tony b

Not done in the KK, as I'm visiting family for the holidays. This was done in the oven, low & slow (275F) for 3 hours, then rested for 30 minutes, then seared under the broiler.

Didn't suck!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

At my sister-in-law's for Christmas. We did prime rib in the oven. Happy with it!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

@C6Bill - sorry to hear about your dog going over the rainbow bridge. The duck does look amazing though. 

Since I own an 23" KK, I won't be able to advise on some of your questions about your 32 BB, as it's a different design (oval vs round). I don't know the general burn pattern in the 32, so I'm not a good source for how to light the fire for larger cooks, but my guess would be to light at least a couple of spots for direct cooking a large amount of food. Indirect might not need more than one. But, I'll let the folks that actually own a 32 chime in with their experience. 

I highly recommend the smoker pot. Use mine on just about every long cook (more than 2 hours). It's a DIY - simple project though. Get a 2 qt cast iron uncoated Dutch oven (cheapest one you can find). You drill 3 very small holes (3/32") in the bottom; yes, the bottom, not the lid - you want to force the smoke down into the fire to burn off some of the volatiles to produce a cleaner smoke. Also, you don't want too many holes or too big ones; the goal is to starve the wood chunks of oxygen to make them smolder and not actually burn. This is how you get prolonged smoke generation. It's also important to seal the lid airtight. Most of us do this by making a simple flour and water paste (soft modelling clay) in a zip bag, cut off the bottom corner and pipe the paste onto the underside lip of the lid like iciing a cake. Then put your wood chunks in the bottom and gently place the lid with the paste onto the bottom to seal it up.  Takes some practice to get the right consistence and technique, but it's not hard to master. You just place the assembly directly on the lit area of the coals. It takes a few minutes to heat up enough to start smoking, but you're waiting for the KK to come up to target temp anyway, so it's not delaying your cooking time. 

And the cool thing is, when you're finished with the cook, you've made a few chunks of charcoal! 

I have a basket splitter for my 23" KK. It doesn't stick up any higher than the basket rails, so there shouldn't be any interference with putting a pan under the rotisserie like you're currently doing. I'm making an assumption that it will be the same on the 32.

The advantage of the splitter is than it forces the airflow through the charcoal and doesn't allow a bypass, like when you just stack the coals off to one side in a regular basket. 

@Tony8919 👍👍😋

A friend turned me onto Uncle Roger last summer. I've been a follower since. 

You can be my "Santa" anytime you want! 🎅

I'd be worried about that, for sure! An accident just waiting to happen! 

A PROPER bowl of red - not a bean in sight!! EXCELLENT! 

2 hours ago, tekobo said:

Yum.  Do you sieve out the seeds or do you whizz so well that they disappear @tony b

I ferment with the seeds. They just get blasted in the blender and then the mash gets sieved before I add the vinegar and bottle.

This year's batch of aji yellow hot sauce. Didn't get many peppers this year, so only a couple of bottles of sauce - enough to get me by for a while. I still have a couple of bottles of last year's batch.

20 hours ago, Poochie said:

Hey Tony, try cooking that chili on the KK. I've done it several times and the kiss of smoke you're looking for is no problem. After you believe it's had enough smoke, just put the lid on the pot and let it cook. I could use a bowl of it right now.

I've never cooked the pot of red on the KK, but I have grilled the sirloin steak on it before cubing it up for the chili. Simple S&P on it, since it's going into the chili pot with all the other spices. Works well. 

Yummy! 😋

Marie Sharp was the original owner of Melinda's, until it was bought out. They are the same recipe. One of the 1st hot sauces that I ever bought. 

Sounds like a "Melinda's" clone recipe with the carrots. Dave Dewitt and Nancy Gerlach were the original folks publishing Chili Pepper Magazine and cookbooks. They are the ones that got me started on my hot sauce/pepper journey! 

I just started this year's batch of my aji pepper sauce, not seeing much fermentation happening yet, but it's only been a couple of days. 

Next time, cook the spuds in that fat! You'll love it, too!

I love Modernist Cuisine. Dabbled a bit back in the day with molecular gastronomy stuff. 

1 hour ago, tekobo said:

All that fat came out of the chicken and was super yummy on roasted potatoes.

Did you actually roast the potatoes in that chicken fat (schmaltz) or just pour it over the top of the spuds after cooking, as a sauce?

Very interesting, indeed. As a mechanical engineer, who knows a thing or 2 about heat transfer, his science is spot on. His description of what's going on is very clear and precise - a good communicator. Video production is insane with that split pan. I had to "subscribe" to his channel. 

Another option, which I seem to recall Dennis promoting(?), is to just take a hammer to it and bash it until you can remove the pieces. Then just roll the KK off the ramp. 

FYI - that's my KK in those pics above - notice my hop plant in the background! 

@BOC - for sh!ts & giggles, put your thermometer in a boiling pot of water and see how it reads?

From "the man:" Meathead at Amazing Ribs:

Does meat stop taking on smoke?

There is a popular myth that at some point the meat stops taking on smoke. Sorry, but meat does not have doors that it shuts at some time during a cook. There is a lot of smoke moving through the cooking chamber although sometimes it is not very visible. If the surface is cold or wet, more of it sticks. Usually, late in the cook, the bark gets pretty warm and dry, and by then the coals are not producing a lot of smoke. Smoke bounces off warm dry surfaces so we are fooled into thinking the meat is somehow saturated with smoke. Throw on a log and baste the meat and it will start taking on smoke again. Just don’t baste so often that you wash off the smoke and rub.

To read the rest of the article: 

What You Need to Know About Wood, Smoke, And Combustion (amazingribs.com)

I have a good friend who runs a BBQ business here. He says that it's a struggle and you have to have the passion for it to keep going. His margins are razor thin and any bump in his costs hurts. Like you said, folks have it in their heads what they should pay for a pulled pork sandwich, notwithstanding what the true costs really are. COVID almost did him in, as he does a lot of catering of weddings, graduations, and corporate-sponsored events. That practically dried up during the quarantine and he barely made it on the carryout/delivery from the restaurant. 

We got the word this week that ANOTHER BBQ place in town is closing as of this Saturday. That's 2 in the last 2 months. Both said that they just couldn't make it work. One had been a "staple" around here for many years. Hope it's not a trend! Fortunately, when I'm being lazy and not making my own Q, I still have several other spots in town to choose from.