Hello and welcome to my first blog post both for Man Meat BBQ and for myself. For those who haven't seen my Instagram or my Facebook page, my name is Kevin Cofiell, otherwise known as Cowboy Kev. I've been cooking for pretty much my whole life, but as far as BBQ goes, only for the last 4 years or so. I started off how many of you probably have, with a cheap offset smoker. Mine was a 4 in 1 from Sam's Club that was a house warming present and I loved it.
First thing I did was set up the smoker and try to cook some ribs. They were edible, but nothing special. From that moment I was hooked! I started buying books and watching TV shows. Then I discovered the wealth of information both good and bad on YouTube. From there I progressed to making my own cooker and build a UDS (ugly drum smoker).
These things are amazing, easy to use easy to build and great results. Around the same time my friend had a few Lang smokers and was generous enough to let me borrow one.
This thing was a huge 84’ deluxe trailer. This thing screamed BBQ! Before I lit my first fire in it, I spent my nights watching videos, looking at forums and reading blogs like this one. Finally the time had come. I had my ribs prepped and my wood ready. Time to light this thing up. Watching that fire grow and build was awesome. Knowing that with this I had to work and pay attention to keep my temps correct. The experience of watching this fire grow and the smoke starting to roll was awesome. As soon as the temps stabilized, I put on the ribs I had prepped. The smell started wafting through the air grew as the ribs cooked. Like I said, I read everything I could find so I was using the techniques found in “Smokin with Myron Mixon”, which was my go to book. To use a stick burner for the first time was such a cool experience, but to eat those ribs (which by my standards today were definitely not my best) I thought I had gone to heaven. They were smoky, juicy and fall of the bone.
Soon I found every excuse to light the pit every chance I could. My competitive nature started to surface as I did what many of you have done, I started watching “BBQ Pitmasters” and I said I am going to do that!
Well I hope you have enjoyed my story so far. I hope to bring you more of my story on getting into competition and the things I have learned and screwed up on (so maybe you won't have to).
If you would like to see more of my cooking or talk BBQ come check me out on Instagram @wile_e_bbq
Cowboy Kev
