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Hopefully this is the week that the 32 ships!

I cured a pork loin and smoked it for a friend. Cured and ready to smoke. I didn't get near the smoke I had hoped to get. I did use a small cast iron casserole but I drilled 1/16th inch holes and perhaps I need to make them 1/8th inch. Since this was going to a friend I don't have any sliced pixs. Although I did slide it and we did a taste test but I didn't take any pixs. It was nice and pick all the way though.:) Once the pork was off the grill I opened the vents some and threw on some chicken thigh. I am going to use them for chicken soup tomorrow but couldn't resist a quick dinner with a couple of the thighs. Plated. Just look at how moist that chicken is. I forgot to take pixs of the smoking pot before putting it on the grill, but here are some after shots. Maybe if I use bigger holes I'll get a better burn.

I am pleased that we hijacked this thread away from Marmite and onto something way more palatable! I used beef Top Round steak, that was thinly cut (by the butcher, not me!) - it was called Sandwich Steak. It was about 1/8" thick. I cut the slabs into strips for the skewers. Here's the rub recipe that I used (I modified it based upon what I had, plus how I thought it was supposed to taste?) This recipe made plenty of rub for a pound of meat. 1/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts 1/2 TB of cayenne (I used Korean chile powder - Gochugaru - as I think it has more kick than cayenne.) 3/4 tsp of smoke paprika 1/2 TB of garlic powder (I used Lane's BBQ Garlic Squared, which has some herbs in it, too - Garlic, Salt ,Onion, Black Pepper, Parsley, Oregano, Basil, & Turmeric) 1/2 TB of onion powder (I used Penzey's Fox Point with some extra dried shallot tossed in - Fox Point: salt, freeze-dried shallots, chives, garlic, onion and green peppercorns) 1/2 TB of white pepper 1/2 TB of hot ground pepper (or cayenne) (I used Penzey's Berbere seasoning, to not just give heat, but some complexity to the rub - it has a lot of Moroccan flavors in it - cayenne red pepper, garlic, ginger, fenugreek, cardamom, cumin, black pepper, allspice, turmeric, cloves, Ceylon cinnamon and coriander) 1/2 TB chicken bouillon (I crushed up 2 cubes) Salt to taste. I put everything into my spice grinder and pulsed until well chopped/blended. The peanuts still had just enough oil in them to make it almost a wet rub, but still crumbly and not a paste. Lightly oiled the meat after I skewered it and generously sprinkled the rub on. As I said in my earlier post, I used the rest of the rub on the meat as it was cooking to layer it up. Worked well.

I haven't used mine in a cook yet, but I did plug in all 4 probes and synch it up to the receiver. Worked perfectly, very simple - much simpler than the older versions! Be patient, as they are worth it. One thing that was a bit of a disappointment, can't use the probes from the older unit with it. While the plugs fit, the resistance must be different, as they displayed temperature was waaaay off. Had hoped to salvage the old ones as spares, but guess not.

I thought I had hit the jackpot today. I was in London and happened upon a food court where suya was advertised. I dashed up to them and asked them what cut of meat they use. They looked at me blankly and said they don't serve suya at lunchtime. When they realised I was odd and genuinely wanted to know about their beef cuts, they told me "ribs". I am pretty certain they don't serve ribs and my Chinese friend guessed that they might mean skirt or flank i.e. flaps near(ish) the ribs. Anyway, I have now realised that I should not have bothered with all that internet "research". I asked my mother in Nigeria today and she is going to ask her friend's son, who has a suya business, a) what his rub recipe is and b) what cut of meat he uses. She recommended "fullay" but agreed there wouldn't be enough fillet to go round if that was the standard cut.

Beet root secret lol have been trying to convert this mob for yonks .I swear north of the river they have no taste buds lol . Outback kamado Bar and Grill

Cleaning, pitting, and freezing eight pounds of sour cherries making their brief annual appearance at Berkeley Bowl. A tribute to my childhood tree.

Oooh. What a lot of lovely cooks! By the magic of the internet I have been able to start my day with sausage, chook, burger, pizza and rice. All really nice. No wonder I am not losing any weight...

With the over abundant Blueberries I have at my disposal this year I decided to can a batch of my Blueberry BBQ sauce. I did tweak the recipe a little bit. We’ll see how it turns out.  I started by lightly smoking 5 cups of Blueberries at 200*. Here they are after about an hour. Some of them lost their color but that's OK. The juice is in the bottom of the pan (you just can't see it) and they'll all get there color back once you start cooking it.  After an hour or so I dumped them into my pot and smashed them a bit with a potato smasher. Bring to a full rolling boil. Mix up the other ingredients and add to the blueberries. Return to a full rolling boil. After the second rolling boil jar up the mixture and water process for 10 minutes. Check back tomorrow night. We’ll open a small jar and see what we got.

Excellent point, MacKenzie!

Thanks! I'm in Edgewater, just south of Annapolis.

Ah. Hopefully the urge to buy will have worn off by the time the get back in stock.

Gooseberries and pork? I would not have thought of it. As a kid on the farm, I used to pick gooseberries for my grandmother to make cobblers ("... all the sugar they will take, and a little bit more."), but I hadn't considered them for a sauce for pork. Nor, actually, a blueberry BBQ sauce. This is very interesting...

Looking forward to the result of the taste test. I've got a pile of gooseberries here and smoking before making a sauce for pork is a potential option if your blueberry experiment worked. All I can say is - good luck @ckreef!

I loved the original so him tweaking it, I got worried. Maybe we find out this afternoon if it gets a thumbs up.

I'm betting it will get a big thumbs up!! I think so too but I also think I could slightly improve it with 2nd batch next weekend, we'll see.

Ha ha. Pleased that Nigeria will be represented. Remember that old expression? Some of my best friends are black? Well, some of my best friends voted for Brexit and for Trump (not the same friends given the geographic challenges). What the current politics draws out is the differences between us. I think it is a good thing that we are more aware of those differences but I sure as hell have no idea how we reconcile them.

Excellent, thanks! Yes, the deflector makes sense, which is why I was asking. Didn’t see one, and yet your veg looked perfect without a layer of char. Spinning over a pan of veg like that...hard to beat for easy AND ducks nuts fantastic. Makes me want to spin another soon.

It was actually sitting on one of the half deflector plates on top of what i think you call the deflector grid. I was going to post the question on how to go about it, was worried about the pan getting too hot hence the def. plate. Pre cooked only the potatoes in microwave for ten minutes. Had temp sitting around 370-390F for entire cook (1hr45mins) was using the Meater probe as well (impressed), did notice i used a fair bit of charcoal on that cook, it was i'd say 3/4 basket full with around half of it fresh charcoal. I took the veggie pan and deflector out for the last 20mins (they were done) wanted to crisp up the skin a bit with some direct grilling, which you can do with this fabulous beast. Veggie pan survived the test, but only because it was screened by the Def. plate.....and did i say the veggies we're the ducks nuts

BonFire, your chicken and veggie cook looks ever sooo tasty.:) Tony, sounds like you have the rice cooker working just as it is supposed to after a rough start.

Aussie, just had a 2nd look at your burger....looks smashing, your giving away the beetroot secret as well i see

Turned out superb Bruce. Been reading a lot about catching the drippings over the veggies be it chicken or beef, Julie usually does them in the kitchen oven and she commented how nice they turned out, so thats another one for the little black book and one less job for my darling wife.