mguerra

tips Soaking the smoking wood is unnecessary, it serves no function. The moisture is simply driven off as steam, and then the wood burns. A number of folks here have made an excellent case for using a smoker box, however. It alters the nature of the smoke by causing the volatile, flammable gasses to be burned in the fire. Search the forums to find the threads. Heat soaking the KK prior to putting on the meat is optional, but not necessary. I like to have the meat in there from the get go to spend more time in the smoke. Other folks don't like the "early" white, billowy smoke and wait for the thin blue smoke. Your taste buds will guide you in this, if you try it both ways. Spend some time reading through the old posts and you will find all the answers! And here is a nice primer: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/infocentral.htm

on the KK now I've got the Italian Pork Stew going right now, from the Primo forums. And this time I am actually using pork!

??? What?!

Huh? I use a spoon and a glass when cleaning when cleaning the fat from a yes, yes yes... What?!

The fast butt method works very well. The flavor and texture of the meat is almost identical to a slow cook. The party guests raved as usual, yawn. The one difference is that it is fractionally harder to pull apart. Other than that, if you are pressed for time, I give it a solid thumbs up. Interestingly, the butt I bought had cooking directions on the package that said to "Slow Roast" at 350 for four hours! As it happens, this 10 pounder took 4 hours at 350 to reach 190 internal! The lesson I learned from this is that you can cook a pork butt at any temp between 220 to 350 and get great results. My suggestion is to pick a cooking temp that fits your time needs. If you want to go do something for awhile, cook at a little lower temp til you get back, then increase the temp when you get back. It's the same hybrid method I suggested for the brisket. There is extreme time flexibility available for these cooks. If there is the emotional appeal of a 14 hour cook, do that. But, it's good to know you can start a butt at 8 AM and have it ready for lunch! My next experiment will be to foil one at the 160 to 170 temp, like the brisket trick, and see what that does in regards to cooking time, texture and flavor.

Lump Lump. They make briquettes, and the bags look nearly identical to the lump. Check the bag carefully when you buy. Of course, the briquette bag weighs a ton compared to the lump, so you can tell just by heft, if you are not looking.

pull it right I might have posted this before. When pulling a pork butt, I want to remove all the fat possible. So I don't just grab two forks and start shredding the whole butt. All the fat and connective tissue will then be incorporated into your pile of shred. It's almost impossible to pick out all these little shredded bits. The butt is composed of a number of muscles. These muscles are separated from each other by a layer of fat and connective tissue. I try to pull apart the individual muscles from each other, whole. Then clean each muscle by scraping off the fat and connective tissue with the side of a knife or a fork. Scrape along the length of the muscle fibers, parallel to them. This is best done with the meat still hot from cooking. Now you will have a pile of muscles, nearly fat free, you can shred, cut, chop or whatever. Is this how most of you are doing this? Or are there a lot of you just shredding from the get go?

set up and progress Fire in the basket, fully loaded with Royal Oak, heat deflector on basket handles, butt up on main grill. CyberQ II set at 325, blower port open 1/2, top vent just cracked enough to allow a little smoke egress when blower is off. The butt has been on for one hour, and its' temp has gone from 36 degrees at start to 104 now.

not poultry! To be clear, I would never be so cavalier with poultry! That stuff scares me, even "properly" cooked and handled. Beef and pork don't worry me at all to use the methods I described. There are no reported cases of botulism related to barbecued meats.

hot fast butt I have a hot fast pork butt going. Temp is running 330ish. I will cook it to full finish this time, and give a report. This one I'm just cooking indirect til done at 190. Next time, I might experiment with foiling it at 160 or so, just like the fast brisket method, just to see what happens. This better be good because it is the main course at a late afternoon lunch party! Probably it will be fine, because the last ones I did were pulled off the fire too soon, sat on the counter for a couple hours, cooled off some , and then went back on the fire; they were excellent.

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.