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January 8th, 2017, 12:30 am
#1
* Abilene ** Abilene *
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  • Joined: January 5th, 2017, 8:36 pm
  • Posts: 5

My name is Ricardo. I am new to this community and this is my first post.

I’ve done some charcoal grilling throughout the years using a classic weber kettle cooker, but have no significant experience barbecuing.

I’m an avid diver who enjoys the wonders of the underwater world. As a child, I spent a lot of time watching TV, and was overexposed to multiple episodes of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. I’m too old now to find a cure for my diving addiction, and Florida- where I live, offers great diving opportunities.

One of the activities I enjoy while diving is Lionfish hunting. Lionfish are voracious venomous exotic invasive species originally from the Indo-Pacific, which were introduced in the Atlantic 25 years ago, or so. Today, this exotic invader is impacting the Caribbean Sea, depleting native fish postulations, crippling commercial fisheries and baffling scholars as they try to find ways to control the invasion. Lionfish have no predators in the Atlantic; thus far, divers are the only effective control.

The good news is that Lionfish are Delicious. This fish is top notch when it comes to cooking with it. Most that have tried Lionfish agree that it is amongst the best saltwater fish there is to eat. The venom is in the spines, not in the fillets, so Lionfish are safe to eat.

Floridians like to share fish-dip during the holidays. A few weeks ago, while enjoying some traditional dips that friends gave me, I decided to try making my own, but instead of using mullet, bluefish or jack, I wanted to make some with freshly caught Lionfish.

After consulting a few YouTube videos and websites dedicated to the topic of fish dips, I learned that most dips are made with smoked fish. Upon further research, I learned how to set my traditional weber kettle cooker to work as a smoker, and decided to experiment smoking a few Lionfish fillets. WOW, results were amazing!!!

My wife, who happens to be my dive buddy, helped prepare our first batch of Lionfish dip. She took some to work and ever since, her co-workers keep asking for more. Thus far, we have done 3 batches of smoked Lionfish dip, and we are just delighted to fix these and share them with friends.

We are interested in learning more about the art of smoking and decided to jump in with both feet.

We have never seen a pellet cooker, never seen a Yoder smoker either; however, based on web research and a couple of barbecue books I’ve read in the last 3 days, we opted to place an order for a smoker, and hopefully in 7 to 8 weeks, Yoder will ship one home.

I’ve been reading and trying to learn as much as possible, since we want to barbecue pork, beef, chicken, turkey and of course, want to perfect our Lionfish smoking skills too. The Yoder sales representative mentioned and suggested I look at this community forum and that’s how I ended up here today.

In closing, I want to thank everyone here for granting me an opportunity to chime in, for allowing me to read and follow some of the ongoing productive discussions and conversations. I understand there are members in these forums that possess tremendous knowledge, that are masters in the art of smoking and I look forward to learning from all of you.

Thank you. Sincerely,
Ricardo Valera

January 8th, 2017, 7:34 am
#2
Site AdminSite Admin
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  • Joined: April 18th, 2014, 3:12 pm
  • Posts: 2408

Welcome aboard and congrats on the new smoker!

Also check out: http://thesauce.atbbq.com/ Use the search function to find specific things that you might be interested in.

Yoder_Herb

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