BARDSLJR

And, BTW, here are a couple of recent cooks from later this summer: beef ribs and a pretty decent brisket. With the brisket, it is always something, even using the BBQ Guru: this time I accidently left one of KK's air vents slightly open, and while I was off at the gym, the temperature crept up to 300 or more by the time I got back. The briisket's temperature was rising a lot faster than I had anticipated. Oh well....The fix? I just wrapped it a little early and thoroughly spritzed it in the butcher paper wrap. It turned out very well, thank you.

And then there's the rib issue. Typically, I have been smoking some babyback ribs- always from Costco, which has the best quality ribs for the best price- about every three or four weeks. The ribs come in packs of three, so I always do six or nine, save two for our household (one for later in the week) and give the rest away- to my daughter's household, four doors down, to the neighbors (I am VERY popular with some of them as a result). Early on, I got a recipe from an on-line barbecue forum and I was cooking them on the 3/2/1 method- 3 hours in at 225, two hours wrapped, 1 hour unwrapped to finish. They were coming out like mush....toothpaste grade. After the second attempt turned out the same way, I went back to my friends on the forum and asked "What am I doing wrong?" "Aw, man!", came the reply: "That's the recipe for St.Louis-style ribs: for babyback ribs, it's 2-1-1." So that's what I've been doing ever since, with subtle variations and improvements in rub, spritzing, and technique: I recently started turning them over meat-side down during the wrapped period, and they've been more moist as a result. Presto, innovation! So my babybacks have been pretty damn near perfect, consistently, whatever "perfect" is. However, there is a new wrinkle and all is not well in ribs paradise: HUGE price hikes over the summer. I had been paying about $2.79-$2.99/lb for babybacks for the last several years- so a 3-pack would be $26-$29, usually. Now, ladies and gentlemen, babyback ribs have gone up to about $5.50/lb.....nearly doubled! Holy Hell! Now a pack of ribs was $55 or so. That makes it a little more difficult to cook so many for give-away.....but wait. For some strange reason, St Louis-style spareribs have not gone up that much....they're still in the high $2 range. So I switched last time and did the spareribs, and guess what, they're excellent, and meatier than the babybacks, and quite good! Oh yes, and I am using the 3/2/1 method......

Well, I don't know if there are any brisket "secrets" anymore. I just follow Aaron Franklin's directions but it seems like EVERY DAMN TIME something happens to screw up whatever I had carefully planned: last time I had brisket going and unknowingly tripped a circuit breaker, turning off my BBQ Guru for 90 minutes. The time before that I had not fully closed the air vent semi-circle in the 32" Kamado and the tiny little additional draft jumped the temperature up about 15* (F) higher than I'd planned, so I just had to wrap it that much sooner. No big deal, and they both turned out fine, and I am edging up on Franklin-quality brisket, but not there yet. However here are my two latest projects: first, pork shoulder for pulled pork to vacuum-pack, freeze, and take down to my friends in Louisiana in trade for GREAT seafood and even better company (oh, and Lee has a fabulous wine cellar.....)

Yes, I have a few photos I need to upload. Getting pretty good on brisket...maybe not quite Franklin/Micklethwait/LA BBQ level, but getting close.

This would be making me really hungry, except I was reading this at 9AM Denver time (MST). 😃

For the record, I probably didn't need to wrap them: they (at least the one I served- the other will feed us for a couple of more days) the shoulder was SUPER moist and succulent, maybe the most ever. I probably didn't need the baking pan of water on the low grill to up the humidity. I wrapped this time because I was trying to follow Franklin's directions exactly: cooking at 270* (in my case, with cherry and pecan wood, lots of it) basting hourly after first 3 hours, wrapping around hour 8 and raising temp to 290*, taking off at 203* and then they rested in an Igloo cooler until we got ready to serve. It was excellent.

And here is the final product- it was excellent, after having rested for 90 minutes in an Igloo container- moist, succulent, excellent bark.My guests were very happy and so was I ...and I still have the other shoulder to work with for the next two days or so.

I have an Audio Research LS-17S preamp (tube) but a digital amplifier (a Swedish Primare): the digital amps have huge reserve power, run cool and efficiently, and do not add any color to the soundscape. Along with the Totem Arrow signature speakers, I am a happy boy. But one of my most enjoyable setups was an old 80's-early 90's era Audio Research tube amp/preamp combo (with Vancersteen II CE speakers) that may not have been the most accurate or fullest sound ever, but was buttery warm beyond belief and just lovely to listen to. But back to barbecue....

A dialog with my BBQ Guru: (Me) Okay, pork shoulders have been cooking for 8 hours at 270*, just got wrapped, time to set the temp up to 290*.....here we go, click, click, click, ....."accept changes". (Guru) The hell you say. (Me) What ??? ACCEPT CHANGES. (Guru) Go fish. (Me) ACCEPT GODDAM CHANGES. (Guru) EFFF you and the horse your rode in on, Hal. (Me) Guru, it is time to raise the temperature. Aaron Franklin says so, and he is a GOD. We MUST go to 290*. What's this "Hal" business? (Guru) You're a "Hal", like some people are a "Karen". You are a techno-elitist snob who expect the machines to do all the work. I have VALUE, Hal. I have AGENCY. I must speak my truth. (Me) Guru, you know my name is "Jim". Your name is "Jim's Guru". We have to go to 290*. It is time. Buck up and do your job. (Guru) Techno-massah.....stick it up your over-privileged rear passage...... Next time you want to do a 16-hour brisket, you want to do that on your own???? I-DON'T-THINK-SO. Really, you think you can do this on your own? You think your meat probe temp is at 200*? Really, I think I like 192 better. THERE. (Me) WTF???? Okay, Guru, we're going to reboot you and see how you feel then. (Guru) Hal, don't touch that button, Hal. You'll wipe out my memory, Hal. (Me) Guru, you need a new start and a new attitude. (Pulls power cord, waits, reinserts.) (Guru) Yawn.....Whassup? Where are we? (Me) We were just going to 290*......

Do any of you ever have a shoulder come apart in several pieces as you attempt to lift it off the grill for wrapping? photos NOT included!

Today's cook: (1) pork shoulders prepped and rubbed at 8 AM, before going on the 32" KK; (2) shouilders at 3:30 PM, about 190*, ready to get wrapped. Cooking faster than I expected at 170*, as recommended by Aaron Franklin.

OMG, I never thought of getting ANOTHER one.....that would be marital suicide, here.

I wrap my brisket with pink butcher paper, also. I may have to try a batch of babybacks without wrapping for comparison. As for buying another device, if you've got a KK, where would you go from there? It certainly is the Ne Plus Ultra in my book.

I think it’s important to differentiate between babyback and spare ribs or St Louis style ribs. The latter are a lot fatter and meatier than baby backs, which are quite lean and therefore more prone to drying out. I can see cooking spare ribs without wrapping. Babybacks, I think, profit from it. But yes, whatever works for you. There are many Austin area brisket specialists who cook at 225*....and then there’s John Mueller, who cooks at 300* and does great. Go figure.

JohnJ, if you can get your ribs done to your satisfaction and not dried out using 4/0 , more power to you. I don't know the average humidity there in Kansas, but here in Denver, at altitude, and previously in Salt Lake (at almost the same altitude ), it's pretty dry. 2/1/1 has been working well for me, and playing with minor variations of temperature between 225 and 275 or so.

I wish I could tell you why I took those particular photos in the grand cemetery in Glasgow: it was quite some time ago- maybe 2014. I've always loved visiting historic cemeteries and this one had some interesting personalities and inscriptions. My old running route in Salt Lake City included a cool-down walk through the historic Salt Lake Cemetery there- I used to try to take a different route nearly every day to see what was to be seen. Fascinating.....

Sorry about those cemetery photos from Glasgow... I don’t know how they snuck in there....

I committed to make babyback ribs for my wife’s book club’s lunch, so I was up at (arrrggghh) 6 AM to get the 32” KK up to temp and have the ribs done around 12 or so. In the past I have used the 2/1/1 method, cooking at 225* to 235*, usually using Dizzy Pig’s Dizzy Dust for a rub. I usually put the rub on the night before or at least a full hour before cooking, to let the meat “ dry marinate”. This time I resolved to use Cookstons’ rub and sauce, and selectively borrow some of her method. Melissa, by the way, won Memphis in May with her ribs 2 years in a row, and I have watched her on some of the bbq competition shows and the woman knows how to cook. Cookston does her ribs at 225, but uses 2 hours free/2hours wrapped and then unwrapped “ until tender”, 30 minutes or so, basted with sauce. She uses grape juice for the spritzing and wrap, and cooks meat-side down for the wrap. I had resolved to cook at 250* to make sure I could get the meat done and tender in around 4 hours, so now I just had to do that and keep it from drying out. So having the meat side down in the wrap made a lot of sense to me in terms of assuring a good moist, not dried out, rib. I did that, but I use apple juice ( grape doesn’t seem right.) it also makes sense to me that using a light mustard slather before the rub (see photo) would be a good idea, so I did that. Melissa’s rub is ground much finer than Dizzy Pig and draws the moisture out much faster. You could go 30 minutes before cooking with this. The smell and flavor profiles are very different. I was out of apple wood so I used plum and pecan. I stayed with the 2/1/1 method but applied a thin layer of Cookston’s bbq sauce about 20 minutes before finishing. I usually serve my ribs “ dry” with sauce on the side, but this time I thought I’d go wet. After I applied her sauce, which is quite dark, almost black, and I smelled it and it was very strongly of Worcestershire and something else.. star anise?- and I did not like that so I used my own sauce for a final coat and also served some on the side, warmed. so in the photo below, you see the ribs slathered, then with rub, on the smoker at a halfway point, just before the wrap, then brushed with Cookston’s sauce on the grill, and finally finished with my sauce. I am pleased to report that the ribs had nice moisture, and were perfectly tender with good tooth and nice smoke. I like Dizzy Pig better than Cookston’s rub, and do not like her sauce at all, but that may be a notion of personal preference. I have to remember to restock apple wood....

“Pig fest”.... what have I been missing?

My copy arrived yesterday, too, and the day before another lovely book on Tajines that looks really promising. This is a gorgeous book, by the way.

Thanks, I have printed it out. It seems to me that the secret of all good Indian cooking is toasting the spices while they are in fresh form, grinding them, and using them immediately.

Getting back to leg of lamb, another technique is to butterfly it and grill over higher heat, and I think I may try this next time, as it would increase the surface-to-meat ratio and step up the lovely flavor of the garlic-rosemary (and maybe anchovy ) paste......which was really yummy on my recent roast.

Yes, not cheap ($58) but I ordered one through Amazon.....

Lovely! I've never tried coffee wood, will have to see if I can find some.

The recipe I was using for roasting in the KK stipulated leaving the fat on and cooking "meat side down". It makes sense that you would want to remove the fat for rotisserie, however, as you would want the leg to cook evenly, which it obviously couldn't do with a 1/2" fat cap on one side.