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I had in mind to smoke a couple of pork butts low and slow. I had not cooked on Mable in about a year, due to a number of factors. I had not cleaned her since the last cook, nor had I done any routine spring maintenance this year. To make a long story short, Mable remained true to her pedigree, all the fault was mine. I first became aware of an issue when I could not stabilize her temperature. After seven years of set and forget simplicity, I was not expecting her temp to continue to climb. I knew that air was getting in somewhere, though. I discovered the problem was the knob on the back door. it was loose and unable to be tightened with fire in the cooker. I MacGuyvered a quick fix using some Gorilla tape. Fortunately, Mable had not stabilized at 300. After the improvised repair, I was able to slowly back down the temp to 210 over the course of the next two hours. The problem started around 2:00 am, and by 4:30 am I was able to get some shuteye. As I type this, the temp is about 240 and the meat is 163 degrees. I anticipate a delicious pulled pork dinner, thanks to the incredible engineering that goes into these cookers. They are engineered to be airtight, but it does take some routine maintenance to keep it that way. Once the air leak was sealed, Mable was as happy as a clam at high tide. I am posting a few photos to support the verbiage. I will post a finished product pic or two. Note: I just went out and took pics 7 and 8. Internal is 168. I will foil at 175.

I'm scheduled to cook 2 pork shoulders for a fundraiser in a couple weeks. In the past, I have always timed the cook so I could take it off the KK, let it sit for a while, pull it, and deliver it. That way it's as fresh as possible. This year, however, I have a conflict on the date of the fundraiser, so I'm wondering if it would work to cook it the day before, and have them reheat it just prior to the fundraiser. I presume that I should cook & pull it as usual, but I'm wondering how to best store and reheat the pulled pork. Any suggestions? Thanks for any suggestions

Hi folks! I didn't have time to do a proper documentary this time, but thought I'd share some of pictures from my Independence Day Brew and Q celebration. It was a great party composed mostly of my eldest son's friends, but I had a few friends too - two of which provided live music. Sorry I didn't have time to take and post more pictures, but I was quite busy cooking, cleaning and hosting. I hope you enjoy the pics. If you have any questions, please let me know! Protein menu 2 pork butts, pulled, using Kaeding's Classic BBQ sauce and secret rub 1 UDSA Choice Brisket done Texas style (Bill Jamison recipe) 6 racks of St. Louis cut ribs done Kansas City style (Bill Jamison recipe) 4 brined, roasted chickens cooked beer can style (Myron Mixon recipe - modified) Cowboy baked beans (Emeril Lagasse recipe) using my home-brewed Belgian dark strong ale Equipment Nimoy (23" Kamado Komodo): Overnight brisket cook and ribs on the 4th Original Mushi Kamado #5 green: Overnight pork butt cook and 4 roasted chickens on the 4th Original Mushi Kamado #5 orange: Simmering the Cowboy Baked Beans in Dutch oven over mesquite lump and pecan wood chunks Camp Chef expedition stove: warm and serve On Tap (all home-brewed) Freedom Ale '16 (NW IPA dry hopped with Citra and El Dorado hops) Wit (Belgian White with tangerine zest, juice and green coriander seed) Deep Sixx (Robust Porter style) Pictures

Hi, KK family. It has been a long time since I hazarded a sharing of one of my cooks. A lot has changed since my last post. For one thing, we have moved. We recently finished installing a patio and outdoor kitchen. Mabel will be doing all of the charcoal cooking and we have some Alfresco equipment to handle the rest, I decided to cook some butts today, and I will share a few of them with neighbors. Here is what I have done so far. 4 Boston Butts, wet pack with a total weight of 36.5 pounds Peanut Butter and honey based rub. Nothing fancy here. I whisked together 12 oz of creamy peanut butter with about 2 oz of clover honey. I added 4 T of mayonnaise and 2 oz of Mother's raw apple cider vinegar. Whisked some more. To this I added approx. 1 T each of turmeric, lemon pepper blend, garlic salt, and a few other odds and ends that my granny told me about. As I type this, Mabel is slowly soaking to about 220-230, while the butts rest. I am attempting to add some pics. I will update as the cook progresses. Note: I have included a pic or two of the outdoor kitchen section of the new patio, just in case someone may like to see it. @Dennis Linkletter: The company that I got the outdoor equipment from is called Affordable Outdoor Kitchens, in Millersville, MD. The owner is Kevin and I sang your praises to him. He was very impressed with the build quality and cooking potential of Mabel, especially when I told him about the wide range of sizes and that any of them can be built into the hardscape or counter. He said that he would look you up. Let me know if you want to follow up. that was about 2 weeks ago.

So I have new neighbors that moved into the house just east of me. Unpacking is such a pain in the gluteus maximus, Been there and done that. So Pat and her husband Kerwin are directing the unpacking of the moving van and we get to know each other. Lovely couple who are 75 and 79 respectively. I ask if they like BBQ and Kerwin looks at me as if I've lost my mind! He says "Young man, what part of YES, HE!! YES don't you understand!" I know immediately I'm gonna like these folks! So I tell Pat and Kerwin I'm fixing them a pulled pork dinner with all the fixin's. After protesting I tell them I'm bigger than both of them and I don't want to hear any more about it. So I buy a couple of butts and and rub 'em up with olive oil and my Embarrassed Zebra rub and stow 'em in the refrigerator over night for 24 hours. I pull the butts about 6 pm and rub 'em up again and back into the cooler. I fire up TheBeast about 8:00 pm and heat soak him at 225F until 10 pm when the butts go on the grill. We're using apple chunks for our smoke component. Here are the butts just on the main grate. So I shut the lid and it's off to bed. I told TheBeast this was for our new neighbors and to behave himself over night. No shenanigans whatsoever! So I wake up the next morning and this is what greets my eyes ... Here's how my neighbor's butts look about half way through the cook ... So it seems that TheBeast and his guests of honor are playing nice together! Flash forward to about 5:00 pm and I check my neighbor's butts again. Probed like soft butt and the ThermaPen showed and IT of 200F for off the butts came! Here's a pic of one of the butts right before wrapping and being stuck in the cooler for about an hour. At 6:00 pm I started pulling the pork and here is a pic of what went next door. I don't have any pics of the plated sammies, cole slaw, and homemade chips, but let's just say Pat came over about 7:30 pm and told me Kerwin was on his 3rd helping of everything! BINGO! As an aside, Kerwin came over the next day to get a proper introduction to TheBeast. I showed him TheBeast and he started asking questions. Kerwin WAS thinking of buying a BGE but has changed his mind. His family is eaten up with BGEs. Pat told me he's spent the last 2 days reading the Komodo Kamado website and has decided he's going to can his BGE purchase and go with a KK 23" Ultimate! Y'all have the very Merriest and most Blessed of Christmases!