BARDSLJR

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.

Thanks, I printed it out and I will remember about the garlic (garlic is your friend.)

I know this boneless leg of lamb I got from Costco is an Australian lamb, but sorry, they don't indicate the breed. The lamb, as usual, turned out to be fabulous- nearly every time I do this, I end up saying the same thing: Why don't we lamb more often? Of course, it was a six pound piece of meat, so now I will be soliciting favorite recipes for leftover or reheated lamb roast, as we probably have enough for four more nights. Hmmmmmm. Curried lamb, lamb hash.... BTW, it turned out great- very simple recipe to make a paste with fresh garlic and rosemary rubbed all over the roast and cooked in 32" KK at about 350* for 2-plus hours, flavored with cherry and apple wood. I will look for the Don Bocarte anchovies. The meat turned out great: the pita bread, not so much- I should have read the instructions and heated on the grill for two or three minutes (looking for a little change of color). If I had READ THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS, I would have seen they recommend very light heating for 30 seconds. So the pita that I hoped to use came out over-cooked and hard, with no discernable pockets, and we had to serve the meat and grilled peppers on top of it. Also, My daughter offered some commercial tsazki (SP?) mix which we used with the yogurt, and we would have been better off with just a little fresh mint (which I could not find this time of year). But I am reminded again how much we really, really like lamb. Thank you Australia...Happy Easter and Happy Spring, everyone!

Alas, just last night put the last three anchovy fillets left over from the caesar dressing I made from scratch the week before in my wife's Chef's Salad. Not the sort of thing I keep around on hand, although I should, at least as a paste. Did manage to make a paste with one whole bulb of very fresh garlic, a lot of fresh rosemary, and a little olive oil. The results shown in attached photo. Leg of lamb is on the grill. Results in about 2 hours, eta, more or less.

Well, boys and girls, I scored a 6.5 lb boneless leg of lamb yesterday at Costco, and I plan on cooking it tomorrow on my 32" KK. Haven't been through ALL my BBQ cookbooks yet, but so far, Franklin doesn't have anything to say about lamb. I am going to have to find Meathead Godwyn....in the meanwhile, I am sure some of you, especially my Aussie colleagues, have some tips and recommendations for doing a nice leg of lamb?

Not to put too fine a point on it ( and THANK YOU , DENNIS, for clarifying) but maybe the proper perspective is that Kanye, a miserable human being by all accounts, and Kim, maybe they have some redeeming qualities?

Tony, Jeff- great suggestions. I will try that. I had not thought of clipping the temperature probe to the meat probe. Tucker, your suggestion would work if I using just one heat deflecting pan in the center of the KK, but I used two smaller ones directly under each butt with about a 3" gap between them in the center, for-presumably- better smoke circulation. Of note to all- there is also a somewhat significant temperature differential left-right on KK as you can see from the photo. I put the smaller butt on the left and the larger on the right, and was surprised when the smaller required an additional 15-20 minutes over the larger one to reach 203*.

And today's cook: first, the two pork shoulders, dry marinated overnight with Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust. Second, Happy 32" KK, ramping up.... and lastly, four hours in and looking good.

I don't (trust the Guru temp probe). The KK is always in the same place and always measuring the temperature the same way, so it is going to be my standard. RIght now at this moment (I am in the last two hours of the cook, when you want to raise the cooking temp on the now-wrapped shoulders- to 300*. The KK temp probe is reading right at 300. The Guru probe, which is lying on top of the grill next to the meat, shielded from direct heat, is reading 360*. I am okay with that. The shoulder has just started out of the stall in the last hour and is now steadily climbing towards 203*. I've also ordered a higher end, supposedly more accurate and large face (3") oven thermometer which I will use as a reference point in the future.

I set up my 32" KK with two 8x12" disposable baking pans filled with water, on the first grate above the charcoal and wood, placed close to the center and about 3" apart. I used to use a larger single 18x12" water/drip pan, but I thought- and this is highly theoretical- that for purposes of good smoke turbulence throughout the cooking area where the meat is, I was better served to have a space between the two drip pans which also serve as heat diffusers, to allow some of the smoke and heat to come up directly from the center of the pit and some come up around the outside of the diffusing pans. Consequently, I get very different temp readings as I move the probe around from the far perimeter, the area directly over the diffusing water pans (and immediately next to the meat) or to the dead center of the smoker, over direct heat. And all these readings differ from the Kamado's temp sensor. By the way, I had 72" Lang hybrid before this- half for traditional smoking and roast and half for direct charcoal grilling. In retrospect, I wish I had just gotten a 72" all devoted to smoking/roasting- I think it would have had better air movement and been better for smoking and flavor. The false floor of the Lang design and reverse air flow works well, though, to eliminate obvious hot/cold spots in the working area of the smoker- very clever design and the construction quality was excellent. The reason I traded it out for the KK was a simple matter of labor and versatility. With the Lang, and I presume any other traditional offset firebox-style smoker, I think you are constantly adjusting fuel and airflow to try to maintain a near-constant temp. A good long 14 or 16 hour brisket cook is long, drawn-out chore- you really can't be away from the smoker for more than a maximum of 20 minutes or so. With KK, however, I can check about once an hour and the temp is very, very likely to be exactly what it was last hour, or so close it doesn't matter. AND I can ramp this sucker up to 800* or more to do high temp cooking, or use it for direct heat roasting and searing (like for steaks.) I really, really like my KK, especially now that I have learned a few tricks about ramping up and maintaining level temperatures. (And it is, objectively, a lot prettier than the Lang.....)

Folks, I am troubled of mind: the BBQ Guru- where to place the temperature sensor? Okay, for all intents and purposes, the BBQ Guru works pretty well and is a game-changer- excepting, of course, the buggy software, which regular drops its bluetooth connection with my phone, or the control screen goes blank and I have to reboot the entire Iphone to get it back- but that's not today's topic. The BBQ Guru works great- a temperature probe sense the heat in the cooking chamber, the control unit pulses the fan off and on to maintain a relatively constant temperature (the real miracle of the BBQ Guru) ....but what IS that temperature? As I was ramping up the 32" KK this morning, I was noticing the difference- at points huge - between what the KK thermometer was reading and what the temperature probe was showing: and, moreover, it differed really, really widely depending on where I placed the probe. Center of the grill?- 280. Over by the side, near the handles of the grill top- 150. Towards the center, rear, 190. And so on and so on...So I am watching the temperature, trying to get it close to stablizing on 275 for my pork shoulder, as Franklin recommends, but what is "275*??? Is it the Kamado thermometer? The Guru probe in the middle? Or over by the side? Or in the center? I have resolved to go with the Kamado reading for consistency, and regulate the temperature relative to whatever the Guru reading says it is. So my KK reading right now is right around 270*, and the Guru is reading 228* and keeping it there. Happily, pork shoulder is a very forgiving piece of meat and I can probably cook it anywhere between 230 and 330 and be just fine. What do y'all do? If I were running one of those 1,000 gallon, 2-foot-long propane-tank offset smoker there would be some temperature variation closer to the heat source and at the far end of the smoker, but it would be relatively consistent across the middle 15 feet or so, and maybe a little cooler at the far end. But the KK has significant variation in temperature from over the heat source to the sides: so ultimately, I've decided that the KK thermometer will be my benchmark for establishing "275*" and the Guru will be my controller and I will use it to reach a given temp, and maintain it, but I won't rely on it.

A word of follow up....I made nachos with the leftovers and the beautifully smoked pork shoulder pushed it right over the edge: I think I had a multiple orgasm of the mouth (can I say that?). The woods involved were 50% apple, 25% each cherry and plum. The BBQ guru was very slow in ramping up to the temp I set- 275*- so after I wrapped the two shoulders at 3 PM (they went on at 8AM), I raised the temperature to 300* and corrected the earlier mistake I had made- the damper on the fan was set at about 50% and was essentially choking it off so it couldn't ramp up the KK faster. My bad. Anyway, you always have adjustments you can make: if a shoulder or brisket is wrapped, it is not likely to dry out just because you raise the temp.

I should have gotten a picture of he whole shoulder BEFORE I cut it up, but I'll get one of the second shoulder when I unwrap it tomorrow, instead. In the meantime, here's dinner for seven- AFTER we ate. So dinner, and lunch, and dinner, and maybe two or three other meals to come. Oh, and it turned out delicious and nearly perfect.....a good day (except for the Saints' game.)

Wrapped the two shoulders at around 3 and am now, at 3:30 up in the 190s for both, so we are well on our way to probably coming off around 5-5:30. Here's one of the shoulders just as I took off for wrapping.

HMMMMM. 10:45AM, about 3 hours in. The Kamado temperature probe read about 250*. The BBQ Guru says "215*"......it's still ramping up. What gives?