jeffshoaf

I have some milk that with a "use by" date of Tuesday and I do need to play with the cold smoker!

I've watched several documentaries about Lennox and have taken inspiration from him (like grilling greens - it's always a struggle for me to Incorporate green leafy stuff into my meals since I'm not a fan of salads), but haven't even thought to check to see if he has any books! Hmmmm... This might be something to do with milk that's getting ready to expire (milk is one thing that I've found the "use by" dates to be pretty accurate) - smoke it and then freeze or dehydrate for future use in soups and stews. I wonder if dehydrating and powdering and then smoking would work? That way, I'd only have to handle it in its liquid form once and there would be less risk of spoiling while smoking.... I haven't made powdered milk yet but I think my dehydrator's manual has instructions.

The corn shuckings were well before my time - they went away as farming automation came in and most farms around here moved to more profitable tobacco and only raised corn for the immediate family and animal feed. It was a way to get will-work-for-food community labor for big time sensitive jobs. I'm sure there were a lot of contests with various incentives. I haven't considered making stew on the KK -- I wouldn't want to wrangle my 8 gallon cast iron pot onto it but the 8 qt one work. That being said, I'd be more likely to use the 8 qt one in the brick bed of my big Santa Maria grill just so I wouldn't have to bend over so far to stir and I could more easily manage the wood fire. Of course, cold smoking the milk and making the stew inside in the instant pot would be easier! I think that a lot of milk/cream based soups/stews/bisques would be enhanced with a touch of smoke.

Thanks, but I'm I'm NC. I've used hickory chunks from the same bag on ribs, pecan chunks for turkey, and mesquite chunks for beef, all with good results with and without using a smoke pot. I've used mesquite chips in a smoke pot with beef with good results. My first run with the cold smoker was with apple wood chips and got over an hour's worth of smoke with the cold smoker about 2/3 full. The only thing I'm having trouble with is Boston butts. I got a big Santa Maria-style grill earlier this year and bought a 1/2 cord of kiln dried oak since I couldn't find any seasoned wood; I've gotten a nice touch of mild smoke flavor on everything I've grilled with it but it's hard to say how much of the mildness is from the wood bring kiln dried and how much is from the open nature of the grill. I got enough of splitting wood when I was growing up and we had a wood furnace, plus my back is shot. I'll split wood splits into smaller splits for kindling now but I'm certainly not going to split a 1/2 cord!

Since I've had success getting ribs good and smokey-tasting, I wonder if the length of the cook is playing some part? Might need to try a hot and fast butt to see if that makes a difference. Start the fire around 8 am, 2 hour preheat/soak, 4-5 hours at 350*, and an hour or so to rest should work and doing it during the day would allow monitoring/refilling the cold smoker and do some spritzing.

Anyone used the cold smoker to smoke milk or cream? I assume liquid dairy would take on the smoke flavor since smoked cheese is a thing. There's a tradition in my area of having chicken stews. It used to be a big thing at corn shuckings, barn raisings, and other events when family and/or community came together to help with some big task in the fall. There are a lot of variations in different regions, but around here, its usually stewed chicken that's deboned and added back to the broth, then brought to a boil with milk and cream in a big iron pot over an open wood fire. There's usually a thickening added along with plenty of salt and pepper. it usually picked up some smoke flavor from the wood fire. My father's family used to have one every year with all attendees contributing chicken and broth, but that's died out along with the older generations; I try to have one every year for the immediate family but don't have room for the extended family. A lot of the volunteer fire departments and churches have then add fund raisers now. Anyway, I'll occasionally fix a small batch in the kitchen just for myself but it lacks that bit of wood smoke and I'd like to find a way to get it without so much work.

Nope -- i actually had two probes in and was careful to not hit the bone with both. They both show the same curve within 1 degree. I normally verify with a thermopen but I'm not at my best at 4:30 am and didn't think of it. It certainly looked and felt like it was at pulling temp and the bone slid right out after the 7 hour rest. I had to be careful taking it off the KK to keep it from coming apart.

As documented in other threads, I did an overnight Boston butt smoke last night and made the adjustments listed below; I got a bit more smoke flavor this round but still not as much as I'm looking for. I really made too many changes at the same time but I couldn't stop myself. I've been applying rub hours beforehand, similar to a dry brine. Thinking about Dennis's reminder about smoke liking surface moisture, I thought maybe all the salt in the rub was acting like a dry brine, initially drawing moisture out of the meat but then both the salt and moisture drawing back into the meat potentially leaving the meat surface dry, so I left the butt in the fridge until just before putting it on the KK and then sprinkling salt, pepper, and garlic powder liberally over the surface of the butt. I used significantly less than my norm. I had several larger chunks of hickory left over from another cook so I buried them under the B&B lump; these had been heated and charred during the previous use. I had grilled a steak and some greens on my Weber kettle after lighting the KK, so I put hickory chunks and chips in the snuffed kettle to preheat and dry out a bit while heat soaking the KK; the chips were in a metal basket. My plan was to use a mixture of chips and chunks with the hope that the chips would help getting things burning and provide good initial smoke with the chunks providing more long term smoke. I intended to cook in the vicinity of 225*, but it snuck up to around 250* while I was messing with my steak, as measured with an old Maverick thermometer with the probe near the center of the grate. I mentioned in an earlier post that I thought my last few un-smoky butts had been brine injected; I bought this one at the same grocery store but it's a different brand and I couldn't find any mention of injecting on the labeling. And it was on sale for 99¢/lb! I loaded the bottom of the cold smoker with the heated chips and used a paraffin cube to get it lit, filled the cold smoker with chunks, and then filled the various with more chips. I then prepared the butt as mentioned above, inserted a couple of Meater probes, and put it in the KK about 8:15 pm; there was plenty of clean smoke inside. The cold smoker was pumping out smoke so I stuck it in the Guru port. There was a steady stream of smoke exiting the top of the KK. I checked things around 9 pm. I still had a good amount of smoke exiting the KK, but I couldn't see any glow inside the cold smoker thru the side holes. I pulled the cold smoker out and it had gone out. It looked like one of the chunks had gotten wedged in and hadn't fallen so I unlodged it and re-lit. After confirming that it was burning and pumping smoke, I inserted it back in the Guru port. Meater and Maverick both confirmed the inside temp was still at 250. Around 9:30, I checked again and found the cold smoker had pivoted around it's output tube and was almost upside down and it had gone out. I tightened everything up, re-lit, and reinserted after verifying that it was pumping smoke. Meater and Maverick both confirmed the inside temp was still at 250. Checked things a bit after 10 pm; smoke still rolling but the cold smoker was out again, so I dumped everything out it and refilled about 2/3 full of chips then topped with a couple of small chunks. Re-lit and waited a bit to verify burn, reinserted in the KK. After a few minutes, I pulled it back out to verify it was still burning; it was, so I put it back in. Meater and Maverick both confirmed the inside temp was still at 250, so I prepared for bed. A Meater alert woke me around 4:30 am to let me know the butt was almost done. I pulled, foiled, and cooler-ized the butt at 201-202*. Maverick confirmed the inside temp was still at 250 when I pulled the butt. I unplugged the cold smoker pump, fed the cat, and went back to bed. Looking at the Meater graph, it looks like the butt never stalled so I ended up with an 8.25 hour cook instead of the expected 12 hour cook. When I checked the cold smoker after breakfast, the chips had mostly burnt but a couple of the chunks were lodged near the top. I shredded the butt at lunch (about a 7 hour rest) and ate a bit. There wasn't much of a smoke ring even though I'd had plenty of smoke each time I checked. It was very tender and moist but only had a little smoke flavor. It does need salting so I'll do that at dinner; I think the salt will bring out a bit more of the smoke flavor but I'm not expecting it to be where I want. So... I have another butt in the freezer. Before smoking it, I need to experiment more with the cold smoker. I've read a lot of the cold smoker threads and see that most folks are having the best luck with using good quality pellets and Dennis primarily using small chunks. My earlier use with chips had made me hopeful that the chips and chunks plan would work well but it didn't. I'm thinking I'll try cold smoking some of my Lexington-style sauce (mostly vinegar and ketchup) to give me more smoke flavor on this butt since I'll be eating it for 3 or 4 more days. Might even try cold smoking a serving or two of this butt to see how that goes. I'll have to get some pellets to play with as well. The next round may involve some spritzing as well... If you've made it this far through this post, thanks for your patience and perseverance; I appreciate any input you have on this. I find it very frustrating since I've been successful with everything else I've smoked, even pork ribs, and good smoked pork Boston butt is one of my favorite things!

8+ lb Boston butt smoked with lump and hickory at 250* F. I had several chunks of hickory buried in the charcoal as well as hickory chunks and chips in the cold smoker. As posted elsewhere, the butt didn't stall so i had to get up at 4:30 am after just 8.25 hours at 102* to foil and pack in a cooler, pulled at lunch. Very tender and moist, but still not as much smoke flavor as i want - will discuss that in existing threads.

Ever had a butt not have a stall during a low and slow smoke? I had to get out of bed at 4:30 am to take this 8+ lb. butt off the KK since it didn't take the 12± hours to get to pulling temperature like i expected. I did let the KK preheat to 250* F instead of the target 225 while i was grilling a big t-bone on the Weber kettle but i would have expected at least a 300* temp to get the butt done in just 8.5 hours.

I'm less concerned about that than I am with plate being too large - since the hole in the plate is centered and the half moon in the draft door isn't, the offset may cause one side of the plate to extend past the edge of the draft door and prevent the draft door from fully seating. My initiative thought was to get the Weber kettle adapter that doesn't have the plate but it's the same (over priced) price as the one I linked.

I'm considering getting one of these to try and fit to the one-dial damper door: https://bbqguru.com/storenav/Index?categoryId=&&productId=422

As we all know, @DennisLinkletter is always innovating. This is a very good thing but it can make adding accessories to legacy KK's an issue - for example, newer KK's have a dedicated port for the cold smoker but those of us with older units typically use the BBQ Guru port for the cold smoker, leaving us to make a choice between using the cold smoker or a temperature controller. There's been some discussion on ways to handle both the cold smoker and a temp controller at the same time and as a new cold smoker owner I've been given it some thought. I upgraded from the old style single-dial draft door to the newer dual-dial draft door (another great innovation) and was thinking about trying to mount the Guru fan into the old draft door or contacting Dennis to see if I can get a solid no-dial draft door to modify, but then I realized that a modular draft door might be a good idea - basically, a draft door that is just a frame with the center cut out and 4 threaded holes (and probably a gasket) that allows mounting various plates with different inserts for different accessories. Of course, the initial accessory plate would be a Guru port for use of a Guru or cold smoker. If the port for a particular accessory isn't too large, there would probably still be enough room for a small dial or shutter to still allow air intake when not using a temp controller fan. What do you think? What other accessories could make use of this type of thing?

Smoked a chicken on the Komodo kamado with lump and apple wood and roasted fingerling taters in the drip pan. It was the first time i used the cold smoker and it worked well. Filled it about 2/3 full of loose apple wood chips and it pumped smoke for a bit more than an hour. Tighter packing and filling it should get me more time but I'll need to figure out how tight the chips can be without the fire going out

I've heard pork rinds referred to as "fried farts..."

Around here (North Carolina), cracklings are what's left after rendering out lard. Fried hog skin is called "pork rinds".

Just saw this in the accessories for the 23" ultimate, but not in stock... https://komodokamado.com/products/23-ultimate-duck-hanger My Santa Maria grill has a cross bar that would work for hanging and I've thought about trying hanging ribs or chickens but the KK would definitely be more fuel efficient and have better heat distribution. Maybe good for tandoori?

Since you need to preheat to heat soak before doing a long cook, the distance between the fire and cooking surface isn't critical for low and slow. For searing, that distance is critical and both sizes come with a lower grate that suits just above the charcoal basket. I think the larger KKs take longer and/or use more fuel to heat soak so unless that's a consideration, go with the largest that you can afford and will fit in the allocated space.

I think letting meat come to room temperature before cooking is one of those things that everyone "knows" that has been passed down for years without question that just isn't valid, like searing sealing in the meat juices. Every thing I've seen where someone actually tests it by comparing a room temperature cut to a refrigerator temperature cut cooked the same way at the same time has shown no advantage to tempering. Even some of the folks who are obsessive over food safety don't question the tempering thing.

I tend to forget leftovers in the freezer...

I'm not a spritzer but I do always go from the fridge to the KK.

I'm not a fan of brisket but I've thought about grinding up the dried pellicle trimmed from dry aged beef and using it in a rub for rib roasts...

The cold smoker was delivered yesterday and I'm planning on using it Saturday with a spatchcocked chicken. Since the chicken is a relatively short, cook, I can monitor the cold smoker pretty closely for that -- I tend to put butts in the KK around 8 or 9 pm and let then go overnight and I wouldn't be able to sleep worrying about the cold smoker if that was my first use! I picked up some apple chips for the chicken but will used hickory for the butt.

Since I'm usually cooking for just myself, it seems to be overkill for a lot of my meals especially since I have the 23" KK, a Weber kettle, and a gas grill and all of those are upstairs on my deck and convenient to the kitchen, but it's been great for the bigger events. I'm still learning how to cook with wood -- I tend to use to much wood and build too big of a fire (like the August one); I over compensated on this cook and used too little. The grill is under my deck with the brassero hanging out from under the deck but the bottom of the deck is 12' up. I've considered putting some metal roofing or other metal over it to help deflect the heat but I think I'm ok without it. I'm mostly happy with the grill; my only real quibble is the brassero. On their website and videos, The brassero hangs on the back of the grill with no legs leaving the floor totally open and making it easy to pull embers out and position them, but my brassero is on legs and stands on the floor. It's also more enclosed than shown on the website/videos. It functions fine but I really liked the original and it irritates me that they didn't mention it during our discussions and haven't noted the difference on the website. I called and discussed it with then after I received mine and they said they made the change because others had complained about the original design scratching up the back of the grill; they offered to work up some brackets that I could mount to the brassero and hang it. As you can see in one of the pics above, I cut some fire bricks in half and raised the brassero some which makes it a bit easier to access embers underneath and that helped some. My big issue now is that I have too many things I want to try on all of my grills (plus I have pizza ovens as well) and I'm on a diet! Cooking for one tends towards having leftovers too so one cook can sometimes feed me for days - the last pork butt I fixed in my KK fed me for a week. I'm planning on spatchcocking and roasting a whole chicken Saturday in the KK and trying out the new cold smoker that was delivered yesterday; that's 3 or 4 meals before my next cooking adventure.

Did another small cookb using oak on the big grill last Saturday. I didn't make too big of a fire this time but did have to add wood during the session. I'm still experimenting with different sear techniques and used the griddle for the sear this time. Cooked all the sides on the grill as well, including baking a couple of potatoes in the embers. Very tasty!