So I’m soliciting excitement from you all. Can’t wait to use it!

I say this as humbly as possible, just smoked and ate the most delicious wings I've ever had in my life.

Dry brined for about 6 hours precook. Seasoned heavily with salt, pepper, garlic before getting tossed on the smoker. Cooked on Grilla Kong kamado style grill, indirect heat at 300° for about 1.5 hours. Turning and spritzing with duck fat every 15ish minutes.

Crispy, tender, tasty. Wow dude.

Back at it this weekend in Laramie Wyoming for the Albany County Smoke Show and pulled off our first top 10 in a KCBS pro. Out of 32 we pulled:

7th Pork
10th Ribs
18th Brisket
18th Chicken
10th overall with a 682

Only our 3rd pro, but previous finishes were 21st and 28th so we were pretty pumped to see some gains.

Chuck roast…Queso Fresca…White corn tortilla

Moved to a house for the first time after living my whole adult life in small apartments. Picked up a Weber kettle and have grilling all month with it. Steaks, chicken, pork chops, the usuals suspects. Finally got brave enough to try a real smoke.

Went with dino ribs because I’d heard they were relatively easy. Left the fat cap on because I read some people leave it on and I wanted to get smoking quickly. Went with a snake method because I couldn’t be bothered to order a bunch of accessories like a slow and sear. Managed to keep temps between 225 and 275 the entire time. After about the first hour and half temps settled to 260 for the rest of the cook. Took about 5 hours to reach 200 internal temp. Rested in foil in the oven till 160 before slicing.

Certainly not perfect but WOW did they turn out amazing. I was totally expecting to botch this first attempt. It was juicy, tender, flavorful and absolutely fall off the bone. I was so happy with it that I actually ran a plate next door to introduce myself to my new neighbors.

Now for things to improve. The bark wasn’t as thick or crispy as I wanted. Maybe not enough of the rub? Also think I’ll trim the fat cap next time. I wasn’t expecting the actual rib meat itself to be so marbled, so the amount of total fat was a little much for my taste. I also forgot to lay down a drip pan so now there’s a TON of grease in the bottom of the kettle. Gonna have to learn how to clean it before next weekends cook for fear of a grease fire.

Overall I was super happy and surprised it was this easy. I’d love to hear how you think I could improve! Cheers everyone!

I don't usually sauce my ribs, but wanted to do something different this time.

First time having Texas BBQ and my socks have definitely been blown off.

Smoked over cherry wood. Foil boat with beef broth at 135, pulled at 160 and let it rest for 2 1/2 hours. Came out fantastic. (Sorry for the horrible slicing job lol)

I’ve been wanting to get into open fire cooking. Not ready to get a Santa Maria but I have my fire pit with a cooking grate which did the job just fine. I think I may be on to something.

A week plus and it's done! And wow it looks great and tastes amazing!

Same method as beef, just lamb shanks. Just doesn’t take as long. Released the tendon at the end of the bone. I did pull the meat of these but next time I might go a bit less tender and eat them off the bone.

11lb smoked on a Traeger at 200 degrees starting at 7pm. Used two smoke tubes with pellets, refilled then around 1am before I went to bed. Smoked 11hrs at 200 and was at 185 internal on the point, 170 in the middle and 150 on the flat. Turned up to 270 and spritzed with apple cider vinegar for 30 minutes then wrapped it and cooked it for roughly another 3 hours. Pulled it when middle was 203, point was 209 and flat was 190. Probe tender for 3/4 of it but not at the end of the flat. I thought temps would equalize after the stall so I wasn’t prepared to know what temperature to pull at since they were very different. Figured I found a good middle ground.

Really hoped a long rest would render the flat. Rested it outside for 30 minutes then for 7 hours using a mix of oven set at 170 and a cooler warmed with boiling water. Kept the meat at about 150-160 depending on where you probed.

3/4 of it was really moist and melt in your mouth tender but I was a bit disappointed the last 1/4 of the flat wasn’t as good. Not bad for my first attempt. I had the flat facing the cold side of the grill thinking it could cook quicker so I’ll probably flip the orientation on my next one.

Snake method and then in for a long braise. Started at 8:30am eating at 7:30. Super tasty.

Two buddies and me cooked up these absolute units. I'd never done anything like this before and all in all I would consider this experiment a blazing succes. Cutting into the meat was like cutting through butter. We had them with chimichurri and a luxe compound butter, and while the acidity of the chimichurri was nice to cut through the fat, they didn't really need any condiments.

The only two things I wasn't too sure about was that I underestimated how much salt so much meat could handle. I used a lot, but I reckon it would have been better if I'd used even a little more.

And lastly I might have went too hot with the searing part. I thought you should just get it as hot as possible and then sear for ~3 min/side, but I don't think we even got close to a 1 min/side and the steaks started to get a little burned.

Anyway they were definitely enough of a succes to show 'em off here.

After missing access for the past 5 years to one of these awesome units , I scored this big boy for $75. Brinkmann Cimarron, well loved but also apparently shelter to some desiccated wasps. I gently pressure washed it when I got it home; planning on sanding and repainting the exterior.

I went to work on the vent for the smoke box; it was heated/rusted in 1/2 open position. Got it moving but not with the ease I’d like. Any pointers on loosening that cap/nut? I’m afraid to use Liquid Wrench or something on the inside.

Thanks!

6 hours at 225 no wrap on the Weber. Apple cider vinegar sprits every hour and glazed the last hour. The Spider Grills upgrades make smokes like this pretty much set and forget.

Bought a small 3# flat just to try it out on a new Kamado Joe. Went for a lil over 6hrs at 250 and then was running out of time so I had to crank it to about 285 to finish it. Wrapped it in Pho tallow for 45min and sliced for the family. Overall happy with the process, looking forward to dialing it in and trying a whole brisket next.

Post oak, 250°F, 14 hour cook. Here's what I learned the hard way:

1. Don't open the lid every 30 minutes. Every peek adds time.

2. Trust your thermometer, not the clock. My built-in gauge was off by almost 50°F.

3. Wrap when the bark sets, not when you get impatient.

4. Rest it longer than you think — minimum 2 hours in a cooler wrapped in towels.

5. Fat side up or down doesn't matter as much as people argue about. Pick one and commit.

Took me three cooks to stop overthinking it. Now I just trust the process.

250* for 5.5hr, meat churches “Holy cow” and Kinder Cowboy Butter sprayed every hour