C-West

Re: High Heat Brisket Pics

It was incredible.

Re: Trying High Heat Brisket For First Time (pics)

Guys.... it was incredible. I'm a believer.

Re: Trying High Heat Brisket For First Time (pics)

Don't know yet. It's wrapped in a towel and sitting in an ice chest right now. I'll cut into it in about an hour and will post an update.

Re: High Heat Brisket Pics

Figured I'd throw in this pic of the Ribeye I cooked on Thursday. The KK worked like a charm.

Posted in the "Techniques" section but thought it'd be more appropriate to post the pics here.

After the brine and dry rub...

Letting the KK do it's thing...

Internal temp of 170 after about 2 hours. Now putting it in foil.

I'm a traditionalist so I'm a little skeptical about the high heat brisket process but after reading the threads in this forum, I thought I'd give it a try. I brined the 10 lb brisket with a smoked habanero brine overnight and applied a dry rub. I'll try to document it with photos.

After the brine and dry rub...

Letting the KK do it's thing...

Internal temp of 170 after about 2 hours. Now putting it in foil.

Re: Best Smoking Methods With KK?

Opening the dial all the way on the lower vent and also pulling the door out a few inches is a great way to get your fire up to temp quickly, along with opening the top vent most of the way. But you need to start shutting it down when you get to within approximately 50 deg of your target temp. This works well for me even for low temp cooks, though I light only a very small area of the lump. If you wait for your fire to get to 230 with the lower vent opened the width of a dime and the upper vent open only an inch or two, you will be waiting for a looonnnggg time though these are the openings that will maintain the 230 cook once you get there. I shut down in two or three stages, top and bottom vents, for it to stabilize and then fine tune with the top damper for a 5 or 10 deg. adjustment if I need it. I watch it closely to be sure it never goes higher than my target temp. After an hour or so when KK gets heatsoaked, you will have to adjust the temp again to cut down on the air flow further. After that you should be set. And if you don't have time to fool around with it, a Stoker or Guru does a fine job.

Susan

Thanks Susan. Very helpful. I'm going to try some steaks tonight... don't think that should involve many mishaps but I'll give "low and slow" another try on Sunday.

Re: Best Smoking Methods With KK?

C-West:

1/2 a turn of the top damper is way too open for a 230 cook. To keep it that low you need to just

have it opened maybe an inch or two and adjust it for fine tuning from there.

Susan

Well, that addresses one of the problems. Thanks Susan.

Anyone else have recommendations on the amount of wood I should use to keep a consistent smoke for a 12 hour period? If you have to refill, what's the best way? To just drop it from the top?

Re: Best Smoking Methods With KK?

If I've reduced the top by 1/4 turn over a couple adjustments and fire still running hot' date=' then I micro adjust the bottom vent by simply tapping it with a nuckle on my hand. No way can I slide by hand that small of an adjustment. [/quote']

By using your knuckle to tap it shut, I'm assuming this means that you have the vent pulled out at the bottom and your using your knuckle to close it a little? I haven't ever pulled it out to allow airflow... I've just turned the damper with the wooden handle to regulate airflow.

Hey guys, I'm not new to smoking but I recently purchased a KK and I'm new to this forum. I'm also new to kamado style cooking in general. I've owned a few traditional smokers with offset fireboxes but have some questions about best practices on the KK. I've read through this board and I'm sure that these questions have already been addressed 100 times so please bare with me. If there is another thread that already discusses them, then just point me in the right direction.

Here we go...

I just smoked my first batch of ribs on Sunday. I was aiming for a 230 degree temp using lump charcoal and some soaked chunks of pecan and apple. I used a couple Weber starter cubes after filling up the charcoal basket. I barely cracked the damper and turned the top a 1/2 turn. All was well for a couple hours, then it bumped up to 260 quickly. I backed it off at the top but could never get it to come down from that. It held that temp through the rest of the smoke. Also, I couldn't really see much smoke coming out after a couple hours.

1. Is there a better method to get smoke throughout the entire cook AND keep it under 250?

2. Do you typically have to add wood chunks throughout a 12-14 hour smoke? What's your best method for doing this?

3. Should I use less charcoal for low and slow? Would that make a difference in monitoring the heat?

4. Do you normally use the bottom damper or the top to primarily control the temp (or both)?

After a few months of waiting patiently, "Ibu" finally arrived. She looks great out on the patio and after a few initial burns, I think we're ready for our first smoke tomorrow. Look forward to joining the forum and learning more about how to maximize her potential!

Re: Komodo availability - Good & Bad News

Dennis - For those of us that ordered one, is there any way to see a picture of the one that we ordered? I'm assuming no, since they're likely already on their way over here.