Grill Maestro

The key to improving anything is to track your progress, everyone knows that, so I’m going to start keeping a grilling, barbecue, and smoking notebook that tracks the decisions I make, good and bad, and the results that are produced, good and bad. By keeping a log of what I’ve done, it lets me look back and read through notes so I can learn from past mistakes or past successes.

What should you keep in the grilling notebook? Anything! Of course the standard pieces of information are things like cut of meat, cooking type and temperature, anything special about the preparation (marinades, rubs, wood chips, garlic, apple juice, etc.), anything special about the approach, the end result, and a lessons learned section. The lessons learned section is critical because you can reflect on what you’ve done and immediately capture it on paper (or electronic form) so that you can go back to it later.

For example, my record from my first smoking session included a lesson learned that I was running the smoker a little too hot. The pork came out beautifully but the brisket was far drier than I wanted and lacked as strong a smokey flavor as I would have liked. The result is that I’ll probably lower the temperature by using fewer charcoal briquettes and move the briskey to the higher rack so it’s farther away from direct heat. I also didn’t monitor the water pan as closely as I should’ve to keep it nice and full(ish) with apple juice - again, a lesson learned.