Hello from Southern Ca.

SoCalBill · July 07, 2011, 10:44:19 AM

I wanted to say hello and introduce myself. As you probably guessed from my forum name I am Bill. I live in the Orange County area of Southern California. However I was raised in Southwest Virginia in a small town. I have been researching and reading these forums for a while, but never registered. I felt it was time to do that since I just ordered the 4 rack DBS and with any luck Amazon should have it to me by Friday.

I am looking forward to trying ribs, brisket, pork shoulder, as well as fish.

The wife wants to cold smoke some things like cheese. I will be making a trip to Lowe's or The Home Depot to pick up the materials to make this cold smoke box http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=16207.0

I'll be sure to post pictures of my first smoke. I plan to start with 10.5's 3-2-1 ribs.

TestRocket · July 07, 2011, 12:39:34 PM

Welcome Bill and good luck on that first smoke. If you ever have a question, just ask. We like to help as much as we like to smoke! ;D

SoCalBill · July 07, 2011, 01:01:42 PM

Quote from: TestRocket on July 07, 2011, 12:39:34 PM
Welcome Bill and good luck on that first smoke. If you ever have a question, just ask. We like to help as much as we like to smoke! ;D

Thanks! I am still trying to figure out all the acronyms ;D

Caribou · July 07, 2011, 02:26:18 PM

Welcome to the Forum Bill,
I'm 3rd generation OC! :)
But I live in Idaho now.
Carolyn

beefmann · July 07, 2011, 02:35:16 PM

welcome to the forum and also in so calif. in orange county

ghost9mm · July 07, 2011, 04:55:25 PM

Welcome Bill to the forum, we have a really great group of very knowledgeable people here that are more then willing to help anytime...

muebe · July 07, 2011, 10:45:44 PM

to the forum and hello from North Los Angeles County ;D

SouthernSmoked · July 08, 2011, 06:20:23 AM

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the forum...Enjoy!

http://www.susanminor.org

Remember we like pic's!!

SoCalBill · July 08, 2011, 10:00:19 AM

Thanks all!

Looks like Amazon Prime came though once again and my smoker, briquettes, etc are all "Out for Delivery". I am super stoked.

Just out of curiosity where were you fellow SoCal people finding the best choice for meat? I was in Costco last night and baby back ribs are "on sale" at $3.99 p/lb. I also asked the butcher there and he said while they don't put the full briskets out if I wanted one they would cut one up and it was .4 cents cheaper p/lb too.

muebe · July 08, 2011, 10:07:10 AM

Costco is not the cheapest around but their quality of meat is great. They only carry Prime and Choice cuts. You can find sales at your local stores but the quality is usually select and untrimmed. So you end up paying less but end get less meat and poor quality. We have a chest freezer and find that stocking up with quality meat from Costco and vac sealing/freezing it is the way to go. If you have a local butcher you can get great meat but butchers cannot compete with the big chain stores so their prices are higher but quality is usually top notch.

SoCalBill · July 08, 2011, 10:14:15 AM

Quote from: muebe on July 08, 2011, 10:07:10 AM
Costco is not the cheapest around but their quality of meat is great. They only carry Prime and Choice cuts. You can find sales at your local stores but the quality is usually select and untrimmed. So you end up paying less but end get less meat and poor quality. We have a chest freezer and find that stocking up with quality meat from Costco and vac sealing/freezing it is the way to go. If you have a local butcher you can get great meat but butchers cannot compete with the big chain stores so their prices are higher but quality is usually top notch.

Good to know. When I looked last night they had two types of ribs. One was baby back in a vacuum sealed package that looks like it has 2 racks in it. The second was spare ribs (that looked huge) they they had trimmed and packaged. Not sure which I will/should go with

Hello from Southern Ca.

beefmann