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Super simple meal today. Boneless pork chop seasoned with a simple rub of Lawry’s seasoned salt & brown sugar. Turned out amazing. Gonna use this on my next pork butt. reheated some potatoes from yesterday and grilled some asparagus with garlic powder, sea salt & olive oil. Indirect @ 350 with apple wood chips. Wife loved it and kids loved it. Oldest (6 year old) said “daddy this part tastes like ham and this part tastes like bacon”

I experimented with curing bacon the other day and it turned out amazing. I can never go back to store bought. Recipe and photos below for those who want to try. Dry Curing Rub Pork Belly (2.5kg) 40g salt 40g brown sugar 5g curing salt 5g ground white pepper 5g coriander seed 5g ground mace (nutmeg as a substitute) 5g onion powder 5g garlic powder 5g ground ginger 5g ground fennel seed DAY 1: Remove skin from pork belly. Mix the curing powder and rub pork belly thoroughly. Place in a Ziplock or vacuum sealed bag. Place in refrigerator. DAYS 2-6: Turn the bag over every morning. Day 7: Remove from bag and rinse pork belly thoroughly with cold water. Pat dry and place on drying rack in refrigerator for two days to rest/dry. Day 9: Smoke on KK at 200-225f to an internal temp of 150f. Hickory is great, but other woods are too. Let the pork belly cool for an hour and them place it back on the cooling rack in the refrigerator overnight. Day 10: Slice/portion/eat

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

Big fan of reverse searing. For cuts > 2 inches I’m looking for 105° F. Usually, I’m doing this inside and will start in a 200° oven and finish on cast iron as hot as I can get it. If the cut is not as thick I’ll take it out a few degrees lower. Yesterday I cooked a 3 lb American Wagyu tri-tip from Hunts’ Point on my KK. The grate temp was about 235°. I took the meat off and got the temp up to about 475° and seared on the inverted top grate for a couple of minutes per side.

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.

My 32 will be on the boat with your grill Hopefully they make it through the Port of LA in a reasonable amount of time. I'm stoked. The final destination is Wisconsin so I hope it's ready for the cold weather. It will be used all year long. 32 with square Cobalt tiles.

Awesome, looks like that thing is getting a workout. Congrats again and thanks for sharing. Just paid last week probably wont see my 42 untill Jan sometime. Anyway learn through you my friend , keep up the good work Greg

Folks in America, don't forget to set your scales back 10 lbs Wednesday night!

Hi @Scott.W, when you say you have the large basket do you mean the rotisserie cradle? If so then my advice would be to remember to tighten the prongs as the cook progresses and the meat shrinks. I suspect you only have to do it once or twice during the cook but I do know that you end up with your food starting to rotate within the cradle if you don't take this simple step. Don't ask me how I know that to do otherwise will likely leave you with a rather ugly looking result. 🤭

Welcome @Durangutan. I was once a new useless girl checking in who had never used a kamado and had only rarely barbecued. I now love my KKs and use them whenever I can. Get stuck in. Half the fun is in the deciding and waiting and then, when you finally get a KK (or two) of your own ALL the fun is in the cooking and looking.

Hi @RokDok, I usually dry cure my bacon. Works well every time. I buy the cure from Surfy's in the UK.

@johnnymnemonic I just cover the surface with lawrys salt then repeat with brown sugar on top. I did that yesterday with the pork chop, let it sit overnight and turned out amazing today. I don’t skimp on rub. Probably need to use some Dijon mustard though on a pork butt to help the stick, should’ve done that on the chop but forgot

Judging by this weekend where I cooked both pork butts and my al pastor, in my 42, I think you had the idea about right on the heat soak timing for your 42. My grill heat soaked for about 90 mins before food went on and everything was perfect. I'd allow at least 90 mins, because after the food went on I still had to adjust again a couple of times. I was cooking at 300. My top vent was at about 1/4 to 1/3 of a turn, so for 350, I think C6Bill had it about right at 1/2 turn. It might be a little much or it might be just right. You'll have to see. Because the 42 is so big and has so much heated mass, I don't think 2 turkeys is going to take much longer than a single turkey. it will be more like an oven. There's no way it's going to take 8 hours. I don't spatchcock mine, but if I was doing a single 23 pound turkey at 350 without spatchcocking, I'd expect to be done in 5 hours. So my guess is with spatchcocking yours will be more like 3-4. As far as vent adjustments, The way the KK is designed you should only have to worry about the top vent. I "chased" a little bit as well this weekend, but I realized pretty quick that I should mostly fool with the top damper. I come from a BGE so I have been more conservative on my bottom vent. I've never just kept the bottom half moon all the way open. But I will probably try that sometime. I think that the drip pans provide enough deflection, esp at the higher temp of 300-350. If you have some crispy edges where a small part of a bird hangs over unintentionally, that'll probably be tasty. If you said you were trying to do 6 pork butts at 225 and lighting the full firebox or something, I'd tell you to use lots of foil on that lower grate b/c to me (so far) it seems easier to maintain lower temps on the 42 with more deflection. I was surprised this weekend when (at one point) my top vent was at 1/3 turn and the temps crept up to about 325. I had to cinch it down to about 1/4 turn to get it it go go back to about 300 and it stayed pretty rock solid from 290-305 the rest of the time. Contrasting with my brisket cook from a couple weeks ago. I had lots of foil on the bottom grate on that brisket cook, and I found it difficult to raise the temperature. I wanted to get the grill up from about 235 to more like 275 but I was afraid that i would start to get too much heat if I tried to open it up too much more and it was so rock solid. Being conservative, I ended up cooking those briskets at like 240. They were good but would have had better bark at a little higher temp. Based on this past weekend, it seems I would have achieved a much better solid higher temp if I would have used less deflection, b/c even in the neighborhood of a quarter turn I was getting high 200s low 300s. About adjusting and "chasing" - Even with the BGE I used for 14 years, I feel like it takes 10-15 mins to fully realize the impact of a vent adjustment. So the key is to adjust and walk off. Come back, adjust, walk off again. Don't stand there and adjust over and over again. I'd say with turkeys as long as you don't crest 400 at the grate you'll be fine. It'll be pretty forgiving because of how insulated the KK is and how much moisture will be retained. This is going to be the best turkey you ever ate. I have to go to my in-laws house and they do their turkey in an oven, so - I'm jealous. I can't wait to see pictures (please send).

Hi, I would open the top one full turn then the bottom vent half open on the left and the biggest hole on the right. Light the fire in two spots and close the lid and wait 30 minutes and see how the temp in coming up. It should be coming up well at that point. Then as it gets up to 375 close the top down to a half turn open and the temp should stabilize. Of course every fire is a little different based on how it is packed but you should be in a good spot there to make small adjustments one way or the other at that point. if it is stable then just put in your drip pans, they will do your deflecting and catch drips. I like to cook my turkeys at 400. Last weeks 25 pounder took 2 hours and 15 minutes if memory serves me. That was a single in a 32. If your fire is stable and you have a decent heat soak i don't think it would make too much of a difference cooking one vs cooking two. Just be patient and let the temp come up after the birds go in.

There is no such thing as "Just" BBQ. If you wish to argue, Ill have the moving truck pick up your KK and leave you a rusted out Wal-Mart BBQ 😜

It has been great @swoff1. Other than I was just a total noob and didn't call Dennis on my tile work. Really if you do it right and only apply a small amount of grout patch, it's "no big deal". I love my KK, and I have been cooking a good bit on weekends and posting the results. I love all the real estate on the 42. Look at how big this thing is (see photo attached). I cooked Al Pastor, the remainder of the pork butt I used for the Pastor and another butt and still had enough room for a clear path to the firebox. I can't wait to do a huge BBQ cook with several butts for a gathering or another El pastor cook but with 4 or 5 vertical spits going and invite the whole street. These things really are unreal. Awesome Awesome cooker and worth the effort. There will be many stories and good times had with this thing, and it has already started.

My favorite - apple juice and Bourbon (go cheapo!)

Good luck!

👍👍 on the Spice House. Free shipping on the Flat Packs. Great spices and blends. I've been to the store in Milwaukee - it's excellent. @braindoc - sorry, never heard of these folks before, so no feedback on them.

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!!"

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

How long did you brine it for? Cut back a day and see if that helps? Did you rinse and pat dry the belly before smoking? Those are my best suggestions to reduce 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.

I have the hand crank version and thought that's not too bad why would I need electric. Then I bought the electric pasta version for my Ankarsrum mixer and now I know why I needed electric. It is so much easier and as tekobo mentioned you now have 2 free hands.

They are well worth the effort!