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Well, it’s already been about 10 weeks since I’ve taken delivery of my 32”KK and doing my first Pork Shoulder! Based on some learning curves and advise from various forums and cook books I’ve arrived at the following set up and recipe. Ive got a shoulder that is about 7lbs. I dry brined it for about 12 hours with 3tsp of Kosher Salt. After this I rubbed it with yellow mustard and applied Dizzy Pig Dizzy dust. I put it on the KK at about 11PM tonight. Using about 3/4 basket of Fogo Super Premium. Set up CyberQ with a target temp of 240F. Bottom dampers closed and Pit Boss fan damper is 50% open. Top KK vent is just off the gasket. Set up KK cold smoker with a wood pellet mix of about 50/50 Hickory and apple. The photo below is the KK at the start of the cook and decided to include a picture of the moon over the lake....a beautiful evening here! Getting ready for bed now and going to trust that my set up is going to cook flawlessly.....I hope!!! I’ll include pictures tomorrow of the cook! Best, Paul

Found some boneless beef short ribs in the freezer this morning. Here we go- Equal amounts of chili, garlic powder and fresh ground black pepper. Meat is done. Snack time.

Running an experiment with 2kg of grass fed sirloin on sale at $7.99Aus/kg. That's about 4.4lb for US$9. After cutting into 3 lumps( intending to involve the kids in adding their own preferred spices to their own lump and one spicier one for mum and dad) I added 80 grams( 4%) of himalayan rock salt to the beef, vac sealed and will put in the fridge for 4- 5 days. This is after day 1. Plenty of moisture already dragged out of the meat. In 4 more days, this is when I will be wishing I had the cold smoker.... so will improvise with some smouldering saw dust from french oak pinot barrels. Then plan to rub in 3 different herb mixes, wrap in a cloth, tie and hang in the cold room for another month or 2. The sirloin is only an inch thick so there is plenty of surface area to dry out. Chillie, garlic, cumin, black pepper and Tassie Pepper Berries for me. The kids can choose on smell tests. Any tips will be taken on board given I won't be doing much with this until the weekend.

I came across an interesting duck giblet sausage recipe the other day and, somehow, went from a small bag of goose giblets in the freezer to half a pig and two days of sausage making. Here we go... First soak your skins. The sheep's skins are thinnest but were actually the easiest to work with. Duck giblet sausage from the Pitt Cue Co book. I am guessing it is an Italian recipe given the fact that your "sausage" ends up being wrapped in the neck skin. My necks came skinless so I opted for chipolata style sausages. Colourful rub ingredients, including orange zest. Goose necks, giblets and chicken wings ready to go. Onto the KK in dairy cow fat. Smoked at 100C for three hours and then added hearts for two more hours and then livers for a further 20 minutes. I am a little squeamish about hearts so this was a good recipe for processing all the interesting bits of poultry. I know the idea of poultry necks will be daunting for some but just look how familiar the picked meat looks - you wouldn't know that that wasn't a (small) pile of pulled port, would you? It was very hard work to get the very stiff mix into chipolata skins but here are the resulting sausages, waiting for their debut. Think very skinny liver sausages with the added benefit of chopped pickled cherries. Here is the head of the lovely pig that gave up his/her life for the rest of the sausages. At the end of day 1 we had all the meat cut up, seasoned and waiting in the fridge for mincing on Day 2. First we made cotechino sausages. I totally loved these winter sausages when we bought them from Italy last year. Imagine my surprise when I find that they are made of half and half skin and meat. I guess that is what gives the sausages their unctuous flavour. I found two different recipes. One had parmesan in and the other red wine. I made both. Here is the batch with red wine, I think. @Braai-Q recommended Luganega sausages in a previous post so when I saw the recipe in my sausage making book I thought I would give them a try. Here they are, looking luscious. We made a couple of batches of bog standard pork sausages. One coarse cut Italian hot sausage and one fine cut old favourite, pork and sage. And finally the Cornish Hogs Pudding or White Pudding. Made with a mix of pork and "lights" (lungs and hearts) and groats. They are a "white" equivalent of black/blood pudding. You have to poach them for about 50 minutes. In the past we have had them break at this stage, filling the pot with your precious sausage meat. This time we paid attention to the definition of "poach", didn't boil and didn't have any breakages. The cotechini need to hang for up to six weeks and the rest of the sausages will go in the freezer. Will taste over the coming weeks. I imagine some of you will be uncomfortable about the "nasty bits" that go into sausages. Don't be. Sausage skins encase and make all meats wonderful. Here are my left over skins, salted and waiting for their chance at greatness.

Nice looking cook @ckreef and neat application. My MEATER packed up a few weeks ago during a low and slow cook. I raised a ticket with their support desk and they noted that I had exceeded the maximum ambient temperature of 275C on a few cooks (they could see this on my MEATER Cloud account). They said that I had invalidated the warranty. The good news is that, in spite of that, they offered me a replacement MEATER. That got me thinking. My brother in Texas bought me the MEATER in the first place and he had just received notification that the MEATER Block that he ordered for me two Christmases ago was finally to be delivered. The deal was that he wanted me to send him the single MEATER back and I would get the Block. I thought it would be much better if he had the MEATER+ so I asked customer service if I could pay the difference for a MEATER+. Customer service became customer delight service when they very kindly sent me a MEATER+ at no extra charge. So, they did take ages and ages to deliver on their original Kickstarter promises but their customer service since has been very good indeed.

Well I woke up at 6:45am and everything was running smoothly! Shoulder temp was in the about 172F. Finished at 9:00am at 203F. Wrapped in pink Butcher paper and double wrapped in foil and did the FTC method. Now it’s time to let rest and look forward to lunch!!! Below is a picture of the shoulder before pulling off the grill and couldn’t resist sending a pick of our two pups chilling by the lake! Once I pull the shoulder and plate I’ll forward some last pictures. Also, one question for you folks out there with the CyberQ. Towards the end of my cook my temperature jumped higher....about 273F and set point was 240F. I had the ramp feature set up....just not sure this feature works well with the KK? Any information is appreciated! Cheers! Paul

Absolutely stunning cook and pictures as always Mack! I had a double cook yesterday on the 32, steak for lunch and then pizza for dinner. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pour down rain this morning, first rain we've had for quite some time so that was good. Had 6 pounds of Vidalia onions in the slow cooker since yesterday morning. While they were finishing up there was time for a nice breakfast. Who am I kidding, there's always time for a nice breakfast. Followed that with a bowl of French Onion soup, the rest is for the freezer. See you next winter.

Looking good. .and plated with some corn and veg.. Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Lamb shanks dusted in dizzy dust smoked over Hi early apple chunks caint wait. Ready to go..and they are on ..believe it or not this is the first time I've tried shanks straight usually braised them looking forward Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Huge effort Tekobo. Between your bacon and snags you need to open a deli. Yum.

Tekobo maybe not as dry as biltong. More like a bresaola or beef prosciutto. I'll stick to the plan on what I've read to have lost 40% weight from the initial 2kg.

Nice that they were accommodating for you, Tekobo!

Thanks for posting this @Pequod. I love everything about her.

Welcome Steve. I'm going through the same at the moment, however, I have a lot less room and a lot less access than you. I wish I could get a bobcat into my back yard. After 1 hour of digging shale my hands are ripped up- been pushing pens for too long. We have been thinking about selling up and moving after 20 years, however, we are close to schools, work, community and decided last night that we will do a complete renovation, starting with the back yard. Keep the photos coming and I'll share mine on "The Clock is Ticking".

I can almost taste those beef ribs from here Mack, very nice! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here we go, rain stopped and it turned out to be a super nice evening so why not light up the Konro and tend some food.

Try this, Alphonse. As CK said you can just use pliers and pull off the c clips to separate the 3 pieces.

With apologies to MacKenzie for stealing her line*, I made my first Deep Dish Pizza and used the Reef Deep Dish recipe. I'm very happy with the way it turned out and received numerous kudos from dinner guests (a.k.a. experimental subjects). I used my new Lloyd's 12" deep dish pan, again thanks to Charles' recommendation. Dough in the pan after two hour counter and six hour refrigerator rise, followed by return to room temperature. Lightly browned Italian sausage and cremini mushrooms are flanking. Added a layer of fresh mozzarella and another of picante' provolone, followed by the Italian sausage, mushrooms and herbs and finally, topped with "Rao's Homemade Pizza Sauce®" (which was great flavor but not quite enough for a 12" pie) Into the KK for 15 minutes (dome temperature 500°F, pizza stone temp at 455°F), then pulled to add fresh picked basil and fresh bought pepperoni then a topping layer of mozzarella Returned to the KK (now at 450°F dome temperature) for another 20 minutes, resulting in this Pulled from the pan after a 7 minute rest (couldn't get a photo of the bottom crust due to constantly beating back many attempts trying for "...just a taste", but it was nicely browned). Cut and served with heirloom Caprese salad and Schramsberg California sparkling wine. (Not a MacKenzie quality photo, but I was hungry by this time). A good time was had by all. Thanks again, Charles, for the pan and recipe tips. I'll make this again.

Man I forgot how good it is having home cooked meals. Guess doing it is like riding a bike as it's all coming back in a delicious way. Mustards and bi-corn were great pressure cooked sides. Gotta love 4 minutes side items...LOL.

Sorry, no KKs used in the making of this meal, but I will be firing up one of the beasts tomorrow for some chook halves. Plus it's just been ridiculously hot for a while. Hoping for some rain and cooler weather soon so I can do more outdoor cooking. For my birthday dinner I decided to cook one of my favorite dishes since it's not available locally. Schnitzel A La Holstein, potato salad and gherkin salad. Mmmmm. Wife thought it was her birthday since it's also one of her favorites too. The pork cutlets were tiny, even after taking a pounding. Didn't want to look like a pig, so only put one on the plate for the pic....😮...but let's just say there will be schnitzel sandwiches this weekend too. Safe to say my wife definitely thinks I've not lost my touch since I had to fight her away for a quick pic. Nothing fancy, only the finest paper plates for us...LOL. But the meal was fantastic, which is all I care about anyway. 😉

Daughter is heading back to Virginia Tech today. This loaf is going with her as a reminder not to loaf [rimshot!].

Scallops and Halibut with an asparagus sauce on the EVO.

Last fall I was busy trying to use up my basil so I made lots of pesto. Thanks goodness for that. Pesto, pasta, pork, Swiss chard and my first cherry tomatoes of the season. If I had had my eyes closed I would have thought those tomatoes were cherries, absolutely wonderful, can't wait to pick a bowl and sit down and eat them. These were the first two of what I hope will be a long season. Now that I have my strength up I'm going out to trim 2 yew trees.