What we set out to do
Our goal was to be a comprehensive web index of barbecue-related pages: a continuous loop of sites, connected with Next and Previous links, that let a curious cook wander the whole barbecue web without ever needing a directory or a search box. Join the ring on one site, keep clicking, and you would tour recipe collectors, competition teams, backyard tinkerers, cooker manufacturers, and firewood merchants before circling home.
From the beginning we promised more than links. We said we would add real barbecue content — articles on technique, coverage of competitions, and plans for building your own pit — and over the years we delivered exactly that. The Ring became both a webring and a genuine content hub.
Why "The Smoke Ring"?
The name is a barbecue insider's joke and a badge of pride. When meat is cooked low and slow over wood or charcoal, a distinctive pink band forms just beneath the surface — the smoke ring. It is one of the traditional signs of properly smoked barbecue, and it seemed like the perfect name for a ring of barbecue websites. Two meanings, one word: the pink ring in the meat, and the linked ring of sites you are visiting now.
A community that shows up
What surprised us most was how quickly the Ring became a community. Members traded advice, argued happily about rubs and wood, and — when it counted — showed up for each other. After a devastating hurricane, members organized a large cook to feed evacuees at a relief camp; the offer to run it came within hours of the request. Another time, the community rallied to get a barbecue grill to a military unit stationed overseas so that men and women far from home could taste something familiar. Those stories, collected in our news section, say more about barbecue culture than any recipe could.
The Smoke Ring today
Barbecue has changed a great deal since the Ring first lit its firebox — competition circuits have professionalized, pellet cookers have arrived, and information is a search away. But the reasons people fall in love with barbecue have not changed at all: the patience of low and slow, the smell of clean smoke, the satisfaction of feeding a crowd. The Smoke Ring exists to keep that heritage alive, to point newcomers toward good information, and to remember that this was always, first and last, a neighborly pursuit.
Curious how the ring itself works? Read how a webring works, or jump straight to our how-to guides.