BARDSLJR

So, the adventure begins, or rather, began at 7:30 AM. Two photos: one, the briskets out of the refrigerator, ready for cooking, after being heavily rubbed with Dizzy Pig's Dizzy Dust the night before and left in the fridge to self-marinate overnight. Second, on the smoker as the Guru is just beginning to ramp it up. As of right now, 45 minutes in, we are at about 150* in the smoker. I should mention it is winter here in Denver, Colorado, and we started at 32*F.

Stay tuned.

All right , then, 275* it is.

I have two 7-8 lb shoulders....want to start at 7-8AM and take off at 5PM. So we are thinking, then, 275* for that ?

So, Franklin recommends 275*; Meathead Goldwyn recommends 225*....they are both highly credible sources. What do you think/recommend? I have to start a couple of pork shoulders in the morning for dinner tomorrow night, while we are cheering on our Saints Vs Tampa Bay.

So here are the final two photos: this is the finished version of the brisket.....but five hours later. So you cannot let a brisket sit for 5 hours and reheat it and expect it to be as good as Franklin/Micklethwait/LA Barbecue (and 20 other great Austin-area brisket master), but I am getting closer. Back at 1 PM, when I SHOULD have been slicing it, it was probably a lot closer. SO NEXT TIME.....I am going to start the brisket at 6AM for a 6-7PM serving. It seems to be cooking in 11, not 13 or 14 hours. Anyone else have the same experience? The flavor was good. Quite good. I am going to back off a little bit on the salt, but the pepper was pretty much perfect. It was a lot of fun, and the family loved it. And it is a LOT easier for me to get up at 6 than to stay up till 1AM.

I ended up doing "down", and it turned out fine. Here is a photo of the brisket on the grill just before I took it off to wrap it. Nice bark and even some moisture showing on the top piece, so I am not worried about it drying out. A really lovely brisket. Looking forward to dinner.

Okay, I got my BBQ Guru a few months ago and have used it maybe four or five times. Observations: 1) I love the way it ramps up and holds temps. And all the recommendations I have gotten from my friends here on the KK Forum about checking for all potential air leaks, only barely cracking open the upper lid vent, regulating the damper on the Guru fan...these have been great suggestions, and all spot-on. 2) The Guru software is buggy, at least with my IOS (Iphone and Ipad) devices, and the bluetooth connections are not very robust- frequently dropping off even when I am in the side yard within 50 feet of the Guru, or when I go inside the house. The smoker and meat temp readings sometimes freeze, misleadingly. 3) Check to make sure all the connections are tight. Last night and this morning I was losing power to the main Guru unit: finally figured out that there is a screw-tightening function where the electrical cord meets the transformer unit. 4) Placing the temperature probe for the smoker oven- where do y'all put the probe? Temperatures are quite different at different places on the grill- some guidance from the Guru folks about where to place it for consistency's sake would be helpful. More thoughts later as they occur to me.

A few reports and observations on last night's brisket cook, still going on now at 11 AM this morning. First, here's the prime Costco brisket as I took it out of the fridge yesterday to prepare it- approximately 14.5 pounds untrimmed. The second photo shows it trimmed and dusted with Maldon salt and coarse-ground pepper. It went on the 32" KK at 1 AM with the Guru set at 225*, I wanted it to cook a little more slowly than typical, because if I were actually trying to time it for dinner on Sunday at 6, working backwards, I would have started it at 4AM, and sorry, I am not getting up at 4AM to start a brisket. So....the third photo is brisket at 9AM, ready to come off and be wrapped. The Guru was reading the cook temp at 216- the KK's thermometer was showing it a bit higher, maybe 240. The Guru's meat probe was showing the brisket at about 175-180 at this point. The last photo is the brisket, tightly wrapped, and ready to go back into the smoker. At this point I raised the Guru temp setting to 280*. Here's the rub: it is now 11 AM and the brisket is nearly done- one probe, the Guru's-showing about 198* and some probing with my Thermapen, is showing low 190's in some other parts of the brisket. So what's going on? If I follow all the standard instructions- Franklin and the like- I should expect this brisket to take 12-14 hours and then I should rest it for 2 hours. It looks to be now like it will be done 12 and will need to come off. If this is the case, I should be getting up at 6AM to put a brisket on and serve it at 6PM (6 AM being acceptable, 4AM, not.) What are your experiences? How long does it normally take you to cook a 14-15lb brisket? At what temps? When do you wrap? BTW, this is a BEAUTIFUL brisket.

I tend to agree, and that’s what Meathead Goldwyn says in his book, too.

Fat side up or fat side down? Talk amongst yourselves. My brisket goes on at midnight.

How perceptive. We did employ a rather magnificent Helen Keplinger single-vineyard Syrah. Highly recommended.

Did I say "premium"....I must be daft. I meant "prime", of course.

Let's try that again...

Did a Snake RIver Farms premium Cowboy Steak (bone-in ribeye) about 2 3/4lbs. It was seasoned with Maldon flaky salt and fresh coarse pepper, roasted over a lump hardwood/mesquite for about 25 minutes, finished a nice rare/medium rare, about 18" over the fire, direct head. Results were very pleasing- nice pepper and salt crust and good mesquite smoke. The meat itself was like beef and butter had a child. Quite good. The remainder will find itself into some sir-fry tonight. 45397FD6-F485-4BC4-82EE-528727DC95B2.heic 9FA6BFA5-F56D-4270-B7B8-826DCD035BA8.heic

Folks, I was noticing that I had a possibility of air leakage around the seal between the lid and lower portion of my 32" KK when I tried to damp down the temp in my KK and saw a good deal of smoke leaking out between the lid and the lower portion of the KK. When I inspected gasket, I expected to see that it would be compressed and I would need to replace it- that was not the case. However,there was a good deal of accumulated grit from the last two year's worth of use, a lot of it building up in the center crease of the gasket. So here is what I did, and what I recommend you take a look at: take a large flat-head screw driver and run it around the crease in the center of the gasket and dislodge anything that might have built up there (you could use a knife, too, but not a sharp one- you wouldn't want to take a chance of cutting he gasket). I did this and then took a stiff bristle brush and swept the remaining grit out. The flexibility of the gasket was much improved and I achieved a much better seal. Speaking of seal, it is worth knowing that you have some small adjustment ability in the upper lower latches, about 1/8th or so of an inch on both. You can loosen the bolts holding them down, readjust, and tighten. It helped me a lot as I had a small gap between the upper and lower halves leaking air.

So thank you, "5698K", that was a good tip. Today I did two things that I think fixed the leakage problem. One, I took a large flathead screwdriver and went all the way around the gasket, in the parted section in the middle, and dug out a TON of charcoal-y particulate, and then swept it out with a stiff brush. This greatly improved the pliability of the gasket, and I would recommend we all do this annually. I have had my 32"KK for maybe two years, and the accumulation of particulate, which impedes the gasket from performing, was considerable. This will be at least an annual exercise for me from now on. Second, yes, the lower part of the latch does have some small (1/8th"? 1/16"?) room for adjustment, and so does the upper latch. I adjusted both of them, and came up with tight seal. I need to lean a bit on the top hatch handle to get the latch in place to lock in, which is great. I am pretty/very sure this is airtight, now. And thanks, Tony B, for the tip about the outlet fan damper- I had totally forgotten that it was there, and rediscovered it- very good tip to reduce chance of spurious air leakage into the firebox area. Great point and an easy one to overlook. I may try another brisket next weekend....

Aha, I will take another look. I am also about to go out with a brush and scrub out all the accumulated particulate that has gotten in the grooves of the seal, which could contribute to the issue.

Yes, the latch was the first thing I checked. By leaning down on the upper lid handle I could seal it completely and stop the smoke leakage, so I guess the next step is to do the adjustment from the back- anybody got any tips on how to do this?

While we are talking about the top vent and airtightness, does anybody else see significant smoke come out at the seal between the lid and the bottom half, when they tamp down the top vent? I am wondering if I need to replace the seal or if there is any kind of other adjustment possible? I wonder if this is the air leak I have been looking for, because it is not either of the firebox level vents at the bottom of the unit. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Also Robert, yes, I know about the top vent thing. It was somewhere between 1/8th and 1/4 turn open. Worked GREAT for Friday's cook.

First, Dennis, that is a most creative use of crispy brisket! I think miine is going to end up as brisket hash. Robert, you may be right about the dueling apps or not, but I know my Guru does not like my Iphone app. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it on the Iphone and couldn't get the app to recognize the Guru. So my solution is to simplify things and delete the app from my phone and only use the Ipad. Speaking of which, I have ribs to go tend to.

Okay, here's the story of an epic fail. I think I have figured it out. But let me tell you what happened, in chronological order, first. First, I prepared a beautiful brisket last night, trimmed it and treated with Maldon salt and coarse ground pepper (photo).. The plan was: put the brisket on the KK around midnight, cook it a little low (245) till 8AM, then get up, check the internal temp, spritz it, turn the heat up to 265 or so, get through the stall, wrap, raise the heat to 285, and finish around 2-3PM or so. That was the plan.... So I had used the BBQ Guru the day before to cook some near-perfect ribs, and everything worked fine. I was controlling the Guru from my Iphone. I took the brisket out 3 hours early to get it closer to room temperature, put it on at 12, went to bed. Woke up at 4AM and checked on the Guru on my phone, still showing 244*. Got up at 8, ambled on downstairs and went out with my Thermapen and spritzer bottle while the Jura espresso maker did its thing. Got out to the KK and it's thermometer is showing 350*....URK! I look at my phone: 244*. What's going on? I open the KK and see this (photo): brisket crisp. Pretty clearly, at some point in the night, the Guru elevated things to 350*, even though my phone app is still showing 244*. Pretty clearly, the app on my phone was frozen, the damage had been done and could not be undone. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app. Phone app would not connect to Guru despite being right next to it. So I went and got my Ipad, and opened the app on it, and it was showing the true temp- around 350*. So here's my diagnosis: when I booted up the Ipad last night to read before turning out the night, the Ipad took over the Guru, and it was left on it's last setting, probably 350*. So from now on I am taking the app off my phone and controlling the Guru just from my Ipad. I am sorry, Mrs. Cow, that your brisket was all for naught. Maybe I can salvage enough to make brisket hash, but dinner for our combined family of seven for tonight is off. Lessons learned....

So here is installment #1: this is the prime brisket, trimmed and subbed with Maldon salt and coarse ground pepper. It goes on the smoker tonight at 250* at midnight, mostly post oak wood. (Thank you, BBQ Guru!), then I get to sleep and by 8 AM it should be ready to wrap and amp up the heat a bit to 275*. It's a beautiful piece of meat and the trimming was very easy.

I have to say, just about perfect. I think I have the formula, or very close to it with small adjustments. So this was it- applied Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust Rub; 2 hours at 235 in the KK, take out, spritz with water/orange juice mix, wrap in foil; back in for one hour, advance heat to 250; take out of foil and finish for last hour. Mostly apple wood with good hardwood lump charcoal. Really about as close to perfect as I have done. Minor tweaks to formula to follow. I was playing BBQ Santa Claus for all the neighbors up and down the street- some people show up with Christmas cookies, I give away ribs and sauce. Neighbors are happy and I am doing another batch tomorrow along with a brisket I am starting tonight.