mguerra

That deflector was originally designed to protect the wood knob on the bottom vent. They were getting scorched, cracked and breaking off. Dennis is always updating and improving things, so I don't know what the current vents use for knob material, but if it is still wood, probably best to leave that deflector in place.

What is the cast iron skillet full of chain?

Anytime you can reasonably and safely do so, decompress any seals and gaskets you have. For the KK, when the fire is out, move the lid latch to position one and pop the top vent loose. Gaskets last longer if you can decompress them. Washing machine door, dryer door, dishwasher door, scuba regulator, fishing reel drag, needle valves, anything with a gasket or o-ring that you don’t have to tighten down on all the time, don’t. When reasonable, I leave the KK lid fully open. Look around at all your stuff and you’ll find applications for this concept. For example, I keep a spare Polaris backup valve for the pool. There’s an o-ring in the case halves and in the outlet for the reverse jet. I keep it disassembled with a coating of waterproof grease on these o-rings. I only reassemble it and compress the o-rings when I put it in service. When you take your garden hoses out of service for the season, release them from the spigots to decompress the o-rings and if you have any quick connects with o-rings, release them. Pelican or Seahorse cases, plastic ammo boxes, the list is endless. Look around and you’ll find lots of seals and o-rings you can extend the life on.

I'm trying to agitate...

Get a shop vac. Everyone needs at least one. Not just for your KK.

I use the big ceramic heat deflector. If it takes longer to heat up the KK or uses more fuel I haven’t noticed, and couldn’t care less. We argued about this in another thread as I recall. I like that big block of radiating thermal mass in there. And if you actually use it a few times and then use foil a few times you will see that foil can allow some scorching. There’s no way in hell a couple thousandths of an inch of aluminum can provide the shielding of that huge paver. Y’all told me foil would work, why you thought it would work, I tried it, and my briskets got a little scorched. Well, there’s one way to find out and that’s to do it both ways a few times. I have. And I’m sticking with my big ass stepping stone. The only downside is it’s a little heavy, oh heaven forfend! I like it so much I ponied up the dough to buy a spare. Y’all send me yours…

How do you get the bulk out of it from the top?

I dismantled the crate and used the lumber to build fireworks mortar racks…

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I have been studying on this a bit more. Apparently it is a very common practice in the barbecue joint world to rest briskets for as long as 14 hours prior to service. It results in very succulent and juicy meat. However, they do rest the meat in warming ovens or other devices that hold the temp at about 160 to 170° . And so there is no food safety issue there with the temp dropping below 140. If your home oven can hold it at that temp you can do it. One of our local barbecue places has a warming cabinet with many shelves in it and they store their cooked briskets in there wrapped in saran wrap and they are indeed extremely juicy and moist.

Let me rephrase my question: SilverSuziQue, are you in the olive oil club? I see in one of the photos a bottle that looks like it’s from T.J.Robinsons olive oil club.

Are you in that guy's olive oil club? T.J. Robinson, that's his name.

I'm just a physician trained at the undergraduate and post graduate levels in microbiology and do what makes sense to me. Each person do as you think best! My guests get very well rested meat, succulent and juicy, and live to tell their friends about it😀

The meat comes off the fire sterile. There are no bacteria to grow unless you somehow inoculate it. It's not true that the second the meat goes below 140 it starts putrefying! You can leave a cooked brisket uncovered laying on a countertop at room temp for a couple days and nothing will happen. I know... (Well actually the dog could pull it down) So holding a roast in a cooler, wrapped and toweled, for well over 24 hours even, won't be a problem. It's not egg salad sitting on a picnic table in 90º heat being swarmed by flies! But, if it concerns you, don't do it. I always do it and never worry what temp it drops to.

Mesquite wood.

Is King Ranch chicken something everybody knows about or is it just us people here in Texas? Well anyway if you know what it is you can use the King Ranch chicken recipe but substitute pulled pork from your Komodo Kamado! Hokey Smokes Bullwinkle, that’s good. If you have never heard of King Ranch chicken look up a recipe and make it once then substitute smoked pork another time…

For evening service put your brisket on the fire at 5 or 6 AM. It will be done with time to rest, if you do an Aaron Franklin 275° cook. For lunch service cook it the day before starting around noon. Rest it until lunch the next day, it will be fine and likely still warm. Don’t worry about the food safety aspect of this, the meat comes off the fire sterile, if you wrapped it with foil or butcher paper partway through the cook it can’t get contaminated. If you cooked it naked, use clean or gloved hands to wrap it and you will NOT have a food safety issue even if the temp goes below 140°

I try to hold them at least 6 hours before service. It does make a difference.

Yeah we had quite the discussion about this on a different thread; I think last year.

Yes cast iron rusts but who cares for a heat deflector. I have the Bayou Classic griddle referenced above, as well as a Lodge cast iron pizza pan that I can use for heat deflectors. But I still use the giant thick ceramic thing primarily. Just because I like it…

Wrap your briskets or shoulders in towels and hold in a cooler for many hours before service. They come out much more tender and juicy. I speculate that the retained heat continues tenderizing the meat, and dissolving the collagen. But since there is no ongoing fire nor airflow there is no drying effect. Well toweled, they will stay quite hot for a LONG time. These meats always taste much better with their “original” cooking heat than a reheat. Filling all the airspace in the cooler aids the heat retention.

We have discussed it many times over the years. Use a shop vac with a cartridge filter and drywall bags. No need to get down on your knees scraping ash out through a little hole. Remove the charcoal basket, just stand up straight, use one or two wands, suck all the ash out in less than a minute. Do it before a cook, so all the embers are cold and out. Easy, fast, no bending, and zero ash dust flying around while you dump a pan of ash in to a receptacle. No need for an expensive live ember vacuum.