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Dinner in the dark. Hotel style pork chop, fried potatoes and squash seasoned with thyme, ghee and maple syrup. Plated.

Nothing new to the forum, but always a fall football classic. American football that is. Brisket for Saturday dinner. Then Sunday brisket chili. I forgot to take a picture of it being finally served, but it always comes garnished with a healthy dollop of sour cream, some shredded cheese, cilantro, thinly sliced jalapeño and green onion sprinkled on top. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Catching up on some recent cooks. Sunday - chicken thighs with Uncle Dougie's wing marinade - my "go-to." Started out on the main grate at 325F, but then dropped down to the lower grate, skin side down, for the last 15 minutes. Plated with orzo pasta and coleslaw (I mixed some clean Uncle Dougie's into the dressing for the slaw instead of the usual vinegar - it's a "keeper!") Monday night was a bit of a quandry as to what to make? Quickly thawed out some thinly cut beef and made some suya skewers. I did add a bit of Gunpowder to the suya mix. I liked it. Lower grate, 400F. Mesquite chunks. Plated with a nice salt-crusted baked potato and some of the leftover coleslaw. Last night was lamb chops. Main grate, 350F, coffee wood chunks. Rubbed with my "house" lamb seasoning, with a bit of extra rosemary. Plated with roasted spuds and a salad. This is "faux" green crack - Trader Joe's Jalapeno Sauce with fresh chopped cilantro and parsley. Works great in a pinch!

I reckon I could just look at these amazing pictures, have a few beers and feel that I'd eaten really well. Might try it on Friday night instead of cooking.

Indeed it was. Hybrid between Texas brisket and traditional. All of the Texas brisket chili spices, but all of the tomato, beans, etc in a traditional. Plus I roasted the jalapeños, tomatoes and onions first. Secret ingredient to all of my chilis is a few spoonfuls of masa flour. Great thickening agent with the added benefit of a little corn flavor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tonight- paella on the KK. I used to always cook paella on my old gas BBQ, so this was always going to be a KK meal eventually. Simple one for a weeknight dinner- chicken thighs, chorizo and green beans. Yum.

Please also remember that the vapor you are trying to create is also in your charcoal. For more smoke flavor remove any charcoal that you have grilled with and replace it with fresh charcoal. Once you burn your charcoal over 450º the organic material that makes the smoke flavor is greatly reduced. Above about 450 you will see flames on your charcoal..that's your flavor turning to vapor and burning off..

They are totally different and I’m very aware. But it’s always my go to sarcastic stance for all you Texas chili purists. I mean, I’m just adding some beans. It’s not like I’m making Cincinnati chili up here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I live in Michigan. Chili without the beans is just coney sauce to me [emoji23] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cowboy is total sh!t charcoal. I don't recommend it to anyone, regardless of how cheap it is - you get what you pay for - in this case, half carbonized scrap lumber.

You really should give wood pellets a try in the cold smoker - over chips & chunks.

I used the left over marinade from Sunday's Peruvian pollo on some pork yesterday. Cooked on a spike in a Lodge pan that @RokDok recommended. Came out nice and crispy. Slow cooked a pineapple on the rotisserie, basting it with a grilled ginger syrup. All set to go for a delicious tacos supper.

Back around the end of May a new neighbor of mine approached me saying he was going to cut down all the trees up to the property line we shared. Well I said, It's your property Michael, you don't need my permission and so I left it as it was and traveled down to Georgia for a vacation to visit an ol friend. Now you have to understand that forest was a beautiful 150 ft buffer providing a bit of nature and the privacy we grew accustomed to enjoy for many years, not to mention it bordered my ODK area. Upon our return I reluctantly ventured out for a peak, and to my demise it appeared as if someone had dropped a bomb. Stumps and dirt were the scene before me and this vision had to change. A fence had to be built, so Table saw, planer, miter saw and such were pulled back into employment and a 7 foot wall with Viking supports was begun. A month a 1/2 later between stops at the saw mill and working the lumber it finally was erected. A funny positive came out of this whole dilemma..........I hired a Surveyor to measure our property line to ensure the fence being built wasn't encroaching on his property and so as a result we found that our other property line actually extended 15 feet beyond our backyard fence. This will be additional space for the ODK extension, not bad. While this was going on and between time I built this cabinet of the red white and blue for overflow, and of course one has to eat. These ribs had a dusting of Mississippi Grind and were basted with The Pride of Deer Camp BBQ Sauce with a touch of honey. You really should try it, great as a marinate and adds to the meat at the end. A sauce and a spice if your interested, It's Incredible is an all purpose spice from Texas and simply goes well on anything to start your base. The sauce is a balsamic cherry mix and I thought of Basher when I picked this up for a lamb finisher. You can make it yourself by reducing some ordinary balsamic a bit, then mincing in Luxardo black cherries with some of it's sauce, all for a finisher to your roasted lamb. Speaking of finishers, I came across this bag of lump at True Value, a product made in Maine. It's called Wicked Good because of the slang term alot of people use in and around the Boston area, this was an excellent all natural bag of lump, huge chunks up top and a consistent good size throughout. C6Bill keep your eyes open for this one, good quality.

@tony b. Those chops look great! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I grew up in the Piedmont (Greenville) and lived a few other places in the area (Asheville, Hendersonville), I have to say I've never seen or eaten this stew before? Brunswick stew - yes. I've even had Burgoo when I lived in eastern KY. Both cooked over open fires in big cast iron pots. But never anything that's this milk-based, except for oyster stew or clam chowder (NE - of course!)

Says a lot! 🤣 Coney sauce (aka - "Greek" chili down south where I come from) is a totally different dish from TX chili. I've judged CASI sanctioned chili cook-offs, so I know the difference. I like both - and I make both - but don't confuse the two.

Well if it has beans it isn’t chili 😂

I wouldn’t cook with Cowboy if it was free.smells like pesticide to me.

When I use a foil pouch, it's usually with chips over chunks (I have a cast iron smoker pot for those). I keep the pouch "loose," and use a toothpick to punch a couple of small holes in the bottom. I only use the pouch method on shorter cooks, as the smoke production is short (relative to the smoker pot). Best example - jerk chicken. I have pimento wood chunks, leaves and berries (aka - allspice) that I put into a foil pouch. Works great.

Stunning !!!

I bet that was some great chili 😁

Like BOC said 2 seem to work, however like any thing else there are variables and nothing is guaranteed. Place the first in the red coals, I usually do when I was applying this method and few scratches in the foil, small. The second was close to first, but a small distance away and place it on the top, no need to bury although I don't think it matters much. With this method experimentation and luck go hand and hand and it seems that even when your confident in the process it never plays out the same way. The smoke starts out on the whiteish side and after 5 or 10 minutes changes into your blue, depending on the wood. Practice and repetition are your ally, everyone is different and picks up on display differently, your looking for a control in this and like I said it changes from cook to cook. Oh, one other thing, I personally have always used chunks med size or however you determine medium. Good luck

Thanks for the tip! I talked to Dennis yesterday and he gave me some excellent advice. I am going to try the foil pouch and chunk smoking method next time. Also, Dennis recommended that I close the damper on my fan to 25% open because the fire still vents through the fan while it is off andhe is exactly spot on. My fire kept wanting to climb and this explains why.

I dropped in a paraffin cube and dropped in a few chunks that were relativity long and narrow; I thought those had less chance of twisting and getting hung up in the cold smoker. Lit the parrafin via the side hole, waited until I was sure it was burning good, then topped off with more chunks and capped the cold smoker. I put the rest of the refrigerated pulled pork in the wire basket I used for the previous test with chips, spritzed with apple juice, stirred, re-spritzed, and put in the KK with another dish of sauce. The cold smoker was pumping out smoke but at least volume than what I was getting with chips, so I inserted it into the guru port. I left it going for an hour, checking every 15 minutes and spritzing twice more. While I got less smoke from the chunks than I did chips, the KK was full of smoke each time I checked. There was only a small change in the level of chunks in the cold smoker. The smoke was clean but it didn't really smell like hickory to me; the chunks do look like hickory. I've had a cold with sinus congestion so maybe my smeller is off... The butt did pick up some more smoke flavor but still not up to the level I'm looking for; the smoked sauce was affected similarly to my previous test. Maybe my taster is off along with my smeller. It looked like very little of the hickory chunks were consumed; several pieces were charred and there was very little ash in the bottom of the cold smoker. I wish I had weighed the chunks before and after but I didn't think of it until after. Based on this, I'd say a full load of chunks would last for an overnight session as long as they don't get jammed up and the smoldering fire keeps catching subsequent chunks. As mentioned above, I didn't get the volume of smoke from the chunks as I did the chips but as long as the KK is full of smoke, I don't see that it matters. My conclusions from these tests: Chips work in the cold smoker and put out lots of smoke Small chunks work in the cold smoker and put out plenty of smoke Combining chips and chunks didn't work well due to the chips binding up the chunks Twice-smoked pork can be a thing Cold smoking does good things to my Lexington-style sauce I still haven't found the solution to my butts not picking up as much smoke flavor as I'd like To twist the knife on that last point, the foil that I wrapped the butt in for resting ended up with more smoke smell than the butt did -- I emptied the trash can that held the used foil this morning and it still smelled very strongly of smoke. I've smelled it every time i passed by the trash can (so my smeller is working!). That being said, I'm happy with the cold smoker and, as shown in my other postings, I'm excited with finding additional uses for it. Anyway, I have another butt in the freezer. I'll wait a few weeks (of more) and try again; unless something changes my mind, my plan for it is to do a relatively hot and fast smoke with it (350*-ish), use the cold smoker for smoke with just lump in the charcoal basket, and spritz the butt. I'll probably go with a heavier rub with more ingredients as well. I'll try to remember to weigh the chunks or chips or pellets before and after the cook as well.

Here is award winning pit master Harry Soo’s setup video for his Weber Smokey Joe. Works fantastic on the KK for long cooks. No cast iron pots needed. Be sure to use a little less fire than Harry does when using the chimney to start things or the temps can get away from you in the KK. Also, there is lots of smoke in for the first hour when I am preheating but then it tapers off beautifully to a clean blue smoke. The method works fantastic. Enjoy.

Your question sent me searching @jeffshoaf. In his book Finding Fire, Lennox Hastie smokes cream. I also found a post online about a recipe for Smoked Milk Ice cream by Ben Tish. Both aim for a light smoke, use a shallow bowl and both refrigerate overnight to develop the flavour. I think the cold smoker would be ideal for the task. Timing seems to be anything from 10 minutes to an hour in total but it does sound like you need to taste and test as you go along to decide when to stop. Thanks for the question. I already had the Lennox Hastie book and I liked Ben Tish but didn’t know him as a BBQ chef. Looking forward to exploring his book Grill Smoke BBQ. Another place that does interesting stuff with fire and smoke is Etxebarri in Spain where Lennox Hastie learned his fire cooking craft. I went there many years ago, before I started barbecuing, and was pretty excited then. I suspect it would blow my mind if I were to return now. So much to explore…

@Jon B., @tony b, @Paul and @MacKenzie , shame on you for encouraging @Poochie by laughing at his terrible jokes. I showed the post to my baby brother and he laughed out loud. That is a sure sign of a terrible joke.

Took delivery of my 32” Big Bad earlier last week (which I have nicknamed “The Cookie’n Monster” after the blue Sesame Street character), got it up into its new home on my porch yesterday, and it’s being christened as we speak with a rack of St. Louis cut ribs. This is my first post, but I lurked here for a couple of years leading up to my purchase. This forum is a fantastic resource and I’m glad to be part of it. I’m mostly preaching to the choir, but for those folks who are still considering the purchase, it is everything people say it is and more. Truly the best of the best, and a purchase for my lifetime and beyond. TNSmoker

Inspired by @tekobo. It was a much better idea for tonight's dinner than what I had originally planned. Mine is a creamy tomato version. Of course had to include Mrs skreef's muffin top corn bread

Let's see if I can help you understand the how's and why's.. trust me it's really not all that complicated. First of all other rotisseries I know of have one shaft that goes directly to the motor. Most rotisseries are also over open coals or wood with no lid. The square roti spit sits on supports and goes directly into the motor that has a square socket. This is a ONE socket system. The play in the one socket system is 1/3rd that of the KK's three socket system. I wanted a way to run the roti with the lid latched and completely airtight. Rather then make up a wedge and run it with the lid cracked, I installed a drive shaft that runs thru the body. So on the right there is a socket inside the grill attached to the driveshaft in a sleeve with needle bearings and another socket on the outside of the KK in the middle of the side accessory plate. The motor of course it the third socket. This is a three socket system. The first version was all square sockets. Think of the second hand on a clock very little movement at the center creates much more movement at the outside/tip. Because of the tiny bit of play in each socket X 3, the cradle would come around and at some point would fall forward about an inch. Some roti motors also have some slack in the gears and added to this movement. I felt this was unacceptable and gave it a less than quality feel. My solution that reduced the movement by 2/3s was to change the two sockets in the drive train to hex. The hex socket having more faces for the shaft to make contact seemed to do the trick. The motor of course it still square, so the outside the grill shaft is square on the motor side and hex on the KK side. You may be limited by the 23" Ultimate's cradle being 8" but the 32" Big Bad's 10" cradle should hold any turkey you want to throw at it.

Originally all KK's had square drive sockets and shafts. There are three sockets in the no-airflow KK roti drivetrain. One in the motor, one outside the grill and one inside the grill. Square sockets have a bit of play.. this play X 3 created a situation where the roti cradle would fall forward an inch or two at some point in the rotation. HEX sockets have much less play, so we changed the outside and inside sockets to hex and the corresponding shafts. The motor is still square.. the motor shaft is square at the motor side and hex where it goes into the KK. Can't argue with success, the roti has some movement but it's usually from the motor not play in the drivetrain sockets. We still supply parts and accessories for every KK ever built.