Amazing Ribs is an excellent website. Lots of great info.

Some of my YouTube follows I’ve found helpful:

Mad Scientist BBQ Malcom Reed, HowToBBQRight Ash Kickin’ BBQ Meat Church BBQ American Smoke (he started using a Pit Boss vertical smoker like mine) Chuds BBQ Smoke Trails BBQ (he’s a bit of a character and has an unhealthy attraction to Aaron Franklin, but has some entertaining content).

They all go through prep to varying degrees. Some use pellet grills, most use stick burners, some charcoal. Jirby from Goldee’s BBQ has some stick burner fire management content on his YouTube site, as does Mad Scientist. Chums might too.

I’ve found a lot of “stuff” really isn’t needed to get started. Gloves have been very helpful (I like to use cotton gloves with disposable gloves over them), spray bottle to spritz, and a good instant read thermometer. A good sharp boning knife for trimming. A good slicing knife for cutting done ribs. A notebook to take notes of your cooks so you can track what worked and didn’t work. Maybe disposable cutting boards, nice but not needed. Sure you have a decent cutting board in the house.

Keep asking questions, it’s how we all learn. I didn’t have anyone in my life either to get me going in smoking and I’m moving along OK thanks to the community.

I learned all my basics from AmazingRibs.com. Kind of a cheesy name, but there’s so much good info on there, even with a free account. Info on all different meat/food types, cooker types, and how to prepare and use all of it. Tons of unbiased product reviews for more than just grills and smokers. I love that they “myth-bust” so many things with tests, proofs of the tests and actually explaining the science behind the “why”. There is a lot of reading on there, but really just pick a recipe or a cut of meat, pick a method for how to do it, and follow the instructions, lol. Most importantly, keep doing it and take notes. Weather, fuel, meat, etc all make huge differences on the outcome. And just because you might have messed up something once doesnt mean you shouldn’t try again! It’s an art form that takes experimenting, patience and practice!

Hey, welcome to the hobby! Take it slow and be kind to yourself, everyone makes mistakes.

Think about smoking as these steps.

1. Prep meat (trim fat, remove silverskin, etc). Lots of great tutorials on YouTube for each cut of meat.

2. Season meat (brines, marinades, rubs, etc)

3. Smoke meat (keep smoker at consistent temp until meat reaches the desired internal temp).

The specifics will change based on the cut of meat you’re using, but the above steps apply to everything.

I’d pick a forgiving and shorter cook time meat and look up recipes (basically the recipe is for the rub/brine). My favorite dead simple and crowd favorite cut is pork belly.

What kind of smoker do you have?