because I haven't been honest with myself. It started with a little electric one on the patio. Just weekends. Just for guests. Then it was a Weber. Then a 1,000-pound offset that two men delivered on a trailer and would not make eye contact with my wife. I am sixteen hours into a packer brisket right now. I drove here at 4 a.m. to spritz it and then I drove back to the lot and sat. I don't know what I expected coming tonight. I think I just wanted to be in a room with people who understand. I am not here to stop. I want to be clear about that. I just didn't want to be in the yard alone again.
The Shop
I ♥ Smoking Tee
Soft ringspun cotton. The heart is sincere. We have been asked to clarify what this means and we have declined every time. Wear it to the doctor. Wear it to the school pickup line. People will understand, or they won't.
$28The Patch
A single hickory-scented adhesive sticker. Apply to the inner forearm during a long cook. It does nothing. It is not meant to do anything. It smells faintly of a good morning and it will not help you taper. Twelve to a pack, because you will not stop at one.
$14The "Quitter" Mug
For the friend who pulled the brisket at 195 because they were tired. 15 oz. We don't say it to their face. We just hand them the mug. They know. Every morning, they know.
$18
It's just waiting for you.
Nobody starts thinking it will become everything. That's the beautiful part. By the time you understand what's happened, it's already too late, and you're already happy.