jmoney
MemberGot rid of the matchlight.
First brisket on the Kamado Joe big joe.
But first... how we got here
I used pellet cookers for about 5 years but constantly had problems with them. My first one, the green mountain grill, would get jams in the auger. Sometimes in the middle of a cook, I would have to disassemble the auger and clear the jam. Needless to say, that got very old during the summer. My second pellet smoker was from Louisiana grills, and it was just a piece of junk. The starter had issues, the airflow was poor, the grill vents in the rear did a terrible job, and also blackened anything directly behind the grill. They replaced the starter, sent me a new control board, none of it work. Eventually, a slight breeze would actually cause the flame to backdraft, which constantly set my smoker on fire, and the entire pellet box.
It went out to the curb.
I knew I needed a new smoker, a real smoker this time, but I also needed a high heat grill. So for the first new addition, I went for the big joe.
I ordered a guru so that I could actually try sleeping through the night for once and tried out a few things like pork butt ribs. Earlier this week I was asked to do a brisket, so I went for it.
and it came out
..................spectacular. Finally got a bark on a brisket, something I just never really could get on a pellet smoker. Also the bits that I pulled off the grate (see below), had an incredibly deep, rich, somewhat deep smoke flavor.
By comparison, this is what the brisket usually looked like before I HAD to wrap it on the pellet smoker. Did not have to wrap at all this time. In fact, I didn't open the lid once until the temp hit 195 and I did the first probe check.
It is off to the cooler now.
However the cook did have some issues.
I used a maverick thermometer at the same time as the guru as I didn't feel the guru was giving me good temps. I was right. The guru pit probe was sometimes up to 15 degrees different than the maverick.
I started out at about 230 for three hours with an injected 15lbs prime packer brisket, rubbed with light coat of mustard and black ops brisket rub, which rested overnight.
After three hours I moved the temp up to 245. It stayed there for most of the night until the grease really started to drain out of the brisket. It raised the temperature a whole bunch on the maverick probe, but not the guru. At this point, I could determine the guru had the more accurate reading. Between the two of them and the dome thermometer, the end of the cook was in between 250-275 which works for me.
Started probing at about 195, ended up coming off around 201. Wrapped it in butcher paper and it will rest in a cooler for the next few hours until serving time.
When I went to remove the brisket, it was stuck to the grate. I spent awhile trying to clear it, but ultimately this was left behind.
For other joe owners out there, how do you clean these things after a big greasy cook? The manual said let it rise to about 700 to burn off all the grease and what's left on the diffuser plates. Will this not start a grease fire?
But first... how we got here
I used pellet cookers for about 5 years but constantly had problems with them. My first one, the green mountain grill, would get jams in the auger. Sometimes in the middle of a cook, I would have to disassemble the auger and clear the jam. Needless to say, that got very old during the summer. My second pellet smoker was from Louisiana grills, and it was just a piece of junk. The starter had issues, the airflow was poor, the grill vents in the rear did a terrible job, and also blackened anything directly behind the grill. They replaced the starter, sent me a new control board, none of it work. Eventually, a slight breeze would actually cause the flame to backdraft, which constantly set my smoker on fire, and the entire pellet box.
It went out to the curb.
I knew I needed a new smoker, a real smoker this time, but I also needed a high heat grill. So for the first new addition, I went for the big joe.
I ordered a guru so that I could actually try sleeping through the night for once and tried out a few things like pork butt ribs. Earlier this week I was asked to do a brisket, so I went for it.
and it came out
..................spectacular. Finally got a bark on a brisket, something I just never really could get on a pellet smoker. Also the bits that I pulled off the grate (see below), had an incredibly deep, rich, somewhat deep smoke flavor.
By comparison, this is what the brisket usually looked like before I HAD to wrap it on the pellet smoker. Did not have to wrap at all this time. In fact, I didn't open the lid once until the temp hit 195 and I did the first probe check.
It is off to the cooler now.
However the cook did have some issues.
I used a maverick thermometer at the same time as the guru as I didn't feel the guru was giving me good temps. I was right. The guru pit probe was sometimes up to 15 degrees different than the maverick.
I started out at about 230 for three hours with an injected 15lbs prime packer brisket, rubbed with light coat of mustard and black ops brisket rub, which rested overnight.
After three hours I moved the temp up to 245. It stayed there for most of the night until the grease really started to drain out of the brisket. It raised the temperature a whole bunch on the maverick probe, but not the guru. At this point, I could determine the guru had the more accurate reading. Between the two of them and the dome thermometer, the end of the cook was in between 250-275 which works for me.
Started probing at about 195, ended up coming off around 201. Wrapped it in butcher paper and it will rest in a cooler for the next few hours until serving time.
When I went to remove the brisket, it was stuck to the grate. I spent awhile trying to clear it, but ultimately this was left behind.
For other joe owners out there, how do you clean these things after a big greasy cook? The manual said let it rise to about 700 to burn off all the grease and what's left on the diffuser plates. Will this not start a grease fire?
