About 6 million years ago, or on the first Saturday afternoon at 1:00PM if you are a creationist, man appeared on earth. At 1:35 Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man if the early Greeks are to be believed. At 1:36 Oog the caveman dropped a huge hunk of the catch of the day in the fire by accident and humankind never looked back. In fact the smell of slowly smoking meat triggers something in our deepest darkest mind, where the spirit of Oog still resides – we can't resist.

Despite the mixed chronology and homage to the 7 day bunch, today we all enjoy time spent by the grill soaking up the delicious smoke and most likely large quantities of beer (preferably of the local handcrafted variety). To me barbecuing the meat is as much fun as eating the finished product. Will my barbecue win any prizes in competition? Probably not, but I've never had any complaints or leftovers so I must be doing something right. Either way there is some satisfaction in having a pork shoulder fall off the bone and fill the air with smoky goodness.

The nice thing about barbecuing is that while a cool high tech smoker would be nice, a grill, if set up properly can be used to slowly smoke meat. Indirect fire, a pan of liquid under the chunk of meat and some wood (no pine, please). Chunks of hickory can be purchased at the local big box store; sometimes you can even find some fruit wood chips if you’re lucky. Even luckier is having a son-in-law with a mesquite tree in his front yard that seems to need to be cut back every week or so.

All I can say is let your Oog-self out and give it a shot. The first tries might produce some pieces that appear to have suffered re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, but in time I suspect most anyone can get the hang of it. The reward is a tender, smokey, mouthwatering rack of ribs, or the best pulled pork sandwich you have ever had. Hit the library, magazine rack, or the Inter webs to learn all you can and then amaze family and friends – but do take a moment to thank Oog the caveman for being a clumsy eater.