AJR

Pork belly burnt ends. Meat candy.

Early morning. 20+ Lb beast of a brisket with an amazingly thick fat cap. Going to try it somewhat hotter than the last one, starting it about 275, and plan to raise that to 325 or so, hopefully finishing it in about 12 hours. IMG_0187.MOV

The final product (with some melted butter in the pan). It was delicious. Amazing how the fat just basted it the entire cook. Held together for bigger pieces rather than all stringy which was nice. Much darker color than the Costco roast and richer flavor by far.

Kurobuta pork shoulder on the left, Costco pork roast on the right. Can’t wait to see/taste the difference. Never done Kurobuta pork before. The fat cap on it is amazing. Pure white and buttery soft. Update - Right before the wrap -

Great minds...

Burnt ends turned out to be about the best ever.

It’s done, in the cooler, wrapped in lots of towels, in foil with some broth. Temp was 199-210 depending on where I probed. Butter soft almost everywhere. 7 hours from start to finish, no wrap, never stalled at all. Bark looks great, hope it survives the foil. I’ll update when I cut into it in...five hours.

Thanks @Troble that’s what I’m going to have to do, and maybe even throw it in the oven to reheat. What stall?? Already at 185, and feeling pretty tender in a few spots. Who says you can’t do a Brisket in 5 hours?! SMDH. My last one, a smaller one, wasn’t ready after 13 hours.

Man...never know what your going to get with a Brisket. Dome temp hasn’t gone above 300, but four hours in and the deepest part is already at 160. Going to try to drop the temp to 225 (which will take a while with the KK), and maybe the stall will last 4 hours like I need it to...

Early morning for me. 18lb beast of a brisket. Think it may have had the thickest fat-cap ever on a cow. Trimmed it last night, put it on just before 5am. Trimmed a lot of the fat between the flat and point so they are almost separated. Cooking it at about 275-300, hoping for a finish time sometime around 3 so I can rest it, so cooking it a bit higher temp than usual. Photos are just over two hours in, and it’s already darkening nicely.

Also depends on what you put in the KK, and how heat soaked it is, Adam. My dome temp was showing 370 before putting in grates and the bird, and I had only had it running for 30 minutes or so. Put the smoke pot on, lower grate, foil sheet, and veggies on a sheet pan, then main grate and the bird. It took a good 45-60 minutes before the dome showed 350 again, but I knew it was significantly warmer than that down where the sheet pan and bird was. Think it’s just a false reading from so much cold mass being put in all at once. My next investment will be a good probe temp system so I don’t have to rely on the dome temp so much.

18 lb. bird, cooked at between 325 and 375, took 3 hours on the dot. Cooked it on the grate over a sheet pan full of onions/carrots/celery that I pulled out about 90 minutes into the cook and used to fortify turkey stock for the gravy. Darn near perfect.

Thanks for the tips, Steve. Three hours on the dot from putting it on the grate to 165 in the breast. It probably got closer to 400 at the grate for some of the cook, but it was fantastic. Moist and delicious. Gravy from the drippings was on point as well. I highly recommend the turkey bath and ranchero seasoning from All Things BBQ.

Best turkey yet...considering it was my first. Turned out great, got rave reviews. KK wins again. Don’t mind the missing leg, it didn’t make it to the table...

Here...we...go! IMG_0012.MOV