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Way back in '99 I made a mistake and bought a clay cooker from "that guy" who has since fled to Mexico. It started to peel tiles six months after I bought it. No support, I was on my own. I Removed the few tiles that didn't fall off and mortared over the clay outside. It wasn't pretty, cracks throughout, the weather in the Midwest wasn't kind to my red headed step-child, but I managed to get a fair amount of use out of it. Then I stumbled across the KK. I did a lot of research, I didn't want to make another mistake. Finally, I made a purchase. It sat in my garage for 4 months awaiting the building of its new home. Now the outdoor kitchen is almost (except for painting) finished and my 19" TT sits in its new home. I couldn't be happier.

Again, catching up on posting some pics of cooks from a while back. Followed Franklin's BBQ book for these beef ribs. Salt and pepper rub only: Cooked: Plated Sides: Funky Heston Blumenthal Tiramisu that looks like mint growing from soil (everything is edible) And a beautiful house warming gift from a great friend (who was fed up using our ikea cutlery!)

Cooking for a couple of SWMBO's colleagues tonight who are town from the UK office for a week. Had bought 4 good size SLC pork ribs from the butcher. They are Canadian and fresh (most of the pork ribs I can get here in Singapore are frozen) they are about a kilo per slab (2.2lbs) I'm following the method from Franklin's BBQ book with a few modifications: First I salted the slabs and let them dry brine over night. Then I filled R2D2 (her name has been changed from 'Big blue' by my buddy's star wars obsessed 3 year old!) With coco char on top of a little left over lump from my grilling session last weekend. 30 seconds with the propane torch got one small area lit (super easy as almost immediately the half burned lump under started burning) A half turn open damper and quarter open vents then walked away to begin prep as I was in no rush to get up to temp I thought I'd let her take her time. Ribs ready for rubbin' Pepper, garlic powder and paprika for a simple rub: Popped a few handfuls of Hickory wood chips in a foil pouch with the only opening like a funnel down towards the bottom of the charcoal basket. (Forgot to take a photo before hand so, if the pouch survives I'll share a pic.) As I wanted to spread out the smoke release over a period of time with half the chips I soaked them. Now I know a lot of people say that it doesn't make much difference or that the water really doesn't get into the wood so I put them and the water in my chamber vacuum sealer - theory being that as the vacuum is created it pulls air out of the wood which in turn forces waster in. When it was happening you could see the water fizzing, first from the air escaping from the submerged wood and then just because the vacuum starts to evaporate the water. Here's the chamber vacuum sealer: With the wood on and the deflector in place I gave it a while to heat up and get that nice blue smoke going and then on with the ribs. Did them on two levels coz they were so long!

Cooked some pasta and made homemade tomato sauce with tomatoes fresh from the garden. Added these to a casserole along with some baked portabella mushrooms, 3 large Italian sausages, cottage cheese and Monterey Jack Cheese. On the KK at 350F for an hour. Plated.

Sure, blame the wife. See how far that gets you - LOL.

Welcome to the Obsession. Can'twait to see more pics of it in action.

CK, that deep dish pizza has me salivating, it looks soooooo scrumptious.

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Wow, awesome pizza

Hey I can do that. I'm not skerd....

Different meats, but having done brisket and pork ribs with the smoke pot two weeks ago and beef ribs with the cold smoker today, I feel like the results are similar for these low n slow cooks. The difference is in the accessibility, controllability, and versatility of the cold smoker. You probably don't want to use the pot above 300 and can't use it for cold smoking, but I could use the cold smoker at all temps and with controllable intensity. The only downside is that you can't use your guru at the same time. lol, will be interesting to see how many cold smokers Dennis sells this week.

The 32 is great - it was Ceramic Chef who is largely responsible for my decision and I'm glad I listened! It's the basket splitter that makes it so useful - so flexible and the real estate you have for grilling and big cooks is insane! As for salting for 4 hours or even overnight, the theory behind dry brining is that when you salt the meat it draws moisture to the surface initially drying it. Then, after resting for a while, that moisture begins to be reabsorbed into the meat along with the salt, adding flavour and tenderise ng the meat. Most people do it with steaks and Turkey rather than ribs but hey! Why not?

HalfSmoke, those ribs look really really tasty, what a great cook.

Thanks, ck, sometimes winging it pays off and this was one of those times.:)

And the result: off the charts awesome! Thanks for following along, y'all. Was a fun cook.

Really worth doing!! I did one back in February to celebrate Chinese new year: I certainly recommend it! In the KK no need to pre sousvide or even use a rotisserie- skin was so crispy it shattered like glass when you put the knife in and the meat was so tender juice was running down your face when you ate it!! Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

looks great. As for the temp, the left dial looks good. I too like having the right open but use the smallest hole. Having it open as much as you did is what resulted in you having the higher temp. The hardest thing about learning to cook on a KK is learning just how little air is required to get it going.