KBQ ~ has landed

[Spinaker]

OmegaDog12
Yeeeeeeaaahhhh Buddddy!!! Everything looks great man! I am glad that chicken method work for you. I learned it all here in the Pit. That's not mine, I owe it to the Pit.
Let's just say we Enlightened you, Grasshopper. 👊🏻
I'm glad everything went well. What wood did you use? How long was the cook? What temp did you roll at? We need details here brother? 🤓

Keep Calm, Smoke On. 🔥👌🇺🇸🔥

[Spinaker]

And now here's me just having fun. This rig is a blast every time! 🔥🤘🔥 The Finex is getting some love tonight. Hey I gotta eat!! I just chopped up some grilled chicken I had In The fridge. Fried a little bacon first and then threw the chicken in.

[Mr. Bones]

Chicken? Bacon? In cast iron? I'm dang sure in on that!

[carolts]

Has anybody tried GrillGrates on the firebox?

[Spinaker]

Here's the finished product. KBQ for LIFE!

[OmegaDog12]

Spinaker I rubbed with mixture of brow sugar, kosher salt, smoked paprika,garlic powder, onion powder, and ancho chili powder and let sit overnight. Took slvance advice and went directly from fridge to smoker. Used white oak, black cherry with occasional pecan chunks chunks. 224 degrees for 3.5 hrs. Spritzed with apple juice/apple cider vinegar mix every 30 minutes starting 2 hrs into the cook. This rig is amazing-back up to temp in no time. I injected one chicken with Peri-Peri Sauce(I like hot foods) and one with Jamaica jerk seasoning. Served it to the staff to celebrate upcoming Bosses Day. All they could talk about about was the flavor and tenderness of the ribs an chicken!! Already getting requests to do it again next week. Again, thanks to you and Ernest slvance and The Pit Crew for advice and talking me into buying my KBQ.

[Spinaker]

Yes!! Now thats what I'm talking about. I haven't spritz anything one the KBQ. I might have to try that some time. I did some chickens yesterday, and I love hearing peoples reaction when they first try KBQ chicken.

[carolts]

The KBQ has arrived and been assembled. Got several bundles of white oak from the local garden/logging center that still need some disassembly. Hickory from Fruita arrives today, so that will be the first wood used. I'm thinking boneless pork butt for the first cook since I've done that many times on the other cookers, followed up tomorrow with wings for the games. I may throw in a couple of whole birds for later in the week, since we have endless recipes for leftover smoked chicken. Maybe some ribs or a meatloaf...I can't believe the room in this thing!

A question on cooking ribs and chicken in the same cook...since the chicken cooks fast and hot, how does that affect the ribs? Or did I miss that part of the discussion?

And does anybody besides me love the warnings on top of the control box?

[tbob4]

The other side says: warning, fire may cause food to change color, texture and taste. These changes can be addictive. Mixing spirits with the food can lead to a chronic condition known as HappyQ.

[slvance]

carolts I have not cooked chicken and ribs together, but I would be interested in if anybody had a method for doing that that would work. I's kind of assuming you would need to cook the ribs and wrap - then do the chicken

[Spinaker]

I always cook my ribs first. You can do multiple whole birds in An hour or less with the heat turned up. I hold my ribs in a pan, covered, brown them up in the gasser before serving.

[Mr. Bones]

The KBQ has arrived and been assembled. Got several bundles of white oak from the local garden/logging center that still need some disassembly. Hickory from Fruita arrives today, so that will be the first wood used. I'm thinking boneless pork butt for the first cook since I've done that many times on the other cookers, followed up tomorrow with wings for the games. I may throw in a couple of whole birds for later in the week, since we have endless recipes for leftover smoked chicken. Maybe some ribs or a meatloaf...I can't believe the room in this thing!

A question on cooking ribs and chicken in the same cook...since the chicken cooks fast and hot, how does that affect the ribs? Or did I miss that part of the discussion?

And does anybody besides me love the warnings on top of the control box?

I'm delighted for you!!! What's Super-Cool, is I know that you can do this baby Justice, right outta the gate!

Please, pretty please, keep us posted with updates. We all live vicariously, from each other's cooks...YUM!!!

(And, yes, I really like the warning label!!!) Very factual, while remaining tongue-in-cheek.)

Enjoy your Saturday!!!

[badf00d]

Beef ribs went on the KBQ about an hour ago. Here is what they looked like out of the refrigerator. I will post an after shot if I remember to take one.

Spinaker - I'm using Black Ops rub. My wife loves that stuff.

[badf00d]

Ha! EdF you're not kidding. Once the food is done I am ready to cut and serve, despite my best intentions.

[slvance]

badf00d that explains a lot... the beef ribs I get are probably 1/3 to 1/2 that thick.... nice cut...looks awesome

[Spinaker]

Beef ribs and Black Ops?? I cant think of a better combo. How did it turn out?

[slvance]

Staring to learn how to cook on the KBQ... I normally make baby back, but they were out so I went with Spare. Never had much results with them I have with BB's. Set the dial for 188 at 2pm. After an hour they looked like they were cooking too fast and I put in a thermometer and the grate temp was almost 300!. So backed it down to 188 at 12pm and got a temp about 240. Ended up cooking for 4.5 hours. My dad said "they melt in your mouth". Very pleased with the KBQ so far.
After 2 hours

Finished product

[Spinaker]

Those look great. Thanks for your temp description and grate temps. I had four racks cook in about two hours this weekend. They cooked too fast. Still very good but they cooked too fast.

[JGrana]

They look great, nice job. I agree that the learning curve with the KBQ is to lean towards the lower temps. As we can tell, this thing is like a Convection Smoker (CS - a new acronym).
With the far better heat and smoke distribution of convection, it will cook more thorough - and quicker.

[OmegaDog12]

KBQ'ers,
Help me out. Here in SC, after Hurricane Matthew, there are LOTS of pecan, oak and hickory trees down. I've helped remove wood from properties, then split it for my KBQ. How long should I let it season before using?

[slvance]

Looking on the net opinions are everywhere. Just remember apparently Pecan is not good in the KBQ. It does seem the most common answer is 6 month minimum, but I have used wood I know was younger with no issues.

[Spinaker]

If the wood is too wet, you'll get bad Cerosoot build up on the blades of the fans. Your supposed to clean them anyway, but it also builds up on the underside of the controller box. It looks like a shiny black enamel. Bill also mentions this on the KBQ site.

[smokinfatties]

FROM KBQ Manual:

Moisture content: cut, split and air dried for a couple of months is dry enough. Not freshly-cut; not kiln-dried.

[JGrana]

Practice Run for Thanksgiving

I purchased 2 briskets - one a Choice flat and the other a Iowa Premium Choice packer. I want to treat my northeastern family to both Turkey and brisket this Thanksgiving.
I had done some great ribs and chicken on the KBQ, but wanted to fine tune with a brisket as we heads towards Thanksgiving.

The flat was fairly small - 7 lbs, trimmed down to ~6. Did the dry rub the night before along with a low salt beef stock injection then a mix of BBBR and a few additional spices (some Memphis Dust and a little Pastorine rub) that morning.

Set the KBQ to ~230. It went from 210 to 235 most of the day. Started with some oak and mesquite then over to mostly hickory and some apple.

Wow, cooked fast. Went from the fridge to ~203 in 6 hours. Cambro for about 4 hours and down to ~135 .... tasted fantastic, cut with a fork - no knife needed. A little dry, a little less smoke than I am use to - but my wife said it was fantastic (I had a habit of over-smoking my meat...).



The practice part is this. We ate ~ 1/3 of the roast. I quickly put the rest in the fridge. The next morning I took it out, cut it in half and vacuum sealed it in bags with the jelled stuff and fat with ~ 2 TBS of beef stock in each bag.
Put in the old freezer and will see how they are in a few weeks.

The nice full packer (~16 lbs) needs to be smoked a week before Thanksgiving (don't ask). I want to make sure it come out well. I will make some burnt ends from the point. Freeze both :-(

My $0.02:
I am going to cook at a lower temp. More like 215-225. Roughly 10F lower than the flat
I am going to inject - maybe more than I did for the flat
I will keep both the top and bottom drafts open for a bit more smoke flavor

Any other advice?

Many thanks!

[Spinaker]

One question. Why do you want to smoke it so low? I shoot for an average of about 250 F on my briskets. I'm not saying its good or bad. Just curious.

[JGrana]

One more thing - I make this fine "Smoked Ghostly Garlic Salt" for my use and many friends.
It involves smoking course Himalayan salt, Ghost peppers and garlic. Put them in a food dehydrator, grind up the pepper and garlic, mix with the smoked salt and put into grinders. Always a good excuse to fire up the smoker for some meats ;-)
The KBQ, with it's circulating fan for heat and smoke - wow, the salt and peppers come out with a smooth smokiness and almost dry




This has been a bumper year for my Ghost Pepper plants. I have a bunch still on the plants....

[Spinaker]

Hell yeah. I wanna try this. What kinda temps do you run in the KBQ. Both drafts open?

[Mr. Bones]

"Smoked Ghostly Garlic Salt" !!!???
I'm in, sounds fanfreakintastic!

[bbqoaf]

Cool, I like this idea a lot.

[JGrana]

Spinaker I put the tray of salt and peppers (and often garlic cloves) in with whatever I am smoking - in this case the brisket. The brisket was wrapped so I opened both drafts and kept the temps around 230F for about 2 hours. The peppers and garlic take some good smoke - the salt less so. But, when I put the salt back into a bag with non-smoked you can clearly see the color difference.
Comes out great from a grinder!

[carolts]

Some KBQ action shots...still getting the hang of it, and first two cooks (boneless pork butt, then wings and ribs) were good but not outstanding. This is going to take some getting used to.



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[smokinfatties]

I have only done wings once, but they were excellent and very crispy. did you put any seasonings on them?or oil? mine had avocado oil and S&G rub and they turned out excellent and crispy.

[carolts]

The wings were a bit overdone and moderately crispy. I just put a little salt on them this time but will try some oil next time. The pork butt was tasty but needed more time in the cooker.

[Spinaker]

Wings with Avocado oil and S&G rub on the KBQ are lights outs out. Best ever. Cook them hot and fast!!! smokinfatties knows what's up. Don't worry carolts next cook, you'll be loving it!

[slvance]

Did the exact same thing - A. Oil & S&G rub... turned KBQ all the way up - cooked for about 35 minutes.... I'm just used to fried wings so probably looking for something kinda crispy...

[smokinfatties]

oh ok, got it! let me know if you find any techniques that you may like more. I have heard that steaming them first helps with crispyness but never tried myself.

[Spinaker]

Letting them sit out in the fridge, uncovered, with a blend of baking powder and salt will give you the crispier wings your looking for. They will be every bit as crispy as a fried wing. smokinfatties slvance. Par boiling does help as well

[slvance]

Spinaker baking powder! I bet that is what I have seen on Ernest wings in the pictures. I need to go back and look through this whole thread and make some notes.... thanks