How can I Convince my Spouse?

How can I convince my spouse to let me buy a smoker?

There were a few things I did to convince my wife that this was a worthwhile hobby. First of all, we were familiar with real BBQ. Not the sauce called BBQ from the local fast food joint, but real, slow cooked BBQ from Texas. Find a BBQ joint near you that makes out of this world BBQ, and tell your spouse that you can match it…if not beat it. Everyone who has had meat out of my smoker has said they like it better than from a restaurant (including my father who grew up in Texas). Once your spouse has an understanding as to how good this stuff is, they’ll be a lot more interested in you getting into it.

Second, its worth talking about the benefits of cooking your own food. By smoking meat yourself instead of buying ‘smoked’ stuff from the store, you control everything about it. You choose the cut of meat, how much fat will be left on, what its marinated in, and you eliminate the preservatives that are so prevalent in premade meat products. The control means you can hone in on what you enjoy most and make it better for you.

For the last point, I asked my wife what attracted her enough to the idea to allow me to pursue it. The main reason was that it was one less meal she had to cook. I laughed a bit at that answer, but it makes sense! I enjoy smoking meat way too much for it to be even close to work for me – but it takes some work off her plate. Talk about a win win. One of the best feeling I get is when she walks down the hallway as I’m cutting up the meat after its just come out of the smoker and she says “can I try some yet?!”.

Even if it means starting with the cheapest unit you can find, its worth it. As I stated before, I started off with a low end sub $100 unit. A few months after I got it, we had the good fortune to purchase a home that needed a ton of work. Because we needed everything for the kitchen (including drywall!), and my wife had fallen for the smoked meat I was making out of the low end unit, we bought a lower end stove, and invested the rest in a nice smoker that would last a long time. To this day I’ve used the smoker significantly more than the oven. Once people get a true taste of what can come out of a smoker, they are willing to invest in it.