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Hi all. Cooked a 4 lb beef brisket flat this weekend after the tryptophan wore off from Thanksgiving.... Brined it for 12 hours in OJ (quart), Habanero tabasco (2 Tbsp) and 1/4 cup of Kosher Salt. Poured the brine into a Ziploc and let it marinate overnight. Rubbed it (after patting it dry) with a liberal amount of yellow mustard and then a homemade rub (cup of dk brown sugar, 1/2 cup paprika, 2 tbsp coarse black pepper, 1.5 tsp chili powder, 1.5 tbsp garlic powder, 1.5 tbsp onion powder, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 tbsp kosher salt. Heat soaked the KK for an hour and brought it up to about 250* (thermometer) but the iGrill read 275* or so on the main grill surface. Did so with some ECC in the fire basket and 2 wax cubes (leave the dome open once I light them to get the fire going for a few minutes). Added a mix of apple, cherry and hickory wood (chunk of each). Let the KK go for about 7.5 hours (followed progress on my iGrill). Interesting that the meat plateau effect kicked in and took 2-3 hours at 160* where we simply moved sideways (all the heat being used to convert collagen to gelatin). Disconcerting because you think your cook isn't going well when you see it move laterally for so long but sure enough after some time it busted through the plateau and kept on climbing. Now don't laugh at me but it was pitch black when I took the brisket off the KK and when my iGrill read 200*. Wrapped it in foil and then in some towels and let it rest for an hour. Sliced it against the grain and 24 hours later it is all gone. Absolutely phenomenal. Tender. Moist. Juicy. Not a huge smoke ring and a wonderful flavor without anything too overpowering. Sorry for not having more photos. Next up - a whole packer brisket and my goal of doing some burnt ends! Special thanks to Robert (user 5698k) for all his help and advice on this cook and a bunch of others. - Noel

We wound up going to a relative’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, so we had to call an audible on our plans for cooking this weekend. Here’s what we wound up having Smaug make for us over the rest of the weekend. Smoked ham. I made a simple glaze with dijon mustard and brown sugar. The sweet potatoes are destined to become sweet potato casserole. More roast duck. One technique to help get you really crispy skin is to hang the duck up in front of a fan. It was a relatively windy day, with temperatures in the mid-30’s, so I decided to use my backyard. Last time I made roast duck, I was going for a Peking duck flavor. This time our sides were mashed potatoes, spinach, roasted Brussels sprouts and roasted cauliflower, so this time around I went for more of a French preparation. I seasoned the inside and out with salt and pepper, and put a quarter of an onion, a quarter of an orange, some garlic cloves and rosemary on the inside of these ducks. It was dark when I took the ducks off the grill, so I didn’t get an action shot, but here’s how they turned out. We had an impromptu play date for our boys, and they wanted burgers. So I made a half-dozen burgers, and grilled some portobello mushrooms as well. I don’t know if folks are getting tired of me posting pictures of really tall burgers, but here’s the one I assembled and ate.

Happy Thanksgiving Dennis. May your trajectory be upwards from here.

Happy Thanksgiving Dennis. They say bad things come in threes, so you should be out of the woods soon.

I truly hope that all your troubles are behind you and that it's all good going forward! Exceedingly excited about being able to buy coco-char on Amazon with Prime delivery. Sweet!!! Santa has promised me some new "toys" once the new web page and store are up (new pizza stone and double-walled drip pan) - because I've been a very good boy this year! - LMAO!!