_Ed_

Been very warm in the UK for the past few days, and with my wife away in Africa for a week, the little man and I can cook all the fun things that she's not mad about. In this case, duck. Spatchcocked and smoke-roasted at 300-325 for 100 minutes, couple of chunks of wood (one cherry, one oak). Pulled it at 60C in the breast - a nice sort of medium, still very juicy but most of the pink gone. Served it with a watermelon salad with mint & feta. Great early-summer meal... and of course, it started to rain as soon as we sat down!

One of our favourite local places (Moroccan/North African) does amazing manakeesh. I always like the za'atar with a bit of feta-type cheese... although also amazing topped with thick plain yoghurt and drizzled with honey just before serving.

Nice work!

@Bruce Pearson sure thing, any time. London's nice at this time of year...

Finally a glimpse of sun on a weekend, so time to pretend summer is almost here. I was going to do some ribs, but saw a really pretty piece of pork loin at the butcher, so went with that instead. Simple rub, then smoked at 275F to 57.5C internal with a couple of chunks of oak. Served with coleslaw, bbq beans, green beans, potato salad. And beer. All in all, a very pleasant afternoon watching the pretty clean smoke coming out of the top of the KK whilst contemplating the joys of summer to come. Pictures attached.

Nice first cook! If we're all making suggestions, you could try eliminating the drip pan from the equation entirely. The amount of distance you can get between the fire and the chook by putting it high in the dome means that you don't need to go indirect, and I've always liked the flavour compounds developed by rendering chicken fat hitting the coals directly...

and, as @tony b says, nice colour choice. It is a well-known and not-at-all-disputed fact on this forum that Dark Autumn Nebula cooks by far the best. Because quantum. or something.

Looks lovely, MacKenzie! Those potatoes look great too.

Bruce, I was going to do exactly that! But then I just wanted to make smoked pork belly, because the leftovers are amazing.

Bacon is genuinely one of the easiest things in the world to make. Ruhlman has a good piece on it: http://ruhlman.com/2016/04/bacon-time/ - whether you hot or cold smoke is up to you. I always cold smoke bacon, but that's mainly a cultural thing - I've noticed that all the bacon I have seen in the US is hot smoked. It's really a matter of preference.

Pulled it off the KK after 6 hours... bark came out really nicely, and I randomly shoved a couple of mushrooms on for a couple of hours because the mrs likes them. Served with some greens and the mushrooms. Can thoroughly recommend.

Actually, I took the skin off this one... doesn't come out great on a low'n'slow. I tend to freeze skin until I have a decent amount for chicharones or to use in sausages or zampone. 

For those of you following the London weather updates, it has just started to hail. Yay spring!

Well, after braving the rain last week, a small glimpse of sun prompted thoughts of imminent Spring, so I thought pork belly might be a good start. Overnight salted, then rubbed gently with a coffee / cinnamon / cumin rub, now quietly smoking with some oak and cherry at 235F. 2 hours in, four more to go...

Those look beautiful, MacKenzie! 

Meat looks lovely! Agree on the temp thing: I only use C except for BBQ, in which case it is F all the way...

@tony b yep, that's very similar the one I used. Only difference is using own blend of herbs rather than poultry seasoning - roughly a pinch of savory, marjoram, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, parsley and sage (all dried). On the salt front, 3 tbsp is 45 grams or so, and you've got 750-800ml of liquid (depending on the size of your egg) so it's really a 5-6% brine, which isn't remotely controversial. The one recipe note I have is really to make sure that the emulsion sets up a bit - really helps with keeping the marinade on the meat as you baste it.

Weather in London not massively conducive to outdoor cooking recently - it's not the cold I mind, it's the rain. But I finally located the intestinal fortitude to venture outside as the sight of the KK lying idle for a month was more disappointing than the weather. So went simple: Cornell chicken, grilled salt & vinegar potatoes. And some rain. On the bright side, Spring is just round the corner... can certainly recommend the Cornell recipe (Fette Sau or Meathead version). I went direct but high up at 275 to start, and finished on middle grate. Turned out nice again.

Looks lovely. Did you set out to use a 5-day ferment, or was that just how long before you got around to using it? I've never taken the cold ferment beyond about 72 hours.

Love pork collar for pulling! These look great. The one thing I do when cooking for a crowd is tie them together as a pair to make a bigger piece of meat - pork in the UK is that bit leaner than US pork, so I prefer a thicker piece to cook.

The best part is that my local Whole Foods orders these frequently, but they are not a very popular cut... so they are frequently on sale in the summer...

Haven't posted in a while, but thought I'd do some pork shoulder for NYE today. 4kg picnic end shoulder, simple rub, oak and cherry wood, and ending up 20 hours at 235F. Rock solid temp control overnight from the KK - these picnic shoulders seem to take about 25% longer than the butts. Great flavour, nice and moist, plenty of leftovers for 2017.

Photos are before, after and pulled.

Happy New Year all!

That's the thing, @DennisLinkletter - it's the one thing I am not blown away by, but I know that you are a perfectionist so it will be perfect as soon as you can get on it! I've only had my KK for a month or so, but it is the perfect combination of an objet d'art and premium-quality cooking tool. Not to mention the customer service is pretty special.

I did my first rotisserie cook yesterday, and I've got to say it's the one thing with the KK that I haven't really enjoyed using (although the food was excellent, which is, I suppose, the point). Being a man of a certain size (see avatar picture for a not-unrealistic equivalent) , getting fat fingers to the wing nuts to tighten the adjustable bracket was a massive pain. The shaft from the motor to the kk kept unscrewing, and I had to loctite it. Then the basket unscrewed similarly - again, loctite. I appreciate that quite a lot of this is caused by the fact that a lot changed over time (motor suppliers & models etc) but it is by far the least seamless experience I have had with the kk (which, of course, is magic). As a matter of personal preference too, the basket system puts far too much metal around the protein (exacerbated by the 8" to 6" reducer system) - I am looking forward to the naked spit kit, and the cotter pin system when it is available. A very, very minor niggle in the overall amazing user experience, but one I am looking forward to seeing fixed.

yeah, pimento wood is really difficult to get hold of in the UK, hence the hack to use the bay leaf / allspice berry combo. Comes extremely close to the profile of pimento wood. Turned out extremely well. Decent marination period, decent level of salting, and a little marinade under the skin, finish with some char... looking forward to the cold leftovers!

In between bouts of rain and sunshine, and with a bunch of decent sport on the tv, today was jerk chicken day. Marinaded overnight in Kenji's jerk chicken marinade recipe, then cooked high in the dome on a bed of bay leaves and allspice berries at 200C until more or less done, then charred on the main grate to get the skin crisp. Handful of bay leaves and allspice berries thrown on the fire every 15 mins to get the right smoke profile for jerk. Served with rice & peas and corn on the cob.

2 photos: most of the way through smoke to show the bed of leaves, and the finished tray of chicken.

Looks great CC! Carne asada is definitely on the list of things to get right on with the KK... looking forward to using the searing grate.

Great cook! Looks like you nailed it. Love the idea of the orange bbq sauce - care to share a recipe when you're happy with it?

What a beauty! Tony, would you mind running me through what you did to get the roti working? I am going to try my first roti this week at some point, but am lost in the maze of unscrewing issues etc. Thanks!