BBQs

[Mito Man]

I wanted to learn distilling and the kit wasn’t too crazy to do it the last time I checked. Built a little pub for it and everything but never got round to it as the farmer just gives a bottle of his home brew each time I go to buy hay.
That’s distilling essential oils from barley before anyone gets any ideas

[duncs500]

Do it Mito, it's always satisfying to create something like that and then enjoy it and share with others. Well I think so anyway. Plus, the more hobbies the better.

[McSwede]

Yep, worked perfectly. The meat temp went to 203F funnily enough when I felt it was about done after all my moaning last time, came out really well (if anything a smidge longer than ideal for me, but for lots of compliments). Suspect my probe placement was better.

Going to go for my first shot at pulled pork this weekend. The butcher suggested trying the "Hand and Spring" as a cheaper alternative to Boston Butt, apparently next to it on the shoulder (nearly half price). Anyone else have any experience?

I always get a boneless shoulder of pork with the skin and most of the fat removed then cover it in a sweet maple run and go along the lines of this
https://traeger.app.link/jkeJqvpbosb

1kg-1.5kg of boneless shoulder makes a lot of pulled pork. I love it and it's a real favourite with friends and family. All my mates kids ask me to make it if the come over. It's a good one to do when you're WFH.

[IanF]

The butcher suggested trying the "Hand and Spring" as a cheaper alternative to Boston Butt, apparently next to it on the shoulder (nearly half price). Anyone else have any experience?

I think if I asked my butcher anything along those lines I'd get a blank look and a "You wot mayte?"

Hand, butt.. don’t think he was talking about the meat on the counter!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Ok, so the Kamado has just arrived. Thankfully the delivery guy offered to help me carry the oven itself through to the back. That was at east something, as even he was struggling. We were both genuinely surprised at just how heavy it is.

I have no idea at all how I'm going to get this into the cradle The wife won't be able to help. And the last time I roped in a fairly big mate I was a little surprised at his relative lack of strength. I might have to think creatively

[duncs500]

They do look heavy, how much does it weigh?

I trust you'll be firing it up this weekend?

Oh, and pics please.

[Swervin_Mervin]

113kg apparently.

Plan is to fire it up this weekend, yes. If I can get it in the cradle. If I can't then the old Outback Flamer will likely get one more runout!

WIll deffo get some pics

[duncs500]

113kg apparently.

Careful with your back!

[Carlos]

The lid and innards etc are loose for assembly. Still a big unit though and will need a buddy to help.

[duncs500]

@Swervin_Mervin did you get it fired up?

Took a shot at pulled pork at the weekend. Followed Meathead Goldwyn's recipe. I have a bit of a problem with his book though, he gives a cooking time but doesn't say whether that is with a crutch or not. In the description he says he rarely crutches so I assumed that would mean the cooking time matched that but that can't be the case.

I'm thinking he's got the time inclusive crutch now, because he's got 12hrs for pulled pork. I used a fairly small joint so figured it should be a bit less than 12hrs with the stall etc, after 13hrs it was still nowhere near the designated internal temp of 203F so I upped the temp from the recommended 225F to 250F. After another nearly 2hrs it was at 191F internal and I had to give up because it was bed time! It still came out well, but I think I'll be trying your method next time @McSwede. Meathead insists on 225F for everything, but seems there's plenty that comes out just as well at higher temps.

The Flameboss is a total game changer though, maintains perfect temps the whole time, I was out and about much of the day just keeping an eye on the app. I can up the temp when not at home or knock it down if it's done earlier than expected, and it seems more efficient too, ran it for 15hrs there and there was still loads of unburnt charcoal left.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Hi Duncs

I didn't, unfortauntely, no. A combination of kids parties and other more urgent house/garden upkeep jobs got in the way. Between me and the wife we did, however, get it into its cradle - much easier when you've taken the liners etc out.

So after picking the boy up from sports club on Monday afternoon, we set about fitting it all out. So it's ready to go.

Plan is to just fire it up maybe tonight or tomorrow night, just to get some practice in to see how it burns, and to try out some heat management etc. Then hopefully we'll have our first blast on it this weekend. Need to get some practice in ahead of BH weekend and my parents visiting.

I'll get some pics later if it isn't raining.

[Swervin_Mervin]

So I fired up the KJ yesterday evening - no cooking, I just wanted to give it an initial fring and get a bit of a feel for the heat control.

I had some old charcoal lying about from Oxford Charcoal which I hadn't been that impressed with when using it on our Outback - it never seemed to get that hot.

A few pics below:

This was about 20mins after lighting when I'd just slid the top vent back over (vent fully open and bottom vent fully open)



It maxxed out about this temp with those vent settings


I was disappointed. So I slid the top vent back open. And the temp climbed very very quickly! I wimped out at 430C/800F and slid it back over


I then spent the rest of the evening recording temps at various stages of vent closure to give me a baseline to work from in future. Then closed it down before going to bed.

Checked this morning and still have some coal left


I need now to crack on finishing painting the garage so I can get some storage in there. Not least because this has a lot of accessories! I ordered it as a starter bundle so it not only comes with the divide and conquer racks and ceramic heat deflectors, but also a cover, cast iron griddle and cooking grate and a pizza stone. And I've already got a Xmas/birthday list of further accessories I'd like

We'll have a crack at cooking on it this Sunday. Just need to decide what to start with. Tempted to start simple with just some good steak and some sausages for the boy. Or maybe a spatchcocked chicken. Or spare ribs.

Or maybe all of the above

[duncs500]

Looks rather good! Some serious temps as well.

[Jobbo]

With those temps, some tandoori chicken must be tempting.

[Swervin_Mervin]

With those temps, some tandoori chicken must be tempting.

It absolutely is Simon. I'd always fancied building a homemade tandoor a bit like Heston did in his Perfect series a few years ago (essentially dig a hole in the garden and line it with bricks) but the wife was having none of that.

I've got some decent sized skewers so will have to give it a try at some point. And maybe some naan breads as well If it goes well I might look into some proper skewers that could be hung off the top vent

[JonMad]

Impressive temperatures there!

Having just picked up a Weber Go Anywhere and enjoyed using it whilst we were camping, I'm now watching every YT vid possible about people modifying the top grill plate (chopping it in half) then being able to stack everything inside it. Have ordered the Weber mini chimney stater, as my old small chimney chose to break on holiday (the handle fell off it).

[McSwede]

Can't beat some serious Fahrenheit

[Swervin_Mervin]

Can't beat some serious Fahrenheit

I was doing a bit of reading up last night and it seems there's quite a few that steer clear of temps over 350-400C (650-750F), for fear of damaging the oven. Had me worried for a bit given I'd cranked it up to that on first use , but there's nothing in the booklet that comes with the oven about a "safe" maximum, nor is there anything on the temp guage to suggest a sort of danger zone.

Has made me think I'd best get it registered with KJ fairly quick, just in case. But I'd have thought as long as you aren't daft, and allow it to heat up over a decent length of time, it should surely be fine. I mean traditional tandoor ovens are ceramic and typically get to around 8-900F AFAIK.

[McSwede]

I had to use a disposable BBQ today (awful things). I managed to much improve it by getting an old one, cutting the bottom out and standing it on top. This raised the grill height to a much better level enabling proper cooking of the food we had.

[Jobbo]

Are you on holiday at Rufford Ford?