BARDSLJR

GORGEOUS! Nice work, friend!

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And the cook begins......if the meat looks brown, it is because of the Dizzy Pig Red Eye Express (barbecue rub seasoning with coffee) rub. Updates to follow in real time.

I thought it was somebody's name, but this is certainly a good one.

Guys and gals....

I am trying to track down a barbecue wood supplier I used in the past- very good delivery service, really high quality wood chunks- apple, maple, cherry, of course, the usual, but also orange, peach, etc. Was not inexpensive but really high quality. Does anyone know this supplier? It's been seven or so years since I used them and I am having trouble bringing them up on the usual Google search.

Thanks, Jim in Denver

I have to correct the record. I was trying to use up odds and ends of my DizzyPig rubs, and I said I used half Dizzy Dust and half Jamaican Firewalk. Sorry, it was "Crossroads"- their "classic barbecue" and "Swamp Venom", one of their hotter rubs, made with cayenne, cumin, sage, african bird pepper, and more. I thought it worked great on the babyback ribs- added a little bit of extra kick that complemented the applewood smoke and natural sweetness of the pork perfectly.

Tony, Interesting that you brought up the "jerk" seasoning...I had to look it up on the DizzyPig website, and yes, they do characterize it as "jerk style seasoning". I have great respect for Chris and his talent at putting together rubs and spice mixes, but I am used to using Budda Browne's Jerk Seasoning when I do try to do jerk, and I don't think they are at all similar. I still like the Firewalk a lot as a spice blend, but I wouldn't think of it as "jerk".

Tony B, no problem with the hard, level surface. I did a big batch of babyback ribs yesterday, specifically to pay attention to the ramping up of the heat and keeping the heat low, around 225*. The ramping up went quite slow as I did not want to, again, overshoot the goal and then be unable to effectively bring the KK down to the desired temperature. So if anything, the ribs were relatively under-cooked for the first hour.

I also decided to experiment with just straightforward cooking for four hours, instead of using the 2/1/1 method. So while the ribs finished around 225-240*, they were cooking at a lower heat initially. In the first photo, the ribs are covered with the rub and ready to go in the smoker. I forgot to take "after" pictures until they were already plated, but you can see the two angles that the ribs were nicely cooked. I do think that the 2/1/1 method produces slightly more moist and tender than a straight four-hour cook as you see on the plate. However, they were not dry and not tough- good "tooth" feel.

One thing I did nearly by accident was a VERY good rub application: I was using my favorite Dizzy Pig rubs and I had about 1/4 of a bottle of of Jamaican Firewalk that needed to be used up- I mixed that 50/50 some Dizzy Dust. AS you can well imagine, the Firewalk has a significant presence of scotch bonnet (habanero) pepper. It really popped up the flavor of the ribs and married beautifully with the smoke and sweet pork. HIGHLY recommended. (We had some potato salad and coleslaw left over from the weekend...it was an easy and delicious meal.)

I kept it really low heat today, somehow. I think the trick is to start really low and keep it tamped down so it never gets over 250.

Is this a 32" KK? I am interested that you say you can "dial it down real quick"....that is not my experience. My sense, at least so far, is that the KK is SO well constructed and insulated`that it is challenging to get it to drop temperature. However, I am doing a load of babyback ribs (9) today so I will pay attention to the method you've described. Babybacks take only 4 hours so with less fuel in the basket, maybe it will be a little easier to control. I am trying for as close to 225* (F) as I can get it.

Hard to tell, because it is Denver, but I don't think so.

Possibly, but it was already up there before I mopped for the first time. This has been happening to me consistently- I think I have it operating between 225-250 and I go away for 1.5-2 hours and it is up closer to 300, and then, as you know, because the KK is SO well insulated, very difficult to get it down. It is, I think, a technique issue that I need to solve. David had told me to just fire up a softball-sized portion of the charcoal to start with, and I have done that. I think I maybe I need to tamp down the air flow much earlier than I had previously thought.

The Morning After: Follow-up.

Below is the snapshot of the largest of the racks as we separated the fatty portions (mostly) from the good beef and chopped it coarsely for serving. The consensus was that the plate rib meat was very similar to fatty point brisket- maybe even moister and fatter. I sent one of the other racks home with my daughter's family, and stripped the meat off the third one to package and refrigerate it for future use. There was not a lot of usable meat on the third rack.

In comparing this plate rib to the beef chuck ribs we had been doing (recommended by my great local butchers at Oliver's as having "more meat and better flavor" than plate ribs, we reached another consensus: Jimmy and Richard at Oliver's were right, and the chuck ribs are our preferred beef rib for the future. (Photo included). The chuck ribs were almost all usable meat, and had a very similar super-beefy flavor, and a texture similar to brisket.

I finally found a purveyor who could supply beef plate ribs, so I thought we'd give them a shot. These are like what I remember from our last visits to Austin- the beef ribs in Lockhart and in Austin at LA Barbecue were GIGANTIC. Until now, I've only been able to procure beef chuck ribs, and they had excellent flavor and texture. So we'll see if these brontosaurus-sized beef plate ribs are as good. I will report after dinner, starting in the next hour or so. I put them on around 9 AM at 220F- as usual, the temperatures gradually crept up to 280-300 range (does anyone else have problems with temperature creep in their 32" KK's? If I have to cook something that really requires 225, I don't know what I'll do. It seems like it just wants to go to 300*, even when I have it almost entirely tamped down in terms of air flow.) Scott's "BBQ" sauce- really an  Eastern Carolina vinegar/pepper sauce was used to mop the ribs about every 90 minutes from 1 to 4:30PM. Two photos of the final product- with and without Scott's basting sauce. 

I'll report on results, flavor-wise, later. -Jim in Denver

We lived in Salt Lake City for 16 years before moving here to Denver to retire and be closer to family (grandchildren and their parents). We loved Salt Lake- it is an easy place to live and it is beautiful there, but Denver, as they say "does not suck", overall. Traffic is more of a challenge here, but on the other hand, it is a much larger environment and marketplace, and you can find anything here if you are willing to put in the work and look for it. It says something that the two top-rated cities in the US in the polls for desirability are (1) Austin ( it must be the barbecue!) and Denver (barbecue is getting much better here!).

I hope to visit your part of the world at some point when travel is reasonable again.

Thanks- I will send pictures of the leftover project tonight.

Thanks! The leftovers are gong to make wonderful pork enchiladas tonight!

I should have mentioned smoked with cherry wood.

We had a really excellent pulled pork dinner for Father's Day Sunday (thank you, Dennis and Komodo-Kamado!) I had a two-pack shoulder/butt from Costco and prepared them very simply: photos show the raw butt, then slathered lightly with yellow mustard; rub was applied, a mixture of about 1/2 Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust, with some coarse sea salt and restaurant grind pepper  added; the butts went into the smoker at about 280* and cooked for about 9 hours at 280-300 before coming off at 6:30 PM, being wrapped in aluminum foil and resting for an hour before being pulled and chopped for serving. The final two pictures were taken about 90 minutes before completion. The bark got several shades darker in the last hour or so...really lovely spicy, salty, smoky crust contrasting with wonderfully moist, sweet meat. The whole family was commenting that this maybe the best pulled pork, ever.  Served with my own barbecue sauce (not needed!), corn on the cob, cole slaw, buns, baked beans, and guacamole and chips. Pleasing adult beverages accompanied for the pleased adults....

Yes, these were Costco "organic" black beans....I hadn't thought of using rum, but that would give it an interesting sweet/umami substrate. Contrast well with smoky and hot flavors from the barbecue. Great idea, thanks!

Maybe I get it from my years growing up in Miami, and all the Cuban guys in my seminary class, but I've always thought black beans had a great flavor.

Kind of a riff on red beans and rice (my wife is from Louisiana and we lived there for about 15 years), substituting black beans for red and leftover barbecue for sausage. It doesn't have to be expensive to be really good eating.

I was really pleased. They are not cheap- the three racks in the photo were probably $90 at the butcher's (Oliver's, a local treasure in Denver on 6th Ave)- but the results were worth it. My three grandchildren ages 13 (twins) and 10, thought they were so good that they came over after dinner last night to tell us how much they liked them and visit with us for a bit. Always a treat.....

As an aside, we used some of the leftover scraps of beef ribs and some leftover week-old pork ribs , chopped up, added to a couple of cans of high quality black beans, and served over rice. It was magnificent...... Recipe:

Take leftover smoked meat...could be any kind- pork, beef, lamb, chicken...

Saute' 1/2 chopped large onion, several pods of garlic (use your own discretion....) until translucent.

Add two (12oz) cans high quality black beans

Add any scraps of smoked meat you have left around

Add one 12 oz can chopped tomatoes

Warm over low heat for about two hours

Remove from heat and season ....seasoning  could include cumin, fresh lime juice, cayenne pepper, etc.

Serve over good rice (Zataraine's for me) and season with some hot sauce (Crystal, Louisiana or Texas Pete's or whatever is your favorite. )

Get ready for some really good eating, costing almost nothing.

Brisket-on-stick......we had a pretty fabulous dinner last night. My daughter and her family will get the bigger rack for dinner tonight.

And here we are about halfway, at 3.5 hours and 170 degrees, on our way to 203*.

First two photos- meat at start, after trimming some of the hard fat off; and same cuts, seasoned with coarse salt and pepper. More to come.