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This I did last night, it was supposed to be boneless country style ribs, and since the weather was 62 here in the eastern US I was itchin to get at the Santa Maria. It fits the Kent Rollins way of looking at cooking, roasted over maple wood.

Nudge, nudge...

Anybody watch cowboy Kent on YouTube? I find him very entertaining and informative; he doesn't KK (don't think one would work well on the chuck wagon) but he does use a variety of cookers. Hasty Bake recently came out with a Kent Rollins signature steel "barrel" smoker and he uses it in some videos; those techniques should translate to the KK well.

Mine is just a modified version of a few I have tried. I adjust the ingredients as needed. In this case I will double everything. Brisket Chili Celery -3 cups Jalapeño - 3 small Red Onion - 3 Sauté the vegetables in vegetable oil or bacon grease until translucent. Then add 4 tablespoons Meat Church spices and sauté’ with the veggies for 5 minutes. Add all to the pot Then add: Tomato sauce 14 oz Diced tomatoes 45 oz Red wine vinegar 1 cup Beef Broth - low sodium 3 cups V8 juice - 12 oz brisket 4 lb Bring up to a slight boil, then turn heat down and simmer until brisket starts falling apart about 3 hours, typically 8 hours or more. Garnish - Cheddar Cheese/White Onion

After much waiting and anticipation, I finally got a crew together to move the KK out of my driveway! A local relative of mine has “a guy” for just about any service you could need, so when I had trouble getting a group of friends together on the same day, I went to her. The very next day she brought a man over to take a look at the KK and the path it needed to take, and the next morning he came back with his two sons to do the deed. It ended up taking almost 4 hours. Instead of leapfrogging on plywood through the whole yard, they took a pallet Jack and dragged the whole pallet onto the road and around the corner, so that it would be a straight shot to the side gate and the first set of not too steep stairs. That straight shot, with myself and the 2 sons pushing and the man pulling the jack, was pretty smooth. When we got to the stairs they constructed a ramp with some bricks, a couple 2x4s, and more plywood. Another round of pushing and the KK, pallet and all, was up the steps and through my side gate. I didn’t take any further progress photos, because that’s about where the simple parts of the process ended. From there, we needed to make a tight 90 degree turn, take it through an old playground set that came with the house, then approach the second, steeper set of steps at another tight angle, before pushing it up to its final destination. The plywood was still useful, but much harder to maneuver here due to the tight quarters. The approach to the tight turn into the stairs took several attempts, because one wheel of the pallet jack kept coming off the plywood platforms and getting stuck. Perseverance paid off, and we were finally in the home stretch, the big push up the steps. Again with three pushers and one puller, we went for it. Once, twice, three times we pushed, making a little progress each time. As the first wheel of the jack finally crested the top, the pallet itself stopped, having hit the lip of the step due to uneven elevation. We tried again, same result. We tried using 2x4s as levers to elevate particular corners of the pallet and get it over the hump. No luck. Eventually we carefully rolled the kk back down the ramp to strategize. The stairs were out unless we could get at least a couple more sets of hands. Instead, my crew suggested an alternate approach: remove the quarter-wall of decking next to the stairs, smooth out the dirt to form a hill, and roll it up that until it stands even with the concrete pad, and then roll it right over. Pretty soon there were scraps of wood everywhere and one less section of decking in my back yard. Those wood scraps became shovels to take out the sharp elevation difference in the dirt on either side, and then the plywood came back out. We needed to do some creative maneuvering to get one of our 2x4 levers out from under the pallet where it had gotten stuck, and then it was time to push again. Again we got close, but had to reinforce the top of the ramp with more bricks. Finally, another round of pushing and we made it to the concrete pad where my KK will sit until the end of time, because I swear if I have to move this thing again I will go insane. Photos attached (including up to the present, when I am lighting her up for the first time). One final note. You might be thinking “why use a pallet jack when the KK itself is quite maneuverable?” And you should be. I am convinced the job would have been much easier without the jack, which got stuck on ever lip and corner and tight turn. But I wasn’t going to tell that to the generous men who spent their morning toiling with me.

Tyrus, most Texans and most CASI (competitive) chili cooks would say that chili with anything but meat (in other words, no beans) in it is not really "chili". It might be something, and it might be something good to eat, but it is not really "chili". Chili is meat, spices, broth or water, and maybe some tomato sauce or paste. No beans. And if it is made with chicken or turkey or beans/vegetables, it is not "chili". Not that the others can't be good to eat, no one is saying that. Tony, you're right, Penzey's also has generally very high quality spices. Pendery's my go-to, though. For a commercial chili blend, I still think Gebhardt's, a very old brand, is the best.

Tried this new pulled pork technique with fantastic results. Smokey, moist without being watery, incredible flavor throughout so much so putting sauce on it wasn’t necessary. The video is below. I used 250 ambient temp at the meat. Once wrapped with Leaf Lard as per the video, increased temp to 300. Just follow the instructions in the video for the best pulled pork you’ve ever tasted.

He's in Oklahoma for most of his videos but does travel for events. He has a video on Bertha; if I remember correctly, it's a recreation of a wood-fired cook stove that came out in the late 1800's-early 1900's and was towed behind the chuck wagon on its own trailer. https://www.hastybake.com/products/bertha-cowboy-stove#:~:text=Kent Rollins' signature wood-burning,stove will last a lifetime.

I like his Chilli Jeff, yum. Simple, yet satisfying and easy to change up without destroying the base . His video's set in the Texas background with the old chuck wagon feeding the range cowboys was entertaining too. He does drop a steel or cast stove called "Bertha" for demonstration and his cooking approach is done with a rustic flare I like. Yah, he's entertaining in a wholesome, honest kinda way. I still search for him on Youtube when I want to cook something untraditional, rather than the customary way.

I’ll have to check that out 👍

You're so right. The thing I like best about the Fireboard - besides it works better for me than the Guru did- is that it connects through the internet and is accessible on your phone app from practically anywhere. The Guru, as I remember, is bluetooth with limited range. Cooking an entire brisket to make your chili? Wow, you are hard-core. Love to hear your chili recipe: I used to compete in the chilli cookoffs in Texas and Louisiana in the late 80's- early 90s. Pendery's in Fort Worth was my go-to for high quality spices and pure ground roast chile's.

well the reason why vermicular is popular in japan is because it’s made in japan 😀😂 they have a huge flagship store in daikayama its sells not only the machines, but cookware, has a cafe, bookstore, restaurant, classroom, cafe.. we bought a few things but i still don’t want to buy the cooker…😊