BARDSLJR

I believe the FireBoard is weather-proof, too, according to the box instructions. I don't know about the Guru.

Fort Worth Light (it was hugely popular on the CASI circuit, Top Hat were go-to's for me. Also Acme and El Rey and Chimayo.

Tyrus, most Texans and most CASI (competitive) chili cooks would say that chili with anything but meat (in other words, no beans) in it is not really "chili". It might be something, and it might be something good to eat, but it is not really "chili". Chili is meat, spices, broth or water, and maybe some tomato sauce or paste. No beans. And if it is made with chicken or turkey or beans/vegetables, it is not "chili". Not that the others can't be good to eat, no one is saying that. Tony, you're right, Penzey's also has generally very high quality spices. Pendery's my go-to, though. For a commercial chili blend, I still think Gebhardt's, a very old brand, is the best.

You're so right. The thing I like best about the Fireboard - besides it works better for me than the Guru did- is that it connects through the internet and is accessible on your phone app from practically anywhere. The Guru, as I remember, is bluetooth with limited range. Cooking an entire brisket to make your chili? Wow, you are hard-core. Love to hear your chili recipe: I used to compete in the chilli cookoffs in Texas and Louisiana in the late 80's- early 90s. Pendery's in Fort Worth was my go-to for high quality spices and pure ground roast chile's.

PS, If you give me your contact info, I will be happy to send you my now unused BBQ Guru, if you want it.

Brett, I had all kinds of issues with my BBQ Guru, switched to a Fireboard, and I have been very happy with it, FWIW. Also, it uploads your data through the Cloud, so you can access from anywhere as you go through your daily grind. With my BBQ Guru, I had to be within range of my house. Just my experience, FWIW.

Well, I am pleased to report that it came out REALLY well. (My two neighbors who got 1/3rd each think so, too.) Photos attached. It cooked for a total of 9 hours, 40 minutes, most of that at 250 until the last 2 1/2 hours, when I built an aluminum foil "boat" underneath it and left the top open- I got this idea from a recent article in Texas Monthly Magazine by Daniel Vaughn. It worked pretty well. I raised the temp to 275 and later to 295 for the last hour. It all came out pretty great. Used a heavy rub of coarse sea salt and coarse pepper and a lighter coating of Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust. The result was a nice, crunchy, salty, peppery bark.

Costco FINALLY, after a several months' absence, got a few Prime briskets back in, so I grabbed one and am doing it today (photo of brisket, trimmed and rubbed). As an additional positive note, this one started out as 13.9 lbs- the ones I had been getting last spring were mammoth, like 18-19lbs, and took forever to cook. I trimmed it last night and took a little more than 3 lbs of mostly hard fat off it, so we are now somewhere in the 10-lb range. Ironically, we just had brisket Monday night, a Christmas gift from a friend, sent from Perrini Ranch: at the ranch, they do their briskets old-school, over an open pit, with coals from mesquite logs shoveled under the briskets, like in Lockhart. I think I prefer the Austin-style, using indirect heat with the hot air current passing over the brisket and infusing smoke, but the Perrini Ranch product was VERY good- nice mesquite smoke, heavy black pepper, EXCELLENT quality meat: though a little firmer and maybe drier than the Austin style? In any case, we just finished having brisket on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (main course, on salad, as tacos, in that order), so my daughter's family can be excused for declining this brisket, and two of my neighbors on the block will be the beneficiaries/ test audience. We achieved 250* around 8AM, so I project it will come off somewhere around 4-5PM tonight. Updates to follow.

Agree on the Thermoworks probe- quite stoutly built. BTW, I had a BBQ Guru and after numerous fails with it, switched to the Fireboard and it has worked flawlessly. Really happy with this.

Actually,this makes a lot of sense. The flat is a pretty lean cut- and this one was "choice" as Costco doesn't seem to be offering "prime" brisket right now. I was happy with the overall flavor, but it could have been a bit more moist, and I did everything I could do to enhance moisture-butcher paper wrap, watched temperature,etc.

And here's the final results: I didn’t want to do a whole 15-lb brisket because that would mean me starting it at midnight, going to bed and worrying about monitoring the temperature overnight (because something can ALWAYS go wrong if you are not watching it). With the 6lb flat, it was only the lean portion of the brisket, but I started it about 10AM and took it off at 6:30, rested it for an hour, and then sliced it. (Photos). It actually turned out pretty well: nicely moist, not dried out, and good flavor. I had rubbed it with Lawry’s Seasoning Salt and coarse ground pepper. The bark did not turn out quite as I had hoped- I think it was the Lawry’s- will experiment next time with just plain old coarse sea salt and pepper. I didn’t have any post oak and since I wanted a stronger smoke, so I used mesquite, and that part turned out quite well. The sliced meat looks a little grayish in this photo, and I attribute that to this particular flat- it was choice grade, as Costco didn’t have any prime out in the cooler. In any case, it was perfectly tender and moist- I took it off to rest it (1 hour, wrapped and tented) when the temp probe showed 200*, and I think allowing for measurement error, it was just right. We sliced it like a London Broil and ate it with homemade mashed potatoes and vegetables- yum.

And here is the brisket flat when I took it off for wrapping. I'd have preferred a bit thicker bark (I used Lawry's Seasoning Salt and coarse ground pepper for the rub) but at this point at least it is nicely moist and smells amazing. Stay tuned for the final version within the hour.

Okay, guys (and ladies) I have cooked LOTS of full brisket, and I think I am just about getting the hang of it. However, I have never done just a flat alone, and today I brought home a nice 6-lb flat (choice) from Costco, because my sister-in-law, our guest, has requested brisket, and I did not want to have to start it at midnight or 3 AM. Usually, a 15=lb full brisket takes me between 15-18 hours, following Franklin's recipe and approach. So should I assume that a 6-lb flat should take 6-7 hours or so? 8" My guess is this does not scale exactly. 255-265* (F) sound about right? Tips, suggestions.....? Thanks, y'all,on a beautiful Fall day here in Denver......

It was, as you can see, a pretty busy weekend on the KK, doing babyback ribs first for a few other couples we had over Saturday night, and then pork shoulder for pulled pork on Sunday, because my wife found the pork shoulder for $5 off when she went to Costco to procure the ribs. I am pleased to report that all went as planned,and the ribs and pulled pork were pretty great. (Apple wood for both....) Even better than the $5 off....babyback ribs are back down to pre-"supply-chain-hell" levels: $2.99/lb. (Thank God!) I was back in Costco yesterday and checked to make sure this was not some kind of discounted clearance price.....it wasn't. It looks like we are incrementing back towards sanity. (Gas prices are way down, too......it's all good.)

CONGRATULATIONS from sunny Denver, Colorado, USA. I have a 32", also- copper/bronze. You are going to have a great time cooking with it. It is unbelievably efficient and versatile. A tip I learned from Dennis (the owner of Komodo-Kamado): when you have your charcoal and wood in the fuel basket, start by lighting up a tennis-ball sized area in the middle and open up the upper vent just a quarter to half a turn. Let it ramp up gradually and then adjust with the vents to level off before it reaches your desired temp. The KK is VERY efficient and if you start out with too much of the charcoal lit up, you can overshoot your desired temperature and then it is VERY difficult to get it down again....as I said, the KK is very, very efficient. It will be difficult to resist the temptation to cook with it right away, but you might want want to try a test burn or two to get familiar with it before you actually use it. Good cooking and good luck!

GROAN.......

Regrettably, Johnny Harris's closed some years back, and this recipe is close, but not exact. For store-bought sauce, I think Stubb's Original is just about the best on the shelf (their Sweet version is great on chicken), but there are thousands . You might want to go on-line on the Trader Joe's website and see if you can recognize any of the sauces there as the one you are looking for.

Developed this sauce recipe trying to get as close as possible to Johnny Harris's (Savannah) barbecue sauce. It isn't QUITE there, but it is in the ballpark: Johnny Harris- Style Barbecue Sauce 2 tbsp chili powder 2 tbsp fine ground black pepper 2 tsp white sugar ½ tsp salt 4 cups catsup 1 cup yellow mustard 1/4th cup Worcestershire sauce 1/2 cup real cider vinegar (may experiment with other vinegars, like champagne vinegar or sherry vinegar) ¼ to ½ cup packed brown sugar (prefer dark) (May substitute honey, and add dark molasses. Should be to your taste. 2 tbsp butter 3 Tbsps fresh lemon juice Directions: Combine catsup in mustard in large pot. Warm on low heat. Stir in all ingredients except butter and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Cook on low and stir frequently until well blended- 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool for 15 minutes. Add butter, stir until thoroughly blended. Add lemon juice to taste. Best if heated before using. Do not boil. This is the base recipe, and it is good for all meats- beef, chicken, pork, etc. I also usually use both honey and dark molasses (as above) for the sweetener. Taste at the end and add more honey or sugar or salt if needed. You could add cayenne pepper or hot sauce if you wanted it hotter- most of the heat in the recipe comes from the black pepper. I have also added several shots of espresso sometimes; tried dark chocolate once to good result; tried adding (separately orange marmalade or raspberry jam to give it a more fruit base.) You can also experiment using different vinegars (like champagne or Spanish sherry), but this is usually a lot more expensive for very subtle difference. You could also try adding a little cinnamon, Chinese five-spice, or both (not more than a teaspoon.) In my last patch, I doubled the recipe, added one tablespoon each ground ginger and five-spice.

Poochie, we've never not had both spare ribs and babybacks at our Denver Costco's. I was getting the spare ribs for a while when the price on the babybacks got up so high ($4.69!!!) but now they are down to $3.79 or so and the spare ribs are the same (first time I have seen them priced the same.) I quite liked the spare ribs as well- quite a bit more meat on the bone. BTW, the babaybacks came out nearly perfect, and the country-style ribs were FABULOUS- with so much surface area for the rub and smoke, they were like a cross between the best smoked pork chop ever and burnt ends. I took some of the smaller crispier pieces and dipped them into a new batch of my barbecue sauce (see separate post) and it was eys-roll-back-in-you-head-and-see-God level good. I wish I had taken pics to post. I cooked both the babybacks and the country-style ribs at 225-235* for four hours, used apple wood for the smoke.

But I bet your Australian Costco lamb is better than ours.....'cause ours comes from Australia.....

But I bet your Australian Costco lamb is better than ours.....'cause ours comes from Australia.....

Many thanks, and sorry, I did not know Costco's reign extended beyond our shores.

Folks, Came home from Costco ( Australian friends: "Costco"is a GIANT grocery cooperative with massive purchasing and distribution power, which typically sells items at only a percentage point or two above cost. They also have excellent-by and large- meat, and good wine/ liquor deals in the municipalities that allow them to sell liquor.) with two three-packs of babyback ribs (am happy to report the price is down by $.80, to $3.69/lb or so) and a massive package of country-style pork ribs. I plan on cooking the latter tomorrow with the babybacks, in the 225-250* (F) range. Question: what would be an optimal temp for " done"? 200-205* like a pork butt? Would you bother to wrap them? Any suggestions for cooking method of these pretty mammoth slabs of pork?

Syzgies, all three probes- the KK analog and the two Fireboard, were all in the same close area in the dome. No grate measurement.

So yesterday I added a second temperature probe, this one one of the Fireboard food probes, looping the cord around the KK temp dial bracket inside the dome, so I now had three different probes, with their working ends all within 1" of each other. (Sorry, got the two photos mixed up- the previous one is of the three probes, the one below is of the two), and I put some fuel in the KK, fired it up, and set the Fireboard controller to 250*. And as you see, now all three temperature gauges are reading pretty close, with ten degrees, to one another, though the original Fireboard probe that I had problems with Wednesday is still reading a bit lower than the other two. So long as they are all dependably close, and so long as the Fireboard is controlling the heat within a narrow range, I am okay. BTW, to answer a couple of the previoous questions, (1) I got the air leak under control, and the problem Wednesday was not out-of-control temps, but rather, a misleading temp reading from the Fireboard. second, no I don't use a food probe when I am doing ribs. For pork shoulder or brisket, yes. For now, the problem would appear to be solved, but since I have the third probe already wired up in there, I think I will keep it there for a while as a security check.