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I had two pork butts to work with tonight. One of them became Tacos Al Pastor. The other became pulled pork BBQ. I only used about 2/3 of a pork butt for Al Pastor so I BBQed the last 1/3rd with another whole pork butt. The results were awesome and a great time was had by all.

kitchen is still under construction so got tarps all over while they are restaining the cabinets but I picked up some pre-marinated and pre-sliced garlic & rosemary bone in leg of lamb. Did some slow roasted carrots with sea salt & olive oil then did some baby potatoes in the oven with olive oil, rosemary, truffle salt & thyme. Whipped up a little mint chimichurri on the side. Not bad

Tony's folks visited him while he was in college. (back in the day) They got a chance to talk to his professors and were amazed at what they heard. They went back home and bragged to all their friends that their son was studying to become an astronaut! The friends were really impressed and wanted all the details. So they told them "everyone one of his professors told us he was taking up space!!"

As you may have heard, we have recently emerged from the world's longest COVID lockdown here in Melbourne... so finally had a chance to invite family over for some BBQ; first opportunity despite having the KK for almost 6 months. Put on a brisket (meat church holy cow, 300F, 7hrs, 2hr rest) and a couple of racks of pork ribs (home made rub)- served up with some buns, tortillas, coleslaw, smoked salsa, espresso BBQ sauce and horseradish cream. Great success!

I'll try to try that some time but I was trying to limit the changes per cook in some semblance of a reasonable test. Since I've had good smoke flavor on other stuff and most of the other stuff gets done in 5 hours or less, I had high hopes that a hot and fast butt was the answer. Maybe it's due to fat content since butts are the fattiest thing I smoke; I've been wanting to do a beef chuck roast so I could compare since chuck is usually pretty fatty. If I spritz, it'll most certainly be a hot and fast cook since I'm not willing to stay up all night! This was one of the drivers for my thread on sous vide-like smoking - if I could put a butt on around 5 pm at 180°, I could spritz it hourly until 11 pm or so and then let it roll all night, then crank it up after breakfast to 225° to finish it up.

It is pitch dark here by 5:30PM but that is not going to stop me from lighting the KK for dinner. Never say die. Chicken thighs were marinated in yogurt and spices for the afternoon for this evening's cook.

You guys are making my brain hurt worse than a Syzergies dissertation! It's just BBQ, not Rocket Science!

Depends on what temp and whether you expose it to full fire or have it spin in/out of the hot zone? Do you have a MEATER probe? Indispensable for roti cooks.

Again, my suggestion is to spritz the butts hourly. The Al Pastor was wet, so it absorbed more smoke. My theory anyway.

I haven’t used these, but I do buy my spices from thespicehouse.com. They’re excellent, as is their cs. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I dry brine mine for 7 days and then do 3 soak outs, each for 2 hours and that takes care of the saltiness.

I don't know if you have ordered yet @EggheadRalphbut I wanted to update. Here's the reason to buy a 42. Check out this real estate inside. I bought 2 pork butts. One that I'm doing as just pulled pork BBQ and the other I am doing "Tacos Al Pastor". The smaller chunk of shoulder is the remainder / the portion I'm not using for Al Pastor on the 2nd pork butt. Check out how much real estate this thing has. I opened the grill up to test the pan I want to use for Al Pastor tonight. The thing will fit in here lengthwise! And I've only used 2/3 of the room - I still have room to get all the way down to the firebox if I need to reload. Note I don't even have the lower grate on so I can just get directly to the firebox. Anyway, I'm personally glad I got the 42. Once all this lower temp stuff is done later, I'm going to put the lower grid right down above that fire and grill some chicken and vac seal for the week ahead. But in fact, I could grill at the same time as smoking if I wanted to (I just don't want to open the lid that often). Anyway - talk about versatility. The 42SBB is the ultimate in versatility and space. And it's an awesome smoker. Can't wait to taste the food tonight, the al pastor and the pulled pork! As far as the charcoal usage for this cook, I am using the basket splitter 50/50, charcoal only on the left side. I have only loaded it with about 8lbs and I don't think I'm going to have to add any. I burned so much my first weekend b/c I ran it at 500 a very long time. It's not 3x what your big green egg uses, it's more like 2x, and you get at least 5x the room. Amazing machine this thing is.

Hot and fast pork butt - 5.5 hours at 350° with hickory pellets in both the small MSR smoke pot and the KK cold smoker. Like the last butt i cooked, this one didn't stall - that's two turbo butts in a row. Both were bought at the same time.

Yep I noticed great flavor with my first go on the smoker attachment. i have been using up my supply of wood chips from a tree we cut down 3 years ago at my old house (locally grown hickory - doesn't get any better than that). if you really get the chips going at the beginning they will stay going. I had to re-light a couple of times the first time, but I think that is because I didn't get it going enough at the beginning. After my 2nd relight it just kept going and going (a couple of hours). I have some kingsford hickory pellets that will start using when I burn the rest of the tree product. I have heard those are not the worst pellets. But anyway - what I like about the smoker attachment is that it takes all the worry out of how you set the fire. My 42 is so big and I haven't mastered placement of wood (and timing) - and I don't have a smoke pot. But all that fuss goes out the window if you just use the smoker attachment. I'm about to give it a real test. This weekend I'm doing both a pork butt for bbq and an "Al Pastor". Just going to use the smoker attachment and see how it all turns out. Will post here. I'm planning on falling more in love with my 42 this weekend. Great looking chuck roast, thanks for sharing.

Hello everybody a follow up on my purchase of the vermiculite musui kamado. I made some rice in it and it was the best rice I’ve ever made! Sorry no pictures but then I made some waterless minestrone soup and it turned out great very tasty. Just wanted to share that with you all. Have a wonderful Thanks Giving!!