johnnymnemonic

I'd like some!  This is great, @DennisLinkletterthank you !!!!! 

11 hours ago, Troble said:

Ordered BBQ from “Blacks” down in south Austin for a sales meeting lunch. Not the best looking picture but the brisket was outstanding 

https://www.blacksbbq.com/austin

 

Interesting. Blacks != Terry Black's that I like so much.  I'll have to give this one a go too.  Thanks for the 411.

Couple of recent grill cooks. Love the versatility and grilling room in the 42. In this case fire on the right side only. On the cook with the chicken thighs and breasts I let the bird parts come up to 120 or 130 then moved them down onto the lower grate on the right side to sear before taking them off. Sausages stayed up high but way over to the right over the fire. Veggies in the basket down low are great. Except in this case I didn’t realize the kids wouldn’t like the char on the sprouts as much as I did. Anyway- loving the 42 more and more. Burgers tonight. Can’t wait.








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This setup worked well for the rotisserie last night in the 42. Underneath the aluminum pan is a loaf pan. It was too small and had angled edges so I got out an aluminum pan and bent it where one side was a right angle and would hold up the basket splitter plate. When McJudsten shared his setup I didn’t realize how he did it until I tried to set it up. I took the slider rods out of the basket splitter. The side plates are bumped up all the way onto the ceramic ring and are resting on top of the dividers. Dividers are just resting right behind the deflector mounts tube thingies. Anyway the dividers are spread a few inches wider than normal.


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Based on feedback from this forum I bought my first controller to use with my KK.  I had been green egging for years without one. I bought the Thermoworks Billows with the "universal" mounting kit.  Fits perfectly and tightly in the port of the KK.  I use it with the smoke X2.  Make sure to get the billows damper for $2.99.  They pump a lot of air and the damper helps limit the intake for low temp cooks.

Anyway IMO it's stupid easy to use, built like a tank.  I've cooked with it something like 5 times now.  Great product, no complaints. 

If nothing else, dude knows how to sell a knife.

Wow.  Thanks @tekobo- makes me want to take another fishing trip down to Appalachicola.  

22 minutes ago, C6Bill said:

Go to Babes Chicken Dinner House, i love that place. Go to the original out by the speedway in Roanoke TX  

Babes Fried Chicken

Noted!!!

On 2/18/2022 at 6:56 PM, Poochie said:

I'd like to try Franklin's. One day.

@PoochieI went to Austin couple 3 years back before the pandi and a local took me to Terry Black's.   Said you don't have to wait in line forever and it's just as good or better than Franklin's.  At Franklin's - there's a line around the building starting early in the morning and they sell out during lunch time a lot of days.  Only worth it if you have all morning.  I was there on business - did not have all morning.

Anyway Terry Black's was awesome.  If Franklin's truly is the best for some reason, it would have to be completely mind blowing to beat what I had at Terry Black's.  Truly inspiring BBQ.  I got beef ribs and brisket.  It is one of the reasons why I got my KK - because I wanted to try to match or beat the beef I had at this place.  The beef ribs to me were the most amazing.  Brisket was great too.  I've done some good brisket, but I have not run across (or bothered to special order from my butcher) some big beef ribs.  Got to try that sometime.

https://www.terryblacksbbq.com/austin

Glad I got my 42, and love it, but the 32 probably is the "perfect" size.  That grill is stunning.  Not just rare that you found a used one but that's a particularly beautiful one IMO.

I gave my guy $60.  But it is because he was worried about scraping my driveway with the truck.  Then when we got the truck up the driveway we had to lift powerlines, etc onto the top of the truck.  He waited while I got a stick of wood to manipulate the power and signal lines with to get them up in the right position (and he helped me do it). Then he backed up slowly - exactly to where the truck was level without screwing anything up.  then (he only had a manual pallet jack b/c the electric one was out of commission) and with great effort got the pallet onto the lift gate, down, onto the driveway, and put it exactly where I wanted it.  Then - he sat there and waited while I unwrapped everything and looked at it - acted like he had nowhere better to be than to just be watching me inspect things.  After I was satisfied (a good 10 minutes), he then stated to me that I didn't have to tip him.  I had the male mother teresa of truck drivers.  The guy was a saint with a perfect touch.  sixty bucks seemed like nothing after spending over 10k on the 42 big badass.

I set up my kk 42 SBB with a full firebox. Wood chunks in the bottom, charcoal on top. Foil over the bottom grate (except edges). 2 drip pans underneath. So I had both foil and pans as deflector. I started out by lighting the left side of the firebox with the thermoworks billows on the right side. The grill was a perfect 225 both at grate and dome. Brisket is pictured here both raw and just before wrapping in butcher paper. I had a lot going on yesterday so I didn’t take pictures of the briskets wrapped, being unwrapped, or after slicing but, basically, this was a perfect cook. The brisket was great. Briskets went on at 4am. Wrapped at 1245pm. Raised kk temp to 255 after wrapping. Briskets came off at about 445pm. Dinner at 630. Pretty much perfect timing. The picture of the empty grill and bottom grate is to show that the charcoal burned just like I hoped it would, perfectly from left to right. I grilled some veggies on the right side before dinner.


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congrats!  it's gorgeous!

I like mine. Great recommendation.


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The destination of the meal at the table is definitely where a lot of the memories happen but the journey of the cook- I so love to geek out on that here on this forum. Thanks for sharing your learning with us.


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42 minutes ago, BOC said:

Looks good Dabble! I’d echo comments on the other chain, no need to chase the perfect temp. Internal matters most, and as long as you are within reasonable range it won’t change much for your cook (just slightly longer or faster).
 

Agreed, especially with a brisket.  The 240 temp you had when you woke up was going to be just fine - let it ride.  One thing I do find interesting on the KK is that you have ppl like stephen raichlen saying "temperature control to a single degree".  I find my big ol SBB 42 temp fluctuates.  Not as bad as my BGE, but - I have found that "a kamado is a kamado".  there's no such thing as perfect temp control without a fan/board controller contraption.  The thing is though, you don't need it for something as forgiving as pork butt or brisket.  Especially on a brisket you can safely go higher.  Numerous references here to Franklin who does his briskets at 250-275 depending on the stage of the cook.  I've always gone higher on briskets.  The time that I did 225 I was not happy with the results but it may be partially because I relied on the internal temp of the meat alone and not the feel. If a brisket isn't pliable yet, don't take it off.

2 hours ago, tony b said:

 I like to follow Franklin's technique of using pink butcher paper instead of foil - YMMV. 

Or no wrapping. 

I do find that Franklin's description of foil wrapping makes it "pot roasty" sometimes, but not every time. If you have good bark on it, then it's not terribly pot roasty a lot of the time.  I like foil because it is a true crutch.  You have a better chance of passing a perfect pull test.  You run a slight risk of over-steaming it and it just falling apart, which for my taste can be awesome.  I'm not a competition bbq'er just one that likes tasty food. 

I actually have never tried butcher paper, just foil or nothing.  looking forward to my next brisket wrapped in butcher paper. 

I also need to try pork butts in butcher paper.  Since getting my KK I have not been wrapping my pork butts at all.  I got my first batch of pork last weekend that was maybe a little less fatty/moist than I want it. but the bark (amazing and perfect)!  I want to try butcher paper after the pork butt gets a nice bark on it and then seeing if that does the trick.

On 1/22/2022 at 7:33 AM, C6Bill said:

I think he just means in the bottom of the basket, not under it

correct.

32 minutes ago, Dabble said:

Greeting from sunny Tucson Arizona,

I hope I am not being rude by breaking into this conversation.  I created this same post under beef recipes.  I thought I would get more responses by using this thread.

I have recently picked up a BB32 to replace a simple propane cabinet smoker.  This is my first post after much reading and a few cooks.  I am excited to be part of the community!

I have stoked up the billows on the KK a few times and I am still working on temp control.  I am cooking up a brisket this weekend for a birthday party.  I would love to hear the voices of experience.  I am going to fill up the basket with lump after I strategically place a few pieces of smoking wood.  I will probably use 5 or 6 pieces of mesquite.  I think I will use 2 lighting cubes to get the party started.  I have two questions:

1. Has anyone ever experimented with where you start the fire? I have been lighting the lump in the middle of the basket.  The burns have been inconsistent.  I thought about lighting the right (or left) side to allow the burn to migrate and possible increase the stability.  Or, I could be overthinking it...

2. I want to smoke the brisket at 225 +/-.  Does anybody have setting suggestions? I under stand that I only need to open the top about 1 inch.  Where are you setting the upper and lower dampers to get 225 using the BB32?

I am excited to hear back from you.  I will post the cook when I finish.

I usually cook my briskets at 275.  I did a couple of chuck roasts a few days ago at 275 with my billows.  I had my KK top vent open between 1/4 and 1/2 turn.  I had all bottom vents closed other than the billows being in the guru port.  I had the little yellow billows damper open about halfway.  I had the basket splitter set up so that charcoal was only on the right side and the food on the left.  I have a 42 not a 32. But this cook was very consistent for me.  

I light my fire with a looftlighter. I light about a baseball sized amount of charcoal.  At the point that I light the fire, I already have the smokeX2 and the billows running.  after lighting the baseball sized amount of charcoal, I close the lid and let the grill warm up to temp prior to putting the food on.  in this case I didn't wait all the way until the grate thermometer was reading 275 - it was close though and the thick white smoke had subsided letting me know we were getting nice blue smoke.  (about 30 mins or so).

The Billows kept it pegged within 5 degrees of 275 for the 3 or 4 hours these took to cook.  

One of my first cooks with my KK was brisket and if I were doing a brisket I might set up the grill the same as I did then.  I might put foil across most of the lower grate and use the full firebox just to be sure that I had enough fuel so that no reloading was necessary.

I think putting a few pieces of wood on the bottom of your firebox and then putting coal on top is a good approach. I have done this with the cook in the pictures in this post and with the pork cook above and I got plenty of smoke flavor and it was not acrid tasting in the food.

About the fire meandering around in the firebox - don't overthink it.

In a previous cook I noted that since the oxygen from the billows is going to be coming mostly on the right side of the grill, you still probably want to shade your brisket over to the left hand side of the KK when you're using the billows b/c the fire is going to tend to be closer to where the air is coming in.  I'd light a baseball sized amount of charcoal on the right center of your firebox and go ahead and have your billows going.  Put the food over to the left center of the KK 32 once the temp reaches close to your target.  Just use foil on the lower grate and a drip pan underneath your food as your deflectors.  Happy cooking.

Pork butts with mustard binder and DAS BBQ rub from a home town joint. Pork loin roasts with DAS BBQ high octane sauce with espresso infusion as binder with Jansal Valley coffee chili rub.

Both came out good.
I slightly overlooked the loins. Flavor was awesome.

This batch of pork BBQ from the shoulder butts had great bark but I think I prefer wrapping and going a little lower temp to pull than 203F. A little too much fat rendered out of this batch and wasn’t quite as moist as I usually want.

Flavor and bark were incredible though. Chewy. Bacon-y. Smelled like Heaven.












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On 1/16/2022 at 1:45 PM, DennisLinkletter said:

Remember the oil patina on the inside of your grill protects it from moisture also.. this is why I no longer suggest people try to burn their grills clean. 

I learned this with my green egg a long time ago.  If you burn it off, then the ceramics / refractory cement / whatever you've got becomes like a sponge for moisture.   With my egg in the humidity I would notice on high temp cooks that water was boiling out of my ceramics and one time there was a gas explosion out from under the paint that took a chunk of paint off.  From that point forward I quit burning the egg at high temps to burn stuff off and let that patina build up.  I no longer had any issue with excess moisture in the ceramics.  I also keep it covered.  Anyway I have commuted all of this to the KK - I will burn at high tems to cook a pizza but I will not leave it going for hours b/c if you do have moisture buildup it has to go somewhere.  Sure we have extra grout to fix venting, etc but don't force it to happen!

On 1/18/2022 at 6:02 PM, Poochie said:

everyone North of I10 is considered a Yankee around here

Dang that's a really low bar. 

What did you use to create this setup in your 42? Very interested.


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Smoked 2 chuck roasts. Did them all the way to 210 degrees before opening the kk. While finishing them in foil I began grilling. First some peppers. Potatoes wrapped in foil, brushed with olive oil, kosher salt in pouch. Grilled the burgers and 2 portobello caps. When potatoes were pliable in pouch, removed from pouch and direct grilled. Brushing with olive oil and turning often till skin was crisp. Sprinkled potatoes with kosher salt. My wife started plating before I could show all finished products together for the grilled items. Chuck roast is meat candy. Turned out awesome. It is cooling in bags now and I will vac seal it later tonight. Burgers shrooms peppers and potatoes all stellar. Cool thing about this much room in your 42 is you can warm up the dish you are bringing the food in on. I had plenty of room to just Chuck it in the grill for a couple minutes. Boy do I love my 42.

Beverage: founders porter in a frosty mug. Awesome choice for the weather we are having.











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2 chickens.  Saw the front to back split that [mention=3070]tekobo[/mention] had made for the 32 and was inspired to try a setup for the 42.  Will need to adjust the temp down a bit for future cooks- the dome was 400f, but the back half was quite a bit hotter.  The results were great- I’m looking forward to trying the setup with pork or beef. 
cheers