mguerra

disgusting This thing incorporates all the fat and inter-muscular connective tissue in to the pulled pork. I remove ALL of that when hand pulling. No thanks!

deliciosa The Mojo (pronounced Mo Ho, not Mo Joe) pork was delicious! The citrus based sauce gave it a wonderful flavor. In fact, here's a neat trick. Prep and cook your pork butt any way you like, with the paste called for in the recipe, or not. But definitely make the Mojo sauce; that's the flavor bomb for this recipe, more so than the rub. Pour the sauce all over the pulled pork, it's a tangy, delicious alternative to straight pulled pork. The little splash of balsamic in the brisket was excellent as well. It was melt in your mouth tender but not mushy. I had kind of trash talked briskets last year in favor of chuck rolls, but I rescind those remarks! The combo of my marinade and the fast hot foil trick makes for flawless briskies. Of course everyone raved, but that's old news for us KK'ers, isn't it? The real question is if Mike was impressed enough, or goaded enough by his wife, to get a KK. I'm fixing to go play golf with him in an hour and we will see what he says. Get your Mojo on!

as I promised you Oh yeah, the standing order thing! I'm so familiar with that one. They put you up on a pedestal, didn't they? Anybody with low self-esteem just needs a KK, a pork butt, and some friends and family. That will fix it.

In case you missed it, here is the link to the Mojo Cuban Pork Butt from the Whiz: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/mojopork.htm I put the paste on it last night and just now put it on the fire for tomorrows' party. It should be a straight 225 low and slow. The aroma that came off that thing when I took off the Saran Wrap was out of this world!!! Just as heady and aromatic as the Coffee Cardamom rub. ( http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewt ... t=cardamom ) I sure hope it translates to a great cooked flavor. Yesterday I pre-prepared the Mojo sauce; it's in the fridge now and will be re-heated tomorrow. I'll do a brisket tomorrow, it is marinating now with soy sauce, garlic, worcestershire and, in a new twist, a little splash of balsamic vinegar. Hopefully the vinegar won't overtenderize the meat.

P.S. It's possible that Raichlen and others may use grills that don't have as many height adjustments as we do, so maybe they have to be more precise about fire temp control. We have all seen grills that have just one level, and it's usually pretty high up from the fire.

thoughts It is my opinion that when you are grilling you don't need a specific temperature, you need a good hot fire. Which you can eyeball. Then you achieve your desired result by placing the meat or vegetables further or closer to the fire, which is easy on our KK's because of all the grill levels available. Cook it til it's done to your liking. Drop it down to sear it, and you're done. One fire, one temperature, super simple! My preference is too cook the meat evenly throughout, so I cook it a little farther from the fire and a little slower. If you prefer the method of way more done on the outside and way less done on the inside, you cook it down closer to the fire. Five different heat levels is way too complicated for me!

Absolutely no problem to finish them in the KK or the oven at 300. The flavor is there already! They will likely finish on the KK. If you are curious, you could foil one right now just to see how foiling a butt works in the final cooking stage. Or, stick with the proven technique for all four.

little butts So, you should be about five hours in by now, how's it going?

I went to a BBQ shop to check out the Weber Genesis or something, and the guy showed me a Big Green Egg. I thought he was crazy, it was close to a thousand bucks!!! But I was really curious about the whole ceramic thing. Surfed like crazy for a while and saw the RJ product and came within a gnat's whisker of getting a K7. Somehow stumbled on to KK and perused the forums at great length; and convinced myself that even close to $4 G's was OK. Wife was pissed as hell because she thought I spent a grand on it!!! No honey, it was near about 4 with the side tables. After over a year of KK chow, she's a convert. And so is everyone I've fed off the durn thing. And if my buddy Mike does not buy one after I feed him and his wife and mother in law on Monday, he's a big douche!!!

Dude, FILL the basket! Remove what does not burn up and use it later. The first time you run out of fuel, you are going to know what we are talking about. So don't.

Little 4 pounders cook faster than a big picnic. If you figure about two hours/ lb. for a big one, twelve hours should be more than enough for the little ones. Make sure there is a little space between them; that they don't touch. If they are not done at the 10 hour point, kick the temp up to 300 plus. Butts are super forgiving. And they will probably be done by 10 hours anyway. A finish temp anywhere between 185 to 200 will be fine. You are going to look like a star at the party, I guarantee! Nothing makes you look like a BBQ master more than a pork butt on a KK, the guests are going to be gushing all over you. And please give us the feedback of how it went!!!

makes me sick Dittos Firemonkey. Kill it and grill it is God's plan. Kill it for sport, for show, that's a sin.

rainproofing And here is a re-post of a little trick for the rain: Stoker Raingear Photos should be self explanatory. Unfortunately the Stoker isn't rainproof, but here is the 84 cent Wal-Mart solution. And I'm using it tonight because thank God in heaven it's raining in Kerrville!!!! We are in the the worst drought in 50 years. We've had about 6 inches of rain in the past 2 years. http://gallery.me.com/mpguerra#100119 _________________ Michael Guerra,M.D. Kerrville, Texas

try this Smokey, check out the hot fast brisket trick in the "Techniques" section! It is actually much easier and more tender than a low and slow. And a beautiful set-up you have there!!!

revolting The cruelty and inhumanity of bullfighting is just disgusting. I have no empathy at all for the matador, but as a physician I would treat him. Matador, literally translated is "killer". Note the injuries to the bull, not just the POS matador.

too excited The day my KK arrived, we had to put it in the driveway until I could get help moving it. I tore the crate off, started a fire right then and there and threw a pork butt on it straightaway. I may have the record for fastest first cook after delivery! The thing is, my wife was pissed as hell I spent the money, and I wanted to wow her with an awesome meal the first day. It worked.

long story This buddy of mine is fixated on cooking with gas. Every so often we go over there and he cooks a tenderloin or filets on his Ducane gasser. He thinks he is serving us the finest meal, and it is just awful. I can barely choke down this flavorless ruination of a fine piece of beef. I have been trying to flip him to the KK, and he staunchly resists. The reason is we both think we are the smartest guy on the planet, and he can't admit I might be right. One day I sent a KK pork butt down to his place as a lunch gift. He admitted he liked it, but his wife and nephew really flipped for it! So on Monday he is having a combo Memorial Day party combined with his mother in law's 85th birthday. Lo and behold his wife calls me up and asks me to prepare the meat on the KK. She does not want him cooking on the gasser!!! Oh man, that has to stick in his craw. I am going to cook a Mojo Pork Butt per the Naked Whiz, a hot fast brisket marinated for 12 hours, and whatever else I can think of to make him wish he never cooks on gas again!

fill'er up Fill the basket. Whatever doesn't burn up, use again. It's a royal pain to run out of fuel during a cook. You probably won't notice it at the moment it runs out and will therefore find a partially cooled off cooker and partially cooked meat. Then you have to take out the meat, restart the fire... Having done this, I can tell you, you don't want that. Simple and easy to just fill it up with charcoal every cook.

He was a blessing I knew Art Linkletter, but he never knew me. He touched my life in a positive way, an uplifting way. The world was made a better place by virtue of his life and all your family should be well pleased in that. My condolences.

ideas My preference is to keep everything I'm not using out of sight. As such I would make places for the grills, heat deflector, pizza stone, rib racks and so on surfaced with stainless for easy clean up. Either shelving to store them horizontally, or vertical slots, or both; with doors for concealment. Retaining the external teak structure for beauty and warmth, except the top work surfaces stainless or granite. I think your KK shaped cut-out is perfect, don't lose that. I had such a cabinet designed by a custom stainless cabinet shop, it was $3K and change. I'm still mulling over that purchase. The stainless is perfect for easy clean up and heat resistance, but your teak is more beautiful. My teak tables are filthy from grease and oils, and charcoal spark burns, so I would like to have working surfaces from stainless. Just some ideas.

Meatloaf is super on the KK. You don't really want to make it in the oven after your first taste from the KK.

yet again I did another fast hot brisket this afternoon and it was super as usual. Someone mentioned the thought of doing the second part of the cook, the foiled part, in a pan with foil on top. I tried it and it works great. No worries about losing your juice! Once the brisket hit 165 I put it in a big baking pan and sealed the top with foil. Then cooked til probe tender. I did the first part of the cook at 235 to get a little more smoke and smoke ring on it, rather than the fast hot method of 300 plus. Then after foiling, kicked it up to 310. 5 hours total cook time. The pan makes it easy to carry, too. After pouring off all the juice, you can deglaze the pan with a couple tablespoons of red wine and then pour that back in to the juice. I dribbled some juice on the meat and do another trick as well. Separate the point from the flat and scrape off all the fat. Slice some point and some flat and include a little of both with every bite. Oh baby that's heaven!

KK wins Hmm, that sounds a lot tastier than a San Antonio Riverwalk restaurant steak!!!

carnivorous beauties Well, that peacock started walking up the stairs. We can only speculate about its motivation. My guess is that it was moving toward the humans who it associates with food, not the smell of frying bacon! But it's a pretty funny thing to contemplate big packs of peacocks hunting down their natural prey item, wild feral hogs!!! There is a huge problem from Texas to Florida of wild hogs wreaking havoc on property, fences, feeders, crops and even attacking people. It's up there with the damn fire ant problem. Maybe we should start releasing peacocks all over the south to try to get these hogs under control. Nice photos, BTW.

snap People already do that kind of thing anyway.