BARDSLJR

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.

Yeah, that's what I MEANT to say...🤤

So, the final version: First photo is halfway through, about 5 hours; second is the finished product, nice bark. Lastly, pulled and chopped for serving. It turned out excellent, fed the whole family, and the Stansbury clan took home the other half for leftovers. And that was just one shoulder.....the other we will start reheating tonight and use here in various incarnations: sandwiches, enchiladas, hash, etc. Pulled pork souffle, anyone? There was one glitch in an otherwise perfect, BBQ Guru-controlled cook: the plan was to wrap the shoulder in foil two hours before finishing (at about 190 degrees) and increase the temperature from 275* to 295*. Problem was, even though I had filled up the fuel basket full, there wasn't enough charcoal left to get the temp up. This was puzzling: I have filled the fuel basket before and had enough to run the KK for 24 hours before the temps starting dropping off. The only thing I can think of is that this charcoal was the last of the bag, from the bottom, and had a high proportion of very small chunks, so maybe they burn faster and/or don't have as much thermal energy???? It's a physics question, and as a liberal arts major, I am notoriously short on formal scientific training, so really, I don't know. In any case, it was in foil by this point, and was benefiting only from the heat, not the smoke, so I finished it in the oven, no big deal. It was delicious.

Let's try that again....

So, here's the beginning of the cook: first, the pork shoulders were slathered with yellow mustard and doused with Dizzy Pig's Dizzy Dust rub and left to sit in the fridge overnight. Next, the 32" KK was set up with the BBQ Guru and the Cloud BBQ remote meat sensors. Lastly, the KK is shown in business mode, ramping up. At the moment I am leisurely monitoring it from the loft, a second cup of very good Jack Mormon coffee (from Salt Lake City) and scrambled eggs and boudin, the latter from Opelousas, La. The boudin is so strong with black pepper that I have broken a blinding head sweat, and my tongue has gone numb, but it all good..... IMG_1964 2.HEIC IMG_1966 2.HEIC IMG_1967 3.HEIC

Troble, do you lose the bark when you put all that liquid on it? Tony, those are all good suggestions. I am also thinking pulled pork enchiladas and pulled pork hash with potatoes, onions and bell peppers, maybe with an egg over it.

Planning to cook two 7.5 lb pork shoulders tomorrow, not that I need 15 lbs of pork shoulder to feed our extended family(3 grandkids, my daughter and her husband, my wife and I) , but that's the way Costco sells them. So we will be eating pulled pork in various forms all week, likely. But the question is this: to wrap or not to wrap. Franklin recommends wrapping in foil at about 8 hours into a 10 hour cook, continuing for one hour at 270*, and finishing the last hour at 295*. I don't think I've ever wrapped my pork shoulder and they've always turned out great. I also have been cooking at 285, if memory serves. What do you guys (and gals) do?

All I got from the attachment was audio....

Sorry, that didn't come through. But, FYI, I use the leftover beef ribs and some leftover red beans and made beef-and-beans enchiladas with cheese. It was pretty rich, but otherwise excellent. I used he Hatch Fresh Chile Sauce and it was quite good.

Wingman, That is a beautiful batch of ribs. How long is the total cook, and what temp? I ‘m using the last of the three racks of beef ribs ( pictured) with some leftover red beans and sausage, shredding and adding the meat to the beans to make filling for beef and beans enchiladas with red Chile sauce from the Hatch Fresh Chile Company down in your neck of the woods. It will be a mix of mild and medium, as the medium is a bit hot for us. Should be yummy.

That's about as much as I drank last night....(Just kidding. I had a 9AM tennis match and had to be restrained. I also drank a whole bottle of Pelligrino between 9 and 10 as a substitute.....) What is this, NOrth Berkeley Wine or something?

Agreed, I spend the first 20 minutes and whole cup of coffee every morning deleting emails and texts. This is what happens when you send them a little money....like feeding a stray dog.