Notebooks Order this notebook with one of several captions on the cover from my gift shop on CafePress.com. It's 5" x 8", 160 pages without lines, and wire bound. The back cover is made of black flexible textured plastic and the front cover is glossy coated for scratch resistance.

Use a Cooking Log or Diary

"I always say, keep a diary and someday it'll keep you." Mae West

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Take notes! Whenever you cook, especially on a grill or smoker, keep a log, at least until your methods are instinctive. There are so many variables to master, you should be making notes on the meat, the prep, the smoker temp, ambient temp, wood you used, how the food tasted, and what improvements you need to make. Put your logs in a notebook.

Here's the log I use. The basic concept is to log the air temp, the oven temp, the meat temp, at different times. Make note of other things you do along the way, like where you bought the meat, how you prepared it, when you add wood and how much, etc. When you are done, note what it tasted like and what needs improvement. Study the info. You learn a lot about the performance of your cooker.

Click here to download a free printable PDF version of my cooking log.

Click here to download a free Excel version that is editable.