Don't go with the ready made kit, make it yourself, buy some commercial grade cooking tools.

Tongs with no spring - they will literally last him (and maybe you) forever.

A long spatula, they usually are about 12 inches with a good wooden handle.

Nobody ever uses forks, they are a silly thing inside of a bbq kit,

a good aluminium cooking sheet or two, no not the non-stick kind, plain old aluminium cooking sheets.

a good spray bottle for the odd flare up.

Put that all together and tell your dad that you went one better than buying a boxed set, you picked him up the tools that he needs, and that will last him forever - even if he doesn't look after them. As a dad, and someone who BBQ"s one in a while he will appreciate them.

small world justxpete, small world indeed.

I will definitely have a car, am in Orlando for three days, just south of Disney world I believe we are only 5 minutes away apparently. I have no fear of driving in Florida, getting lost, going to dodgy joints, or worry about a BBQ place looking dirty. I have spent about a year of my live cave diving in north Florida so have seen pretty much all of it.

So of course we will be at disney, but will be eating supper outside the park for sure. We will be travelling to gulf coast one day, probably to crystal river area and will be spending one day near or at cape kennedy, one day at lego land, and 3 days at Sawgrass in Jacksonville.

Feel free to send me out of the way (unless you want to send me to Nells in Branford - spent way too many nights at their $5.00 buffet when I was younger.

My family is visiting Orlando for about 10 days in late May and we are looking for some great local places to eat, prefer that they be local, small mom and pop restaurants. We come from a city that is virtually devoid of anything but chains. I own 3 BBQ places here, and would be very happy to find that one BBQ place that is a must visit on everyones list. Any help would be appreciated.

Depends on how old your specific corn starch is, it definitely will go stale.

Guys they will come, downtown is starting to build a reputation for small mom and pop run places, the bad ones will disappear and better ones will take their place. All I can say is keep visiting the small independants. I know my wife and I do all the time, try Jimmy Guacamole downtown Oshawa - amazing burrito's.

Yes, til 9 at the downtown Oshawa location

that's them, and they are good, very good.

Disagree with the statement for Q side is the way to go, sides are tougher, take longer to cook (way longer) and generally don't have as much meat (more bone), yes I actually do know this as we have done tests, cut the meat off the bones, weight it out etc. Lb for Lb backs give you more meat, less bone, it's more tender and has a cooking time considerable less than sides, think 3.5 - 4 hours @225 compared to 5-7 hours @225 for sides.

In the end it's all personal opinion, just like everything else - if you like it, then it is the right thing for your backyard.

There is an east coast donair place in downtown Oshawa as well. They do a mighty fine job of them as well. I can't remember the name although thye are on Bond St just east of simcoe on the south side of the road. Really very good indeed

Well these ribs are from sows, old pigs with no use left in them. Usually from breading stock, culling the heard meat. They are also specially cut to include part of the side ribs... not as good of a deal as you might think

You really can't do a side by side comparison, you also can't smoke ribs 'the same' from different sources. Ribs are done when they are done and it sounds like you overcooked the other ones (not the wal mart ones). The wal mart ones would have been tougher meat to begin with, also why they took longer. Ribs need to be removed from the smoker when the ribs are done. Otherwise what you get are called 'swampy' ribs. Did you foil them? Otherwise known as the texas crutch? if you did then that would be the cause of part of the mess.

And Tweeze was probably right, almost all of wal marts meats are 'seasoned' , I don't know if they are legally allowed to use Phosphates without labelling a product as such (well actually I do know and they can't) but they can legally call it seasoned and they do tumble it in a vacuum chamber with brine in it so they can increase the weight artificially on the meat by as much as about 8% with just water. Yes that's right you are paying for 8% of the cost of the sticker for just water. Bet you feel sort of crappy about that, always buy the halal stuff when you can - although that can be reaaally hard with pork.

I use this company all the time actually. I buy around 300 at a time (personal use, I swear) and go through them in about 1 year. It makes them so cheap that when a recipe calls for 1 bean throwing 2 or 3 in isn't even a second thought. Always fresh. I highly recommend them.

Yep, we are open 7 days a week, its a corporate store (we own it, i'm there full time)

really? ribfest over a real BBQ restaurant?

that's the way to do it, walnut would be an excellent wood to smoke with, hard hard wood usually which would allow for a very long deep smoke cycle.

Southern Pride should be included for that price... they aren't that expensive... I would actually expect that it's included that's why the price is that high.

that's funny, I was taught in SC by my family (a cousin) over 20 yrs basically how to cook southern bbq - they taught me to cook brisket. A texan pulled me aside one day at memphis and may and said "your brisket sucks" I was sort of taken aback and asked how does he know, he said basically you were trained in the carolinas - then he told me (without asking me how I cooked it) what I was doing wrong (he had me dead to rights) then he explained how to fix it.. I came home, tried his way and have NEVER varied on the method since.

I didn't just come from a pitmaster course in the south, although I think I have enough street cred to state the following:

Actually most competition BBQ'rs don't use propane (will get you 'disqualified' from all KCBS events and MIN events) - any one of these pitmasters (most) down south use logs especially if using offset smokers which many of them use. Only the guys using big green eggs, wsm's really use charcoal. You can order wood online, but really why when it's readily available everywhere up here for free.
Your pitmaster course was teaching you things about wood that are very regional - hickory isn't the most versatile smoke (that would fall into pecans range) - too much hickory will add a bitter acrid taste to the meat. Oak is nothing even remotely like mesquite, not even in the same zone for flavour components. Oak adds a nice rich buttery taste and mesquite when misused (which means almost always) will make your meat inedible. Oak works wonders with red meat, damn straight the best for brisket. (it's why carolinians never win brisket, cause they are good at cooking pork). Maple isn't just good - it's freaking awesome to smoke with - nice easy to eat smoke. Works awesome with pork, chicken and fish.
In all honesty until you get even remotely competent at southern bbq use maple or oak - they will give you the best results that you need (cherry too actually). Until you have eaten BBQ hundreds of times you won't even be able to tell the difference in the styles of wood used for smoking.
Using briquettes is also fine as long as you know what goes into them, buying the maple brand in canada is a perfect example - it uses wheat husks as the binder - totally harmless. They also burn at a very consistant and even temperature throughout the entire cook. I will use both in most of my cooks.

Once again, just make sure you are careful about the spray on the logs - it's poisonous to humans in any quantity when it comes in contact to your food. It might not make you sick eating it once, but eating it lots will definitely up your chances of a serious medical condition becoming prevalent in future years (think DDT)... Peel that bark

I do agree with Kooper, but don't go there for wood logs - they don't have them.

3 or 4 things to try

1) Visit local orchards and talk to them, in many cases they give away their fruit wood for free to anyone who wants it. Be careful though, find out what types of spray they use, it might very well be poisonous to you - peel off the bark if you are unsure.

2) Anyone who has had a tree cut down in their backyard

3) Firewood companies always have wood, specifiy what type you want (maple and oak easiest to get).

4) Go to a wood working shop - like a handrail place - they use untreated timber for their stair cases and handrails. One of our local ones used to give me barrels of it for not only home use but business as well (remove the "Green" painted ends - it won't kill you but YUCKY!)

5) Think outside of the box - try grape vines - they work excellent for smoking as well or if you can get your hands on an old wooden barrel.

Hope this helps,

I won't mention the places I had burgers since it may have been a regional difference in meats, breads etc. I love burgers - it's my thing (next to Southern BBQ). For my preference they were all griddle cooked which I love, that is a rarity in Canada, mostly grilled. The bread there is different than here, I would explain that in the wheat and water that is used in most cases.

There are many many regional differences in the way food is made, I could see it in everything we bought (I own a meat packing plant in Canada). I would guess our meat in most cases is far different than the US. We are way more limited in growth hormones and antibiotic's we are allowed to use in our animals. This makes a huge difference.

The mexican though dammit, the mexican you should never complain about if you knew what counted as "great" mexican up here..

So we are back from our trip, our biggest surprise for food was K'ya - we went there with 4 people in total. Our experience from all of us was that the food was excellent, that it's not a 'Tappis' style restaurant at all (as they suggest) and that ordering two of their plates of food is about right for anyone. We tried probably a dozen things from the menu and it was all very good. We would visit again if we were in town for sure. Oh and cheap, incredibly cheap.

I also went to the Pottery place and ate at the restaurant there, very good meal as well. They also have a great little cheese shop and a chocolate shop on site.

There were several other places we also visited, not all worth mentioning. We did go to Jack Shrimp in Newport Beach with friends of ours down there - it was excellent food as well.

We also visited the inaugural BBQ Comp in Long Beach by the Queen Mary on the Saturday. We tried a dozen places including Big Mista's BBQ - Yea, Big Mista's was very good.

Overall notes
1) Your portion sizes are freaking HUGE down there, we found in most cases that we were unable to eat about half of each plate we ordered. You would never find plates of food like that in Toronto or surrounding area.
2) Your food is incredibly cheap, cheap, cheap.
3) Even your worst mexican is better than our best mexican up here.
4) I tried 6 burgers when I was down there and was disappointed in every one of them. I don't know what it was, maybe it's the meat (we have incredibly meat in Ontario... our ground beef is amazing.

Thanks Laguna Beach and area, the visit was great!

Never buy powered anything unless you plan to use it all within a year - really 8 - 10 months is more optimum - and best is ground as needed. All my peppers at home are whole, same as cinnamon and nutmeg. All these products can last 2 years if not ground.

You hit the nail on the head with the burger idea, although I cook BBQ every single day Burgers are my favourite meal of all time. Truly love them.

For two or three of those days I will be spouse free, which doesn't mean much, just means I am alone and can drive further etc. I own a southern BBQ in Toronto, which means when I say real BBQ, it's a must. I am visiting a friend (Neil ' Big Mista' Strawder in Los Angeles one of those days for sure, will be eating his BBQ. Anything that is unique to socal that I must try (like in Ontario we have peameal bacon, it's an Ontario style bacon only really found here)

I will be visiting Laguna Beach for a week starting on Saturday May 5th and will be there for a week. I am looking for good mexican and awesome southern bbq joints in the area. Any recommendations would be appreciated, not afraid to eat in weird or 'off tourist' areas. I also don't mind travelling a bit out of the way, will be in Los Angeles for a day too.

Chicken well smoked (meaning properly) is always pink inside, sometimes ours is really pink almost bordering on red. Think of this though, the last time you actually cut into chicken even raw was it ever the same colour pink?

Yea most restaurant people I know don't go either, I definitely won't go. Once the organizers realized there was more money letting the public in for a fee as well it started going downhill and fast. Too bad.

Is there nowhere other than Golda's in Toronto or Surrounding area to pick these up, I know of several people who are looking for them, including me. I make traditional sourdough at home and would really like a basket for that.

We grow to eat, buy to preserve, we just don't have enough room in ours and we can't get everything to ripen at once... I want a farm.