tony b

Easter dinner was a yummy swabian boneless pork roast. Injected/marinated overnight with Butcher's BBQ Injection for pork. Outside rubbed with 3 EYZ BBQ rub. Indirect on the KK with Guru and a smoker pot with peach and hickory chunks. Started out @ 225F for the first hour, but got a bit rushed for dinner, so I cranked it up to 325F - never got there because the meat hit my 145F target first, about an hour later. Guru was around 315F. Wrapped in foil while I made my sides and salad (about 20 minutes). Seriously yummy piggy. Sorry, forgot pics (I know the rules!) Leftovers are great too! Slice of pork roast fried up to crispy the fat, with sunny side up eggs for breakfast. Dinner will be pork fried rice and pork roast in black bean sauce. Update: Just finished dinner. Pork fried rice was some of the best I've ever done. Great balance of flavors. The "twice cooked" pork with black bean sauce was just OK. Tasty, but too oily. Between the extra fat rendering out of the swabian pork, the oil in the chile paste with garlic and the black bean with chile paste, it all added up at the end. That sauce was damned shiny though!!

Nothing wrong with rare in my book! Next time try a "reverse sear" and see if you like the results better.

Thanks for the tip, Dennis. Always looking for new sources. I am a big fan of Penzey's Spices - www.penzeys.com for most of my spices. I like Pendery's for my chili spices - www.penderys.com

New basket arrived yesterday, all nice and shiny. Can't wait to smudge it up!!

Does asparagus w/charred lemons count as "bitter herbs??"

Sorry, Susan, but I'm the last guy you want help from when it comes to what works and what doesn't on this Forum!!! With all the other problems that I've had with this software, uploading pictures hasn't been one of them.

Seriously Cool, Dennis!! Congratulations!!!! I love the Amazing Ribs website, especially for debunking a lot of BBQ "myths" out there!

The link in your post took me right to it? Gremlins???

Susan, have you ever had pork rillettes? Think duck confit, only pork.

While my local HyVee supermarket carries the prosciutto, I usually buy mine at CostCo - bigger packages and cheaper, too! But, the prosciutto is all I can get there, none of the other yummy pork products that La Quercia makes. Need to find a local source that carries more. The online links to Murray's and Zingermann's are a bit pricey, especially when you add on the shipping. Dan, de nada, always glad to turn other Foodies on to something tasty!

Trust me, Susan, it will be every bit as good as the Iberico! These pigs are fed a diet of hydroponically raised barley and milk. Look for the Andrew Zimmern show when he came to Iowa. He went down to visit Carl at Rustic Rooster Farms and see the pigs (and eat them too!) Plus, you get to learn about our other little secret, La Quercia, where they make the yummy Prosciutto Americano here in Norwalk, IA. Here's a link to a snippet of the show - http://shar.es/BMfk5.

Susan, Let me know how you like them. I recommend that you try them the first time with just a little salt and pepper to really appreciate the flavor of the pork without embellishments of other rubs/sauces. My second set of chops and the ribs were both dry rubbed - chops with Dizzy Dust and the ribs with Billy Bones' Competition Rub.

Looks like all they have in the on-line store is the short ribs and chops. I got my rack of baby backs at the local farmers' market. I've had the pork chops - they are just as killer as the ribs!

While there's a lot of downsides to living in Iowa (winters from Hell!), but when you live in a state where the pigs out number the people by like 10 to 1, it's a good thing! Recently been able to procure some pork from Black Swabian hogs. It's a German heritage pig being raised here in Iowa (www.swabianhall.com) and besides being super yummy, they are pretty cute as pigs go (see picture). So, I've now cooked both the pork chops and baby back ribs from these pigs and I can honestly say it's the best pork that I've ever eaten. The fat is actually tastier than the meat!!! So go online, right now!!!! and order you some of this yummy pork. Here's some pics of tonight's baby backs. 4 Hours on the KK @ 225F, indirect w/guru, smoker pot with peach and hickory chunks.

Move to Iowa, Susan (Ha, ha, ha)!

Well, the dinner went very well. Guests liked the duck, but I wasn't super happy with the skin. I did 2 ducks (prepped exactly the same), but one didn't have very crispy skin and the other one was almost too crispy (see pictures). I had attempted the inflating technique to separate the skin from the body before prepping, but wasn't terribly successful. Only got a few small pockets to inflate. I used a metal turkey baster, with an injection needle. I didn't have a bicycle tire pump. Couldn't really generate enough pressure to force the skin to separate with the turkey baster. Ducks were showered with the hot bath of boiling water, rice vinegar and honey, and the cavities smeared with a paste of light and dark soy sauce, sake, Chinese 5 spice powder, ground star anise, ground cinnamon, ground Szechuan peppercorns and white pepper, then air dried on vertical roasters for 24 hrs (+/-) in the fridge. Next, the outsides were painted with a mix of light & dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and honey and left to air dry in the fridge overnight. Then smoked on the KK @ 375F for 90 minutes with a mix of cherry and pecan wood chunks in the smoker pot. Here's some photos.

Yummy!!

Done. Just ordered a second basket. While I was at it, threw in one of the newer heat shield/ash deflectors, hoping to solve the problem of ash and other bits getting around the door and preventing a good tight seal for shutdowns after high heat sears with the door pulled open.

Looks great to me. Love me some thai beef salad! (also. larb is another fav!)

Sounds like a "no brianer." I have several Rubbermaid tubs on my deck for holding gear, charcoal, smoking woods, etc., so I have home for the second basket.

I know you've recommended it in the past, Susan, but hearing you bring it up again, I'm seriously thinking about that second basket for the added convenience. I usually just dump out the coals into the lid of my charcoal tub and put the splitter configuration in that I'm using and dump the coals back in; but while it's not a major hassle, it's still extra work and messy.

"And, I'm not missing out on my adult beverages cooking fast either!!" - you go, girl! Thanks for the propers!

Depending on the thickness of the steak, I use either the sear grate, long handles up, on the charcoal basket for thicker cuts, and use the lower grill for the thinner ones (<1" thick). Never tried sear grate with the long handles down (humm??? - always good to have another tool in the box!) I always crank the KK as high as I can get it to do a sear (usually a reverse sear unless it's a thin steak on the lower). Chunks of either/both red oak and/or mesquite. For a basted steak like yours with lots of fresh herbs and garlic, I'd worry about burning it and making it bitter with a super high temp sear. I'd opt for just tossing in the sauce after the sear.

That's funny, Dennis, as almost all of our supermarket lamb comes from Down Under and we have no problems getting "regular cut" lamb loin chops (think baby T-bones), as well as whole racks of lamb, which can be cut into lollipops. Just scored some loin chops at CostCo, as they had stocked up on lamb for Easter.

I was wonder about that, too, Susan? Their website only talks about BGEs and Kamado Joes, which are round, not the KK, which has a unique shape.