mguerra

cuban http://www.weareneverfull.com/low-and-s ... -the-time/

sterile? I don't worry about this. The inside of the meat should have no contamination, only the outside surface. (This applies to whole cuts, not ground!) Cooking to an accepted finish temp should kill any bacteria. Another thing I never worry about is holding meat after cooking. When I pull cooked meat off the grill, I know the surface is sterile. I use clean implements and /or clean gloves, and foil the meat immediately. From that point, I don't care if it lays on the kitchen counter for 24 hours, and comes down to room temp. I will unfoil it and serve it. I've never gotten sick from this, nor have any of my guests. Unless the foil, implements or gloves were thick with pathogens, there should be no problem. This is my opinion and practice. And I am trained in Microbiology.

Nice garden You have a beautiful garden! And I love those garden doors; do you know who the manufacturer is? Welcome to the KK club, get cooking.

Creative Fantastic! Good job.

reinforcement To amplify on my post from page one of this thread: I roasted up a batch of nice Yemen beans, as well as some Sumatra, to make the classic Mokka Java. As the coffee was brewing, I was standing across the kitchen. Suddenly I noticed a pronounced aroma of chocolate. I looked around on the countertops to see if something chocolate was laying out. Then I realized it was the Mokka in the Mokka Java! Those Yemeni coffees absolutely have flavor and aroma profiles of chocolate!!

Addendum Here's an addendum to the pork butt story. I finished them by foiling them and putting them back on the fire till they hit 190. This did the trick, as far as fixing the fact that I originally took them off too early. They were done, tender, pulled apart perfectly. And I must say, the Goya Mojo Criollo injection is a fantastic Caribbean flavor! http://www.goya.com/english/products/pr ... CatID=3#78 So I'm quite confident that a hot fast cook will work. The method would be to cook them indirect at 300ish til they are 190 internal, no foil. Next time I do it correctly, I'll report to verify.

Results I'm going to have to report on the pork butts another time. I pulled them off the fire a little early, and although they are done and VERY tasty, the texture is not quite right. However I cannot attribute this to the cooking method versus pulling them off too soon. Next time I will allow them to fully finish, and then report on the fast/hot cook results. The brisket, however, was a smashing success, partly due to the injection, and then of course the new method. I do need to make a correction here. I used Butcher BBQ Brisket Injection and Butcher BBQ Brisket Rub, not the FAB products. http://www.butcherbbq.com/ Experienced Q'ers likely know this already, but you probably don't need to inject the point, just the flat. Or, inject the point only a little. This refers to injections that include a tenderizer. If it's a pure flavor injection, probably it's fine to inject the point. The tenderizer in the point, combined with the tenderizing effect of the foil, does not turn it to mush, but it does cause the muscle fibers to basically fall apart, so you can't slice it very well. But, you can definitely make chopped beef from it! And if that is your plan for your point anyway, inject away! I like the injector from turkey-frying .com It is stainless, high capacity, made in the USA, and has two needles. DO NOT use the needle with the side perforations for any injection that includes particles! Only use the straight bore needle for that. If you clog your side perforation needle, you may not be able to clear it! To easily fill your syringe with the side perf needle, take it off. Fill the syringe, put the needle back on. Some dumb asses over at Amazon were complaining they couldn't fill the syringe with this needle! http://www.turkey-frying.com/PSI_1_meat_injectors.htm

Quickie Pork butts are done! I don't think they were on for four hours. After a little rest, I'll pull them and do a taste/texture/doneness test. If these can also be done quickly, like the brisket, I may never do another overnight cook! Except maybe for the ambience of hanging out on the porch late into the night, drinking adult beverages and smoking cigars; watching and smelling the KK smoke waft around.

I am consolidating the info regarding the high temp brisket method here in the Techniques section, and request an admin or moderator to sticky it. It is accepted barbecue gospel that the correct way to cook a brisket is at a low temperature for a long time, so called "low and slow". Recent experience by a number of barbecuers, and competition barbecuers at that, suggests otherwise. The high temperature, fast cook method is simple, and produces outstanding results, including first place competition wins. Here is the method: Prepare your brisket with the rubs and or injections of your choice. Cook indirect on a fire between 300 to 350 degrees. Fat cap up or down, your preference, I don't think it matters. The colder the meat is to start, the longer time it will spend in the smoke, enhancing the smoke ring and bark. When the internal meat temperature reaches 160 to 170, wrap the brisket tightly in foil. This will occur roughly at the two hour mark. One hour later, begin checking the brisket for tenderness, and at half hour intervals thereafter. Continue cooking until the brisket is very tender when probed with a sharp probe such as a skewer, fork, ice pick or similar object. Do not poke the probe all the way through so as to puncture the bottom foil, you will lose all your juice! Do probe in several spots. Do not use a specific finish temperature. In fact, it is advisable to remove the meat temperature probe after foiling and stop monitoring the meat temperature. When tender, remove from the fire and rest according to your preference. Some people prefer wrapping in towels and resting in a cooler, or ice chest. Others prefer a rapid cool down in the refrigerator. Or, you may hold in a warm oven if you like. Although foiling has generally been considered unnecessary in ceramic cookers, it has a function other than to simply prevent moisture loss. It enhances the tenderization of the meat, most likely by accelerating the breakdown of the muscle fiber proteins. Also, if you foil properly, you will likely collect several cups of juice in the foil to use later for various purposes. This, in a nutshell, is the high temperature/ fast cook method for brisket. Typical times to completion are four hours, more or less. You can also do a hybrid method, combining lower and/ or higher temperatures before and after foiling, to suit your time needs. For example, you could start the cook at 200 or 225, and go do something else for a few hours, then come back and check on the meat. Or vice versa, start hotter and finish lower. The key is to foil the brisket when it reaches the 160 or 170 degree point. Although a low and slow brisket cook is certainly an excellent method, it is not necessary. The fast/hot method does require you to stay around and monitor the cook, so a low and slow does offer the benefit of allowing you to leave for quite some time. Use whichever method suits your time needs, or hybridize!

high temp fast pork butt Here's a couple of items. I've got a high temp brisket going, which I injected with FAB B injection, per Finney's recommendation. They have a rub, too, so I put that on as well. It's out there chugging along at 300. Since I got the injector, I decided to do a couple of pork butts also. Those I injected with Goya Mojo Criollo, and rubbed with some Weber Hamburger rub, just because it was laying around. A guy over at the Primo forums tried to do a high temp, quick pork butt, after having good success with the brisket. And this guy was LOATHE to try the high temp/ fast brisket! But, he tried it once, and voila, a convert. So he did a pork butt same way out of curiosity. Well, he did not foil it at 160 and cook til tender, brisket style. He just cooked at 300 plus til the meat hit 190. Said it was the best pork butt he has ever cooked! So, my pork butts are out there keeping the brisket company at 300. I think I'll kick it up to 325 or 350. Later today I should have something to report...

for now While waiting for Dennis to produce KK brand coconut charcoal, here is a temporary solution. There is an extruded coconut charcoal of a very neutral flavor that can be found in grocery stores. It is called aFire. It can be hard to spot, because it is in a green box, not a bag, and may be higher up on a shelf than where you might expect. Look around in the BBQ and grilling section, it might be next to the tongs or aprons or some other unexpected place. Here in Texas, Albertson's has it. Or: http://www.amazon.com/aFire-0310U-7-Pou ... al/dp/B001 EYTGUG

neutrality There is an extruded coconut charcoal of a very neutral flavor that can be found in grocery stores. It is called aFire. It can be hard to spot, because it is in a green box, not a bag, and may be higher up on a shelf than where you might expect. Look around in the BBQ and grilling section, it might be next to the tongs or aprons or some other unexpected place. Here in Texas, Albertson's has it. Or: http://www.amazon.com/aFire-0310U-7-Pou ... B001EYTGUG

Lump You can cook your wife's food in foil to keep the smoke off. Also, some lump charcoals aren't that smoky tasting. See: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm There are about eight billion posts on all the different ceramic cooker message boards where the poster says they never cooked on a gasser again after getting a ceramic. It's nearly universal, trust us, you DO NOT want a gasser!

About an hour.

one sided I don't flip the pineapple, brown sugar, cayenne salmon. Just cook skin down til done.

Last post on this,....maybe Well, I guess we (I) have just about beat this to death, but I did another Weber method brisket last night to give to a couple of golf buddies. I did not inject, don't have the injector yet. After cooking and resting, I caught about 2 plus cups of juice, which I'll save for something. Then I separated the point from the flat and cleaned off ALL the fat. I cut both pieces in half across the grain to give my buds a starting slicing point. Of course, I had to sample it! An absolutely luscious 5 hour brisket. If you think this is a crazy technique, try it. I thought it was just a way the Weber guys compensated for having high air flow steel cookers, but it's not. OK, next topic...

Foil/ Stew It's as good a stew as I've ever had. When I did the round roasts, I used the Weber trick, smoked for a while and then foiled. The foiling caught a ton of juice, which I threw in the stew. Like you, Dave, I felt there was no need to foil anything in a KK. And as far as the KK not flowing a lot of air, that is true. I tried the foil trick out of curiosity, on the high temp brisket, just to see how it worked. I think the foiling has a tenderizing effect on the brisket that goes beyond simple moisture retention. I encourage you to give the high temp/ foiling method a try! And, as you know, competition Q'ers do it, Finney won Grand Champion with foil. It may not be all that useful on ribs, I have not tried foiling ribs.

Light pressure Yes, I just screw it shut lightly. I do throw the mesquite in there right in the fire, I'll have to use a smoker box, see if it cuts down on the tar.

lump, not wood! I use Royal Oak with a couple fist size hunks of mesquite for most cooks.

Mesquite Could be from all the mesquite I use, but I'm not stopping that! The stainless band around the damper boss is totally covered in brown drippage, as well. I'm thinking about getting a piece of silicone mat, and cutting a small hole in it for the damper stud, and placing it between the damper and its' mating surface each cook upon shutdown. That should provide less stiction.

Have you had this? I do a lot of low and slows, with the top damper just barely cracked open. A tremendous amount of gooey, tar-like gunk builds up on the gasket, and its' mating surface on the damper. There is no longer a gasket to ceramic contact, but goo to goo. This stuff is so gummy it is nearly impossible to open the damper top after shutting it from the previous cook. Once it took over ten minutes of struggling with it, and heating it from the inside with a torch, to get it open. And DO NOT ever put a block of wood on one of the metal tangs, and try to bang it open with a hammer! Big mistake. I can clean all this gunk off the ceramic mating surface, but it is embedded through and through the porous gasket. No way it's coming off/ out of the gasket. For now, I remove the damper completely after each cook and put a big square of aluminum foil on the cooker lid mating surface, and then poke the damper top stud through the foil and screw it back on, and shut. Then I can spin the damper top off without too much trouble, since it is only bearing on foil, not goo. But it's a pain in the ass to do it. What are you all doing?

to clarify That photo above is actually of the second batch I made, with whole pitted Kalamatas, not sliced black olives. It also came out super delicious.

The Grand Champion injects... I just ordered: Professional Stainless Steel Marinade Injector Item # DRS-PSI-1 from turkey-frying.com I'll try it this weekend with Butcher BBQ brisket marinade, using the Weber Method.

Regarding injection, don't forget that Finney won Grand Champion with injected brisket! http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewt ... light=toot

The Stew Here it is: