Recipes from real cooks on real kit. Every recipe here is sourced from a Tested-by-Ben cook log — what worked, what didn’t, what I’d change next time. The cook methods are kit-specific, the temperatures are measured rather than estimated, and every recipe links back to the review of the kit it was cooked on. If a cook ran longer than I expected or finished short of probe-tender, you’ll find that in the body of the piece. Honest framing is the point.
Latest recipes
Smoked sausages on the back of the pork loin cook
Smoked alongside the pork loin at 140°C indirect — twenty-four sausages from Sedum Butchers and Heck, smoke-only, no fresh wood added, lid down for thirty minutes.
Whole rainbow trout on a kamado — caught with my son on Friday, cooked on Sunday
Caught with my son at Tillingbourne Farm in Surrey on Friday, gutted and cleaned the same evening, frozen overnight, then cooked direct on the BGE Large at 200°C on Sunday.
Apple and summer berry crumble on a kamado — the dessert that goes on after every protein has come off
Cooking apples, frozen summer berries, and a rubbed-butter crumble topping baked on the BGE Large at 220°C direct. The dessert that rides on the back of every protein cook.
Lamb rump on the BGE Large — the quick second protein after the kamado’s already running
A 400g rump direct-grilled over the lit lump that just finished smoking the pork loin. 18 minutes from grate-on to probe-off, 30-minute rest, sliced cherry-pink medium-rare.
Bone-in pork loin on the BGE Large — the centrepiece version of my brined-loin cook
A 2.2 kg chined rack brined for twenty-four hours, smoked at 140°C indirect over two oak chunks, then carved off the bone like a roast. Two cooks eight days apart, same juicy medium-pink slice both times.
Pulled pork on the kamado — what two cooks taught me
115°C dome indirect on a bone-in butcher’s joint for twelve and a half hours, pulled at 93°C with the probe sliding through like warm butter. Cook time mattered more than the thermometer.
Beef short ribs on a kamado — what a cheaper butcher taught me about the cook
115°C indirect for five and a half hours, foil-wrapped with self-rendered tallow from the drip tray. The technique nailed; the meat is what I’d change next time.
Read the full recipe →
Vertical-roaster chicken on the kamado — brined, reverse-finished
A whole brined bird on a Broil King vertical roaster, aromatics dropped in the cylinder, then a 220°C reverse-finish for crispy skin.
Read the full recipe →
Smoky-mayo potato salad on the kamado — semi-sealed foil, two-yolk mayo
New potatoes confit in their own foil packet under the deflector, deliberately semi-sealed so the smoke gets in while the oil stays in.
Read the full recipe →
BGE Large pork loin — brined, dry-finished, kamado-roasted
Twenty-four-hour equal-parts brine, overnight dry-finish, then 140°C indirect on the BGE Large to a perfect medium pink centre.
Read the full recipe →
Pork crackling on the kamado — the bar-snack bite-size method
Bite-size crackling rendered slowly in its own fat at 140°C. What to do with the skin you knife-dice off the loin.
Read the full recipe →Coming soon
More Tested-by-Ben recipes will land here as the cook log grows. Pieces coming up include pulled pork on the kamado (the 21 May cook is documented, including where the cook ran longer than expected and the honest faux-cambro call I made at bedtime), reverse-seared bone-in ribeye on the BGE Large, and slow-smoked brisket once the wireless-thermometer kit gap is closed. Each one ships only after the cook is done and the lessons are in.
If there’s a specific cook you’d like a recipe for, drop me a note via the About page.