A Novice’s Perspective on FireBoard

As a relatively new employee at FireBoard Labs, I continue to be impressed by my coworkers’ technical knowledge regarding the science of thermometry, especially when it comes to cooking. It’s not like it was a surprise when I first joined the team back in November ‘23, but it’s another thing entirely to see it in person. I’ve personally always wanted to develop grilling skills myself, and so aside from the rare opportunity to work at a local tech company with a big focus on product quality and doing things in-house, I also saw it as a chance to finally learn how to cook a ribeye that can impress my wife. Both are majorly important.

Quick bio – my name is Joseph, a Kansas City native who’s found himself six years deep into a marketing career post-college (Rock Chalk!). After working at a digital marketing agency for a few years, I began wanting to dedicate more of my time to a single “client” so that I could focus all of my efforts on helping build something really neat. As a result, I became aware of FireBoard over the past year, and after a few conversations with Ted about the business and its goals, there was no turning back – it was an obvious fit.

Since joining the marketing team, I’ve been working to build my product knowledge so I can help make FireBoard’s tech more accessible to those within and outside the community. That means I need to know how the technology works, sure, but I also need to use it in the field. It’s like that old saying: if someone learns every possible detail about riding a bike, and then actually rides one for the first time, do they learn anything new? (Yes, the answer is yes.)

Over the past few weeks, our social media manager Alec and I have been doing weekly cooks on a Lone Star smoker we keep on hand to build up our personal experience with the products we sell. As two somewhat recent KU alums without much experience grilling or smoking, our results have been….honestly, not as bad as we expected.

We have two sources to thank for that – the first being the wonderful people we work with who give us gentle nudges in the right direction (shoutout to Ted, Steven, and Paul), and the second being the FireBoard 2 Drive. To get ahead of it, I promise we’re not trying to sell anything here.

I grew up with the understanding that cooking a steak meant about four minutes on each side. I also grew up burning steaks on a skillet every time I tried. Funny how that works. To quote Meathead:

Run away when you see a recipe that says something like ‘Cook the steak on medium-high heat for six minutes on one side, turn it, and cook for another 4 minutes on the other side!’ Just what is medium-high heat? And how thick is the meat? 6 and 4 might overcook a thin piece and undercook a thick piece. Cook with a thermometer, not a clock.

I felt a little called out when I read it for the first time, but he’s absolutely right. Each cook is different, but the one constant is the temperature at which different meats cook. At that point, it’s all about how you control that temperature – and that’s why having a FireBoard nearby is so useful.

We started with a pork shoulder a few weeks back. We prepped the meat with some Burnt Finger BBQ seasoning, pulled the smoker around the side of FireBoard HQ, stuck a FireBoard-connected probe in the meat, and just…went back to work. We were on a time crunch that day, so we nervously watched the ambient temperature climb––not as fast as we’d like it to––from our upstairs office, huddled around my monitor.

So, Alec decided to adjust the setpoint to a higher temp so that we could reach our pork’s internal temp faster. He was able to do that by opening the FireBoard app on his phone and adjusting the set temperature from there. A few taps, done. Meanwhile, I had the live dashboard up on my laptop so we could watch the fans kick on immediately, circulate the air inside the smoker, and ultimately raise the ambient temperature. 

For those who haven’t used a FireBoard before, I’ll just quickly say that watching the live tracker is super fun. I had it in a small window on my screen to keep an eye on it while I worked on some other projects, but if I’m being honest, all I did was watch the tracker. Maybe it’s because I come from an analytics background, but something about watching the temperature climb and fans adjusting their speed visualized in real-time was just neat. Anyway. You can view the session here.

Once the pork had reached its ideal temperature, we pulled it and brought it back inside to wrap up the video. In our rush, we didn’t let it rest for even a minute before pulling it apart. If you watched that video and noticed it seemed a little tough, that’s because it was, and we’ve learned our lesson.

Since then, we’ve grilled a steak and a few pork chops. You can see the results on our Instagram page here. Compared to the pork shoulder, they were far more tender and delicious. We used similar methods––a leave-in probe connected to the smoker-mounted FireBoard 2 Drive––with different temperature setpoints and timing depending on the meat at hand.

I’m starting to ramble a little, but I see that as a good thing. I joined the team primarily as a marketing guy, but I’m really growing to love cooking in a way I hadn’t before. I have FireBoard to thank for that. Naturally, I’ve already supplied a few family members with Sparks to get them excited about it too – below is a picture my father-in-law sent a few days after I dropped one off.

Moving forward, Alec and I are looking to share more of our cooks as we work to improve our cooking chops. This week, we’re in Memphis, TN for the World Barbecue Championship and the Smokeslam event before flying directly to Chicago for the National Restaurant Show. Super exciting stuff. If you happen to be at either, reach out to me at joseph@fireboard.com––maybe we can meet up to talk shop.

Once things settle down again, we plan to start writing about our cooks more regularly since we’re having a lot of fun with it, and figure the experienced pitmasters in the community might get a laugh or two watching us stumble around. Also, if there’s anyone who might be hesitant about getting into grilling, this could be a good case study on how anyone can do it with the right tools for the job.

That’s probably enough from me for this week – if you read it through, thanks for taking the time! We’re always happy to receive tips on grilling/smoking techniques to try out to grow our knowledge or any advice that you wish you had earlier in your grilling career.

Also, stay tuned over the coming days for news about all these upcoming events! We’re excited and hope you are too. Cheers!