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Friends round for lunch today. So I knocked out my favourite type of steak- Bistecca Fiorentina. Two dry aged giants, 1kg each. Served with no kneed bread, and various salads. Hamburgers sausages and chicken satay for the kids. Everyone happy.

A couple of long-time college friends were over for one's birthday dinner. I usually experiment with them so tried a total dinner cooked in the wood oven: roasted salmon with rosemary over lemon wedges, smashed potatoes (also with rosemary), and green beans. German chocolate cake for dessert Since I was outside cooking, I wasn't able to get any presentation shots. Only a couple of "after the swarm" shots when I finally fixed my plate. 🤣 It was a good dinner; I'll make it again.

I bought a whole hogget (slightly older lamb) from a farmer friend of @RokDok's last weekend. Knowing that I had asked for lamb's kidney's, the farmer decided that I must like all other offal too. So...he gave me a bag full of lamb's hearts and a couple of lamb's livers. Aaargh. I am squeamish about hearts and much prefer calf's liver to any other liver but I did not want to waste any of the meat I had been given. What to do? Yeah, I know, take the highest risk option and feed it to 20 of my best friends, that's what! The organs were very clean and tidy so I just had to cut off the hard bits of fat and arteries at the top of the hearts, cut them open and clean out the blood before mincing them with a bit of breast meat to introduce some fat. I know, at this stage you are probably shouting, "that looks like what I feed to my dog" but have faith, things get better. I had gone for a Turkish theme so the minced heart meat was mixed with herbs and onion and formed into kofte kebabs. Easier said than done, keeping the damp meat on the skewers even after chilling them in the dry ager. It would have been helpful to grill them using a fish basket but I didn't have one, so they were grilled on a hot plate in the 23 and @RokDok did a sterling job of keeping most of them from crumbling. On to the liver. I sliced it thinly, soaked it in milk and then, just before deep frying, Mrs Rokdok dredged the pieces in a delicious spiced flour. The lamb shoulders (my saving grace if the guests revolted) were cooked for 8 hours at 130C in the 32. The good news is that lamb three ways was a roaring success, even though lamb's liver and heart were new to many, including me!

A few decades ago I was at a math conference in College Station, Texas, and lead various forays into the town's ok BBQ. On yet another wine buying stop for the courtyard parties at our hotel, I asked if I'd found the best place. I don't It's tough being a New Yorker, while traveling. Paragraphs flit by in one's mind in the pauses between words, elsewhere. It's polite to appear to be paying attention, but that requires focus. eat barbecue Oh gawd! I'm asking the one vegetarian outside Austin! How do I get out of this conversation gracefully? round here! Well then! He sent me to Elgin, Texas. They're known for their hot links, sold in supermarkets across the state, but there were several places selling extraordinary brisket. My own best efforts would be #2, #3, #4 for me, but they were #1. I brought back more on the plane to NYC (causing some commotion) to reheat at the kind of wine tasting I now avoid. They started ordering delivery.

I Stayed up to watch this game, it was a wonderful experience, best hockey you'd ever see. It's our game.

Belated update. Watching the SuperBowl in an Italian bar was indeed good fun. Our Italian friends were surprised by how much they liked buffalo wings and blue cheese sauce. I had to admit to having used a French cheese, Roquefort, to make the blue cheese sauce but they liked it all the same. The best compliment was seeing the, normally very critical and conservative, bar owner mop up some of the sauce with a piece of bread. And I enjoyed the result of the game too!

That piggy has been with me for at least 71 years. I have an old photo of me in a diaper on a kitchen counter, having apparently climbed up there to get the piggy.

First tri-tip of the season. Also the first run of my fancy new Thermoworks RFX. Always knew Thermoworks would produce a Meater™️ alternative, and when they did it would blow everything else away. RFX can be used during sear, frying, etc. Keeping the probe in during sear is sweeeeet. Smoke indirect over low (225) heat until 110 internal, then sear to about 120. Perfect medium rare. Oh and…the tri-tip was awesome too.

Simple dinner last night: pork tenderloin with jerk spice, roasted carrots with brown sugar & honey glaze, mashed potatoes, and a 2012 DuMOL pinot noir.

Well Braindoc they're pruning the orchards about now getting ready for spring and for $80.00 I bought this crate of apple wood. Mind you now this wood is green (fresh off the tree) and a fork truck had to put it in the bed of my truck. Here's some pics to give you an idea of the quantity vs pre bagged. Now if I was to use this as chunks in the KK you could say it's pretty close to a lifetime supply. Earlier this week I bought seasoned limbs enough to fill a cardboard orange crate for $20, that'll tide me over until I cut these into smaller pieces for seasoning. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Article in the New Yorker (which I read religiously) from yesterday. You should be able to read an article or two even if you're not a subscriber. https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/texass-barbecue-schism?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_022225&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=5bd673d724c17c1048009e3d&cndid=31743442&hasha=ea1bbe9353ddb689f176238dc56a56db&hashb=7577ec2df4dd2955524926196a0becd0d644330a&hashc=f2d650972f36e75c3202cd4aa8fe3354391bc7de543a2e91d53c8b4fe6d5f983&esrc=AUTO_OTHER

Chicken dinner, cooked indoors. Tasted good but not as nice as when cooked in the KK. Roll on spring!

Took advantage of our almost spring-like weather yesterday (58F) to finally get out and grill! It's been brutally cold here (single digit highs and well below zero at night) all of last week, so no grilling for this kid. Trader Joe's chicken shawarma thighs.

His cousin Arnold enjoys being out in my yard !!!!

Nope! Ziffel is alive & well on top of my PC!

Kind of cruel making the piggy watch you eat that 🫣

I'm a new owner with less than 4 months driving this beautiful 32BB beast and I am desperate need of advice from those with much more experience. Yesterday I cooked 3 lots of beef ribs with a smoked mac and cheese, each set of ribs was around 1.5kg (3.3 pounds). While the whole meal was delicious and all who ate went back for seconds I was confused with the cook and was hoping it would have been moister. I started the cook gradually bringing the cooker up to temp to make sure I didn't overshoot the temp and put the meat on when the lid thermometer showed around 110c (230f). This temp started to climb gradually so I closed the top & bottom gradually to keep the temps in what I thought was the right range. Things were going well and about 4 hours in the meat was at 74c (230f) and we wrapped each in butcher's paper and put them back in the bbq. This is when things got a little confusing for me. For the next 3 hours the meat temperature actually went down a few degrees, see meater graph shown. I played a little with the temp to kick it past the crutch but it just didn't respond. At around the 7 hour mark I wrapped the meat in foil over the butcher's paper and pushed the temp to 150c (230f) and the meat quickly continued to cook to the desired temp about an hour later. As I said the meat was delicious but was hoping it would have been moister. I am concerned the long cook may have dried it out too much. My questions are: Has anyone else experienced 3 hours of stall in their cooking of beef ribs? Should I have wrapped the meat in paper and foil earlier? When doing ribs in the weber kettle I used to double wrap and add beer and butter to keep it moist. I thought with KK's this was not required. Do you wrap and add beer/butter? Is there anything else I should have done here? Please share your wisdom so I can improve.

Woo, Hoo! We hit 74F yesterday (this is after 4" of snow last Friday!), so off to the grill we go! Tonight it's Pork Wings. Done @ 250F (w/Guru - I went out to the brewery for a cold one to celebrate while the wings smoked), indirect, hickory & apple chunks in the smoker pot, smoked for 4 hours. Plated with yellow rice (Sazon Tropical) and sauteed green beans.

I think his conversion of C° to F° is wonky. I believe he wrapped them at 165°F and pulled them at 208°F (according to the graph). Pushing the KK up to 300°F for the last hour, then pulling the ribs at 208°F with the resulting carry-over temp from the 300° cook probably contributed to the dryness he mentions.

Don't wait, every car has a trunk brother and a back seat....it's just down the street

Maybe my wife will let me get a pickup so I can cruise Rhode Island looking for orchards pruning their trees.

Next week! Will be in the low 70s. Today is snowing and the wind is blowing up to 50 mph. Not a good day to grill out!

That cook made me hungry @Mark Jacobs. Yum. Hey @tony b, let's see your chops!

Those better be some DAMN good sausages! WOW!

Please don't tell me you slaughter the flying pigs !!!! 🥴

Yes, I have used it with the Billows, although Billows requires either using the 12V. power adapter or the ThermoWorks battery bank (I use this). The control cable from Billows plugs into the RFX Gateway and the power side plugs into one of the aforementioned power sources. To attach the Billows to the KK, use the ThermoWorks Universal Mounting Kit which fits exactly into the KK Guru port. https://www.thermoworks.com/billows-mounting-kit/

I’m sorry but the post is confusing. If you brought the ribs to 230f then they wouldn’t be too moist. I typically cook an 8 to 10 pound rack at 240 until internal team reaches 165f then wrap in butcher paper. Continue on until internal temp reaches 200 and take the ribs off. Leave the ribs in the paper and wrap in foil and then a towel and place that in a cooler for a couple hours to rest. How long it takes to get to 165f varies, they are all different but I would expect a 10 pound rack to take 6 hours then an additional 3 hours after wrapping. But anywhere from 8 to 10 hours is typical.

Very happy with the RFX. Meaters on the shelf.

Geeez, seems like I cooked that ages ago Dennis. If memory serves me right I believe it was a Top Round, nothing special about the cut an ordinary piece, however they sometime talk to you as you pass by at the market, give them a second glance and your walking down the aisle with em. A cut from my family youth, it's revived on occasion to remember a simpler past. Prepared correctly, it's a fine Sunday dinner

Elgin "Hot Guts" sausages are legendary! I lived in Bastrop for several years, i would buy the sausages from a butcher on the south side of town. Hogs coming in the back door were sold in the cold case at the front of the building. Wish i could still get them that fresh.

nice work tekobo! looks delicious

I used to order the hot links from a place in Elgin, i always had a few dozen in the freezer. But about two years ago the shipping costs soared and i just couldnt justify it anymore. South Side Market EDIT: Yes, I just placed an order $130 worth of sausage cost $75 to ship

Killer!

Another great looking feast!

I agree with you. No fighting just end to end hockey, only 1 penalty, not a lot of off sides. It couldn't have been better.

That looks amazing !!!!!

Wow, what a spread. I must have been out when you called. 👍👍🤩

Maybe an opportunity for someone? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was just about to post that notification as well. I'm happy for their retirement, but it sucks for us BBQ'ers, as they were a great source for smoking woods. Anyone got a "Plan B?"

Super Bowl means WINGS! Half with dry rub (Hot Wing Rub) and half marinated in Jamaican jerk sauce.

@Tyrus, I read through your post again this morning. Having not yet had breakfast, it made me hungry for a pastrami sandwich (why not?). Once again, great cook!

Congratulations to the Eagles fans here. They were the much better team yesterday.

That homemade pastrami looks incredible! The week-long prep and precise temperature control really paid off. A good vacuum sealer, like the promax or introvac vacuum sealer, could come in handy for brining, keeping all those flavors locked in while saving space in the fridge. Definitely inspiring me to try making my own!

Fly Eagles Fly !!!!!

Mad Max Turkey

Got another email from the Fruita folks. They got swamped with orders after the announcement, so they've taken the website down and not taking any more orders until April. They will do inventory at that time and sell off what's left, but in large lots of 30 & 45 lbs boxes.

I ordered some peach wood today. Not surprisingly, it seemed several of their other woods were out of stock.

We jinxed them, just got an email they are closing 4/15 🤬