One of my father-in-law’s (the Colonel) sayings is “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.”  This admonition applies to nearly everything in life and it is certainly true in smoking meat.  I was reminded of this the hard way recently when I set my sites on smoking a brisket.  First of all, keep in mind that an 8 lb. brisket takes somewhere around 12 hours at 225 degrees (roughly 1.5 hrs. per pound), to smoke to tender and juicy perfection.  Of course, there’s always going to be some prep time needed either the night before or first thing i ..read more

Where the heck have you been??   If you are a follower of the J2 BBQ blog, you have probably quit trying to find us digitally and resorted to looking for us on the side of milk cartons, or possibly even on the wall at the post office.  Rest assured, we realize that it only took us a year to release the second segment of the J2 BBQ commentary.  The timing of this second release depends on your point of reference.  For example, if you are a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs before 2020, then you had almost 50 years between Super Bowls, but if you were a f ..read more

 Volume 1:  Sometimes you can actually take too much fat from the ass.   Welcome to the first installment of Recipe for Disaster by J Sussman.  The goal of this content is to mix our (J Fiske and my) own experiences as rookies in the world of smoking with observation, alcohol, and, above all, a sense of humor about ourselves.  Along the way, hopefully, there is some useful information (ok, maybe just useful drink recipes).   One of the most popular new year’s resolutions is weight loss, but I’m here to tell you that, sometimes, you can trim too much fat from the a ..read more

  Welcome to the first edition of the J Squared Barbecue blog.  This is intended to be a blog by a couple of guys named Jeff  (get it . . . J Squared) who barely know what a blog is.  What’s even more of a stretch, we thought it would be a really good idea if we started a blog about something that we know very little about - the delicious art of smoking meats.  Quick backstory is that after a few brewskies one night while comparing notes on our new smokers (more about that in a moment), we thought it might be fun and maybe even useful to other rookies and wannabes ou ..read more