Leaderboard

Just got back from Thailand with the family for a week. Thanks, Dave, for the head's up. All three of you gentlemen are now moderators. Simply click on the member's name/icon. Then click spam, and the post will be deleted, and the user will be banned. If any other old-school members would like moderator powers, I'll be thrilled to give you those powers! Thanks VERY BIG for your help..

We WON!! Komodo Kamado won the Newsweek Magazine Best Barbecue Smoker Award… Thank you all for your help voting, I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate it. https://www.newsweek.com/readerschoice/best-bbq-smoker

Challenger pan has arrived. Am very happy with the results.

Fired up a couple of BMS 7 Wagyu Beef Ribs: 6 hour smoke at 250 with 1/2 basket of CoCo Char using Hickory & KK Coffee Wood for smoke...What shocked me most was once it was fully heat soaked, I actually ended up just using smallest intake hole "only" and top vent just barely open to maintain 250 degree temp and it did "not" budge the entire cook and nearly all the CoCo Char is still in there and some pieces hadn't even needed to light😲-if this thing were any more efficient it would likely become self-sustaining like a nuclear pile, lol. These were easily the best, juiciest and most flavorful beef ribs I've EVER made-and I've made A LOT-everyone freaked at the difference over my KJ and Egg, this thing is next level LEGIT!!!

I had one of the early generation 19" and 23", when I moved to NYC the 23" came with me (probably should have been the 19", but c'est la vie!). Now we've got a place in San Diego and rather than trying to ship the 23" there, we decided it was time for an upgrade. This thing is built like a tank! And I mean the crate, the KK itself is more like a beautiful bomb shelter. I love the little details you've added over the past 15 years and the fact that 750lbs of stuff can be uncrated and moved to position by myself is phenomenal attention to detail. More pics to come, I'm sure, but I was so excited I forgot to install the thermometer before snapping this one!

38" Goldilocks Unveiled..

32" Big Bad + 10" = 42" Serious Big Bad 42" Serious Big Bad - 4" = 38" Goldilocks 38" Goldilocks

This was my birthday gift to myself, lol...The fanatical level of attention to detail and "overbuild everything" philosophy is apparent everywhere on this beast, compared to my KJ Big Joe III, Joe Jr. and Large Green Egg (all of which I love) this thing is on a COMPLETELY different level, it looks like it could take a nuclear strike!!!😂 Thank you to Dennis and the Komodo Kamado team for making such an incredible piece of "Cooking Art", I'm very glad I've joined the Komodo Kamado family.👏👍🙏😊

baguettes with 3x pre-ferments (poolish + pasta di riporto + levain) caputo nuvola super

My new beastie, Ultimate 23 in Terra Blue.☺

Yesterday was market day at Woodson’s Mill, a still functioning 18th century water powered mill here in central VA. Deep Roots Milling mills regional grains once a month and then sells their flours the following weekend. So I hauled my sorry keister down there to bag me some flour. This loaf is 70% Deep Roots Silver Bread Flour (80% extraction) + home milled yecora rojo (15%), spelt (10%) and rye (5%). 80% hydration.

I am still amazed by how little fuel a KK uses to do its job. This is my 16KK fire basket after 12 hours of cooking low and slow. A 3kg lump of pig. The capocollo - pig neck and shoulder. Closest US cut is a pork butt.

Bought some ground bison meat and started out making burgers but plan soon changed into meatloaf.

A couple chickens for Saturday dinner, with lots of leftovers lol I tried the upper grate to render the skin better for the first time and it worked great. But the skin was done before the meat so i flipped that grate and lowered the temp for the last 20 minutes to prevent burning. I think next tiime i will go upper grate but lower my temp to 350 instead of 385 ish. But the results were fantastic, one sauced with Kosmo's cherry Habanero BBQ sauce, its a winner. As in winner winner chicken dinner

Well, it has been a long time since I have visited the Forum, and even longer since I have posted, but yes, guys and gals, I am still alive and cooking. So, my best friend is coming in from Baton Rouge tomorrow for the week, and although Lee and Debbie love barbecue, he doesn't have a smoker and doesn't want to do it himself, so I am going to send him home with probably at least a whole pork shoulder, cut into serving sizes, vaccum-sealed and frozen. Happily, it reheats rather nicely, and especially since it is in a vacuum package already, sous vide is the preferred method. I got the smoker all prepared last night so I could start this morning around 8 for a 9 or 10 hour cook and got things going around that time. I don't know if anyone else does this, but I put my meat in the cold smoker first and then start it up- as Meathead Goldwyn tells us in his great book, "Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", meat only absorbs smoke up to the point the surface temperature reaches 135* (F), so why not put your meat in the cold, in the cold smoker, and then start things up so you get the benefit of all that start-up time? Why wait until the smoker is at cooking temp goal (in this case, 270*)? Why not let the meat warm up gradually? So here we are at 8 AM (ish), the smoker just getting going, with four pork shoulders (thank you, Costco!): we are going to eat well, and and so will several of my neighbors, my two daughters and their families, and my friend Lee is going to go home with several pounds of, I hope, excellent smoked pork shoulder for pulled pork. It is now 10:45 and according to my Fireboard software, the shoulders are now somewhere around 120*, on their slow journey to 203* by late afternoon sometime. It's nice to be back, y'all.

made pan de cristal today 100% hydration caputo nuvola super W320. overnight levain and poolish preferments. not the crumb i was looking for but still tastes ok..

Well, the "experiment" was a big success! And, I did end up breading one thigh in AP and cornstarch with some SPG and frying it (cast iron - of course!) You can really taste the pickle flavor. The rest of the thighs got grilled, along with some corn. Direct, 325F for an hour. Plated with homemade potato salad and a nice chardonnay. Again, you could taste the pickle flavor in the chicken. The corn was surprisingly good. Don't know where the supermarket got it, as it's way too early for local corn - about another month. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Yesterday, I attended the Advanced Sourdough Workshop with Tara Jensen (author of Flour Power). It was very informative and fun, and with only 8 “students,” there was plenty of time to talk turkey (red) and various techniques. Came home with a loaf of grits bread which I baked immediately since it proofed on the drive home. The grits are Anson Mill coarse grits, which you can see are VERY coarse. Her website is https://www.tara-jensen.com and she offers virtual as well as in-person workshops.

chocolate and citron panettone's. merry italian christmas in july..

Neglected beds of Zucchini have large veggies on the vine, they're not the best once past a size and often overlooked . I scoop out the inards seeds and create the cavity where you can make the stuffing of choice. Today it was a Mexican base with a triple chesse topping and then drizzled with a marinara sauce.

38" Goldilocks was first cast at the factory with my daughter Isla, now all grown up.

Just a little north east of you. And that glow you see is usually just a reflection off my dome lol

Yes, that will give an inkling of just how fantastic it will be will when done in pebbles.

I'd be happy to delete them, i have been reporting them as spam when i see them first thing in the AM

The cowboy steak, an impressive hunka meat. There was a break today from the heat and I just cleaned up/touched up the rust on the Santa Maria grill with some sanding and a fresh coat of paint so it needed to be fired up. Seared low at first and then coasted to temp up high, fresh sweet corn (yum) and a few leftovers...pictured is 2nd plate. Additionally is the new fire pit, it's a beast, side to side it's 42 inches, 15 inches deep, 290 lbs and almost 3/4 in thick. It does come with cooking attachments, I'm mulling the thought.

I do believe this fits the topic as to a regional cook/dish, it's somewhat different from a traditional prep because it's having a bit of smoke added in the KK other than prepared in the home oven. Quahogs are a shellfish growing wild along the coast in New England, they are prohibited from harvest unless you purchase a licence from the township/city. The governing towns also replenish the beds for residents as they are continually used. Luckily for me though a friend brought these to my attention from a recent trip he harvested in Falmouth Mass. and they were quickly put into play as stuffers. The quahogs are first cleaned to remove sand or contaminents prior to steaming to ensure nothing enters the shell during this process of opening. Once cooked they are then removed from the shell and rinsed under water as an additional measure. All the quahogs are then processed through a meat grinder for the first step, followed by a French bread loaf stick broken into pieces and gently dipped into the saved quahog broth through the same grinder. A few generous pieces of Linquicia (Portugese sausage) are then run through. A compliment of fresh herb as chive, thyme, parsley along with an assortment of peppers and onion are added then to the mix along with some Old Bay, a spice. They are then stuffed into half shells that were carefully separated as to prevent contaminents and rinsed....your dental work is always present of mind when working around shellfish. Into the KK at 250 (I used a diffuser) until around 160 with a slight crust. Serve with butter, the remainder I froze in freezer vacum bags for microwave use at a later time.

4th of July grilled chicken for Caesar salad Ready to go

I forget to take pics after carving the brisket but everyone was thrilled with the results. Too bad we were all full after snacking in bread waiting for others to arrive lol

crab with ginger and spring onion

FWIW, I use a cheap Lodge Combo Cooker for baking rustic sourdough bread; 850g battards are no problem. Baguettes are a different problem though. I'd like to use the Challenger but can't get 2-up in my oven as I can using the Combo Cooker...

At the moment the two most recent threads are spam, 5 and 10 hours old, by different posters. There are dozens of people here I would trust with the authority to delete threads, under a "one strike" rule: If any deletion is even remotely a judgment call, as determined by our actual admins, that authority is permanently revoked. None of these spam threads would last 30 minutes, under such a system. I'm going to take a break from posting until we sort this out.

The thought of any KK owner being described as "moderate" made me laugh. A lot.

LOL, it's 6:30 am math.. After a night shift, after 10 days in Bangkok!!

My lady friend wanted toast for the weekend, and didn't specify flavor so Cranberry, Cinnamon and Honey it is

Oh i vote for road trip to Bali lol

Same here.

Thats cause you got the perfect color tiles !!!! lol

First up will be 2 Beef Dino-Ribs (for the initial learning curve of dialing in my low & slow temps, lol) then this monster drops, a full packer "A5" Japanese Wagyu Brisket that's been chilling in my freezer since last November...Wish me luck!!!👍🤞😊

Well, I am very pleased to report that it turned out GREAT. Maybe the best I've done yet. Good smoke and delicious, crunchy bark. Moist and tender. Everything I could want in pulled pork. We made sandwiches for dinner on big Hawaiian buns- mine with a coleslaw base and some good Johnny Harris's barbecue sauce. It was make-your-eyes-roll-to-the-back-of-your-head-and-see-god good. Haven't had that experience since the last time I wen to LA Barbecue in Austin and had the brisket sandwich. I think this is the recipe for me from now on. Interesting that there was such a variation in cooking time required for each of the four shoulders. I suppose variations in size and weight and maybe moisture content are the explanation, but one was at 203* at exactly 10 hours, as planned, and the last one took 11 1/2 hours to reach that temp. Interesting..... Since we had the smoker going, threw a chicken- halved- and a few breasts on there for good measure. Haven't tasted any of them yet.

bak kwa this is like a marinated minced meat snack from south asia. it's like caramelized grilled pork jerky. this stuff costs around $40 USD/lb in a shop.. first time using coco char. i bought it from amazon! 😅

it is moved and the movers ignored all common sense. they let us take the lid off at least, then these little guys from India just picked it up and carried it up the stairs - 5 of them managed. plenty of cursing but they managed and nobody got hurt and the KK survived.

happy 4th of july (5th where i am now) but i made candied smoked salmon for the first time. not the color and texture i was hoping for but its edible. i struggled with the cold smoke tube. using pellets but constantly having to relight. i'm going to try bigger wood chips next time like the one @DennisLinkletter used in his yt video, and if that doesn't work, i'm putting this thing away for good. i think i wasted half a can of butane trying to relight it every 15 min..

The brisket it going well, I wrapped at 5AM. Right after the internal temp got to 3114 😳 And then I put in a spare meat probe and sat down and ordered a replacement from Thermoworks. I’m done with stock probes , only Thermoworks probes for now on !!!!! I do brisket at 235 but up that to 250 after wrapping if I need to hit a deadline

I realise now that I should have said I was freaked by savoury porridge not savoury grits. Will take the leap soon, I promise!

Trust me, you are amongst friends here, we all like playing with money lol I played with a whole bunch of it last week buying a new hybrid pickup truck

I am so pleased my memory served me right on this one. The recommendation came from @amusedtodeath in 2018 But ever before I joined the forum I see that @MacKenzie had already blazed the trail here in 2016: It's a great little device and mine folds flat for storage. Hey @Tyrus I have clean grates and a dirty car. I like it that way round.

ok, but i will help as long as i am on the top of the stairs and it will take more than beer and pizza for me to show up...😅 400kg stair climber 👇👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcPJ43p0G4g

Oh yes! Olive wood smoke works well with chicken!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the difference between cats and dogs. My cats sit and watch me scrub all that bbq goodness off my grates and then demand their own food. Latest battle is Sindbad deciding that he no longer likes pheasant and will only eat home minced raw chicken thighs. When I die I want to come back as a cat!

finished a 2-day baking class today. i think i need a spiral mixer. pan de cristal at 130% hydration