KevinD

In retrospect I'd have to agree with you. It pulled apart o.k., but taken to 205° it probably would've fallen apart at my touch and that is what I would prefer. Next butt cook will be to 205° - thanks for your comments!

Mighty tasty...all I need now is my vinegar based sauce, some cole slaw, and??? MacK - do you have some home made rolls to send on over for sandwiches? They need to be sustantial enough to stand up to juicy pork drizzled with the vinegar sauce and of course, a spoonful of slaw on top to finish it off... Argh! - almost forgot the frosty beverage(s) of choice...

Final shots, including "puller's choice"...

Final shots, including "puller's choice"...

I will defer to MacK for her official advice since she bakes on hers, at least that's what I seem to recall reading in some of the posts here on the forum... The instructions that you are following may be trying to simulate commercial ovens that use ceramic tiles or materials like our KK's to efficiently bake breads. Because of the high temperatures that these ovens achieve they are able to take advantage of the moisture thrown off by the dough as it bakes and use it to create a nice crust. Spritzing water into a hot home oven if done quickly, can create the steamy environment to help acheive the desired crust. I don't think this will be necessary on our KK's. I have a ceramic bread dome that allows this effect to be achieved since it preheats in a 500° oven. When my bread dough is ready and the ceramic bread dome has achieved it's heat soak, I take it out of the oven and quickly place the bread dough into the bottom half, replace the top, and put it into the oven to bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the cover is taken off and it finishes uncovered for an additional 15 minutes, and then comes out of the oven, is removed from the ceramic baker and is placed on a cooling rack. I do plan on using the KK to bake bread but that is probably at least two or three weeks down the road.

I loved your post and especially the picture of your new grill. As much as I love the hue of that particular blue, I ended up choosing TerraBlue because of the beautiful color variations of the tile. As others will no doubt mention, you will love your grill and can look forward to many many years of adventures cooking with it!

Progress check - 5 hours in at mostly 275°. I say mostly because first hour or so was a slow crawl from 250 to 275 because I didn't want to overshoot my target temperature. Had to truss up the butt since Costco likes to remove the bone. Had I not had it tied up I think I would've had a more broken fat top layer which is the sign Aaron Franklin uses as his cue to remove for wrapping. I'm about to 15° short of my target cook temperature of 190°, though 185° was listed in a couple of different sources. I'm going with 190° since I want more fat rendering and I'm certain that 5° difference is not gonna hurt the pork... I will also drop the cooking temperature down to 250° since that is my target temp of my brisket cook that will follow the removal of the butt and addition of a bit more coco-char. As mentioned earlier I will add a couple of chunks of oak to influenced the brisket flavoring.

Container ships too have a most efficient/economical fuel burn rate...

CC - my plan was to remove the butt from the foil used for the est. last 3hrs of my cook. Am I interpreting you correctly in that maybe I should leave the butt in foil, going straight to the cooler in towels? Don't bother removing from foil in favor of butcher wrap? I know that butcher wrap is porous by design... This is my first ever attempt at a butt except for Dutch oven and for that I usually have covered on Ortega chiles... Thanks in advance for your wisdom on a strictly KK butt cook!

I will take a shot of the butt after it comes off but will then wrap in butcher paper and place it in a cooler surrounded by towels, so the money shots of the butt will be much delayed…My way of being a tease!

This is mostly for portioning out to the freezer though I will put aside 2lbs. for sandwiches. I will be certain to take a picture of the end result before pulling it apart as well as after the pulling begins. After the butt comes off I have to damp down Pele to 225° then load a bit more coco char. After I get temp stabilized, I will add a few of chunks of oak wood and then put on a brisket for an overnight cook to be the star attraction for dinner tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the first time I will share cooking from Pele with family and friends

My first butt has been put on Pele. I used a combination of fresh ground black pepper plus Bad Byron's Butt Rub. Using one chunk of sugar maple and one of chunk of hickory for my smoke influence.

Mine was @1/16" too long as well...

Dennis told me the springs are only used if the socket in the roti motor is so deep that the shaft has too much play and doesn't fit snugly. Mine was fine so he told me the springs would not be needed.

I have the same problem with mine. I called Dennis and he had me take a picture of the shafts against a tape measure and I sent it to him as requested. While two instances don't necessarily make it a certainty, it would seem that Dennis might've gotten a run of parts not up to his specs... Also, I haven't yet been able to get my splitter to fit as I think it is designed in the charcoal basket. Tried that as I was unpacking for the heck of it but since then, I've had the basket in use and I've not emptied it out to give it another shot. Dennis asked me to sent him pics of that as well and I will eventually get around to it.

As I was poking around in my freezer today, I ran across two point cut corned beef briskets. I can't think of a reason why I shouldn't thaw out one of these in the near future and throwing it on Pele to add some smoke... Can anyone think of a reason why this would be a bad idea? Since I didn't cook them up for St. Patrick's Day, I think I will have to prepare one with some potatoes, carrots, onions & cabbage. I think I will put the root vegetables in a drip pan under the corned beef and see how they do. I've always loved roasted vegetables but traditionally those will cook at a much higher temperature than the low and slow cook for brisket. Unless of course, I use the hat/fast method as opposed to low and slow… As a back up I could prepare some inside the house following the traditional boiled dinner concept. Cabbage of course will be included… Thoughts, ideas, comments?

I'm wondering if you had used some kitchen twine spaced a couple of inches apart at the most, to tie and those into a rounded shape would've worked better for you? I know you commented that you did not have the reducer in there properly but even so, I'm thinking that those loins tied into more of a circular shape would not have escape so easily – LOL! I suppose the big question really is this: What did you want the finished product to look like? As I've quickly come to expect from you MacK, outstanding cooking/food pictures combined with the wonderful shots of nature that surrounds you…

You sir, have unsurpassed taste in color selection! It certainly appears that Pele's relative has arrived in an extremely inviting environment - I wish you every success in grilling & 'q'ing!

Where do you live? I might drop on by...you had me at your two sentence description - YUM!

I too can hear the jingle " a silly millimeter longer, 101's" - was that Virginia Slims? I'm not a smoker and isn't memory funny thing? I can't remember what I did a few days, ago but I can remember a stupid commercial from decades ago – heavy sigh…

I would be very interested in this as well - thanks!

Thanks – the only drawback of placing Pele where I have, is that because my grill island is so big if I'm standing in my house looking out in the backyard I can barely see the top...

Ultimate Gen 2.6; Terra Blue

Aloha Bruce! Nah brah - Haole... I live in Southern California roughly 30 miles east of Los Angeles in a city named Chino Hills. I do on occasion get up in the bay area to visit friends I've got up there and I have a brother that lives in Santa Clara. I thought about taking out all of the grass in the front and side of my house and removing a fair portion of the back grass as well but I have not really been able to decide on xeriscape plantings and design. Up until two years ago my backyard grass was really nice green but after the last two years it's pretty ratty looking and if we have a really hot summer down here, I'm pretty sure it'll finish off the back grass.