jonj

JD is what I have using lately.

@tony b what is the mesh size you’re using for the charcoal?

@tony bI plan to go by Mad Fritz while we are here. I’ve known Nile for years when he was still a homebrewer (former winemaker of Barnett and now at David Arthur, plus his own label). A great and adventurous brewer. @Troble, I checked out Freeman; looks terrific. They were booked up today as we went through RRV (in Calistoga now), but may take a trip back over to catch them if I can work it out. Thanks to you both for the tips.

(Apologies for the non-food content although, if I remember correctly, wine and beer constitute 2 of the 7 categories on the food pyramid)

On 7/30/2021 at 9:30 AM, tony b said:

Heading up to Russian River brewery this morning.

@tony b we haven’t yet made to the Russian River but today for lunch I had fish & chips at the Fishetarian in Bodega Bay. Accompanied it with a Pliny The Elder. Pretty tasty brew and excellent fish & chips. I see why you and @Troble like it. Headed to Calistoga tomorrow. 

Terrific looking pizza!

I was hungry for ribeye and caesar salad, so this was tonight's dinner. Ribeyes  were trimmed and fixed up with duck fat and Montreal seasoning. Pulled at 130°. Very tasty with salad, potato, and a 2005 Barnett Cyrus Ryan Cabernet Sauvignon.

I generally only wear gloves (nitrile) when working with chilies. Frequent hand washing for everything else.

@Troble, I just finished dinner but I'm sure I could squeeze in a couple of slices and some salad if it was in front of me! Yum!

@C6Bill, great cook and welcome to retirement! 

@tony b, Is "leaf lard" some sort of brewer's secret additive?

A few months ago I finally bought a ThermoWorks Signals / Billows setup. Needing to clear the freezer of a 19 pound package of pork butt (which was taking up a lot of space) and having house guests to help eat it, I decided to try an overnight cook using the controller / fan to check it out. After three days of thawing, I separated and trimmed the two bone-in butts. I marinaded one overnight with Wicker's Marinade, then rubbed with Wicker's dry rub. The other I rubbed with a 50-50 mix of KC Butt Spice and Bad Byron's Butt Rub, using duck fat as a binder.

Butt Number Two (number one was very similar in size and fat content):

KC Butt Spice/Bad Byron's Butt Rub over duck fat binder:

Both were refrigerated until placed into the KK23, set at 225° and heat soaked for 1.5 hours. The double drip pan was used and smoke wood was a mix of cherry and apple wood chunks. The meat (33.5°F) was added to the KK at 8:00 pm (which was under a tarp as we were expected to have 2 - 4 inches of rain over to coming 24 hours). Adding 19 lbs of cold pork to pulled the smoker temperature down to about 140° and it took about 1.5 hours to get back to 225° with the Billows fan (I had choked it down for the KK using the accessory damper since the Billows cfm is ridiculously high for a KK).

Billows fit into the KK Guru port using the Billows accessory snout:

Billows damper setting I used to tame the cfm (via inspection mirror), which turned out about right:

Since dinner was not to be until 23 hours later, I decided to not wrap the butts at the stall, but to instead see how the KK/Signals/Billows setup worked for a long cook (without any intervention on my part). Plus, I didn't want to get up at 0' Dark Thirty to wrap them.

Butts at 45 minutes in: Left (green probe) is Wicker's Marinade; Right (yellow probe + toothpick) is KC/BB dry rub

The Billows overshot the 225° setting in the initial push to return the KK to temperature by only 10°, then was within 5° of the set 225° temperature throughout the 19.5 hours of the cook. I was very impressed with the consistency. Here is the graph at 9:00 am, 13 hours into the cook (the slight dip in pit temp at 6:00 am was to check the results after the overnight smoke):

Temperature readings at 13 hours:

The butts continued to leisurely accrue internal temperature throughout the day, reaching high 190°s by around 2:00 pm, at which time I bumped the set temp up to 250° to get a bit more temperature differential to push the butts to 203°, which was to be my pull target. The Wicker's butt reached 204° at 3:10 pm (19 hours in the smoker) while the KC/BB butt reached 203° at 3:30 pm (19.5 hours). They were wrapped in foil and a towel, then placed in a cooler for a three hour rest until dinner. I didn't get any photos of the finished butts in the KK as it was pouring rain then and the activity was a bit frantic.

Here are the results.

Left is KC/Bad Byron Rub; Right is Wicker's Marinade & Rub:

Partially chunked up / pre-pulled. Notice the internal color difference between the dry rub (left) and marinade (right - more intense and deeper into the meat) versions. Bark was about the same on both. These are not the entire butts; just the amount for dinner (19 lbs of pork butt is A LOT of pork butt...).

Plated at 7:00 pm, 23 hours after the meat was placed into the KK:

In summary, I found the KK/Signals/Billows combination to be very satisfactory. It was my first use of a controller & fan combination and while I probably won't use it often, I will likely use it for future brisket and pork butt overnight cooks. I will probably do the normal butcher paper wrap to cut down the time in the future as well (I typically do so but wanted to experiment with the new gear). There was no lack of moisture in the pork without the butcher paper crutch. I was impressed with the low temperature variation of the Signals / Billows combination after the system stabilized. With the large cfm of the Billows, I was concerned it might repeatedly overshoot the set temperature but this was not the case. Other than the first return to temperature after the cold meat was added to the KK, the temperature variation was 5° or less. I set the Billows diffuser to almost closed, and fortunately it seemed to be about right. The KK was miserly with the use of its charcoal (FOGO Super Premium - large chunks). I started with a full basket and 1.5 hour heat soak, then a 19.5 hour cook at 225°, followed by a run up to 350° for 2.5 hours waiting to grill the corn and mushroom. At the end, I still have over one-half basket of charcoal left.

As I have mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of pulled pork but this certainly was a moist and tasty result. Between the marinade and dry rub versions, I preferred the marinade version. As for the guests, the preference was evenly split between the two butts among the carnivores (the vegetarian had no opinion about the pork, but pronounced the EVO/Balsamic grilled portobello to be superior).

@Basher what a great occasion and friends to help you celebrate! Happy birthday to you and cheers to your friends who made it so memorable! All the best.

1 hour ago, tekobo said:

No one will ever know....

Shhh! Mum's the word...

While having lunch yesterday at a favorite place for the first time since pre-pandemic, I noticed steak caesar salad on the menu and decided to make it for dinner

Tri Tip on the KK

Rested

Post-rest and sliced

Dinner: Steak, caesar salad, baguette, with a 2011 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet.

Tiles!!

5 hours ago, LudicrousSpeed said:

The hardscape crew has this nifty machine (pic included) that they use to haul dirt, crusher, pavers, etc. up and down the side of the house and have laid down thick plywood to facilitate.

Please don't use that thing to move your 32KK. Very little good can come of it.

Another great recipe, @Troble! Thanks

I'm glad you put this video together. This little dampener accessory was one of the decision points when I bought my Billows. Well done.

Top vent and perhaps not fully heat soaked...

I agree with Robert that a large part of the issue is too much top vent. A 1/4 turn on my 23KK would be 275 or more. Try 1/8 turn or even less and see if it helps.

While I agree with Tony in principle, in this case Forrest's 21" KK basket (and firebox) appear to have a squared-off rear, so it may only fit in one way. On my 23" KK, both my baskets were "generally" round, but I had to persuade the basket I use with the splitter into a bit more perfect roundness with a 4 pound hand sledge so it now fits into the firebox in all directions. YMMV.

Whatever works!

Beautiful pig and great spread. I would be proud to bring wine to such a feast!

That is one fine looking pig! I wish I was there to help you with the eating part 😉

I used Weber Smokey Mountain cookers for over 30 years before getting my first KK. I kept my two WSMs, thinking I would use them as extra space. After using the KK for a couple of years, and not using the Weber's, I gave them both away. They are fine for what they are and I made some very good food on them, but for me there was no going back after the KK experience.