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Thinking that today might be the last day of Indian Summer, decided to celebrate with a nice steak dinner. Prime grade rib-eye cap, with garlic pepper rub internally, and Gunpowder on the outside. Direct, on the lower grate, with a chunk of bourbon barrel stave. (Note: I deconstructed it by taking off the original butcher's twine, seasoning it, and then putting it back together with a combo of skewers and twine.) Plated with a HUGE 2x baked potato and sautéed mushrooms. Was gifted some lovely raspberries from friends who have bushes in their backyard, so onto a nice arugula salad with Roquefort cheese. I had taken some of the raspberries and made a nice vinegar with them, which went onto the salad, too. Plated!

This is what my wagu steak looked like before cooking. Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Got this Wagyu Tritip from Crowd Cow earlier this week. Started in the KK until it hit 120 and let it rest while I brought the Evo grill up to high. Served with the Peruvian Sauce, sautéed Mushrooms, and french fries. It didn't disappoint. Searing on the Evo

I'm guessing you are pouring the charcoal directly from the bag into the basket. The small pieces are settling into the airflow channels and restricting your airflow/ temps. Best to pour the charcoal into a box shake a few times, then use the medium and larger pieces. Open the damper top, close the lid.. remember the airflow does not start until you close the lid. The hot air exiting the damper top creates vacuum (forced airflow) and gets everything going. Using the KK baking stone you will want to try 550-650º for a medium crust and thicker pie. If it's too hot the top will burn before the bottom gets leoparding on the crust. if not hot enough the crust will be done before the top is cooked. For Neapolitan cracker crust pizzas you will want to use a baking steel (carbon steel) at 450º this will give you the same heat transfer as a traditional stone at 900º+.

Best stuff is actually a paste. I have a couple of "go to's" - Walkerswood (https://smile.amazon.com/Walkerswood-Traditional-Jamaican-Seasoning-Ounce/dp/B07D9YDQNT) JCS Boston Bay (https://www.amazon.com/Jamaican-Boston-Seasoning-Bundle-Bottles/dp/B0181C74DE) Dizzy Pig makes a dry rub that's not too bad either. https://www.amazon.com/Dizzy-Pig-Jamaican-Firewalk-Spice/dp/B005PIPGBU Just so happens, Mon, that I did some jerk chicken for dinner last night! Marinated for 3 days. I like to mix the paste with dark rum to thin it out for an extra kick. BUT, the real key is to smoke it with pimento wood - traditional style, straight up Rasta, Mon! I used the smoker pot with pimento wood chips, leaves and allspice berries. I started them out at 325F, indirect - seeing as they were boneless breasts, but finished them off direct to get a bit more color. Plated with herbed rice (parsley, cilantro, scallions, basil and thyme) and drunken black beans (no pigeon peas around here). I put a splash of rum in the beans, along with epazote and scallions. Hush puppies just seem to go "wid it." Unfortunately, no Red Stripes!

Hi All, While I wait for my BB 32" I need to source some charcoal in Australia. Where I live I don't have any local options, so I either have to buy online, or possibly get from Adelaide. This is fine, but it will be hard to restock quick if I run out. So, any suggestions on brands to use here ? Thanks Cheers Jamie

So...I made a big meat order from Snake River Farms which was delivered yesterday morning, including a 17 1/2 lb prime brisket. So the plan was to first, thaw that huge sucker, which was frozen solid, in the large kitchen sink. That took roughly 6-8 hours and then I trimmed it, slathered with mustard and coated with a sea salt/ medium coarse pepper mixture. The plan at this point was to start the cook at midnight, get up at 6 and check on it, perhaps to wrap at that point, and previous experience indicated it would be done by 1-2 the next afternoon, perfect timing to let it rest for a few hours and serve to my extended family (wife, daughter, son-in-law, 3 grandkids) for dinner. (And probably have enough left for both households for several days.) So I got the KK set up with a nice hardwood lump charcoal and big chunks of post oak. I started the KK at 11 aiming to put the meat on at 12. Here's where we went off the rails, before we started. I used my propane wand to start the fire in one small tennis-ball sized area, as usual. I usually start by giving it a pretty good venting to get the fire going and then choke it off when I am within about 25-50 degrees of where I want to be, because the temperature will continue climb after I tamp it down (a little like steering an ocean liner). So 45 minutes later I came back to check on my cooker and it was already over 300. This is BAD, 'cause experience also tells me it will be quite a while before I can get the temperature to drop to where I had wanted it, around 250*. I choked it down as far as I dared, a whisper of air coming through the bottom vent and and about 1/4 turn off shut at the cap. Checked back 45 minutes later....not much change. URK. At this point it was about 12:45, so I put the brisket on and hoped for the best and went to bed. Did I mention I set up my Aksesroyal bluetooth temperature monitor with one probe in the flat and one in the point? Got up at the unearthly hour of 6, and happily I had put out my LED head lamp (designed for hunters, I think) so I wasn't stumbling around in the dark through the obstacle course Ms. Daneta has created in our sideyeard patio. Did I mention it was pitch black at 6AM? And then the October surprise: my fire has apparently gone out and the 32" KK is...cold. The brisket, however, is not too bad...about 134 from both probes. Okay...I still have 12 hours till dinner, and we are partly there....so I get the propane wand out, restart the fire, this time stand by it until I can level it off at 275, and resume the cook. The photo below is the brisket at 170*, just before I wrapped it with pink butcher paper, tightly, and resumed cooking. This is about 11:30 AM and it was done 203 and 201, respectively, at 1:30. It went straight from the KK into a styrofoam cooler (just barely fit) to rest until we are close to dinner. So wish me luck- I know it's done, and it has some decent bark, and I hope we didn't dry it out and ruin $140 worth of really good beef brisket. More photos and a taste test to follow when I carve this sucker up, in about 2 hours.

Well, here's the results: the good news is, the Snake River brisket is, as advertised, very high quality- though not noticeably better than the prime brisket I can get at Costco for, of course, a lot less per pound. Maybe there could be some debate about this, if you are a real brisket fanatic, maybe you can discern some significant difference: I can't. Second, after all the issues with the early part of the cook, I got it done, and it was....decent. Very good bark (as you can see). I might have even trimmed too much fat- hard to tell. I'm not Aaron Franklin, but I am sure he would know. Good smoke- I like post oak better than anything else I've used (fruitwoods, hickory). The family was happy with and practically inhaled about 2/3rds of the finished brisket, as you see from the middle picture. I also was able to send enough home with them for lunch today for 5. Then, the bad news and the diagnosis: I've had brisket from some of the best- Franklin, LA Barbecue, Snow's, Truth, Mickelthwaite...I know what it CAN be. My flat was tasty but a bit dried out, and therefore not as tender as it could and should be. The point- the fatty part- was more moist and tender but not as good as the best. It may end up as brisket hash tonight, which is not bad. Now, the debrief. Why was it dry? The last one I did came out pretty close to perfect, though not perhaps exactly 'Franklin-level". So remember, the night before I had started the brisket at about 325* and tamped it down to a whisper, thinking it would fall to 275-300. I NEVER thought I'd get up and find the KK nearly cold 5 hours later, at 6 AM. There are several good pitmasters, like John Mueller, who cook at 300*, so I wasn't worried about it starting off hotter than my normal 250*. The meat was still at 135* when I started it back up and brought it up to 275-300 for the rest of the cook. So why did it dry out? We don't know what temp the meat reached at maximum before falling to 135*. So it might have been up as high as 165-70, for all I know, and maybe it dried out in the second phase of cooking. I certainly wouldn't recommend a two-stage cooking method. Also, there is the matter of the "rest". I thought the brisket would finish at 3 or 3:30 and be served at 6- that would have been nearly ideal. It finished faster than I thought- about 1:30-2 and immediately went, wrapped in its butcher paper, into a very tight disposable styrofoam cooler that we had available. Next, dinner got pushed from 6 to 7:30, so the brisket stayed in the hot cooler, "resting" from 2 to 7. It was still 155* when I pulled it out to slice it, just before serving. So maybe I should have rested it less long, and maybe used a cooler which would have allowed for more heat dissipation? It will be different next time, but any brisket cook is a difficult timing challenge. If, for example, you want to start dinner at 6PM, working backwards, you want a 2-3 hour rest, a 12-14 hour cook for a good 15-17 pound brisket. So for a perfect schedule, you'd start the brisket at 2-3 AM or so for a 6PM dinner, and you'd be taking it out to wrap around 6 hours more or less into that. Starting a cook at 2AM really doesn't work for me. If you wrap in foil to keep it moist, you can destroy the bark. So it's a challenge- I will be interested in the thoughts and suggestions from this group, which has many skilled and experienced KK cooks.

It's just a nice thick cut pork chop. I prefer the "t-bone" ones with a bit of tenderloin. Typically run about 1 1/2" thick.

I usually aim for a temp. about 550F for my pizza cooks. I light the lump, shut the lid, and the bottom vent are open. The top is probably open a full turn or more. Once I near the target temp. I close the top vent down to keep my temp. around 500-550F. The KK is not meant to be used with the lid up, I believe it can damage the gaskets. An IR thermometer will tell you the temp. of your pizza stone so will know when to load your pizza.

Is it wrong that I’m most excited by that salad and the fresh raspberries? Looks Delicious as always @tony b

Nice cook Aussie- Troble has stolen your rib cook. Troble I imagine you have read through that book by now. It’s gold. Very simple to understand, but also some challenging recipes. Smoked water on hand and tomato water????? I’ll work my way through some of his recipes...... after working through this gravlax cured tassie salmon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So this is one of the last’s cooks that I will do on my Vision grill before my BB32 arrives and it got me to thinking that since this is an international group of people I think it is a good time to talk about very regional BBQ. I live in St. Louis Missouri here in the good ole USA and we have 3 food items that we are known for and started here. The most famous one is “toasted ravioli” which is ravioli dipped in egg wash then in bread crumbs and into 375 degree hot oil. Most people serve it with marinara sauce but I prefer it with drawn butter. Next on the list is something called “gooey butter cake” I don’t know how to describe this other than it was supposed to be a cake like dessert that was undercooked but they sold it anyway and it became this whole thing here. They are really good. Now to what we are all here for, BBQ! St. Louis is also famous for “pork steaks”. I have been eating these my entire life so it doesn’t occur to me that people outside of STL don’t know what these are. Simply put it is a pork butt cut into 3/4 inch steaks. Every store here has them so we don’t have to go to the butcher to get them but you probably will. I cannot recommend these enough. They need to be cut across the bone. So when you get these the bone should be in the middle of the steak. I do these indirect at 250 for about 2.5 hours. Put your favorite rub on them and flip them about half way through the cook. Most people will put sauce on them to finish but I don’t. i would love to see some of your local BBQ specialties.

Is it normal to cook at such a high temperature? I know offsets cook that high (275-300) - part of the reason why is: when cooking with real stick wood, there is still a fair amount of moisture in the wood itself - even seasoned. From what I've gathered, this is why the high air flow doesn't dry the meat out (and of course, regular spritzing doesn't hurt). For pellets and charcoal based smokers, a lower temperature (225-250) is more typical. Granted, my current pellet rig has temp swings that are pretty maddening... For my next brisket cook, I plan on merely staying up late rather than waking early. Though my last brisket cook took 14 hours! (Again...temperature swings). The only other thing I can think of offering is: looking at the fat cap as an indicator for when to wrap. Temperature readings will get you in the ballpark...looking at how much of the fat cap has rendered (turned slightly yellow) as well as bark-build up can be additional indicators for wrapping. One of my recent favorite Youtube BBQ guys is Mad Scientist BBQ. I like that he breaks down the chemistry of a fire to help explain what you're looking for in a good fire. Granted...He's a stick burner acolyte...I try not not to judge. Hope that helps.

Too bad BARDSLJR that your fire went out but, the end result was picture worthy, nice bark. Leaving the brisket in the cooler 5 hours allows the juices to come together in a positive way, and you still served at 155 so it was all worthwhile. Have you tried a Cyber or DiGi Q for those long cooks that go overnight. I like you prefer to run with just the vent settings so the work put in at the beginning to steady a 250 temp maybe all you need. An unfortunate series of events, no worries...you'll knock it out of the park next time. Looked fine to me

You can close close the lid pretty much right away after you get it lit. It probably takes an hour to get to ~500 with the pizza stone in starting from a cold start. And maybe another 20 min to get from 500-650/700. Everyone’s experience is going to be a bit different depending on setup.

Chiking how open is your top? If it is wide open, much of your heat will be escaping. Once the fire is lit, 3/4 to one full turn will see it heat up quickly. I have read here that you may not want to take your KK up to 900f as this may compromise the unit. I've been cooking pizza and bread successfully under 600f

Well you must be better at execution than me. Mine always looks whiteish...I’ve never tried it on steak but I bet it was great looking at the photos

I used apple wood during this cool. I have a bunch of cherry also that I need to cut up and start using.

@Steve M that looks absolutely perfect. How did you get that sauce so green? Nice work on the cook. I’m hungry

To quote a previous POTUS - "I feel your pain!" We've all been there, son! Just when we think that we've got this whole thing figured out, we get a curve ball like this one to put us back in our place. Seems like you recovered nicely though - a mark of a true BBQ'er! I'm pretty sure that your brisket will be awesome and the family will be happily fed. At the end of the day, that's all that counts!

Great minds, eh? Another dry rub in my pantry that I forgot about since I haven't actually used it yet. Oakridge BBQ's Jah Love. I've just sampled it. It's got a serious habanero kick.

@tony b thanks I will definitely look into it. That’s pretty ironic timing on the inquiry though. my buddy sent me a picture this morning of his plate from last night. He’s been trying to not meat for many months but he eventually gave in and had a 1/2 rack of ribs.....and took a 1/2 rack home

Tong master is a recognised term in our family's vocabulary. Cooking with fire is a great skill to have though. You'll have to get them on to 20-30 hour slow cooks on the KK. I don't really know what 'boss level' is in BBQ terms - going the whole hog must surely qualify for complexity and commitment. Certainly on a Weber!!! I think you're right on the surrender. But I learnt a long time ago that you don't mess with vegans - they're angry to start with and I don't think the jokes help. 😁 Vesselfinder and Marine Traffic are both good AIS services and Dewi should give you the vessel name as part of the document set. You can set up alerts to notify you of activity and I remember the judgement I got when I did this. I think Mrs BQ called it 'the Santa NORAD tracker for grown men'. I then busted her looking at it a couple of times because she was 'interested in the route'.