rick

Yesterday I did place the Cold Smoker inside the KK just before shutdown, laying it on its side. Ahead of starting today's session I dumped the pellets in a bowl. Only the top inch or so broke down, under them there were intact pellets and to my surprise carbonized ones. I found it odd there was so little ash. Today, the Cold Smoker is adding flavor to beef jerky, four pounds on four SS "cooling" racks. If any of you can provide insight into your Cold Smoker settings I would really appreciate it. Yesterday I had the threaded tube about half way out, today I've screwed it all the way in, to the stop. The pump provided by Dennis is about 3/4 speed, based on the rotary dial. Thanks, Rick

UPDATE: I have found by trial and error, plus as suggested in various forum posts , that low moisture level is crucial. Recently I've been drying my pellets in our oven, 12-24 hours before needed. Our oven is an old Wedgewood so the pilot provides enough heat to dry them out. The pellets in my recent cooks have all been rendered to ash, no oatmeal! Smoked my first session (two baby back rib racks) using Cherry CookinPellets. The pellets stayed lit through the entire session! After lighting I topped off the canister with pellets. Over the course of 6+ hours, I only used about half of them. At the end I noticed the remaining pellets looked like oatmeal/sawdust, the pellet form was gone. Is this normal? I did notice a fair amount of moisture whenever I removed the cap. I suspected it was from the pellets. Perhaps moisture is the source of the pellet breakdown. Today I'm going to intentionally keep the Cold Smoker tilted, thinking the moisture will have a path to run down the side versus possibly dripping down into the column. The ribs were great, this cold smoker really provided high quality blue smoke (great flavor with no aftertaste) and layered on the red tone characteristic of using cherry.

For those of you keeping your tree trimmings/prunings to smoke, do you remove the bark? Do you remove it from the underlying wood? I typically tossed the bark in favor of what I considered better smoke. Now that I have the smoke generator I'm not sure. Even though I purchased some pellets, I do have some fruit trees that I periodically trim.

Based on a few of your recommendations, I just picked up a 40# bag of "CookinPellets CPBC40lb 100% Black Cherry Pellets" from Amazon. Today the price was $37.40 with Prime 1-day delivery yet they had a 40% off click-coupon when I "subscribed." So I'll get this first one tomorrow and future bags every six months. Here's a direct link to what I purchased. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C32G157 My efforts to keep cherry wood chips ignited in my Cold/Hot Smoker prompted this purchase. My fire went out way too many times. I'm hoping I have much greater success with pellets.

Re: Poll - Main and lower handle position/placement It seems to me that a simple height adjustment would solve this concern. Why not make the handles 3.5" tall? This way the handles will be above the KK lip, allowing plenty of room for fingered gloves to do whatever is needed. Rick

Re: Wireless Stoker Released I received an email yesterday telling me that the Wifi Stoker I ordered back in July shipped! Estimated delivery is tomorrow, whoo hoo! I'll have to do a high temp fast brisket this weekend to test it out. Rick

Re: Delayed appreciation and thanks... Too funny, Jens is actually a native Californian. He grew up just north of Santa Barbara. His Norwegian roots do shine through, just like my wife’s as she too has the same ancestry. Rick

Re: Back to Pizza's Need Duration Advice For me, a full basket of Cowboy hardwood lump keeps the KK at 600 for about two hours. After that, the temperature starts to drop off. Rick

I was going through a few old pictures and ran across these from our delivery day - 10 January 2009. As you can see Chiquita was somehow anticipating the value of this new contraption that entered her territory. Since delivery, all our friends and family have enjoyed a large variety of barbequed meats, veggies and specialty stuff like peach cobblers. We use our KK at least monthly but typically weekly. Lately we have been enjoying restaurant quality pizza thanks to receiving one of Dennis' propane burners from Tucker. The burner allows long cooking cycles, i.e. multiple pizzas without running out of fuel. With the pizza stone on the upper grill, to get a hint of smoke, we simply place a chunk of either apple or cherry wood on the main grill. At 550 to 600 degrees the chunk simply self-ignites. The pizzas turn out perfect every time, just like everything else we experiment with! Here is another picture of the move itself using the 2x4 method, moving it was a little ackward but we did it! Also, here is a shot of the move crew, from left to right: me, Jens (my next door neighbor), my nephew Justin, Justins friend Franco and my brother Paul. We are very appreciative of Dennis and his ability to crank out such a superior product. Before buying our KK, I was just an average gasser (Weber propane grill). I'm still just an average guy but with the KK in my arsenal I feel that I've become a junior pit master. All our friends and family think I'm already a master! Who knew it was possible? I sure didn't but Dennis did. Thanks again Dennis, we love you!

Re: Nearly Ran out of Coals during overnight cook When I shut down my KK, I always put a silicone plug in the polder hole and another one in the air infuser hole. These plugs completely stop air from entering from those two areas. Jeff Bower sold me the ones I use. He may still have some extra ones he can send you. His userid is JDBower. Another problem you may have is if you inadvertently put the Stoker fan housing on upside down the trap door will never close. It will stay open the entire cook. If you leave the fan assembly in position after your cook it will definitely allow enough air to pass into the KK to keep a fire going. The only time I ran out of fuel during a long cook was on a rare cold night (~45 degrees) in Southern California. It only happened once and hasn't happened since. Now I watch out for this by filling the basket with fresh lump, removing all the old stuff - saving it for a lesser cook like a quick steak or hamburger. Rick

Re: First anniversary of my 50th Birthday! Happy Birthday, and congratulations on your success! Rick

Re: Pork Butt, Rotisserie Chicken, and Lava Bomb Cakes Thanks for the Molten Lava Cake recipe, we will definitely try it in the future! Rick

Re: First Roti Chicken I cooked two chickens yesterday in my 6" rotisserie. Underneath them I placed the large drip pan on top of the indirect heat stone. The chickens came out great, very moist and flavorful. The only problem was the skin. It was soft, pliable and definitely not crispy. The temperature was regulated at 350 via my Stoker. Would cooking these at 375 helped the skin crispen up? Or would the charcoal holders be enough? Rick

Re: Boneless Beef Short Ribs Yes, I agree - the meat was very moist and succulent as you describe, mostly due to the breakdown of connective tissue. At least I think that is why we preferred the seven hour cook time. The meat was definitely not dry. Also, I think some of the darker coloring comes from the cherry wood I used for smoke. In my experience smoke from fruit woods (at least cherry and apple) add more color to meat than other varieties like hickory and mesquite, plus a much different flavor.

I need to qualify this post, Ive never cooked beef short ribs before, ever. In fact, Ive only had them a few times in my life. I picked up about 14 pounds of boneless beef short ribs from Costco. Being my first cook of this cut, everything was an experiment. We tested four different rubs and trialed cook durations. We cooked part of the meat for five hours, another for six and the balance for seven hours, all at 225 on the main grill. Boneless Beef Short Ribs, ~14 pounds in cryovac packaging, trimmed all excess fat and silver membranes. The package contained eight relatively big sections of rib meat. After trimming, I cut each section in half, lengthwise creating 16 pieces. Each piece of meat was about seven to eight inches long by roughly 1.5 by 1.5 inches square. Before igniting the KK, we applied four different rubs to groups of four from the 16 overall pieces. KK setup - 225 degrees, Cowboy lump with cherry wood chunks for smoke, indirect with drip pan, set directly on top of heat deflector. Lit three areas of lump with mapp gas torch & hair dryer, brought KK up to temp then put three hunks of cherry on top of each. The meat was cooked on the main grill. Initiated Stoker and StokerLog to control and monitor the cook, pit probe was clamped to the main grill near the polder hole. Rubs used in comparison: #1 Dizzy Pig - Dizzy Dust #2 Dizzy Pig - Raising the Steaks #3 Dizzy Pig - Cow Lick Steak Rub #4 Grill Mates - Cinnamon Chipotle Pulled first piece from each group at 5:00 hours. Pulled another set at 6:00 hours and the rest at 7:00 hours. Results of taste test: While all were good, we preferred Raising the Steaks for this cut of beef. Results of cook time: In my opinion five hours was okay, six was better and seven was great. For some, cooking for seven hours may be too long as the meat easily pulls apart similar to pulled pork. Lessons learned: Perhaps I should not have trimmed all the fat off the rib meat. Next time I will only trim excess fat off half and for the most part leave the other half alone. Once off the grill, care must be taken to keep this cut from drying out. Wait too long, without foiling, and the meat toughens up. We preferred a cook time of seven hours at 225. While we preferred Raising the Steaks rub, all were really good. We will expand the experiment and marinate next time. I suggest you find a rub you prefer and go for it! Here are some pictures: