KBQ ~ has landed

[Ernest]

Rlasky Welcome to the KBQ family!

[Rlasky]

FedEx moved the date up to tomorrow. Had to hit the butcher in a hurry. He only had baby backs, but he had some nice short rib plates. Dry brining and taking a half day tomorrow:

[Rlasky]

It's one of my favorite cuts of meat, and I smoke them fairly often. I'm a fan of bark so I don't wrap many of my cooks. I'm thinking 2 racks of ribs and the full plate should keep the box pretty humid, so I am going to just let it ride for the maiden voyage and tweak as I learn. And I use BBBR every time

[Rlasky]

for all the years I've been reading the site, and for all the recipes/techniques I've learned here, I think the BBBR recipe may be the one I've gotten the most mileage out of

[Ernest]

Rlasky you're in for a treat. I love beef ribs. Let 'em ride, no wrapping.

[Rlasky]

Histrix Wow Histrix, I thought I had read every inch of the kbq site, but I must have missed that. And I had never seen dantesdevine before, but I prefer the layout even more. Not only did my delivery get bumped up a day, but I learned that my backyard is full of a lot more usable wood than I had thought. I knew beech was prized as firewood, but I'd much rather stay warm while cooking dinner outside. Sounds like a reliable substitute for oak, which I planned to use in the bulk of my cooks. Love this site, love the pit, and love this thread because of helpful answers like this.

[Spinaker]

Rlasky Welcome to the KBQ family!! I love using oak in the KBQ. It really imparts a wonderful flavor. But I would say my favorite wood to use is Cherry. It makes the most killer ribs ever in the KBQ. I recommend you pick some up for those ribs!!!

[Rlasky]

Spinaker Ernest , it's posts like yours that convinced me to take the plunge. I've been doing this with pretty fair success for a few years now in a RecTec, WSM, and PBC, and I've always used cherry for ribs. I plan to mix most of the fruit woods with oak, especially when mixing beef and pork like I will be tomorrow. Thanks to Histrix , I now know I can eventually use the beech I need to trim back anyway in place of the oak. Win win

[Spinaker]

Yooooooou Rang?

[Rlasky]

hit post too soon. New purchase jitters

[Spinaker]

Hahahahaha, I know the feeling. You might need a drink my friend.

[Spinaker]

Spinaker Ernest , it's posts like yours that convinced me to take the plunge. I've been doing this with pretty fair success for a few years now in a RecTec, WSM, and PBC, and I've always used cherry for ribs. I plan to mix most of the fruit woods with oak, especially when mixing beef and pork like I will be tomorrow. Thanks to Histrix , I now know I can eventually use the beech I need to trim back anyway in place of the oak. Win win

Hey glad we could help.

Ultimately, I haven't found a type of wood that doesn't work with the KBQ. (with in reason) Any combo you use, you'll be happy with. Apple, Ash, Cherry and Oak the most readily available to me so thats what I use. As long as its a hardwood, I really think you'd be fine. But you definitely pick up on different flavors from the woods you use. In my opinion.

The KBQ is more work than your other smokers but its worth it. And its a blast to run. It really is a different cooking experience than you've had with your other cookers. If your enthusiastic about outdoor cooking, there is no way you won't love your KBQ.

[Rlasky]

I jinxed myself. There was an issue with the label so it was held in West Virginia all night, and now delivery was pushed to tomorrow. Oh well, another night of dry brining won't hurt anyone.

[Rlasky]

Awful customer service on their end too. I called within 15 minutes of the delivery exception and they said there was nothing they could do. So frustrated.

[Spinaker]

Dude, have them hold it at your receiving center. And you can go pick it up. Thats what I did. didn't trust anyone with mine. Rlasky

[Ernest]

Rlasky FedEx doesn't deliver on weekends. Go pick it up

[Sacred Smoke BBQ]

First there was Isaac Newton. Albert Einstein a little later. Then came along a fresh faced kid named Bill Karau. Yeah that pretty much sums it up about how I feel after my first cook on the Karubecue. I was a kid in a candy store when I fired this thing up. My dad said he saw a little pyro in the making .
Spinaker likes details. Here you go: it was a cool December morning. Wind coming in from the east at 3mph. Humidity levels high considering the time of year. Thermopop registered my cup of coffee at 138°. It's time to cook.

-3 racks of baby backs....salt and pepper only (kept simple. really wanted to experience the smoke flavor)
-Avg temp at 265° using Maverick 732
-Red Oak logs
-Combo smoke entire cook
-Took first look at 2 hours and 20 minutes
-Probe tender and pulled at 2 hours 50 minutes
(No spraying, basting, or water pan. Just a drip pan)

Ernest I will do my best to improve my photo taking to make you proud buddy!

Fantastic ribs. Very happy people here. I have made great stuff on my 4 PBC's and Weber kettle with the Slow-N-Sear but this took the cake. Thank you to everyone on this thread for all of your advice. I can't wait for many more great cooks!

[Spinaker]

YES!!!!! I love reading stuff like this. Ribs are killer on the KBQ. I recommend putting hand full of brown sugar on the ribs when you put them in. The KBQ blasts that sugar into sweet nirvana; the of which your taste buds have never experienced! LETS GO!!!!

[Sacred Smoke BBQ]

And fyi.....bill you need to change your wording from clean/dirty smoke to clean and super duper clean smoke

[Sacred Smoke BBQ]

I'm not a heavy smoke guy but does anyone else here only use dirty smoke option no matter what you cook? My senses were probably off because my face was in the smoke so much from playing with the fire. Do all of you follow the recommended settings of short/dirty, mid/combo, and long/clean? Still loved it. Just curious

[Dale Case]

Mostly dirty for me. At the most I open bottom 1/2 way.

[slvance]

I'm still learning. I did dirty all the way open on some ribs and they were a little too smoky for me. Now I'm mainly cooking with a little dirty, but the clean wide open. I think everybody has their own taste....

[JGrana]

I felt my last few smokes were tasty but not as much smoke as I would like. Typically I was using both top and bottom. I also think that the hickory I was using was too old/too dry. It came from a limb that had fallen in my woods
For my next smoke, I am going top only and using cherry and apple.

[carolts]

Sacred Smoke BBQRlasky I love reading your posts! You've expressed not only the joy of a new KBQ but of being part of this brother and sisterhood.

Sacred Smoke BBQ Regarding your question about clean/dirty smoke, I noticed on my last cook (whole turkey, cold weather) that the smoke exiting the cooker looked cleaner than my warmer weather cooks. Granted I have limited experience with only a half-dozen KBQ cooks under my belt. I'm wondering if there's some correlation between ambient temp and smoke quality due to the fan running nearly non-stop. I was using a combination of local white oak and Fruita Wood post oak.

Spinaker , you live on the frozen Tundra. Any thoughts? ,

[Sacred Smoke BBQ]

carolts thank you for your kind words. I'm so glad to have such a great platform like The Pit for me to share with like minded people. All the best, Scott

[Spinaker]

I really don't think the ambient temp matters much as far as smoke clarity. I think it is much more dependant on how dry or wet the fuel is that your using. I have had thin blue at all temps, but also clear clean smoke at all temps. I noticed it last time and I tested it. The dryer wood had invisible smoke. I mean you couldn't even tell there was exhaust. However when I burned much greener apple wood (spilt a few months ago) the smoke was much cloudier.

[Histrix]

I agree with that. Even in July and August I almost never see any smoke at all so I think temperature is irrelevant. Seasoning (and lack thereof) is almost certainly the culprit.

[tbob4]

Spinaker - on my stick burners I have this result: All of my wood is seasoned but moister in the winter from conditions outside. The smoke initially is much thicker. In the summer its always clean. I need to do a better job of keeping my wood dry. Similar on KBQ?

[slvance]

Hi guys.... been a while so thought I would say happy holidays. Not sure why, but I stopped getting e-mails from this thread. Anybody else have that issue? Also, I still need to figure out a way to make sure the ports stay in the same settings. If anyone has thoughts on that please let me know. Someone said something about some kind of clips a while back, but I never could find it again.

[lschweig]

Opps, I guess I can make the online name work after all.

[Spinaker]

Mine move sometimes too. But I generally just check them when I am adding logs to the fire. However, I think you could use those black paper clip things that the Weber users use to seal tight their lids.

[badf00d]

I just manually check them. I find I switch them up too often to want a fixed position. If I am adding wood while the second fan is running, I close the bottom port. If I need to leave the firebox lid off for a time, I close the top one. Then I adjust the ports as needed.

[slvance]

Spinaker - This kind?

[Spinaker]

Yep, you got it. You just want something to stop it from sliding around. That should work. I would think.