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Brisket, honey baked ham, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, stuffing, gravy

lunch by the lake Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Front end of the off set. With the Crown oven door……. Maybe some have seen these before? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Merry Xmas all. I have half a lamb cooking in this today. With some macadamia nut wood. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All marinated in balsamic vinegar and aromatic herbs for two days….. thanks Syz. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Received my KK on Tuesday of last week and decided to go all out for my first cook. Coming from a BGE there is definitely a learning curve but it is not too bad. Friday I did the burn in process. Saturday, smoked an 18# brisket, 2 pork butts, and a few slabs of ribs. The day of the party I grilled venison backstraps, chicken kabobs and lamb chops. There are a few things to figure out but I will say the decision between the 23 and the 32 is a no brainer. The extra space makes cooking so much more enjoyable. Everyone at the party was very impressed and can’t wait to try what I cook next.

What a lovely feast.

Close to finished, from smoker to crusting over the flame. And one of my 3 bros who built the off set. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here is the Macca wood. And the lamb legs will be cooked over this. A beautiful hot Xmas day. I’ll share some more pics later. Sorry, no KK here at my brothers house. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The first Rick Bayless method is how I've always rescued stale artisan bread, but I then want to toast the bread. He's good, but my younger attempts at learning to cook Mexican based on his books floundered. Diana Kennedy got me past restaurant Mex to regional surprises, and Bricia Lopez unlocked an ingredient one could do better than restaurants (tortillas from homemade masa), freeing various of us here to then improvise to our heart's content. I like his second method. I'd be tempted to instead set up a @PVPAUL pipeline, passing fresh tortillas through an actual steamer then do-like-Paul onto open flame briefly to restore some character, then into the warming basket. Despite my best efforts to free my New York apartment to the four winds (My second masa wet grinder in NY became Paul's second masa wet grinder, and you wouldn't believe the Mexican goodies freezer care package he sent us as thanks) there were many casualties, including a Brazilian soapstone pot. It was too small, and I've cracked others, but even cracked they would make phenomenal tortilla warmers for occasions like this, as they hold heat for hours. Sturdy clay would work well for shorter waits.

That looks just perfect @Basher. Really looking forward to seeing your whole sirloin cook.

made the most random stuff tonight..

Cooked a prime brisket and 4 pork shoulder butts in the KK42 this past weekend. Rub on pork is just salt and course black pepper (after an ACV spritz). Brisket is McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning. This cook is for Christmas gifts. I like to give (and the family likes me to give) frozen BBQ on Christmas. It's consumable, it's something they'll definitely use. It's better than the BBQ people can get in most places they live. This time, I did what I normally do when I cook pork. Pull and bag in vac seal bags put bags in ice water bath to cool it down fast. 1 hr later after it's nice and cold, vac seal in chamber sealer and put them immediately in freezer. Pork BBQ tastes like it is right off the smoker when you warm up in sous vide and cut the bag open. I have been doing this for years but upped my game with the KK and the VacMaster VP215 that I bought in 2021. For the beef I did a similar thing except I didn't slice in pencil width pieces, I sliced in larger pieces that would fit in the vac seal bags. This way hopefully since it's not already fully sliced, when it's warmed up and sliced it's still (hopefully) almost like it was fresh off the KK. I have never had brisket turn out almost the same when warmed up, but I gave it the best chance possible. This was one of the best briskets I've ever done (and definitely best one that has ever come out of my KK). This is maybe the 5th or 6th I have done in 2 years on the KK. This picture is about halfway through the cook. When it fits, I've been doing everything on the upper grate these days. The results on this cook were amazing. I will continue to use this same setup. I use a Thermoworks Billows, temp 225. I put the pit temp gauge on the main grate, food on top grate. The cooks just keep getting better on the KK. 2 years - not sure how many cooks I have done for BBQ (probably 15-20), maybe 100 total cooks, and it feels like the KK is just now broken in. Cheers! - hope everyone is having a good leadup to the holidays. Oh one other note. I love the 42, b/c look how much I can do just on one grate, and it was all absolutely perfect.