Pequod

We source some of our meat from Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley, so when they ran a rare two for one sale on pork bellies, our future became clear. Polyface was highlighted prominently in Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma, and has since been featured in films like Food, Inc. To many, they are the prototype for how farming should be done. They believe in getting to know your farmer and your food. Meet Squeaker: Squeaker has been parted in two. The first half will be eaten today using Steve Raichlen's recipe for Pork Belly Steam Buns. Here it is rubbed up with Raichlen's 5-4-3-2-1 Asian Rub: Squeaker's other half has been rubbed with cure, black pepper, and maple syrup. This half will become bacon next week. One pork belly. Two futures.

Advise pulling when probe tender, not by temp.

For me the cold smoker was an easy sell because I do like to smoke cheese. But I'm with you on the rest. For low and slow I think the smoke pot covers it very well. For higher temps, if I use smoke I'll often toss a chunk of wood directly on the lump. Yes, the smoke intensity is off the charts, but it isn't on that long. Will take some playing around to see what the advantages are of the cold smoker at these temps.

I've been smoking brisket at 275 for a few years -- pre-dating the Franklin book -- and it works great. A 12 lb brisket will take 6-8 hours at that temp. I wrap in butcher paper once the bark has set (about the same time as the stall), then probe it the first time about an hour later. And every 30 minutes after that until it probes like butter. Works great, and very repeatable.

A thing of beauty! You do pizzas at 475? Can I ask what temp and how you do bread? Cast iron pot Dutch oven or other humidity enhancers?

Hmmm...he could grind it and make a really excellent hamburger...

Hmmm...lots of directions to go from here. When's the second clue hitting?

The cold smoker can be used at any temp. Basically, you are generating the smoke externally to the KK by smoldering wood in the cold smoker tube and then forcing the smoke into the chamber via an air pump. Because it isn't adding heat to the cook chamber, you can use it for cold smoking (e.g. cheese, fish), but it also works at high temps as well. You control the smoke intensity. The smoke pot is also a great innovation, but you probably won't use it above 300 degrees or so because you want the wood inside to smolder, not burst into flames. The smoke pot isn't controllable -- once you place it in the chamber you get what you get until it is done -- and it can't be used for cold smoking because you need a fire underneath it to keep the smoke cranking. These limitations aside, the smoke pot is extremely simple, inexpensive, and produces the highly desirable thin blue smoke we all crave. So...do you need the smoke pot if you have the cold smoker? Not really, but for only $20 or so it's nice to have around. I can see plenty of times I'll use the smoke pot where I don't want to mess with the cold smoker. For example, an overnight cook where I don't need to control the smoke, but I do want to control the temp using a BBQ guru. I vote for both.

Beautifully done. Anything with chimichurri is a winner to me.

Here's the pan I'm looking at. 4" holes and an inch or so deep. Thinking this would work as bun mold and muffin tops too. Bun mold pan

I really like the brioche buns recipe from Amazing ribs: http://amazingribs.com/recipes/breads/brioche_hamburger_buns.html I cut the recipe in half and make five 4" buns.

Haven't purchased the pan yet, but here are some pics of the buns in question. Made ring molds out of aluminum foil.

Really like that pan. I think I found a similar one that makes 4" diameter rounds. Perfect mold for hamburger buns.

Twin chooks:

These are looking too good. Might not be a good night for sharing

My daughters and I are hoping she'll share, but no guarantees. It is HER birthday.

Wife's birthday today and she likes Cornish Hens, so this is her Birthday Chook...or mini-chooks:

Makes sense, thanks! Came installed in that position and never occurred to me to turn it.

Beautiful setup!

The results of the @ckreef experiment suggest you wouldn't want to try to put the guru fan and smoker in series, although maybe it could work in parallel, with guru fan and smoke generator both feeding into the KK guru port. Would need to restrict flow direction, though, so you aren't blowing air into the smoker and smoke into the guru fan.

Interesting. It seems to me that wherever the smoke enters you would need some sort of diffuser to get even smoke distribution. If it enters below the firebox then the charcoal basket acts as a diffuser. If above, it would need to be diffused before hitting any food grates. Not much space between the charcoal basket and food grates, so wonder how that would work. Turbulence is one of the best diffusers there is, so maybe injected into a higher circulation region directly above the coals.

Different meats, but having done brisket and pork ribs with the smoke pot two weeks ago and beef ribs with the cold smoker today, I feel like the results are similar for these low n slow cooks. The difference is in the accessibility, controllability, and versatility of the cold smoker. You probably don't want to use the pot above 300 and can't use it for cold smoking, but I could use the cold smoker at all temps and with controllable intensity. The only downside is that you can't use your guru at the same time. lol, will be interesting to see how many cold smokers Dennis sells this week.

Need someone with 2 KK's, a cold smoker, and a pot. I'm one KK short.

And the result: off the charts awesome! Thanks for following along, y'all. Was a fun cook.

Probing tender at 7-1/2 hours, so wrapped and into a cooler until dinner time.