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Did a pork tenderloin today on the KK. Served with roasted potatoes and freshly steamed beets from the garden.

In honour of our brisket discussions, I cooked a brisket. Angus, 6kg, trimmed 500gram or so. Meat church holy cow. Overnight at 250F with Post Oak wood chunks. First time ever I woke at 7am to find the fire had gone out; it all burnt into one corner and extinguished- bizarre! Temp log showed a slow and steady increase to 42 degrees Celsius internal over 8hrs with no further temp increase- so figured no harm done. Cranked it back up and a bit hotter - 300/325F to finish in time. Wrapped at 75C, pulled off at 95C after a total cook time of 12.5hrs. Rested 5 hours in a cooler. Don’t know what it was (post oak; bizarro temp management; longer rest than usual)- but hands down the best of the briskets I’ve done (and the others were all very good). Plated up with horseradish cream, spicy salsa, coleslaw and smashed roast potatoes. Heaven. My mate who came over for dinner said it was the best brisket he has ever had anywhere hands down.

Experimented with fire-based equipment for dinner last night. Regular pork chops (I usually buy mutant monster pork chops but wanted to try normal ones for a change) on the KK16, whilst also cooking brussels sprouts in the Alfa wood oven. In retrospect, I ended up starting the sprouts about 15 minutes too soon in the Alfa and the fire was still too hot, but a good learning experience. I will also go back to monster chops in the future. The thin ones don't have much of a margin between not ready and overdone. Certainly not one of my better cooks but it was fun juggling two fires. Next time I will instead use the KK23 (which is located next to the Alfa) instead of the KK16 (in a screened porch some distance away).

I'm pretty sure for crispy chicken skin you should be using baking powder, not baking soda..

I’m a bit late here (surgery on Monday for the second time in 3 weeks)… but I agree with much that has been said. I essentially bought all the accessories 😳 except the single bottom drip pan (after talking to Dennis and thinking about pan sauces and the ability to use it for indirect grilling (as the “blocker”) it made sense) and I opted for the teak tables rather than the stainless ones. My KK lives on a large covered patio so direct sun exposure is not a big concern and as a woodworker (as well as having some metal fabrication skills and a plasma cutter) I figured I could always add stainless tops but the teak is absolutely beautiful and fits my desires and aesthetic better. Regarding the rotisserie, I initially bought just the rod and “pokers” but as I saw the size of the 32BB in person it became obvious that Turkey’s and Prime Rib would be excellent to do in the baskets so I ordered them. Regarding the stone…honestly I have a full sized pizza/wood fired oven so it was not a necessity but I felt that it would be hood to have for things like cornbread or muffins to go with things already on the grill so I could do them at the same time without heating something else up (if the temp was was appropriate such as with turbo pork butt). Also, in the scheme of things the baking stone is relatively inexpensive snd shipping it with the grill is cheaper (I think)

After about a years worth of research, advice from Dennis, I smoked my first prime brisket on a 23 Ultimate. The results were outstanding. Rub - 2 to 1 Pepper to salt. Before mixing, I subtracted 1 TBS of salt. Rub applied liberally. Then lightly sprinkled with Lawerys followed by garlic powder. Dry brined in the refrigerator uncovered for 24 hrs. Fuel - Jealous Devil, hickory and cherry wood chunks at the bottom. Harry Soo’s method. Drip pan with water and spritzed with apple cider/water combo 3 to 4 times. Rumor has it it’s not needed, latest scientific info says it essential. Once eye burning smoke cleared to white smoke (10 minutes) placed cold brisket onto cold grill. Turned Blue in 1hr. Not all white smoke is bad - latest finding. 15lb brisket trimmed down to 10lb, smoked 9 hours at 230 Meater probe temp increasing to 250. FireBoard controlled the fan. Meater used to monitor the meat. Pulled at 190. Wrapped in tallow/butcher paper. Rest 15 hours in a wet oven/cooler. Done.

So I just moved you a little north, it would make you a little closer to me.

And excellent choice of tiles, the terra blue squares cook way better than any of the other ones

The double bottom drip pan is good if you want to make gravy or sauces from the drippings, at least on my 23", though it might not be needed if you're using the basket splitter and cooking indirect. With my 23", the drippings tend to cook down to a solid chunk in the single bottom pan or foil pan.

Sorry for the non cooking posts but it’s been slow around here…..finished our trip with a dinner on a private island/sandbar. Pretty cool experience

Knowing that hurricane Fiona was likely to hit Nova Scotia I did some meal preps, one thing I made a chicken stew and had that for breakfast and lunch the first day without power, had the same thing on the second day. It was a case of quick open the fridge grab what you need and shut that door. I wasn't going to touch the freezers. I did have a down comforter to put over the basement freezers. Late Sun. afternoon the power came on then Mon. my internet. I still had pasta and sauce in the fridge from the pre Fiona day prep so that's what I had today for lunch. Picked a lot from the garden before the storm, tomatoes and made sauce, my peppers and cukes. I also made a loaf of bread to use for cucumber sandwiches. I have friends who do not expect to have things restored until Thurs. so I was lucky. Here is Fiona pasta- I went into town to checkout generators and saw this on the way-