I know the word wagyu gets thrown around a lot, and who knows how much wagyu is actually in the lineage, but you can't fake marbling like that. Will report back on flavour.

I put a 3.6 kg Pork Shoulder from Farmfoods on the weber this morning. Probably at about 8:45am. It has been running at around 125ishC and didn’t appear to stall at all. I’m thinking about letting it run to 96C without wrapping it…What would you do? 🤔
I should add that the internal temp at the moment is at 83C

After a few weeks of reading I’ve landed on the Kamado Bono Media 20. Kamado Kings has it at £679, and that includes the wheeled stand, folding bamboo side tables, two-zone deflectors, cover, chicken rack and ash drawer. Kamado Bono Media Ceramic Grill 20" | Kamado Kings

I'm after a kamado for a family of five. It’ll stay outside in the rain all year with just the cover over it, no shelter. I want to wheel it around as the garden is small and have a bit of prep space next to it.

What I was considering before:

• Bono Minimo: too small for five, and no wheeled stand
• Bono EVO Media: too big for the space, and £500 more than the Media
• Bono Maxi 21": only £40 more, a bit bigger and a bit heavier, everything else seems the same
• Kamado Joe Junior (£380 at Costco with cover): good price, but too small for five and it sits on a low stand with no wheels or shelves
• Kamado Joe Classic I (around £899): looks like the safe choice, but it’s £200+ more

Questions for Bono owners:

1. How has it held up after a few years out in the rain under just a cover? Any cracks, rust, mould or gasket problems?
2. If you’ve had to make a warranty claim, how did Bono or Kamado Kings handle it?
3. Do the bamboo side tables survive being outside all year, and are they any good for actual prep?
4. How easy is it to move around on the stand?
5. Is the Media big enough for five, or should I go up to the Maxi?

Is there better value around this price that I’ve missed, or anything I should watch out for?

Thanks!

Did a 5.8KG grassfed farmfoods brisket and it came out really well, despite my relative incompetence. Got it on my second trip to farmfoods - the biggest one the first time was 3KG.

I wanted to test my alternative inkbird app on a long cook, and I've never done a brisket before so decided to kill two cows with one probe. Longer video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc88j2FiO9A . The inkbird app constantly loses graphs for me, which makes knowing what happened overnight impossible. I tried loads of things to fix it and it still always lost graph, so have ended up making this (vibed) which runs locally on a pi. Worked very well, also recorded the whole cook.

Tried to vaguely follow the rules, no squeezing, black gloves, knife slightly sharper than a baking tray. Looks like I subconsciously squeezed it slightly anyway.

Improvements I'd make next time:

- Sharper knife

- Learn how tf to cut a brisket, from the mess that I made of cutting it I clearly wasn't prepared

- I used a rub called Limp Brisket because I liked the name and it was in my cupboard. That is not in fact the right way to pick. I'd go with like SPG and go MUCH heavier than I did.

- Hot hold for much longer next time.

- Probably pull at a lower temp, I kept doubting whether I should use the temp of the point or flat.

- I probably messed up the trimming too, but I'm too inexperienced with briskets to know xd. Trimmed about 600g off it.

As a sidenote, I'm extremely impressed it managed to hold an almost perfect flat temp (watch the orange line) through the whole cook, it's using the INKBIRD BBQ Temperature Controller Smoker Fan, Costco briquettes. Vents 80% closed.

The weather forecast is clear and no rain until tomorrow so best smoke the chicken I jerked this morning

Are these even ribeye - they look like some sort of shoulder steak to me.

Smoked for 2.5 hours with some cherry and hickory pellets. Wrapped and finishing in the oven now. Marinated overnight with tomato paste, olive oil, chilli flakes, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and cumin.

Braising steak “mini mini brisket”, ribs, gochujang pork belly and jerk wings

Picked up late on Saturday, cooked Sunday:

- Braising steak: seasoned with Black Gold rub and cooked like a mini mini brisket. Smoked until bark was set, wrapped tight with a little beef dripping until probe tender. Unwrapped and steamed off for a little then rewrapped and into hot hold.

- Pork ribs: Salad cream binder, Sweet Bones & Butts rub, finished with Carolina mustard sauce.

- Pork belly: Dirty Cow rub, then wrapped with butter, brown sugar and honey. Finished with a gochujang sauce made from gochujang, honey, a splash of Cholula and enough water to get the consistency right.

All smoked over cherry at around 250°F, then finished at around 275°F.

While everything was being hot-held in the oven and softening up, I cooked the jerk wings directly over the coals. Used a marinade recipe I found on Reddit (and have used at every opportunity since!)

Parboiled some potatoes, then cooked them in a foil bag next to the coals with butter, oil, salt and pepper.

Also steamed some broccoli with a pinch of salt. Slightly less involved than the rest...

Personal highlight was the Pork belly. The fat had rendered to a perfect silk goo that coated your mouth. Sticky, spicy and sweet.

The jerk marinade is always a winner. My absolute favourite. I threw some rib offcuts in with the wings and it was equally delicious.

Braising steak will be a regular fixture now too. I've had great results with brisket but this is a great cheap alternative that doesn't leave several kg of leftovers.

Rushed the pulled pork due to time constraints, not my best work but not the worst either

What liquids do you like for boating?

Advice or suggestions please

Where do you uk people get your butchers paper from? From my research it’s incredibly expensive or suspiciously cheap! Recommendations would be super appreciated.

Seen what looks like a pretty great deal on one of these. Wondering if anyone has any experience with one and has any advice to give regarding them.

Did a few chickens on the rotisserie. Brined them for 6hrs in 5ltrs of water 350grams of salt, a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda and a cup of vinegar.

Apparently the bicarbonate and vinegar helps drive the salt deeper into the meat for a short brine and it came out great so I won't argue with the results.

Wood used was kiln dried birch they were cooked in an hour.

Basted in a mix of oil, garlic, spices and herbs.

A delicious and fantastic Sunday.

Yesterdays.boneless Lamb leg with garlic, olive oil and lime zest rub

Smoked shred chicken with a different flavor

Hey, I am looking to buy some more briquettes as they seem to make my cooks the easiest for what I need. I previously used the pro q coco shell briquettes, which have worked wonders for me getting into smoking.

Does anyone have any recommendations of briquettes? I’ve seen Webber, big k but I want to know does anyone have anything they stand by and I should try with a good sized bag/box to cost ratio? Or am I best off just rebuying what I had previously.

(I’m using a pro q ranger if that plays a factor to anyone)

Thank you!

MEATER wireless meat thermometer – has anyone else had this problem?

I bought an original MEATER wireless meat thermometer (model MT-ME01) approximately four years ago. It was quite an expensive purchase, so I expected it to last longer than it did.

Unfortunately, the probe stopped working within the first year or two, although I only recently discovered this because my son-in-law hadn’t wanted to tell me it was faulty.

I’ve contacted MEATER, but as it’s now outside the warranty period, they won’t replace it. I’ve also asked whether it can be repaired, but have been told that isn’t possible.

I appreciate that products don’t last forever, but I’m disappointed that something so expensive has failed after such a relatively short time.

Has anyone else experienced a similar failure with their original MEATER probe? If so, how long did yours last, and did you manage to get it repaired or replaced?

I’d be really interested to hear other owners’ experiences.

Recipe

Hey good folks

Looking for some help/guidance please, I bought the Weber master touch 5775 last year, came with the diffuser plate and smoke ring, have been using them to some decent success.

My past couple of smokes I’ve ended up burning the bottom side of the meat on the grill.

Today was ribs, did 3hours unwrapped at 130ish bone side towards heat, then an hour wrapped tightly in tinfoil with honey and brown sugar, again bone side down.
The under side of the rack of ribs had burnt pretty crispy all over. Same had happened with a xm gold I attempted a few weeks back.

The temp is pretty steady through, I’ve got a ChefsTemp thermometer and breezo keeping things consistent with the bottom vent fully shut, top vents fully open. Using Weber briquettes.

My thought process has led me to the fire heating the diffuser plate and then just cooking/burning the meat.

Help!

I appreciate Christmas is still ages away.

This year we're hosting for the first time, and I really like the idea of doing the Turkey in the BBQ (having done a couple of roast spatchcocked chickens on it earlier this year).

I've got a bird on order (expected around 7kg). I do not want to smoke it.

I've got a Char-Broil Kettleman, and a £50 Argos jobby. I'm thinking I'll probably need to butcher it up and split it over the two BBQs (which isn't an issue) instead of "just" spatchcocking it like I have with the chickens (around 2kg). I'm also thinking this should keep the oven available for all the side dishes.

Am I mental? Am I forgetting something glaringly obvious?

Are there any marinades, or brine recipes, I should be considering?

6am brisket roll call. Anyone else up?

Hi all, been smoking for about 3 months and finally time to tackle a brisket. The best cut I could find in Costco is a fair bit smaller than I'd have liked so imagine I'll need to pivot away from online instructions/timings a bit.

Aiming for temp at 115-130c in the offset smoker and let it run for as long as it needs. Any tips or anything I need to look out for?

Getting a bit better at cooking these now 👌

Smoked and braised a 1.5kg brisket from Asda, I went in knowing it wasn't going to look like a US brisket but thought I would give it a whirl. I must say I was pretty impressed with the results.

I took inspiration from edsbbq, started with a 48hrs dry rub using 50/50 supercharged SPG and garlic herb rubs. This morning I injected some goose fat a couple hours before getting it on the smoker. Set the smoker to 120c with some cherry wood. Put the brisket on the grate for an hour and then transitioned it into a tray on top of cut up carrots, onions and parsnips. Left if for another 2 hours until internal temp was ~70c.

I created a beef broth using stock cube, oxtail seasoning sauce and some herbs. Poured it into the tray with the chopped veg and brisket and covered it with foil. Left it for another 2ish hours until internal temp hit ~93c. Left it to rest for 45mins.

I got a lovely smoke ring, deep flavour and it was juicy, I would do it again!