jonj

tiles or pebbles?

This must be the year for Christmas Rib Roast. Smoked (apple & cherry) a smaller (4 pound trimmed) boneless rib roast this year at 200°F, then seared for 7 minutes total at 450°F. Covered and held until it reached 128°F. Served with farm-style green beans, three cheese potatoes, and a 2008 Spottswoode Cabernet.

I smoked / grilled a 7.5 pound turkey breast(s) for Thanksgiving. Kind of a strange cook as the outside temperature was in the 30°s F and getting the KK temperature up took longer than I anticipated*. I dry brined the breasts overnight then basted using melted butter with Simon & Garfunkel rub. I put it in the KK23 with apple wood chunks while the temp climbed from 200° to 320°F over about an hour, then cooked it for another hour and 15 minutes to 159°F beast temperature. Rested for 20 minutes before carving. I used the new ThermoWorks RFX wireless probes / RFX Gateway just to try them out and also used them to control the Billows fan (again, just for fun). The RFX stuff worked very well, but the ThermoWorks app had each probe and the pit on a separate screen, which is different than when using the wired Signals system. They all show up on one screen but to adjust the individual device (probe/pit) settings means clicking on its own screen then returning to the "all devices" screen. It turned out to not be a big deal; just different. Very good connectivity. I'll probably reserve the RFX for those occasions when wireless probes are beneficial or when I need more probes than the 4 available on Signals. The turkey turned out great, very moist, tender, and with excellent flavor (according to those eating), so I was pleased with the results. Turkey with and without probes: Plated with potatoes, dressing, Brussels Sprouts, and green beans; accompanied with a 2019 DuMOL Finn Pinot Noir. *The temperature issue was my fault because I had the Billows fan choked down too much. I had last used it for a long 225° smoke and didn't adjust its damper so I wasn't getting sufficient volume of air to get the KK up to 325° quickly with the cold external temperature. Lesson learned.

Nice teamwork! Happy birthday to Sharky!

I very much agree with @5698k on this. No offense intended to anyone, but I've been smoking baby back and St. Louis-style ribs on various devices for 40 years and have yet to wrap them (except to keep them warm after the cook). I'm sure the 3-2-1 and 2-2-1 methods work for folks, and indeed may work well, but I've never felt the need to use them. YMMV. 🙂

I’m in the ThermoWorks ecosystem for probes so I use Signals and the Billows fan. Have had no problems with it. I have a set of the wireless probes on order, which integrate in the ThermoWorks app with Signals and Billows fan control.

I’m using one of those Singer bases under my router table.

Duck fat, yum!

Beautiful work. I especially like the attention to the grain patterns throughout the piece. Do I see a little craftsman mark above the top shelf in the upper right?

I just use these rubber furniture stops: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LD7GZES/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Very nice! Looks delicious!

I made prosciutto-wrapped figs with goat cheese and chicken taquitos with Hatch chile pesto last night for dinner. Turned out pretty tasty. I seared the prosciutto figs on the grates then transferred them to a mini roasting pan to finish. Plated with lettuce, cheese, red salsa, and sour cream (for the taquitos, not the figs...)

@Saucier, as the comments of @jeffshoaf and @tony b note, I didn't need an adapter to use the guru port for the hot/cold smoker. I think Jeff's modification would work well with the Billows fan (which I use as well), and I have thought about ordering another air intake plate to adapt it. That said, I think the main benefit of doing the retro version of the dedicated smoker port is to get the benefit of securing affixing the hot/cold smoker cylinder to the KK body. While I haven't had any issues with it moving around (and neither has Jeff, apparently), I very much like the elegance of Dennis's design of the new dedicated port and attaching points for the hot/cold smoker. At some point, I'll overcome inertia and make a decision on which method to use...

On older KKs without the new retrofit kit, when using the hot/cold smoker in the Guru port, it is unsupported. On mine, at least, the bent smoker tube is under enough tension with the weight of the smoker cylinder to resist rotation. That said, I believe some affix a support through the smoker cap handle to ensure it remains vertical (wire to the side table, for example). I need to talk to Dennis to get the retrofit adapter kit and actually fix mine correctly.

looks great, @Tyrus!