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Sounds a like a reverse sear to me, which I do to steaks all the time (though I pull a very thick steak at about 117F internal temp, then sear about 90 seconds per side at ~600F). Since that cut is much larger, you should have great smoke flavor and lots of rosy interior. Post pics when done please! -Andrew

What time and temp did it take to get them to be "meat butter?" I want to give short ribs a try. -Andrew

Let's remember too that if you click those "Buy" links you are going through an affiliate code, and they are making money on it. I feel like 40% of the "articles" I read on the Internet these days are just fishing for money with a bunch of affiliate links. -Andrew

Try wadded up aluminum foil to clean the grates (when they are cool, or just a use them with heat resistant gloves or tongs or something). Safer than wire brush and just about as effective. Plus, I've usually got some foil I used in some stage of cooking, and it's better than throwing it out (the "reuse" thing). While I appreciate the innovative thinking, I also think it's a solution in search of a problem. You would need to contend with the high heat resistance issue, the strength issue, and with the fact that people like grill marks (so they'd have to be thick enough to make them and retain sufficient heat). Then there's the idea of throwing away metal that probably doesn't fly these days (despite my earlier comments about aluminum foil, and all the metal beer/soda cans people toss out). OTOH, most great ideas and entrepreneurs deal with naysayers and skeptics. Do your research, go in with eyes wide open, and then decide if it makes sense. Of course, you don't need me to tell you that. -Andrew

We call it a "heat gun" and they are great. I have also used them to speed up the process of getting very hot. I also roast coffee beans with mine. -Andrew

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. It was ready before 2 and dinner was after 6. I wrapped the paper wrapped brisket in HD aluminum foil, put that in a cooler, but an electric heating pad on top of it, put beach towels on top of that. It held nice and hot for over 4 hours like that (I didn't unwrap it once it was in there). Not sure if you have the equipment, but you could vacuum seal it if you had wide rolls of vacuum bag material and a vacuum sealer, then put it in a LARGE container filled with water, with a sous vide circulator to keep it at a hot temperature or just warm it that way later. Other than that, I'm all ears on better ideas if this happens to me again. -Andrew

Thanks all! I was delicious and a great experience. -Andrew

The widest part seems to the be the feet at about 28.5" across if you have the wheel locks lined up front to back or vice-versa (a little wider if you need room to roll the wheels out). The upper part with the sides folded down is around 26" or so wide. To confirm, this is a KJ Big Joe II. -Andrew

I had the same problem with a brisket yesterday. I added another layer of HD aluminum foil to the butcher paper wrap, put it in a cooler, put a heating pad on top of it (on high), and covered with a few old beach towels. It held my brisket from about 1:30 PM until about 6 PM and was plenty warm when it came out. -Andrew

I had some friends coming over last night, so I decided to try my hand at a brisket. I had a ~12lb whole packer USDA prime brisket in my freezer, which I started thawing earlier in the week. Wednesday night I trimmed, I'd guess ~3lbs of fat from it, and seasoned it simply with lots of salt and pepper. The tricky part was estimating cook time. I decided to wake about 2 AM Thursday, give the Big Joe about an hour to get to temp (shooting for 250 F the whole time), then put the brisket on the smoker around 3 AM, which is just how it played out. I was hoping for about 12 hours to cook, then rest the flat while I spend about 2 hours making burnt ends. But you know what they say about plans... After about 8 hours my brisket seemed stalled at 165 and the bark looked pretty good, so I decided to wrap it in butcher paper. I might have done well to wait longer here, but I didn't. At that point it was around 11 AM. Well, by 1:30 PM it was reading about 207 F everywhere and was probe tender. It had to come off WAY before the ~6 PM start of the dinner. I put the paper-wrapped brisket in a layer of HD aluminum foil, put that in a cooler, put a heating pad on max temp on top of that, and covered the whole thing with a few towels. I just prayed it would still be warm by 6 PM. I debated separating the flat/point at about 4 PM and going for burnt ends, but I was so afraid of losing too much heat in the process that I decided to skipp the burnt ends this go-around (next time, though, with better timing I will definitely go for it). At 6 PM I took it out, unwrapped it, and separated the point and flat, and cut everything as appropriate. The meat was amazing!! Great smoke and flavor, juicy, tender, and definitely still warm enough. I got rave reviews. Despite also serving my guests pulled pork (reheated from a previous cook) and 2 chickens, there were almost no brisket leftovers. I am now feeling more confident and wiser about this and would not hesitate to do it again.

You should post in the Kamado Joe forum lower down on the main page here.

That's very impressive high temps for a pellet smoker! How much fuel did it burn in the process? I'm also impressed with the speed that it came up to smoking and searing temps. I need a lot more patience (and effort/fiddling) with my regular Big Joe II to pull that off. -Andrew

I think I can answer my own question from the pics, but how was it? -Andrew

Basically a reverse sear. When I do that, the only differences are 1) I slow cook at 250 instead of 300, 2) I go for an internal temp of ~117 to pull from the slow cook and only put it back on when the hot side is good and hot - like 500+. I do 90-120 seconds per side, then it's done (medium rare) regardless of what the thermometer says. -Andrew

I independently arrived at this idea myself too... once I smell that nice wood smoke flavor I love, it's time to put the meat on. -Andrew