mguerra

never clean I never clean my heat deflector. Here it is after six months of continuous use. A grilling wok filled with lava rocks, sitting on the charcoal basket. All the goo just slowly works its' way through the lava rocks and burns up, I guess.

picnic observations I don't often cook a picnic, but they seem just as good to me as a Boston Butt. The first one, I tried to take off that skin, which was a PIA. Now I just cook it with the skin on, and it comes off WAY easier after you've cooked it! Go to any BBQ forum and you will find endless mental masturbation concerning whether to cook fat/ skin side up or down. As long as you are cooking indirect, it does not matter. If, for some crazy reason you did a low and slow direct, there is probably merit to cooking fat side down. But why would anyone do that? There is a school of thought that promotes fat side up to allow "basting". That's a crock of s---. First off, you don't need any "basting" in a KK. And second, the melting fat just drips off the surface of the meat. NO WAY can that juice penetrate the cellular structure of the muscle fibers of the meat.

idea You might want to keep that thermometer. When you get your Guru, you can count on it to regulate your fire. It also has all the alarms you need if you are within earshot of the cooker. The only extra thermometer you might need is the one you have. Why? If you have a cook going that might get done during the night while you are sleeping. All you need is a "meat done" alarm. The Guru WILL keep the fire at the right temp, so you don't need any bedside alarms for high or low temp. And even if you did, the Guru has those, which you can enable or disable, if your bed is within earshot of your cooker. And after a while, you probably won't be starting any cooks that could finish in the night. But it's nice to have that "night thermometer" at your bedside just for peace of mind. Plus, you can use it for your indoor oven cooking.

What?! OK, you are going to have to expound on "hauled my Komodo up four flights of stairs"!!! That might be a record. Details, please.

disorder OCD? No, we call it NHTIOD around here.

Green Man?! Spliff, that's for losers! No, mon, dis fatty is a Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage log, unwrapped, and smoked for a couple hours.

No Prep Throw on a fatty. Disgusting, and wonderful.

pulling tip I do have a pulling tip. Don't just start shredding the meat and then try to pull out the fat. Pull the whole thing apart gently and it will separate into its' component muscles. Use a fork or knife to scrape off the fat and connective tissue that surrounds each muscle, then you can shred or cut these component pieces, fat free. The parts in direct contact with bone will have a layer of periosteum and it will scrape right off the meat. These pieces may also have a little piece of tendon at the end that connects to bone and that can also be just sort of pushed of the end of the muscle.

forgiving cook One good thing about pork butts, they will come out perfect through a wide range of cooking temps. Anything between 210 to 285 and you will get nothing but kudos from the assembled chompers! No need to sweat an exact temp, just get it in that range and relax. Same goes for the finish temp, anywhere between 180 to 200 and you get a super result. I cook at least one a week.

Auto Controller Did a 14 hour pork shoulder last night and slept like a baby. Set the Guru to 225 and forgot about it. Pulled it off this AM at a finish of 185. Perfect. If you enjoy manual control, and I can think of several reasons why one might, that's great. Or get a Guru or a Stoker and go to bed.

the ultimate sacrifice That B-17 belly turret was George Lucas' inspiration for the swiveling gun turret on the Millennium Falcon. On a very grim note, sometimes the hatch to the belly turret on those B-17's would get jammed, so the gunner could not get out. This resulted in at least one fatality that I know of when a B-17 had to make a gear up landing.

C'mon, details! Alright, what was the brine, how long did you brine, what was in the smoke pot?

it's all feel I just have two ways of cooking; low and slow, and "grilling". For grilling I start an entire chimney of lump, get it all burning, dump it out on top of a basket of lump, and cook close to the fire. What temp that may be I don't know. I put the sear grill on top of the charcoal basket handles, open the bottom vent all the way. Now comes my fire control method: I adjust the top vent to get smoke coming out at a flow rate that "looks right" to me. I don't want a raging blast furnace nor a bare smolder. What temp that is on the dome thermometer is of no concern to me, because the dome is way up high and the meat is way down by the fire. But, as a point of interest, my dome temp on the salmon was about 300. I think it took about 15 -20 minutes. To check it, I look for that white foamy goo to be coming out. I try to open the lid as infrequently as possible to look for that. When that stuff is oozing out, it's done perfectly! This was the best grilled salmon I ever ate, anywhere anytime. Kinda like cruzmisl's baby backs. And no it was not tough, quite the opposite! It was as moist and juicy as could be yet still fully cooked. I had said a while back I don't use my KK as a grill, I use my old Meco Swinger. But a couple people said to grill with the KK. Turns out, it works quite well. It is easier to use the metal grill, everything is up higher and more accessible, the fire and the food. And I will still use it. But the KK works great, albeit a little inconvenient. My preference in grilling is to have the meat done evenly throughout, not burnt on the outside and bleeding within. So my technique is to grill at moderate temps, achieve the right doneness, and then a quick sear for the surface flavor. I have learned to use the visible smoke flow rate for this.

Maritime Delight Here's a keeper. Marinate a hunk of salmon in pineapple juice for some hours. Lightly brush on some soy sauce. Rub on a mix of brown sugar and cayenne. Grill skin side down, don't flip it, until that white squoogy goo starts oozing out. Keep the lid shut as much as possible. Eat it. Absolute heaven.

some I believe certain ones, from perusing other BBQ forums.

Uncertain The best I can determine talking to John is that he's not sure why it happens. He did say it might have to do with needing a higher capacity power supply. They just replaced my entire system outright for said problem. It came with the same capacity power supply as the original! However I don't know if the new one works or not, I'm just using my Guru CyberQ. One day when I plan to stay home for the duration of a cook, I will try the Stoker and monitor it. Very frustrating.

Dude! What a sweet set-up!

specialty So, Propofol boy, are you a gas passer?

I learned something When I first got the Behemoth, I would remove the charcoal basket before each use. I dumped out the unused charcoal, partially refilled with fresh lump, and then put the old lump on top. It made a hell of a mess; ash and little bits of charcoal spilling around and flying in the air. So, I just started putting fresh lump on top of the old for each cook. Once in a blue moon I would pull out the damper door and stick a shop vac nozzle in there and suck out the ash from the "floor". I figured the ash was just falling down through the basket as it formed. WRONG! The other day I was about to throw some new lump on the old, as usual, but decided to check on a hunk of mesquite I had buried in the middle a few cooks prior. As I pulled off the top layer of partially burned lump, I encountered a solid layer of ash a couple inches thick that had not fallen down through the basket. The only available airflow to the top layer of lump I had been adding each time was along the small gap between the charcoal basket and the side wall of the cooker. It made sense, because I noticed the fire would not really get going with wide open top and bottom vents. Only with Stoker or Guru could I get the temps up. The solid ash layer was restricting air on a "natural" air flow. So, be aware of this. I'll probably just stir and shake the used charcoal, to get the ash to fall, and then still add fresh on top.

Got a ride on the B-17 "Aluminum Overcast". http://gallery.me.com/mpguerra#100205&v ... ack&sel=19

RV-10 We also have a Grumman Tiger. Well, Vans has the RV-10 kit which is basically the same plane, but WAY faster! On the same motor. Check it out:http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv-10int.htm

filler A bag of Royal Oak lump is the same size as a bag of their briquettes. The lump weighs 10 lbs., the briquettes 18 lbs. The briquettes feel like a bag of quartz and the lump like a bag of balsa wood! Who knows what that 8 lbs is. Maybe ground quartz.

Finished Product

Winner Wowie Zowie, the lamb roast is a winner! It came out a perfect medium; I don't think you want lamb rare or medium rare. Extremely juicy and moist. This particular lamb has a very neutral flavor, not like that "strong" lamby flavor you may have experienced. It's my understanding there are a lot of different lamb varieties, and they taste different. I know Allen Brothers sells at least two kinds, and they taste quite dissimilar. When I do a pulled pork, I pull the individual muscles apart and then scrape off the fat and connective tissue from each muscle before pulling the meat apart. This gives you fat free meat. That wasn't possible on this lamb shoulder. The finish temp is too low. So this you will just slice and then cut the fat away as you eat. It's not too fatty, either. This I think is your perfect Easter or Christmas meal. You might want to do one practice one first, but my first came out perfect cooked as described above.

Lamb I just tried something new, a lamb shoulder roast. I marinated it for a day using Allegro marinade, cooked it at 275 indirect to a finish temp of 150. That seemed like a reasonable temp based on some internet articles I checked BEFORE cooking the roast! This lamb came from U.S. Wellness: http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Detail.bok?no=546 It just finished and it's 11 PM so I'll sample it in the AM and give a report.