Troble

Almost four hours in. Shoulder and Hams are 150 degrees. watermelon salad done, 4 trays of cornbread in the oven

5am and the pig is on the KK @ 250 note removing the eyeballs in the dark is not a wids move, thought I could pop them out with a butter knife but had to saw through some flesh with a steak knife, should’ve done it yesterday when I was injecting & rubbing

Glad you started tonight @PaulW good choice. Good luck, you got this

Made my Mac & cheese and beans today, as well as the bread pudding. All in foil trays with foil on top of them ready to go to oven/kk soaked the pinto beans Friday night in water, sweet onion, sugar, chili powder, cumin, salt & black pepper. Put them on dimmer around 7am and added bacon, brown sugar & Worcester. Let it simmer till 5pm, stirring regularly Haven’t made my Mac & Cheese in years it’s really rich, but awesome. Pasta shells with sour cream, cheddar, havarti, ricotta & Parmesan, sautéed some red onion and applewood smoked bacon, added petite green peas and a little bit of mustard powder. Will finish tomorrow in oven and then broil with bread crumbs for a nice crust and probably finish the beans and Mac & cheese in the KK and get some smoke going made 3 trays of bread pudding which I’ll top with a vanilla/bourbon sauce tomorrow took the pig out and injected the hams, shoulders & belly. Used Slap Yo Daddy All Purpose rub which I’ve always made the knock off version for my pork butts but it’s the first rub I’ve ever used and it’s my go to, although I’ve never used the actual thing, thought this was a good time loaded the KK up with coco char, gonna get things going around 4:30am/5am. Fridge is loaded with .394 Pale Ales & Mango Margaritas. I’m ready to do this

Looks good @tony b how did it taste?

Nobody uses the heat deflectors they are not needed on the KK. Doesn’t includes them because many BGE owners think they are necessary since they used them in the BGE. You will not ever use them in your KK

Bourbon sausages, indirect with mesquite wood & Alesmith Tony Gwynn .394 Pale Ale

I’ve been telling my wife that I’ve been training for this cook for most of the last year plus planning/thinking about it now for well over 6 weeks. I’m fortunate that @tekobowent first and provided some great intel to help me. Everyone is asking what they can bring and my wife thinks I’m taking on too much and will get stressed but I told her that it’s not gonna be an issue cause I’m going to cook a lot of things early and I don’t want anyone bringing dishes cause I want to serve all the food. this is what cooking is all about for me we have our families, and best friends over. It’s been a long years we haven’t been able to this type of party for over a year so if there was ever a time to go big or go home it’s now. I’m prepared and confident for my cook, the only danger I now is gonna be the flip of the pig, which I’m likely gonna do solo but I’ll feel it out and if I can’t do it I’ll cook it on its belly the whole time. I have plan A & plan B one other note is I requested people bring beer, wine or specifically if they wanted to they could bring this delicious cocktail that we discovered last weekend “Cutwater Spirits Mango Margarita”, I’m not one for premade margaritas but this particular beverage is absolutely divine, and at 12.5% alcohol per can it packs a punch. We rimmed our cups with this chili lime salt my wife found at Trader Joe’s and poured the can over ice and it’s absolutely magnificent. Both Plan A & Plan B involve me not cracking any of those until after all food is served. Highly recommend though if one sees them on the shelf

I’m too excited so I decided to make my BBQ sauces today. Not really sure on quantity so I ended up making a lot. Then the wife told me she threw out all the tops to my mason jars because “we didn’t use them and we only use those jars for decoration” so had to improvise with a little press n seal on the left is “Rodney Sauce” from Rodney Scott’s cookbook. It consists of white vinegar, lemon, red pepper flake, cayenne pepper, black pepper and brown sugar essentially. It’s pretty spicy and is gonna be labeled as “spicy sauce” In the middle I have Aaron Franklins Vinegar sauce which is white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, ketchup, cayenne pepper, paprika, black pepper & white sugar. This is going to be labeled “mild sauce” on the right is @Syzygies Bourbon BBQ sauce that consults of onions, butter, vegetable oil, bourbon, ketchup, orange juice, apple cider vinegar, black pepper, maras pepper (which I substituted paprika for), maple syrup, molasses (which I subbed for brown sugar) & Worcester sauce, I also added a decent amount of salt and a couple extra dashes of paprika and cayenne. This sauce will be labeled “sweet sauce”

Welcome @Lila you’re coming in strong with two KKs nice one! You won’t regret the decision except maybe that you waited this long to get one

My vote is to stick to your original plan. Start early take your time, you can always crank it up later when you wrap it it you need to. If you get done early you can always wrap a towel around it and put it in the cooler. You also want it to rest at least an hour preferably 1-2hours+. I’ve had Bridget rest wrapped in the cooler for up to 4 hours with no major issues. Relax and take your time with Brisket. Biggest mistake people make with brisket is not giving themselves enough time the wood selections shouldn’t matter too much just make sure you fill the basket. You said you’ve got temp control down to stick with the wood that you have the most confidence in nailing the temp. Don’t worry if your temp fluctuates a bit during your cool it’s ok. ive also had a lot of success developing good brisket bark by spritzing it with apple juice every hour after it’s been in there 5-6 hours. I usually put mine on at night like you mentioned, wake up around 6am, start spritzing, then wrap it around 11am-1pm, take it off KK around 3pm-4pm serve 5pm-6pm. Usually I do my briskets at 240/245 and I usually get a 13-15lb one hope that helps and good luck

Looks perfect @MacKenzie

Picked her up. 24 lbs. fits in the KK perfectly. Going to try my method of starting on stomach and then flipping to finish and baste but we’ll se how it goes. Also need to pop the eyeballs out before cooking 😀 Very happy that it fits in my fridge as well

@tekobo I appreciate your feedback but that’s my working plan as of the moment. I’m not against cooking it on its belly the entire time but my ideal cook would involve a flip and mop/baste. I won’t know if that possible until I get the pig home and see how easily I can maneuver it, I would likely have to do the flip by myself so that may not even be possible but as I sit here this morning before I’ve picked up the pig that’s the plan. Once I pick it up I plan to put it on the grill to confirm the size and see how easy it is for me to lift and maneuver it then I’ll finalize my cook plan. also @tekoboif you have not watched this series on Netflix yet you absolutely must. The Rodney Scott episode is my 2nd favorite after the Lennox Hastie episode. It’s truly inspiring you’d love it https://www.netflix.com/title/81292974?s=i&trkid=13747225&clip=81261408 @Basherno sacks will be used. Going to foil the ears and snout and take it from there I’m gonna pick up the little piggy in about 3 hours from now so I’ll post some pics later today

Thanks @MacKenziei plan to do the sauces Friday so they can take a long time to thicken up. Soak the beans overnight Friday night, then do the beans and Mac & cheese saturday, put them into a foil tray and cover them in the fridge Sunday I’ll do the hog early, then the watermelon & cucumber salad, cornbread, fruit salad, Coleslaw & bread pudding while the pig cooks. take the pig off and while it rests heat the beans and Mac & cheese in the KK.....serve it all sounds easy on paper!

My butcher called me today and asked me how to prepare it. We had a lengthy conversation about it, I’ve known this butcher 20+ years no joke. He’s gotta cut it so I can basically spatchcock it and we discussed head on vs off. I plan to cook it on its belly, back up the first few hours then flip it and sauce/mop it a la Rodney Scott to finish it. My concern was when I flipped it and out the stomach facing up that it would not lay flat with the head on. My butcher assured me it would lay just fine with the head and that when he was cleaning it out it was laying find on it’s back/stomach up now the dilemma I’m facing is whether to put the rub and inject it early or just do it day of/morning of. Picking it up tomorrow cooking it early Sunday. Planning for 6-7 hours at 225. butcher said the pig weighs exactly 24 lbs went shopping today got all Ingredients but switched out the Angel food cake & strawberry desert with bread pudding & French vanilla ice cream, added a green bean dish and added a fruit salad 10 dishes (including pig) plus 3 homemade sauces. My wife thinks I’m nuts, but I think I can pull it off

Truly inspiring @tekobo very happy for your success. I’m still sticking with driving 15 minutes to pick up some fresh pressed tortillas from my local Mexican markets but you’re well on your way to being featured on “Taco Chronicles U.K.” I’m certain

For some reason the search function doesn’t seem to be working this week, when you go to page 2 it gives you an error but I stayed up till 1:30am watching various YouTube videos on cooking a suckling pig. Feel better but still unsure if I’m going to chop the head off and butterfly it or not, will have to see what it looks like tomorrow when I pick it up

@tekobo you know removing it from the grill was something I hadn’t thought of. I just assumed I’d pick up one end and get my friend to pick up the other but the meat would likely fall apart and be too soft. Now that you brought it up I think I’ll have to lift the grates and carry it over to a table where I’ll have a sheet laid down and then perhaps I can slide it off the grate on to the sheet/table @Basherafter @tekobofirst adventure I’m keen to try to putting it on the top grate and avoiding the basket for the time being. I’d like to keep things as simple as possible this first attempt and I’m also planning on using the double bottom drip pan on the lower grate to ensure there’s no big flare ups from Joyce’s going into the fire. I don’t mind the longer cooks and frankly I have a loose plan that will all be finalized once I see the pigs actual size. I don’t mind starting low and slow and then needing to turn up the heat later if needed, hence why I was planning a longer cook. Like I said I regularly do pork shoulders at 225 that take 12-15 hours so I just can’t wrap my head around a 25lb hog taking 4 hours.

Thanks @Basheri have a table I plan to put it in and was going to lay down a sheet to carve it up but had not thought about the “trotters” I don’t know that I have equipment to saw off the feet but I do have a couple of knives that you recommended to me. im also still a big nervous and time and temp. I ordered a 20-30 pound suckling pig. I was planning on smoking it at 250 temp for 10-12 hours but I’m not sure that enough time or now. I’ve done multiple 8-9lb pork shoulders that have taken longer than that so it feels wrong instinctively, but that’s what Rodney says to do in his book and he cooks much bigger hogs. Any thoughts on timing/temp anyone? I made out my menu today and started a ingredient list for grocery shopping but I stayed second guessing the timing/temp after I made the list. Menu attached

Looks delicious @tekobo

Thanks @tekobo although I had to look up parsimonious

@Basher I’ll let you know the size when I pick it up on Thursday

@BOC I do the exact same thing with my 32. I’m too lazy to use the splitter most of the time

@tony b I’m sure it would’ve been amazing as always from you