braindoc

The meat went into the KK at about 7:30AM, 275°F dome temp. At about 6 hours the bark looked good; the brisket was reading 170°. I wrapped it in butcher paper. It reached 203° maybe four hours after that. It had a nice jiggle. I let it rest, wrapped in a towel, in a cooler until we were ready to eat around 8PM.

You inspired me. I found our bottle of Ocucaje Pisco and added some to Meyer Lemonade. Too tired after an afternoon of chores to actually mix a fancy drink. Delicious!

Now for the postmortem. The brisket was a big hit. My best ever, according to my wife (yes, I know she’s a little biased). The photos don’t really do it justice. The flat was juicy and the point was absolutely melt in your mouth. The rub was sea salt, pepper, and some cayenne. We started inside with apps - smoked salmon on mustard butter toasts and shrimp. Then outside for dinner, tablescape curtesy of my wife. Started with an intermezzo - lemon sorbetto in Prosecco and grappa. Sides were a hash brown potato casserole (no photo) and a Malaysian fruit and vegetable slaw.

Thanks guys. Not that I’ve done all that many briskets, but I mostly have been influenced by Aaron Franklin. After getting his book, I switched from foil to pink unwaxed butcher paper a couple of years ago. The recipes I saw did not give any particular justification for foil so I will go ahead with my original plan. BTW, @Syzygies, the meat is Whole Akuashi Wagyu Brisket from Derek Allan's Texas Barbecue - a splurge eased with $50 back from Amex.

Planning on smoking a brisket tomorrow. It will be about 10 lbs trimmed. Rather than the usual low and slow at about 225°F I want to try for a faster cook at about 275°, perhaps a little higher. I usually wrap with pink butcher paper. However, the recipes I’m seeing all say aluminum foil for the wrap. So, in the context of this somewhat higher than usual temp, what say you all? Butcher paper or aluminum foil??

Hasegawa! https://mtckitchen.com/search.php?search_query=Hasegawa&section=content

Thanks @tony b. We were so busy yesterday (planning a trip mostly), I didn’t see this until well after the cooking started. I wound up doing low and slow. Here’s a shot of the flanken - delicious. I was distracted when I took the chicken off and didn’t get a pic, my bad.

I’m blushing. Thank you. Here’s a slightly different angle.

Here is tomorrow’s goal for Grendel - a 5 pound roast chicken and about 5.5 pounds of marinated flanken cut beef ribs. I was planning on using a vertical roaster for the chicken. I know that these thin-cut ribs can be cooked quickly over direct heat, but I’d like to smoke them low and slow. Had good results that way once a few years ago on the BGE. How should I set-up my 32 KK? Which grates? What food goes where? Cooking sequence?? Temps?

When we started looking at the KK back in March, I was thinking a 23” but my wife convinced me to go up to the 32”. By chance, while texting Dennis with some questions he let me know that he had a 32 available (a cancelled order) on the ship so I pulled the trigger. The alternative would have meant waiting until the fall. Others have commented about this - IT IS HUGE (and ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS). I cannot imagine needing more cooking space; even the 32 is overwhelming, but we do not do much large-scale entertaining. Good luck with this decision!

Here is some information about the Al Forno pizza. It is quite good, especially the spicy oil pie that is available off the menu. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjzqK_YwNTxAhWsmeAKHVB3AtgQFjAPegQIKBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saveur.com%2Fbest-grilled-pizza-rhode-island%2F&usg=AOvVaw27KE0bUyXvq5MadavGKOGo

Has anyone grilled pizza directly on the grates? I’m thinking about Al Forno style pizza. This Providence, Rhode Island restaurant is often credited as the birthplace of grilled pizza, back in the mid-eighties I think.

Hi tonyb- I think I figured out the rotated photo issue. As I was posting yesterday I noticed that when I imported an “actual” size photo it imported correctly. If I reduced the file size, it imported with a 90° rotation. I’ll let someone else can figure out WHY that happened.

Four small thin pies. Cooked at about 560°. This was the first high temp cook and there was some venting, but no loose tiles. My wife was following the Al Forno recipe fron their book Cucina Simpatica. Overall, we were pleased with this first effort. Happy 4th!

If my Massachusetts neighbor C6Bill wasn’t afraid of thunderstorms a few days ago, then I figured I shouldn’t be afraid of a little rain (actually not so little as it turned out) yesterday. We had about 6 pounds of pork belly strips that needed cooking - salt, pepper, smoked paprika - and several hours at about 225-235°F. I’d forgotten how filling this is. Lots of leftovers. My wife will use some to make a big batch of pasta sauce.

Thanks for the info. The last brisket I cooked was about 14 pounds post-trimming. I cooked it the day before we planned to eat it because I was not keen on doing it overnight (this was on my now departed large BGE). I was not too concerned about maintaining temp because I would have been using a Flame Boss Controller. I’ve been wrapping with pink butcher paper after they hit the stall and really don’t want to get up in the middle of the night to wrap. I suppose I could just do an unwrapped brisket and sleep soundly. Decisions, decisions.

Sounds great! How much did your brisket weigh? Also curious, how many hours were you cooking?

Thermapen One. I’m a little underwhelmed at that price point. You? I’ve also accumulated many of their products over the years: a Mk4 and a classic Thermapen, ThermoPop, Smoke Remote, ChefAlarm, some silicone trivets, spatulas, lots of different size probes, and a bunch of the new probe spools. I just added a lovely purple Mini-Dash during the sale at the beginning of the week. Guess I just like getting that little bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans, 🤪.

Tony: So very sad. I feel your pain.

Love mine and several other of their products. This sale is a close out. Apparently, the company is about to make a big announcement for something new and exciting to replace the Mk4.

Thank you Tony. She is sweet looking, but a terror! Not at all afraid of Dante, our 85 pound 12 y/o golden doodle (one of the ‘boys’ in my photo), or our other daughter’s 75 pound boxer. OTOH, I think having her in our household has been good for Dante. Last August, we lost Kugel, our chocolate Lab, two months shy of his 14th birthday and Dante was really out of sorts for months and months. He’s been better lately, but still much more clingy with my wife and me than ever before. Frankly, we all still miss Kugel and toast him every evening. To those of you who are not dog people, sorry for the digression.

The ribs were quite good. I was in the 225-240 F° range for about 5 hours. The sides went on top, using the bottom grate inverted. (Did I explain that correctly?) When the ribs were ready, I took them off and removed the main grate. I opened the bottom vent and spun the cap open. I put the vegetables on the middle grate, and several minutes latter the shrimp/scallops. It took longer to get up to temp than I expected. I wonder if I should have put the food on the bottom grate right over the fire instead. All in all, not a bad first cook. It doesn’t matter much with these photos, but can someone explain why many of my photos are importing with a 90° rotation?

Thanks a lot. I have two racks of St Louis ribs cooking. Just added some sides to reheat, creamed corn with pancetta and truffled creamed spinach. Both are recipes from the Strip House - a NYC (and elsewhere) steakhouse in case the name is throwing you. The plan is to crank up the heat after the ribs are done and throw on some shrimps, scallops, and vegetables. Maybe, I’ll post some photos. Depends on how good things look.

I did have some help with positioning the grill. Our eight-month-old grand-puppy, Tova Rose the Rottsky, living up to her Husky half. Grendel meeting his patio mate, and surveying his new domain. I wonder if he is the first of his kind in Little Rhody. BTW, before anyone gets upset rest assured she was really not pulling the KK.

After a few delays traveling cross-country our 32” was at long last unloaded at the final shipping terminal in Massachusetts on June 7 or 8, and I scheduled delivery for Friday the 11th. The expected delivery time was between noon and 2PM but the driver called at about 10:45AM to tell us he was 30 minutes away. Fortunately, we were finishing our errands and were home in 10 minutes. The driver was great. The crate was unloaded. Others have commented about not appreciating the size until it is right in front of you. I showed him where it needed to go around back. Two 4x8 pieces of plywood were already in place over the crushed stones on the side of the house. He agreed to help and away we went leapfrogging the plywood until we reached the patio. Perhaps, a half hour total. He tried to turn down the tip, but we insisted he take it. He was worth every penny. I did not have any burly helpers, and did not want to wait to assemble a team, so I proceeded to uncrate on my own. Really impressed with how well everything was packed and secured! After unbolting the sides of the crate from the base it was obvious that I could not lift it up and over the KK on my own. I took off the slats from the front of the crate which allowed me to tilt the rest backwards and drag it away. Not ideal doing this alone, but doable nonetheless - even by someone who is not an exemplar of muscularity, lol. After pondering a while, I decided to take the supplied crowbar and remove the pieces of wood in front of the front wheels. Wasn’t sure that was correct but didn’t see any other way of rolling the grill off the platform. I imploded the center support box - I found that quite enjoyable. My wife came to give me a hand. We rocked it a bit, pushed, and it rolled off the wheel supports (not sure what else to call these). We must have turned the KK so the rear wheels got around the front supports as we moved it towards the ramp but I don’t recall exactly. Down the ramp and onto the patio for unwrapping. Opening the lid and removing each item was embarrassingly exciting. Even after all I read on these forums, I was not ready for the heft of the grill grates and the other pieces. I’m still not sure why there are four heat deflectors. Here are some of the photos, not sure why several imported rotated. Sorry, 😣.