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It was, as you can see, a pretty busy weekend on the KK, doing babyback ribs first for a few other couples we had over Saturday night, and then pork shoulder for pulled pork on Sunday, because my wife found the pork shoulder for $5 off when she went to Costco to procure the ribs. I am pleased to report that all went as planned,and the ribs and pulled pork were pretty great. (Apple wood for both....) Even better than the $5 off....babyback ribs are back down to pre-"supply-chain-hell" levels: $2.99/lb. (Thank God!) I was back in Costco yesterday and checked to make sure this was not some kind of discounted clearance price.....it wasn't. It looks like we are incrementing back towards sanity. (Gas prices are way down, too......it's all good.)

It has arrived!! Man… what a beauty!

@tekobo , I don't think your method is considered safe by the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) for low acid foods. The 120° C hits the botulism-killing temperature; if your produce is also hitting that temp, you're probably safe as long as no botulism spores find their way into either during the filling process but there is a risk there. By heating after filing, that risk is eliminated. I assume you're doing relatively small quantities; at the volumes I remember my mother canning when I was young, it would have been very difficult to keep things hot using that process. The USDA has published time/pressure charts for canning in jars for years; these are based on extensive testing to insure that all the "can" contents reach the appropriate temp to kill any botulism. Of course, the USDA has not published similar charts for canning in retort pouches, supposedly because the lack of controlled testing.

Best advice = load up that pallet with as many boxes of cocochar and coffee wood charcoal as it will hold. Cheapest shipping cost you will ever get. I have a tendency to "hoard" my cocochar and only use it on very long cooks - butts & briskets. So a box will last me quite a long time. YMMV

Hi all - I live in Fairfield County, too, and am about to order a 32"BB (for which I'm very excited. I'm trying to figure out how much coco char and coffee wood splits/chunks to order. To that end, I ask... 1) How many cooks (I know, they all differ) do you get out of a box of coco char? Or how many pounds do you go through in a year? 2) Same question for coffee wood? 3) Since I have a delivery coming anyway, does anyone want me to throw any more boxes onto my delivery? I can't wait to join the club and start cooking and learning!

I pretty much do the same as tekobo but I use Mason jars, skip the spoon in the jar trick and never tighten the lid after I hear that "click" of the seal. If you tighten after that you can break the seal, in fact you don't even need to leave the rings on. Never had a jar go bad, knock on wood.