Surprised to see the keg get a first and a second.
No surprise to see the KBQ get two firsts.
What do you and Steph think was the main thing that made the KBQ superior?
You feel it is worth the time to tend it every half hour?
Bob, in person the Keg had the worst color. I struggle with getting good color on kegged ribs. Don't know why but the rub took a LONG time to start to finally "melt" and give some color. All ribs were flipped mid cook to even color and doneness, even in the KBQ. I too was surprised that the Keg did as well as it did taste wise. What made the KBQ superior? Tenderness, moistness and the smoke flavor was dead on. Yes, I don't mind tending to the fire so it's worth it IF I have the time to tend to it. The way I have it set up is right beside my outdoor cooking area. They recommend not cooking in a covered area so I put it just on the other side of my island, behind the Keg 2000. I did cook the brisket under the deck though for fear of rain and it was fine. Nothing flammable there, just makes it smoky as all get out. Anyhoo, what I do is get it rolling, set my temp, put meat in, hook a maverick up to monitor pit temp and go inside the basement and sit in the recliner and watch History Channel. 30-45 minutes later, go out, stir the coal bed a little, add wood, go sit back down 15 steps away in the AC and drink a Landshark Lager and continue watching History Channel on the projection screen. Not a bad thing at all. Steph and I sat out by the grills a while yesterday, I was showing her how the KBQ worked. Her face was buried in her phone as usual so really, no big deal to tend a fire when you're doing nothing anyway
These ribs were VERY meaty so I was able to cook to temp on all of them, had enough meat to stay away from bone and get a good temp reading. They were all cooked to a minimum of 196° with some at or over 200° in spots! The reason I personally like to wrap is you always get tenderness, great pull back. None of these ribs had great pull back on the bones. Another reason I like to wrap is to add flavor. I don't think wrapping decreases flavor, I think it ADDS to it, especially the way I do it (Johnny Trigg method). I like my ribs sweet and savory, Steph likes hers savory only. When I do ribs for me, I don't worry about temperature because I know wrapping is going to get me where I want to be so I do a 3-2-1 method more or less. I smoke the ribs until I get the color I want, wrap them Trigg style, back on the smoker (since it's already going, no need to put in oven or another grill) and let it ride for 2 hours. Drain foil packet, ribs back on grate for 30 minutes to dry out a little and then if I REALLY want to make them great, I do fire up the gasser and get it hot and throw the ribs on there to firm them up and then add my sauce and let it get a little caramelization going on. A little char adds to the flavor.
I like the look of the Traeger cooked ribs best. Look moist and tender and probably would be cooked the earliest too.
The Traeger ribs were nice, I still think people are missing out on ribs cooked on pellet grills. They say there is no smoke on a pellet pooper. Tell that to the almost ALL pink meat that came off that Traeger
That's a smoke ring! I know it's not all smoke related but it looks the part.
I've had people (you know who you are, lol) basically tell me that they don't like the KBQ, think it costs too much, doesn't look well made, so forth and so on. They're friends of mine and I guess they're just shooting straight with me and that's okay. Mind you they've never used it or tasted the food from it, just making assumptions. That's fine and dandy if you feel that way. It's your opinion. I like it. It makes great food, I don't mind tending to it. Would I like to have gotten it cheaper? Yes. Truthfully, I could see him knocking about $300-$500 off of the price and that would be a good deal but that's not going to happen. I wanted it, I paid for it, it's here and I am going to use it and probably use it a LOT
My point is, don't knock it til you tried it. If this machine was garbage, I'd tell y'all! Granted, it would be MY opinion, yours could be different. I cooked on many grills and smokers and I do feel that I know when something works well and when it doesn't, for ME. The PBC is an example. People raved about it, I bought one. It's okay, not great to ME. I sold it. No biggie. There is no one size fits all smoker/cooker. The KBQ is not for everybody. It makes the best food I've ever had but again, it's subjective. You buy what you like and enjoy it. I am NOT pushing an agenda, not trying to tell y'all what to buy. That's your decision to make with YOUR money!
I'm hear to learn and spread knowledge where I can, that's why I do these tests. I figure a fair amount of you own 1 or more of the same cookers I have and might be interested to see how it compares to one that maybe YOU want to buy. It's a kind of BBQ consumer reports if you will
So, if y'all like to see these types of things, maybe I'll do more. If not, then I'm good with that too. It's BBQ, supposed to be fun! I'm having fun, that's all I can say
