Post your "Rookie Mistake Lists"

[haeffb]

This.

More than once for me!

[jeffrackmo]

I don't make mistakes... I prefer to call them "Lessons"...

[Jon]

Wow. That's really bad. Here's mine.

I was cooking beans. I cooked the bacon. I cooked the onion. Cooked the garlic and spices. Added the diced tomato and beans...sounds groovy, huh?...

I checked the beans after two hours and they were not done. Same at 2.5 hours. Damn, I soaked the beans from 6:30 AM to 5:00 PM. So I moved them closer to the coals and when I checked them next this is the result of what happened. Total Suckage.



I had moved the pot into some 'Magic Spot' that apparently lifts the pot along with the lid. I tried to save the disaster to no avail. My stuff went everywhere. two thirds of the beans were lost. Some completely overboard, a bunch on the grill, and a ton into the SnSXL.



Three out of four golden retrievers approve this message. The one in the middle? Yeah. He's Batman.

And as far as "Rookie Mistakes" go, I started cooking on a Weber 22 forty years ago. This happened last Friday.

[Dsorgnzd]

1. We once lived in a house with a gas grill mounted on the deck, connected to the natural gas system. I cooked a couple of steaks one evening and turned both burners to high to clean off the grates... and forgot to turn them off. The next day I happened to look out and noticed the heat shimmering above the grill. Fortunately it didn't set fire to the wood railing behind the grill. The grates got really clean after more than 12 hours.
2. I was doing an overnight cook of a couple of pork butts on my WSM. Luckily I chose to sleep on the couch so I could keep an eye on things. I was awakened in the middle of the night by the high-temp  alarm on my Stoker - the WSM door had fallen off and I had a roaring grease fire going. I was able to get the door back on and get things under control, I even saved the butts.

Fortunately I have no mistake stories that involve the turkey fryer.

[Maxmbob]

Wow. That's really bad. Here's mine.

I was cooking beans. I cooked the bacon. I cooked the onion. Cooked the garlic and spices. Added the diced tomato and beans...sounds groovy, huh?...

I checked the beans after two hours and they were not done. Same at 2.5 hours. Damn, I soaked the beans from 6:30 AM to 5:00 PM. So I moved them closer to the coals and when I checked them next this is the result of what happened. Total Suckage.



I had moved the pot into some 'Magic Spot' that apparently lifts the pot along with the lid. I tried to save the disaster to no avail. My stuff went everywhere. two thirds of the beans were lost. Some completely overboard, a bunch on the grill, and a ton into the SnSXL.



Three out of four golden retrievers approve this message. The one in the middle? Yeah. He's Batman.

And as far as "Rookie Mistakes" go, I started cooking on a Weber 22 forty years ago. This happened last Friday.

Nice looking Goldens, Jon.  We have a couple that we refer to as the Knuckleheads.

WTB Original Wood Dale legs, triangle, wheels and legs.Blue SSP,  Blue mbh, Blue Mlh.

[Darko]

1. We once lived in a house with a gas grill mounted on the deck, connected to the natural gas system. I cooked a couple of steaks one evening and turned both burners to high to clean off the grates... and forgot to turn them off. The next day I happened to look out and noticed the heat shimmering above the grill. Fortunately it didn't set fire to the wood railing behind the grill. The grates got really clean after more than 12 hours.
2. I was doing an overnight cook of a couple of pork butts on my WSM. Luckily I chose to sleep on the couch so I could keep an eye on things. I was awakened in the middle of the night by the high-temp  alarm on my Stoker - the WSM door had fallen off and I had a roaring grease fire going. I was able to get the door back on and get things under control, I even saved the butts.

Fortunately I have no mistake stories that involve the turkey fryer.

@ #1 Been there, done that.

[Troy]

Had a new rookie mistake today....

wife woke me up at the crack of noon demanding that I grill this side of salmon that she picked up yesterday.
I was up all night working on a side project, so I was a little bit groggy...

I got up, decided to cook on the ranch (mostly because it involved the least amount of work).
I fired up a chimney and got the salmon all seasoned up (a blend of @jamesnomore 's rub and some brown sugar - my goto for salmon)

I dumped the coals and put the salmon on the grill indirect, went inside and chilled on the couch for 30 minutes.
The wife and kids were pestering me about being hungry, so i went outside to move the salmon closer to the coals - possibly even flip and sear and be done....

I walked outside to discover the lid of the ranch sitting WIDE OPEN, the coals about half spent, and the salmon still mostly raw.
WHOOPS. Forgot to close the lid.

[TheDude]

1. We once lived in a house with a gas grill mounted on the deck, connected to the natural gas system. I cooked a couple of steaks one evening and turned both burners to high to clean off the grates... and forgot to turn them off. The next day I happened to look out and noticed the heat shimmering above the grill. Fortunately it didn't set fire to the wood railing behind the grill. The grates got really clean after more than 12 hours.
2. I was doing an overnight cook of a couple of pork butts on my WSM. Luckily I chose to sleep on the couch so I could keep an eye on things. I was awakened in the middle of the night by the high-temp  alarm on my Stoker - the WSM door had fallen off and I had a roaring grease fire going. I was able to get the door back on and get things under control, I even saved the butts.

Fortunately I have no mistake stories that involve the turkey fryer.

Last Xmas I didn't get the neck area dry enough. Started going in just fine, but that last little bit got VIOLENT. Watching flaming globs of oil falling all around my feet. Started thinking, "Well, this is how it ends." Stayed calm, got the lid on and bird came out awesome.

[unometooo]

Cooked a beer can chicken on the charcoal grate with a slow n' sear. I knew better that this wouldn't work. I remembered (or so I thought) watching a YT review of someone cooking on the charcoal grate, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I had to pull the chicken off the stand and lay the bottom half over the coals to recover from my mistake, but it did work out in the end.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[eLLWOODgGLEN]

Went camping once (I was 19) bought a rack of ribs and thought "I'll cook these over the embers from the fire, it'll take a few hours and they will be perfect" I was naive and ignorant.  I took some embers in the morning and pulled them aside, wrapped the ribs in foil with sauce and placed directly on the embers (silly, I know) and proceeded to go on a hike....
30 minutes later we return and to my surprise the barely audible sound of boiling sauce.  The ribs are over cooked with blackened sauce. I still ate them because ribs are very expensive to a college student, they were tough but meat was meat to me back then.
One day I'll redeem myself with excellent ribs.

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[HoosierKettle]

I've made more mistakes than I can remember and continue to do so, but the one that sticks out the most was when I was in my first apartment and a friend and I had our girlfriends over (now wives) to grill steaks for them.  I was using my a hand me down weber and we couldn't get the coal going.  Using lighter fluid of course.  I don't remember if the charcoal was wet or what the problem was but it must have taken an hour to the grill going while the ladies were complaining.  Finally got the steaks on the grill.  That part went well but it's late and everyone was losing dinner patience.  My friend and I were on the patio (in the dark) and he took the steaks off the grill onto a plate I was holding.  I turned to go inside and tripped.  All four steaks hit the patio.  We looked at each other for a second and promptly scooped them up and threw them back on the grill for 5 seconds then took them into serve without telling the girlfriends.  We still laugh about that one.

[mrbill]

my rookie mistakes....
thinking that i had to have a heavy plume of white smoke billowing out of every cranny in order to be "smoking" something
using top vents to control heat(grill or smoker)
not letting the briquettes "ash over" before adding meat
soaking my wood chunks/chips in water before use
and just about every other rookie mistake you can think of, i probably have done. the one that i kick myself regularly for is putting my bandera smoker on the curb before finding the http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/ website. i loved the configuration, but gave it up because i didn't know what to do about the issues it had. had i known about that site prior to putting my bandera on the curb, i'd still have it and between my webers and it, be happier than a pig in slop.

[Shoestringshop]

We got a burn pit when we first got married 19 years ago and it doubled as a grill! Wow a two for one and it was a gift! ok a few hotdogs and burgers later I wanted brats! Well it was a damp day and the charcoal would not start! So charcoal lighter fluid will help this right? NO!! Not at all! My sons godfather was over that night and how we all ate it and did not die I'll never know! That was my last time ever using charcoal lighter fluid!!!

[Cellar2ful]

Time to resurrect this thread for those that have not seen it. A comment on another thread reminded me to add my rotisserie rookie mistake to this list.

The first time I did a turkey on the rotisserie, I thought I had it tied up perfectly.  After about 20 minutes spinning, I noticed the rotisserie would shudder and shake when turning. Opened it up and found the legs had loosened and probably would have worked it's way off the spit had I not intervened. Try retying a turkey to a spit when they are both hot. Trust me, you don't want to have to do it. Does not take very long for the metal spit and forks to get frickin hot. Think I still bear a couple of those branding marks.  Also, don't pour coals from a chimney while wearing flip flops.  More memorable BBQ honor marks.

[Travis]

@Cellar2ful I too bear the scars of flip flop charcoal pour. Dad always said once he does it once, he'll figure it out...


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