tony b

Hallelujah!! Thanks and Praises!!

Oh no, buckwheat, not buying that one at all! My theory is too many adult beverages while typing!

Another nice cook, tinyfish! Nothing wrong with that brisket at all. I've fallen in love with the butcher paper. Mine came out crazy good; even the leftovers are the best brisket I've ever cooked!

LIke others have suggested, load up the shipping crate with boxes of cocochar, I think you can get about 15 boxes on the top. Most economical way to ship it. It will last you a long time if you only use it for the really long cooks (> 6 hours). Since you ordered the basket splitter, get the second charcoal basket to go with it. Just swap them back and forth with the full sized one. Make thing so much simpler. I just got the new pizza stone design (conforms to the shape of the top grate). Loved the original round one, but it didn't fit my grate so well and got beaten up over time. A "must have" if you like doing pizza, breads, etc. on the grill or want to learn how!! Hang on, you are in for the ride of your life once your KK arrives!!

Was a chimney guy for decades, but based upon the feedback here, I've switched over to the propane torch. I went with this one. http://www.bernzomatic.com/product/jt850-lawn-and-garden-torch/ Like that it's long so you don't have to get down inside the KK to light it.

Poochie, Poochie, Poochie - what ARE we going to do with you??

You're killin' me, Poochie, killin' me!!!

Pictures, man, pictures!! We're addicted to food porn on this site!! MacKenzie, just waiting for that next burger cook, this time on the KK with those awesome smooth cheese slices you made!!!

It was! What you didn't see plated was the second helping of the pasta and another piece of chicken!

Panko has always been my "go to" breading for chicken up to now. Definitely give it a shot, as I think you'll like it, too. I'm thinking the tater flakes might have been better with some seasoning added. I didn't add any this time, as I want to have a clean test case. Same with the pork rinds; didn't get the BBQ flavored ones, but the plain ones. Plus, the marinade is so chocked full of flavor that you really didn't need to add anything on top of it. But, that could be the next experiment in this series - flavored breading, but dial back on the marinade, maybe just the White Sauce or Cornell style. Plus, I've got one more breading to try - crushed Ritz crackers.

Go for the butcher paper wrap, Wilbur! It's freaking amazing!!! I think that you'll really like having a Guru; I know that I do. I only use it for the really long lo & slo cooks. Still go manual for everything else. So, it's not exactly woosing out. Have only done a couple of full packer cuts in my time, but the flat usually finishes ahead of the point; hence, folks separating the two, cubing up the point, and back onto the smoker to do Burnt Ends, aka Meat Candy!!

OK, so I tried this tonight, but not with wings, but legs and thighs. Was a chance to try out another idea that I'd read about for breading chicken - crushed pork rinds! First the chicken was marinated overnight in a 50/50 mixture of Big Bob Gibson's White Sauce and Uncle Dougie's Wing Marinade. 2 pieces were coated in each - potato flakes and plain pork rinds (pulsed in food processor) On the chicken - potato flakes on the left, pork rinds on the right. Onto the KK, direct on the upper grate, 350F, with smoker pot of pecan and peach woods. After 45 minutes, ramped the KK up to 400F for the final 15 minutes. Off the grill - potato on the left and pork rinds on the right. Plated with more of that wonderful local sweet corn, angel hair with herbed oil (basil and sage from my plants) & parm, salad with homegrown tomato, and my fav summertime wine - Vinho Verde. (Note: the sourdough rolls didn't make the photo shoot.) Money shot! Conclusions: both produced crispy crusts. It was easier to coat the chicken in the pork rinds than the potato flakes, which fell off easily. The pork rinds brought a bit of bacon-y flavor, while the potato was fairly bland in taste, it was a tad gritty in texture. Being in Iowa and not Idaho, I'm giving the win to the pork rinds!

Can't wait to hear how that brisket comes out. Mine was crazy good! Made a sandwich with the leftovers today, it was still crazy good!

Smokey cold patina - wasn't that a song by Tone Loc??? For seriously gunked up stuff, the blue scruffy sponge with a little Bar Keepers Friend works, too. That's what I clean my indoor cooktop with.

Dude, everything under the kitchen sink! Good thing you didn't add any bleach to that concoction or we'd be reading your obit tomorrow!!!

Been trying to give the FOGO a test run (my first bag), based upon Ken's glowing recommendation. I have about a dozen boxes of coco-char in my garage. At least with it, I know to put some regular lump around it (like Royal Oak) to help it get started. Hadn't been expecting to have similar problems with a "regular" lump charcoal. I've tried maybe 8 - 10 different brands of charcoal in the KK and this is the only one that I've had this problem with. I would have normally used coco-char on this cook, but there are some seriously large chunks in the bag of FOGO, so I didn't think I'd need to use the coco this time on a longer cook. I was correct in that thinking, this stuff burns for a long time. Not even close to running out of fuel - ONCE I got it lit!! At first, I was greatly impressed with the stuff. Huge chunks in the bag, not a lot of smalls. Burns hot and fairly clean. Only initial critique was the high rate of sparking during lighting. But those early cooks were on top of other charcoal still in the basket. It's only been since I cleaned out the KK and reloaded the basket with nothing but the FOGO that I've had this problem. Trust me, both times this has happened, I've made sure to hit it with the torch until I see seriously red glow. And, I usually leave the lid open until I'm happy that the coals have lit before loading in the grates and closing the lid. Maybe I need to go back to using the chimney starter with this stuff. Going to cook some chicken in about an hour. Will use the chimney and see what happens this time.

Nice looking brisket, Wilbur! Guessing when the food will be done for dinner has always been a struggle. But, the technique of wrapping in towels in a cooler is the best solution so far. Temps will hold for many hours, so always plan to finish early is my best advice! OK Ken, MacKenzie and I are going to take away your Up/Down comment privileges if you don't stop fat fingering and inadvertently giving everyone negative (down) reviews. Check your above rating of Wilbur! I cancelled yours out.

Adult beverages help with the creative process!

Thanks! Good luck with that cook, tinyfish! Hope you don't have as many hiccups as I did! Can't wait to hear the results!

OK, so I did it! Despite trials and tribulations*, I did the Aaron Franklin brisket (sort of). Like he says, it's all about the meat. Since I was not cooking for the masses, I picked up a beautiful 100% grass fed brisket. My above post was a case of bad memory - it's only 1.5 lbs. The setup - Sucklebusters SPG, with extra S&P (fresh cracked, of course), and the pink butcher paper. All seasoned up and ready to go. Onto the KK, indirect, 250F w/Guru. Smoker pot with red oak and peach (see Trials & Tribulations below). A little after 8am this morning. After the stall (~172F internal, about 11:30 am) and ready to be wrapped. The stall was really short, only about 30 minutes (best guess). Back onto the KK. Finished @ 205F internal, about 3:30pm, look at the grease stain on the paper! Total time on the KK = ~ 7 1/2 hours. Wrapped in a towel and put into the cooler until suppertime @ 6pm. The grand reveal - ta, da!! Naked, no pink robe! Sliced open. Nice smoke ring. Great bark. Ate the end piece as the Cook's Choice. Crazy good pepper flavors. See where Aaron is going with this! Plated, with fresh, local sweet corn (seriously sweet!), house made fries (double fried, of course), salad with homegrown tomato (doesn't hold a candle to MacKenzie's garden produce!), sourdough rolls, and a nice Rose wine. Call it din-din! Money shot! How was it? AMAZING! The flavor and bark were killer. While not dry, I wouldn't have call it moist or juicy (until I hit a piece with some fat left - OMG!), but that was to be expected with such a small piece of meat. Will definitely only be doing brisket in the future in pink butcher paper and will likely wrap my chuck roasts, too!! I wonder how ribs would do in it?? * OK, for the Trials & Tribulations - First, despite getting up at the crack of dawn (6am) to get the KK up and going, it took 3 attempts to get the grill lit and running (Ken, starting to have serious doubts about this FOGO charcoal! This isn't the first time I've had it go out on me after seriously hitting it with the torch!) After losing an hour fighting the charcoal, I finally got the meat on a little after 8 am. My original target was 7am. Was a bit worried about getting it done by suppertime. Thought seriously about breaking out the Bourbon at this point! As it turns out, it finished a bit earlier than I planned. Wrapped in a towel and into the cooler until suppertime. Second T&T - because of the issues getting the charcoal lit and going, the smoker pot never got lit during the brisket cook. When I ramped up the KK to 350F to cook the corn after the brisket came off, the smoker pot kicked in like a Banshee and smoked the hell out of the corn! Seriously pissed for the second time today! Didn't seem to miss the extra smoke on the brisket and the corn was cooked in the shucks, so it didn't affect it either. But, I was not a happy camper, nonetheless! And yes, I started drinking at this point!!! All in all, not one of the worst cooks that I've suffered through, but not one of the easiest, either. But, in the end, all that matters is the results - which were F-ing Fantastic! So, I guess all the headaches were worth it!

They go straight into the water bath in the shell. The interesting part is cracking them open; the runny part of the white that usually swirls around in a conventional water bath, stays with the shell and you get a perfectly poached egg on your plate. The first time I did them, I was quite concerned about how to get them out of the shell without breaking the yolks. Turns out it's just as simple as breaking open an uncooked egg; it just falls out in one piece.

Nice. Glad to have you both back in the game!

Please do! Along with your color choice.