Doug Parizo
TVWBB Member
Hi all,
This weekend I was able to put my brand new Guru Competitor 10 to use! I had a pretty big crowd to feed (28) for Sunday night. Everybody wanted ribs (in Mass. they don't know what pulled pork is). Anyway, I had my heart set on Boston Butt, so I did both.
Did the ribs on Saturday afternoon with the Guru. Does anybody use the meat probe on ribs? Didn't seem right to me, so I didn't. Didn't use the ramp mode either, just set the pit at 225 and let 'em smoke.
It worked like a charm and attracted a fair amount of attention from the crowd. I cooked the ribs to 80% and then foiled 'em and put 'em right in the fridge hot. (I probably should have let them cool, but it was late at night, and this approach worked for me recently (see Nantucket ribs).
Later that night ('round midnight) I got the WSM all re-stoked and threw on the Sam's Club Boston Butts. Total of 15# and I used yellow mustard and the Texas Rub folks have been talking about.
For the pulled-pok sandwiches, I got some of those mustard/ketchup/vinegar restaurant-style squeze bottles off of ebay and loaded the clear one with Scott's, the yellow one with Maurice's and the red one with KC Masterpiece (boo!). I had this whole scam going about my special homemade sauces -- it was great!
Anyway, the guru worked flawlessly again. I had seen a note from Bill Hays mentioning possible ash with the 10 CFM fan, so I was obsessively worrying about that, but fornutately I was spared. Around 3PM Sunday with a few hours left till dinner, I was -10 degrees on the guru, and so I disabled the ramp mode and nuged the pit temp a bit north of it's 225 setting. By 6:30 I was still at -5, but I pulled 'em and it was awesome! Way better than my last time (which was also my first time) without the guru, when the pork was dry.
Retrieved the ribs from the fridge and loaded 'em into the oven for an hour at 300 and then on the grill for show. It all came together pretty well and the guru was a champ.
One last note about the guru: when you open the box, you feel like you're unpacking something that Lockheed Martin made to go on the space shuttle. The materials feel so solid, so heavy in the hand, and when you put them together they are so perfectly machined! There are about 10 different pieces of paper / brochures that you can read with tips and instructions and ideas -- it's like every time they get a new tip or idea, they type it up on a new piece of paper -- it's pretty charming. There are little thoughtful extras thrown in (at least there were in my box) like plastic wrappers to keep your cables neat. It really was a unique experience -- I don't think I've ever bought something that so completely exceeded my expectations!
Best to all,
Doug
This weekend I was able to put my brand new Guru Competitor 10 to use! I had a pretty big crowd to feed (28) for Sunday night. Everybody wanted ribs (in Mass. they don't know what pulled pork is). Anyway, I had my heart set on Boston Butt, so I did both.
Did the ribs on Saturday afternoon with the Guru. Does anybody use the meat probe on ribs? Didn't seem right to me, so I didn't. Didn't use the ramp mode either, just set the pit at 225 and let 'em smoke.
It worked like a charm and attracted a fair amount of attention from the crowd. I cooked the ribs to 80% and then foiled 'em and put 'em right in the fridge hot. (I probably should have let them cool, but it was late at night, and this approach worked for me recently (see Nantucket ribs).
Later that night ('round midnight) I got the WSM all re-stoked and threw on the Sam's Club Boston Butts. Total of 15# and I used yellow mustard and the Texas Rub folks have been talking about.
For the pulled-pok sandwiches, I got some of those mustard/ketchup/vinegar restaurant-style squeze bottles off of ebay and loaded the clear one with Scott's, the yellow one with Maurice's and the red one with KC Masterpiece (boo!). I had this whole scam going about my special homemade sauces -- it was great!
Anyway, the guru worked flawlessly again. I had seen a note from Bill Hays mentioning possible ash with the 10 CFM fan, so I was obsessively worrying about that, but fornutately I was spared. Around 3PM Sunday with a few hours left till dinner, I was -10 degrees on the guru, and so I disabled the ramp mode and nuged the pit temp a bit north of it's 225 setting. By 6:30 I was still at -5, but I pulled 'em and it was awesome! Way better than my last time (which was also my first time) without the guru, when the pork was dry.
Retrieved the ribs from the fridge and loaded 'em into the oven for an hour at 300 and then on the grill for show. It all came together pretty well and the guru was a champ.
One last note about the guru: when you open the box, you feel like you're unpacking something that Lockheed Martin made to go on the space shuttle. The materials feel so solid, so heavy in the hand, and when you put them together they are so perfectly machined! There are about 10 different pieces of paper / brochures that you can read with tips and instructions and ideas -- it's like every time they get a new tip or idea, they type it up on a new piece of paper -- it's pretty charming. There are little thoughtful extras thrown in (at least there were in my box) like plastic wrappers to keep your cables neat. It really was a unique experience -- I don't think I've ever bought something that so completely exceeded my expectations!
Best to all,
Doug
