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Hi friends, Last week I hit the local Bass Pro with @bosco and bought a 2Q CI DO. No better way to void the warranty then by drilling holes right there in the parking lot! LOL So today I decided to make some beef ribs and put this idea to the test. Got my Oak chunks ready! BTW, if you havent tried KJ wood chunks, this was really impressive stuff. Loaded the pot with 3 chunks. Got the KK up to temp and stabilized at 225F Beef ribs were seasoned and ready to cook. Throw on the smoking pot, add my drip tray as the deflector and wait for the smoke to come. Here is where it got tricky....I didn't actually see any smoke! If you look really closely at this picture you might just see some thin blue smoke, but even close up I could hardly see it. But I could smell it, so I put the ribs on. Blind faith! I let the ribs do their thing, trusting that the smell meant I was smoking. Interesting tidbit....My wife (who usually isn't a fan of smoke smell) asked me if I did anything differently because it smells really good in the backyard! She said the smoke had a really nice clean and fragrant smell to it and that she loved it! Anyway, it was obviously doing something...something that smelled wonderful! Here is a picture of the final product. As you can see, when I pulled the ribs off the grill, the last bone just fell out...I would say it was tender. And now cut open...obviously this was a fatty, juicy beef rib, but what caught my attention was the smoke ring. Very pronounced. And the flavour was different to the smoke flavour I usually get. It was much cleaner, more pure. Not as intense but it was still noticeable and very pleasant. And finally, left in my dutch oven was.....Charcoal! This wood was still smouldering and not completely carbonized when I opened the dutch oven, so I'm sure I could still have got 4 more good hours of smoke out of them, maybe more. It was a good day

I'd say today was a good start.. Labor Day emailing and Facebook posts brought in 11- 22" Supreme, 2 - 23" Ultimate and 1 - 32" Big Bad sales! A great day to say the least!

When I bought my Kamado Joe I had a word with my insulated cabinet smoker and reassured it that it was still the champ. With my KK’s arrival, no such reassurances were made. This time, the title of "Champ" must be earned. The competitors. On the left is the reigning champ, my 270 Smokers Standard. Boxy but good. On the right, the challenger who needs no introduction. 270 started as a regional brand based in Lexington, VA that made inroads on the competition circuit and is now sold throughout the US and Canada. I was an early adopter, posted a review at BBQ Brethren, and still field IM’s, emails and even occasional phone calls from owners and prospective buyers. It's an insulated cabinet with a unique design known as heated draft. I'll spare you the details, but the bottom line is that it is a convection smoker whose design amps up the flow, promoting very even temps and smoke distribution. Water pans are optional but recommended. Couldn't be more different from a KK in terms of airflow and the means by which it manages temps and moisture. To sustain that air movement, the 270 burns a lot of briquettes. After running my KK for 10 hours at 275 the other day I only needed to add two coco char sticks to reload the basket for today’s cook. The 270 excels at cooking the big four proteins popular on the KCBS circuit, so this is stiff competition for a KK. I’ll be using each cooker with my best practices for each. Here's a view of the 270’s firebox loaded to the brim. I’ll burn a fair amount of that today. Lighting procedure is ½ chimney of lit coals laid on top, burning down Minion style. The ever familiar KK lighting procedure for low and slow. One spot lit. Fifteen minutes before the ribs go on I put the smoke wood in each. One chunk of hickory and one of cherry go in the 270. You can see significant fuel consumption already. We'll add more chunks as the cook goes on. Just how you roll with this thing. And the smoke pot with one chunk hickory, two chunks cherry, and the gaps filled with cherry chips. That's it for this cook. No refills. The ribs: four racks of Costco St. Louis cut spares. Four racks seasoned with Meat Church Honey Hog, with two of those seasoned with a second layer of Honey Hog Hot. One of each will go on each cooker. After two hours, both are looking good: Both cookers are struttin' their stuff, smoking their little hearts out: Maintained a steady 275 on both cookers throughout. For the KK this was effortless. For the 270, I had to actively manage the vent because as the coals burned down, the ash was starting to affect the burn of the remaining coals. Whenever I opened for spritzing, the KK recovered immediately to the same temp. The 270 required 5-10 minutes to recover. After 3-1/2 hours the ribs in both cookers were passing both the bend test and the toothpick test. Here's the fire box of the 270 at the end, full of ash and burned down quite a bit. The final product. The KK ribs are on the right. The 270 ribs are on the left. Don't tell my blind taste testers. The Test: I had four blind taste testers. Three are my wife and two daughters who have eaten plenty of 270 ribs. The fourth is Mr. Qua, my eldest daughter's friend, who helped me move my KK to the back yard and is now pleased as can be to be eating ribs. The Results: Wife and daughter the youngest decided both were equally good, although my wife did pick up on a "smokier" note in the 270 ribs. As we discussed it, we concluded that note was the flavor of the briquettes underlying the wood smoke. Not unpleasant, but distinct. The KK ribs cooked with CoCo Char lacked this note. Daughter the eldest and Mr. Qua both picked the KK ribs without hesitation. When asked why, they both stated immediately that they were more moist. I'm the fifth vote and noted that as we continued to eat ribs (Wife and daughter the youngest finished early, so didn't notice this), the KK ribs retained their moisture as they cooled, while the 270 ribs seemed to dry up a bit. The Verdict: With 3 votes for the KK ribs and 2 votes neutral, the new champ is my KK. The KK was both easier to use by far, and also produced more moist ribs. Look for my 270 on Craigslist soon.

I've been wanting to try this one for a while. I saw the recipe on the slap yo daddy's web site. I threw it on my already heat soaked kk at about 7am this morning. I put the rub on last night which consisted of worcestershire sauce on the butt for adhesive properties for the rub. Wanting to stay close to authentic, I used some Hawaiian red sea salt mixed with bbq rub and chicken bouillion powder. I wrapped it in plastic and refrigerated overnight. I wanted to use a bone-in Boston Butt but my local grocer only had a boneless one and I wasn't too picky. CyberQ in my weatherproof container holding solid at 250. It took about 5 hours or so to reach 160 when it was ready for the banana leaf wrap. My banana plants just got wracked by tropical storm Hermine but I found some good candidates on the bottom leaves. Even found my banana crop is coming in. Ready to come off the grill. Here is a shot of the banana leaf on a sheet of foil. I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of the butt wrapped in the leaves but I did. I placed the butt on the leaf shown, covered it with a paste made from crushed pineapple, brown sugar, and melted butter. Another leaf went on top and I wrapped it tightly with 2 sheets of foil and back in the grill. King Oanha Moa Drinki can barely contain himself. 3 hours later, the butt hit 200 but still felt a little resistance when probing. I let it go another 5 degrees and it was ready to pull. This pic is the after shot of the banana leaf wrap. Finished product. Plated with some rice and summer squash. I also had one serving on a Hawaiian sweet roll. This was a little different from pulled pork that I usually do but it is a keeper recipe.

Yet another use for koko Kamado when it is blazing hot outside....is it just me or is it actually easier to bake in a komodo than the oven?

Did a quick supper tonight, cucumber sandwich on Syzygie's bread. I have to make another loaf this week. A couple of nights ago I made some spicy hot zucchini chips.

If lift gate service includes airlift to my backyard and feed for the goat, then maybe a 42". Oh...and I want to fill with water and use as a coco char fired hot tub in the Winter months. Otherwise no go.

I think if you are going to convince @HalfSmoke on a 2nd grill, it should really be the 42"! Everyone wants to see that in action!

It was just too nice this morning to cook in the kitchen so why pass up a chance to cook on the KK. Bacon, eggplant, boiled egg (just warming up) and keeping the toast warm. If you haven't tried bacon on the grill it is absolutely wonderful. Plated. Someone over boiled the egg yesterday hence the pretty green colour.:)

Ribs look great Rak. You and @bosco were in my neck of the woods you should have called me, I would have met you guys or you could have come by my place...next time.

Exactly right! When I bought it I was thinking Huey, Dewey and Louie from Silent Running.

LOL thank you everyone! Who knew that smoking pot would make me a better cook...

Thanks for the idea.. Saw the traffic, was going to wait until I had stock of the 22" Table Top but your idea along with the traffic I had to jump.. Great day in sales too!

I understand the current promotion on the 42" includes a goat.

So the cook ran from about 8 AM to about 4PM at about 300° the whole time. I got distracted fixing my mother in laws car and wrapped in paper at 180. Then at 190 I removed it from the fire and rested it for a couple hours. It came out super! About like a cross between brisket point and flat. I pulled it apart muscle by muscle and removed all the intermuscular fat and fascia. Then sort of chopped and shredded it. I really hate to admit that I might never do a brisket again, this is like the pulled pork of beef. It's basically the same cut, as a matter of fact. It's just insanely good and easy too. The shred photo is about a quarter of the whole piece.

As one of the first to own the smoking gun, I might have to be the guinea pig for this experiment. I do need to get a flow control valve, as my pump is a single speed.

A slightly sweet vinegar BBQ sauce with a kick. Just thick enough to stick to your food. Final yield about 12 oz. 2 cups White Balsamic Vinegar 1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice 1/2 Tbsp Sea Salt 1/2 Tbsp md ground black pepper 1/2 Tbsp red pepper flakes 1/4 cup sugar 1/3 cup ketchup In a none reactive sauce pan combine all ingredients. With the kitchen exhaust fan on high bring to a boil with MD heat. Turn heat down to low and simmer an additional 30 minutes. (should be the consistency of whole milk.) Remove from heat and cool completely. Strain through a kitchen strainer to remove the big pepper flakes (still has plenty of kick). This is an optional step. Will store almost indefinitely in the refrigerator. This is a spin off of a Myron Mixon recipe.

Ahhhhhh, but remember that heat deflector is not the same as the baking stone but in a pinch Wait until you get the baking stone and you'll know what I mean. Looking forward to the baked version of those pizzas.

Bruce, that's not the way it works, getting a KK just means that the food you eat tastes better.

I have a pot and it's right under my chin and ever since I got my KK it seems to be getting bigger .

Well done... Your post is the kicker for me. Going to go get me some pot and start smoking!

Used my pot for the first time twice last weekend and I think you're spot on. It's both cleaner and more consistent. When combined with Coco Char, it's just that much more pure. Nothing but the flavor of the meat and the clean wood smoke. I'm sold as well, but want to try the cold smoker for comparison.

Looks a bit like my Lexington BBQ sauce recipe, but the white balsamic and lemon juice are an interesting twist. Will give this a try. Thanks for sharing!

I ordered the "hot" version of the SYD rub, 'cause that's how I roll!

I thought all pot was "magic!"

Nice and interesting post. Glad you like the KK... I am drilling holes in the Cast Iron Smoke pot today. Will use soon and see how that works out

The 42" is the kk you are looking for

That looks pretty tasty. I have been putting my vinegar sauces in a vitamix blender when adding red pepper flakes and like the results. Reminds me of the sauces that sat on the tables of the old bbq joints when I was growing up.

It might be a bit smaller goat.. Rob

this was my first time using the smoke pot. I wanted to use mesquite and only had chips but it did a great job. Funny how little smoke you actually see coming from the dome but you could smell it. Everyone that had it talked about the flavor and the word was "refreshing" compared to the usual southern bbq. Not sure if it was due to the banana leaves or the smoke pot or a combination.

Bosceaux says to Halfsmoke....."you're getting verrry sleepy....."! Rob

I think you may be able to source some frozen ones in Asian markets if you have any near you.

Some cooks just work right and it all comes together as you pictured it at the start. This was one of those cooks. Pork loin strips grilled and dredged in Grilled Peach Reef Jam w/ fresh rosemary. Green beans in a Neapolitan Balsamic Vinegar. A new candied sweet potato recipe. This was the star of the show and with one more tweak I'll put the recipe in my personal cook book and post it. A totally awesome dinner that left a huge smile on my face. Can't do this cook on a single kamado - if you want it all finished at the same time anyway.

Turned out great nice to find out you have some bananas on the way Outback Kamado Bar and Grill[emoji621]

Talk about being on a roll.

That's fantastic!

Nice cook steve looks mighty tasty

That looks great! I wish I had a banana tree in my yard! LOL

But, when folks keeping asking you questions about the 270, are you going to tell them that you upgraded to the KK and send them over here? But, it should be! Beauty and talent win the contest every time.

Great test; particularly impressive that you won on a new grill vs one that you knew so well. The kk also wins the swimsuit competition but I understand that wasn't part of the judging.

That was me trying to figure out which cooker to get!!!!! Logging in from 12 different devices

Oops I forgot the basket splitter.. And the plates can be set overlapping the others so you can use it in any position along the way.

They can be lightly sanded and used many times. Also, follow Steven Raichlen's video on Project Smoke to lightly char the plank just before putting the fish on, so it will pick up some of the woody character. I think that it helped when I did the salmon for the Pink Flamingo dinner. Note: there's a couple of alder wood chunks on the coals; hence, the smoke plume.

I love the hint of smoke it imparts also.

I mix my 00 with normal flour never had it taste dry Outback Kamado Bar and Grill[emoji621]

Here's what to do with leftover grilled sweet red peppers and fish. Make a chowder. Fresh carrots, onion, thyme, parsley and potatoes from the garden. Good enough for two bowls.

HalfSmoke, call it what you like but I'm calling it a delicious meal.

This was a new idea to me and it was fun. Cut the avocado in half remove the seed and some of the pulp. The plan was to add an egg and some cheese but my extra large eggs are too big so into one half went the cheese, the yoke and a little egg white and into the other half some cheese and most of the rest of the egg white. Baked on the KK at 350F for about 45 mins. to an hour. During the cook did a couple of slices of bacon. Bacon is done. Starting to build breakfast. Breakfast is served.

I use a Benzomatic MAPP torch to light my lump. For a low-n-slow cook I'll light a single spot on my lump pile. For something in the area of 300-400° I'll light 2 spot in the lump pile. For temps in the 400-500° range I'll light 3 spots. For 500°+ I'll light 4 spots. No matter the cook, right after I light the lump I'll set an alarm on my wrist watch for about 5-7 minutes. I leave the lid up on my KK, open the bottom vent fully, and I go prep the cook. When my alarm goes off, I return to the KK, shut the lid, set my vents for the temp I want, and in short order I'm ready to cook!

I did a smoked Mac-n-nCheese this weekend for a side dish to take to a party at which I was a guest. No leftovers. I spiced it up by adding some Hatch Peppers, Spicy breakfast sausage, hamburger, sautéed onions, etc.