Slow n Sear on a 26" kettle

[Huskee]

ctesibiusulpius I find it best to let your temp sneak up to 225° instead of letting go over and then try to bring it back down. Once it got to 225° it chugged along nicely at that temp for about 5 hours, no adjustments required. Then I started losing a few degrees and tried opening the top vent some. But I wasn't getting much response so I opened the lid and used a wiggle stick to slightly shift the briquettes around a LITTLE bit and closed the lid again. That wiggle stick was magic everything smoothed out again. After 90 to 120 minutes I started losing temp again. I got my trusty wiggle stick out again, moved the briquettes a LITTLE and all was good. I cooked from 10:00am to 6:00pm without adding any briquettes and I believe I could have cooked for another hour. You might want to try the wiggle stick method when your temp goes down and vent adjustments aren't helping much.🤔 Today's cook was pork belly strips dry brined overnight and then I added some beef love and coated all sides with Memphis Dust and then on to the grate. After 6 hours I coated half of the strips with maple syrup just to see how that might effect the flavor profile. I pulled them exactly 8 hours after I put them on. It was my very first cook of pork belly and I really had NO CLUE about how to do it. All worked out well.😆

Yes, at or about the 5hr mark we recommend tapping/tunking the briquets as necessary to knock ash off, and sweep it out with the handle. And on the preheat, we like to close our vents down when the temp nears the 225 goal, say 175-190. Kudos on the BBQ Dragon, love it!

[Breadhead]

David Parrish ... This is a response to your post @15.1

Being this was my first pork belly cook ever and that I screwed up buying strips instead of a big clod of meat that I could make bacon out of, I really didn't know exactly what to do. As time went on I thought over done would be better than under done because of all the fat.

This is the first cook I've done in years without putting a temperature probe in the meat.😆 I cooked more for appearance than temp. The small strips I would guess were around 200° after 8 hours at 225°, I'm really not sure.

I also put more wood chunks on than I normally would. I wanted a strong smoke flavor on this meat. The pork belly tasted fantastic. I couldn't stop snacking on it.😛

[David Parrish]

David Parrish ... This is a response to your post @15.1

Being this was my first pork belly cook ever and that I screwed up buying strips instead of a big clod of meat that I could make bacon out of, I really didn't know exactly what to do. As time went on I thought over done would be better than under done because of all the fat.

This is the first cook I've done in years without putting a temperature probe in the meat.😆 I cooked more for appearance than temp. The small strips I would guess were around 200° after 8 hours at 225°, I'm really not sure.

I also put more wood chunks on than I normally would. I wanted a strong smoke flavor on this meat. The pork belly tasted fantastic. I couldn't stop snacking on it.😛

Interesting. I'd have figured a cut that fatty would be all melted away at 200 F. Was it fatty like bacon?

[Breadhead]

Lots of the fat was rinder off but not all of it. For not knowing what I was doing I think I did pretty good. The extra smoke was a win and the maple syrup was great. I've got 5 strips left over I think it might be TACO Saturday.😆

[David Parrish]

Sounds good!

[ctesibiusulpius]

I'd like to post and updated and offer my tremendous thanks to the Pit Boss. After getting some pointers from him, I'm doing a cook on 2 chuck roasts, nspired by this post on 2 chuck roasts in his PBC. At four hours of smooth sailing and constant temps, I decided to check up on everything. The water was pretty low but not empty. As for the charcoal, more than half of it was left. I swept out the ash and filled the water. I inserted one of my maverick probes in the smaller of the roasts. I'm at 5 hours in now. Temp is at 225F roast temp is at 149F. I'm just cruising along. I couldn't be more pleased thus far. So, thank you, sir. I appreciate your shepherding of my ignorance and pointing me to the light.

[David Parrish]

I'd like to post and updated and offer my tremendous thanks to the Pit Boss. After getting some pointers from him, I'm doing a cook on 2 chuck roasts, nspired by this post on 2 chuck roasts in his PBC. At four hours of smooth sailing and constant temps, I decided to check up on everything. The water was pretty low but not empty. As for the charcoal, more than half of it was left. I swept out the ash and filled the water. I inserted one of my maverick probes in the smaller of the roasts. I'm at 5 hours in now. Temp is at 225F roast temp is at 149F. I'm just cruising along. I couldn't be more pleased thus far. So, thank you, sir. I appreciate your shepherding of my ignorance and pointing me to the light.

Awesome! Glad to hear things are going better this cook. Made my day!

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