LarryR

Of Course How could I forget, I've used your database many times. I guess I meant us "civilians" lol.

We were cleaning out the garage and found a brand new digital scale we had no idea we had, and it even works. First thing I think of is, "how great would it be to weigh my charcoal and time how long each weight last at a temp." How cool would that be, and the SO looks at me like I'm nutz. Anyway, anyone do this and is anyone interested in me posting my findings? I primarily use Rancher Briquettes, Royal Oak lump and Dennis' ECC.

What a great meal/evening, took my time (no one home to rush me), enjoyed my beverages, turned up Sirius Classic Vinyl, spent quality time with Hestia and cooked a great meal. Let Hestia warm-up over the span of 2 - 3 hours and cooked my baker, after I let my seafood dynamite settle and enjoyed a few beverages I grilled my 5 jumbo scallops (forgot to get pictures), let those digest with the help of more adult beverages. Then cranked Hestia up to around 600/650 threw my steak on for 3 min. each side removed to a plate and let her rest for 5 minutes while I prepared my 1 lb baked potato, poured myself a LARGE glass of Cab., threw some Worcestershire butter on my steak and cut into her, perfect med-rare with a great char on the outside. Outstanding! Steak was on the high end of choice so it had some decent marbling and I salted it for 50 min. If you're not salting your less than prime grade steaks you're really missing out. FIRE! LOVE my Worcestershire butter! PS - I think the silence is speaking volumes about the Super Market BBQ'd chicken, lol. In honor of your "cook" I think I'll spatchcock two roasters today. One Simon and Garfunkel and one BBQ.

I'm sure it will. Decided I wanted to eat dinner late since the SO won't be here bitching asking when dinners going to be ready so I whipped a a seafood dynamite and threw it in the toaster oven thing as an appetizer, god it smells good. Second gin and tonic going down smooth, got coals for Hestia going and will be salting my steak soon. Perfect guys evening . . . well almost perfect, where are the dancing broads? Clothes will remain on Damn that was good:

Booze made my decision So let booze make my decision for me. I'm in the mood for Tanq. and Tonics and Cab. vs. Beer so I went with a 20 oz boneless rib eye and some jumbo scallops. I'm going to do a baker on Hestia so I've got a little extra time to admire her (and drink) before I cook my steak and scallops.

EDIT: I have no idea how I posted this in the Cooking General section, sorry. It's my Bachelor weekend as SO has taken her monthly trip to care for her mother and for the first time I'm having a tough time deciding on what to cook for myself tonight. On one hand a nice thick rib eye med-rare with a good bottle of Zin sounds divine, yet it's such a short cook. On the other hand a couple racks of baby backs would be a nice short smoke on Hestia that would give me plenty of time to enjoy some adult beverages and admire her as she works, decisions decisions. Or I could always go with Fish Sticks right doc?

You don't have a KK Boy I have a "KK Boy" a 9 year old boy (my son) armed with an extra wide and long spatula and a large foil pan. He does a nice job and will work for a 7-11 Slurpee.

Re: Introducing myself

Last Friday night I loaded Hestia up with between 7 and 8 lbs (didn't weigh but it was less than 1/2 an 18 lb bag) of Rancher and did a 20 hour low and slow cook (Brisket and then a fattie). The fuel basket was filled to just over the top of the basket and I had three very good size chunks of pecan buried in the fuel, larger than fist size, probably closer to double fist size. When I opened her up to clean her on Sunday I was blown away as there was still about 2/3 (or more see pic below) of the fuel left. Monday two cooks in one, carne asada and pollo asada and then 12 lbs of chicken thighs. I only added 6 or 7 lit briquettes to the left over fuel. Friday garlic burgers and brats with only 6 or 7 lit added to the left over fuel. Saturday grilled mixed veggies and then I threw on some tequila lime shrimp. After the veggie and shrimp cook I decided this load of fuel had done it's job so I opened her up and burned all leftover gunk off. She ran for about two hours at 500 before starting to lose temp. Remarkable! Also wanted to add is with all cooks with the exception of the brisket/fattie I add the lit, bring her up to about 375 and let her heat soak for about an hour before starting my cook. Absolutely amazing fuel economy. Here's a photo after the 20 hr brisket fattie cook:

My pleasure, just sitting in my office hiding from the SO, she got it in her head that today's a good day to clean the garage. Damn, she just yelled at me that she's waiting for me, off to clean the garage . . .

I think it's a good thing she's coming home Here's a trick that I've done on the cigar smoke; burn something on the stove in the kitchen and then whenever she says, "I think I smell smoke in here" (whatever room she happens to be in) you say, "ah, that ______ I burned, the smell must have made it's way in there as I had the windows open trying to air it out."

Yes, just re-associate the blower with the pit probe. I would power Stoker down, remove probes, power back on and insert probes (after Stoker has fully booted-up), should pick them up automatically. I use my stoker so infrequently that I don't bother with assigning it an IP, simply go into system info when I fire her up and look at what IP address she was assigned and type it into my web browser and Stokerlog.

Re: Straight Lines

Re: Do both Yes, I used a COFFEE CARDAMOM rub. Probably my favorite rubs. Did it dry vs. including the wet ingredients.

Cook is done - Results I've got to say I was VERY impressed with a no foil brisket in the KK. Talk about easy, put her on, let her run 17 hours, took her off, foiled her for about 4 hours (longer than I hoped but we were engaged in some excellent conversation and some adult beverages) and sliced. Doesn't really get any easier than that. Excellent bark, probably some of the best bark I've had, I ate the tip/end piece where I started slicing sliced and it was so damn moist and tender, not chewy or tough, succulent. Had a good friend of mine over who's a great BBQ cook (he cooks on a Stumps) and he was quite impressed by the fact that it was done with no foil, he loved the final product. In fact he brought me a great finishing sauce that we applied after it was platted that was very nice, left the jar with me so I'll be enjoying more of that later. I think the key was two things, 1) I ran low temps, 220 grate and my dome read about 210, 2) not opening the cooker for the entire cook. I checked her when she hit 192 at the 17 hour mark and my probe slid in like butter, perfect! So my final verdict, I think I just may be sold on doing choice grade + briskets no foil from her on out. I'll stick with high heat on no-roll and select cuts. Took some more pictures, the close-up with the flash makes the face of the sliced meat look dry but I can assure you it was anything but, need to get a better camera or figure out how to use the one I have in low light situations. More pictures HERE

Re: Brisket from snake river farms Tony THIS COOK was a Snake River Farms Wagyu brisket. I didn't trim, just threw her on at 210 and let her rip (I did have to increase the temp and foil her to speed-up the cook, should have started her the night before) and it was one of the finest briskets I've ever tasted. I'd recommend rubbing her, putting on a 210 KK fat side down and settling in for a nice long cook. Note she will cook faster than a lesser grade brisket and you're plateau will come sooner. Burnt ends are my favorite option for a point; put the point back on for three hours, remove and cube, toss in some Sweet Baby Rays, honey and chipotle powder and you're golden. As a side note I'm doing a choice brisket low and slow today no foil, we'll see how she comes out, first no foil brisket on the KK for me. Done the hot and fast and like the method for select and some choice grade briskets but you don't get near the bark so if you're a bark person I'd find a higher quality brisket and go the traditional method.

DAMN!! Very nice looking, love the char!

Seems too long to me too Based on THIS RIB ROAST COOK I would agree that it seems a bit long. If memory serves me correctly this was a 3 rib roast that came in around 6 lbs. As I wrote in my last entry on the thread I think it was ready for sear in under 3 hours. Note, I also let her sit on the counter to come to room temp for about 2 hours, I've found this really helps (along with the low temps) promote even cooking and prevents having those gray edges. Hope this helps.

Just Curious how many of us foil our briskets on our KK. I typically bring my briskies to 165 then throw in a roasting pan and cover w/foil for the remainder of the cook. However, since I've had my KK I've wanted to try an non-foil cook but have been concerned the results would not as consistent. Not due to the cooker, just based on the fact that briskets can be temperamental. Any thoughts and please vote on the poll (hope I set it up right). BTW, the timing of this post just happens to be when my 15.5 choice grade brisket just hit 165 in Hestia, not sure what I'm going to do, I'm leaning towards not foiling but have guests tonight so not sure I want to "experiment" today. What to do, what to do . . . EDIT: Based on the fact that it's 9:30 a.m., dinner is around 6:00 p.m. and my brisket is already at 170 I'm NOT going to foil - keep your fingers crossed! It's looking pretty moist in there as I have beads of moisture falling from my top hat. Haven't opened her since I put her on (10:00 p.m. last night) and won't until she hits about 190 to start checking for tenderness. Here we go! Here's my final graph, took 17 hours which is what I'd guessed but as quickly as she was moving early on I got a little worried: She was tender at 192, probe went in like butter, so far I'm liking what I see. Going in foil and towel lined cooker for 3 hours. Foil under ends of the point and flat are to protect from rising heat coming up around my deflector. Probably not necessary but I like to use it: More pictures HERE

Lots of room There's lots of room up there. Here's a picture of 2 racks of very large spares (cut in 1/2)over two butts. I don't think you'll have any problems with baby backs.

Spares or Babybacks? Remember babybacks will take less time than spares. On my KK Spares take about 6 hours, backs between 4 - 5, I run my temp around 235 grate. Hope this helps and congrats to your daughter.

This is how I roll So unbeliveably easy and so good. Put ribs on, closed Hestia, opened her 6 hours later and ribs are done to perfection, are you kidding me, am I that good or is it the cooker Meat came cleanly off the bone with a gentle tug, I am the rib god, LOL! Here's a SLIDESHOW of the rest of the cook. I take my ribs dry, no sauce and this rub is perfect for that, so good I can't even begin do describe how good it is. Happy 4th!

Thanks FM. Made the decison earlier to proceed w/the Hestia and have her coming up to temp nice and slow so I can enjoy my adult beverages. Currently sitting at 175, think I'll do these at 350/375. Thanks!

I got a "hankering" for some roadside chicken today and have 5 lbs of skinless thighs marinading in the fridge as I type. So here's my question, I've always done roadside chicken on my kettle as part of the cooking process is to baste in roadside sauce every five minutes to build a nice layers of flavor. Taking this into consideration I've never thought to try it on Hestia (my KK) as I didn't want the baste dripping down into my cooker (it's a direct cook). Am I being overly cautious and will the sauce just hit the coals (Rancher briquettes) and turn into vapor or will it leak down to the bottom of my cooker? Interested in others experiences in this area. BTW, if you haven't tried the roadside chicken recipe posted on this site you're really missing out. The shit is addicting!

It's a good one I did the coffee cardamom rub again last weekend but this time I went dry; substituted the fresh garlic for powder and left out the oil. Really liked it that way, much better bark if you're a bark person.