C
capnamerca
Guest
Running commentary on the cooking ... no pictures, as our digital cam is broke 
.
Disclaimer - today is a kingsford-only cook, as I didn't make it to BBQGalore yesterday in time for the lump. Not gooing to jump into wood-only for a family cookout just yet (need to be able to hide the results when I mess it up). Water-soaked pecan chunks provide flavor today.
Used the "bowl of charcoal" method to start the coal-bed. Chimney of lit coals went into the charcoal bowl at about 6:40, and by 7:15 or so I was at 265. I'm thinking this fire might be burning a little hot - going to have to watch it. Added meat at 7:20 or so, down to 180, maybe a little less. Four racks of ribs (3 spare, 1 loin), two thinghs two breast two drums ("most" of a chicken), and four armadillo eggs.
Just checked the pit, and the external therm is running about 280. I know the differences in temps, so the meat is 265=270 or so (got little probes in the pit). While that specific temp is probably ok, it's real close to too hot. So I closed the damper to about 1/2 or so. Won't keep it there long, just want to knock the fire down a little bit. Meat looks good, smoke looks good.
8:10 - fire dampening nicely - external therm temp shows about 260, putting meat teaps in the 240. Right where I want it. Since the temps are trending downwards, I opened the damper back to about 1/4, and added 4-6 pieces of charcoal (actually, that was just because I wanted to finish off that bag - coal bed looks great). Nearing the one-hour mark, and things are just dandy.
8:25 - added a bit tooo much chunk pecan on that last fire tend ... temp spiked to ext-300. Damper back to 1/2 for a little while. CHecked on the meats - grate temps near 260, which isn't too bad, just a bit too hot. Control this spike, should have plenty of fuel for a while. Also, pulled off the skirt pieces from the ribs - what a great snack! Eggs are close - sausage looks crsipy, and being closest to the fire (bottom grate), ,they're cooking fastest. Not real sure how long to let them run, but it's not much longer (any thoughts on how to tell when thhye're done, short of pulling them out and cutting them?)
8:45 - external therm showing about 265 and holding ... nice fire situation right now. Added some smaller soaked pecan chunks for more smoke. Going to adjust my fire-tending. I think I tended the fire at too hot of a point earlier - going to let the external temp go down to 235 or so, which puts the grate temp inside around 220, and then tend. The spike last time went too high, but the fire stabilized itself nicely. Clearly user error. The skirt that I pulled off is phenomenal.
9:30 - fire behaved itself for almost an hour - good coal bed, methinks. Opened the smoke box to check AE's and chicken - chicken internal temp as 167. Sprayed and foiled the chicken and AE's, back into the smoke box for ~1 hour. One of the smaller racks of ribs was already pulled from the bone about a half-inch, so I sprayed and foiled that rack, too. Other 4 racks of ribs (had to cut one in half to get it into the smoke box) will get another hour or so, with the heat hopefully around 250, in heavy smoke. When I foil the remaining ribs, I'll probably throw the chicken and AE's in the cooler for finishing. Plan is to get the ribs about another hour, hour.5 in the foil, then about a half-our back on the smoke (firming). Re-foil, throw 'em in the cooler, go to Mom's . Will be back ...
10:09 - ext therm read about 240 ... checked on meat, remaining ribs nicely pulled from bone. Observation - spares pulled back from bone in a great manner, but the loin ribs pulled back very little. They looked like they were coooked similarly - the lion ribs just looked like it was "'harder" for them to pull back. I treated them as cooked, they're now in the foil. Is this consistent with anyone else's experience? Also, chicken internal temp hadn't gone up very much, still <170, so I left them in. Just want to make sure it's done (damn salonella). Took AE's off, and into the cooler. They can finish themselves, and just kind of "hang out" until we head to Moms. Ribs in foil for another hour or so (for original group), then back on fire (hour.5 for most recent group), and then into the cooler. Yeah!j Added charcoal and a little bit of chunk, just to get the fire back up. Coal bed is still very hot, but number of active coals are diminishing. Added charcoal around edges to try and rebuild.
11:00 - had to run out for a bit, and while I did, the coal bed burned down considerably. Temps were barely above 200 when I returned. I think this may be indicative of the "new" kingsford burning faster. I added a couple of handfuls of new charcoal briquettes, and a few of the smaller chunks that I had left (the rest is soaking). Fire coming back up, smoke box heat wasn't down too badly, near 200 as well. I really thought I had plenty of fuel to leave the fire for 45 minutes or so - lesson learned. It's good that the meat is simply in the foil stage right now - just more cookin' time is all.
11:25 - fire recovered nicely. Chicken (was still foiled) read 180 int, so I stuck 'em in the cooler. Small spares (remember, I had to cut one rack in half to fit it into the s moker) came out of foil - meat was super-tender, and pulled back from bones 1/2 all the way down the rack. Fantastic-looking ribs. They're back on the smoke now, for firming. Big racks (2 of them) are still foiled, for about another twenty, then back on the fire for .5 hours or so. Shooting to be out of the house around 12:45. External temps showing 250+, but lower grate temp reading almost 300. Moved ribs up to top grates, where temps were a bit more moderate (have a grate probe there, too) - around 260.
11:50 - wow, I overcorrected again. When trying to "rescue" the coal-bed, I added too much charcoal. Temps spiked to an external reading of about 300+, putting internal temps above 280 - basically way too hot. Shut down the damper, and actually stood with the smoke and firebox doors wide open for a few minutes. Spread the coal bed out, which increased heat in the short term, but hopefully burned it off faster. Ribs are back in now for firming, so I don't want it too hot and char them. Temps are down a bit, and I'll leave the ribs on a bit less than originally planned ... hopefully that does it. Lesson learned ... hot is hot, don't have to panic re:coalbed.
12:00 - fire down ok ... ext temps around 230, grate temps under 280 ... I like the trend. Put the damper back to 1/2 open, just waiting out the time until I pull off the ribs. Going to transport in foil, but on top of the cooler instead of the bottom. Hopefully, they won't become mush upon transport ... might let them cool a bit before going into the cooler.
. Disclaimer - today is a kingsford-only cook, as I didn't make it to BBQGalore yesterday in time for the lump. Not gooing to jump into wood-only for a family cookout just yet (need to be able to hide the results when I mess it up
). Water-soaked pecan chunks provide flavor today.Used the "bowl of charcoal" method to start the coal-bed. Chimney of lit coals went into the charcoal bowl at about 6:40, and by 7:15 or so I was at 265. I'm thinking this fire might be burning a little hot - going to have to watch it. Added meat at 7:20 or so, down to 180, maybe a little less. Four racks of ribs (3 spare, 1 loin), two thinghs two breast two drums ("most" of a chicken
), and four armadillo eggs. Just checked the pit, and the external therm is running about 280. I know the differences in temps, so the meat is 265=270 or so (got little probes in the pit). While that specific temp is probably ok, it's real close to too hot. So I closed the damper to about 1/2 or so. Won't keep it there long, just want to knock the fire down a little bit. Meat looks good, smoke looks good.
8:10 - fire dampening nicely - external therm temp shows about 260, putting meat teaps in the 240. Right where I want it. Since the temps are trending downwards, I opened the damper back to about 1/4, and added 4-6 pieces of charcoal (actually, that was just because I wanted to finish off that bag
- coal bed looks great). Nearing the one-hour mark, and things are just dandy.8:25 - added a bit tooo much chunk pecan on that last fire tend ... temp spiked to ext-300. Damper back to 1/2 for a little while. CHecked on the meats - grate temps near 260, which isn't too bad, just a bit too hot. Control this spike, should have plenty of fuel for a while. Also, pulled off the skirt pieces from the ribs - what a great snack! Eggs are close - sausage looks crsipy, and being closest to the fire (bottom grate), ,they're cooking fastest. Not real sure how long to let them run, but it's not much longer (any thoughts on how to tell when thhye're done, short of pulling them out and cutting them?)
8:45 - external therm showing about 265 and holding ... nice fire situation right now. Added some smaller soaked pecan chunks for more smoke. Going to adjust my fire-tending. I think I tended the fire at too hot of a point earlier - going to let the external temp go down to 235 or so, which puts the grate temp inside around 220, and then tend. The spike last time went too high, but the fire stabilized itself nicely. Clearly user error
. The skirt that I pulled off is phenomenal.9:30 - fire behaved itself for almost an hour - good coal bed, methinks. Opened the smoke box to check AE's and chicken - chicken internal temp as 167. Sprayed and foiled the chicken and AE's, back into the smoke box for ~1 hour. One of the smaller racks of ribs was already pulled from the bone about a half-inch, so I sprayed and foiled that rack, too. Other 4 racks of ribs (had to cut one in half to get it into the smoke box) will get another hour or so, with the heat hopefully around 250, in heavy smoke
. When I foil the remaining ribs, I'll probably throw the chicken and AE's in the cooler for finishing. Plan is to get the ribs about another hour, hour.5 in the foil, then about a half-our back on the smoke (firming). Re-foil, throw 'em in the cooler, go to Mom's . Will be back ...10:09 - ext therm read about 240 ... checked on meat, remaining ribs nicely pulled from bone. Observation - spares pulled back from bone in a great manner, but the loin ribs pulled back very little. They looked like they were coooked similarly - the lion ribs just looked like it was "'harder" for them to pull back. I treated them as cooked, they're now in the foil. Is this consistent with anyone else's experience? Also, chicken internal temp hadn't gone up very much, still <170, so I left them in. Just want to make sure it's done (damn salonella). Took AE's off, and into the cooler. They can finish themselves, and just kind of "hang out" until we head to Moms. Ribs in foil for another hour or so (for original group), then back on fire (hour.5 for most recent group), and then into the cooler. Yeah!j Added charcoal and a little bit of chunk, just to get the fire back up. Coal bed is still very hot, but number of active coals are diminishing. Added charcoal around edges to try and rebuild.
11:00 - had to run out for a bit, and while I did, the coal bed burned down considerably. Temps were barely above 200 when I returned. I think this may be indicative of the "new" kingsford burning faster. I added a couple of handfuls of new charcoal briquettes, and a few of the smaller chunks that I had left (the rest is soaking). Fire coming back up, smoke box heat wasn't down too badly, near 200 as well. I really thought I had plenty of fuel to leave the fire for 45 minutes or so - lesson learned. It's good that the meat is simply in the foil stage right now - just more cookin' time is all
.11:25 - fire recovered nicely. Chicken (was still foiled) read 180 int, so I stuck 'em in the cooler. Small spares (remember, I had to cut one rack in half to fit it into the s moker) came out of foil - meat was super-tender, and pulled back from bones 1/2 all the way down the rack. Fantastic-looking ribs. They're back on the smoke now, for firming. Big racks (2 of them) are still foiled, for about another twenty, then back on the fire for .5 hours or so. Shooting to be out of the house around 12:45. External temps showing 250+, but lower grate temp reading almost 300. Moved ribs up to top grates, where temps were a bit more moderate (have a grate probe there, too) - around 260.
11:50 - wow, I overcorrected again
. When trying to "rescue" the coal-bed, I added too much charcoal. Temps spiked to an external reading of about 300+, putting internal temps above 280 - basically way too hot. Shut down the damper, and actually stood with the smoke and firebox doors wide open for a few minutes. Spread the coal bed out, which increased heat in the short term, but hopefully burned it off faster. Ribs are back in now for firming, so I don't want it too hot and char them. Temps are down a bit, and I'll leave the ribs on a bit less than originally planned ... hopefully that does it. Lesson learned ... hot is hot, don't have to panic re:coalbed.12:00 - fire down ok ... ext temps around 230, grate temps under 280 ... I like the trend. Put the damper back to 1/2 open, just waiting out the time until I pull off the ribs. Going to transport in foil, but on top of the cooler instead of the bottom. Hopefully, they won't become mush upon transport ... might let them cool a bit before going into the cooler.
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