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Wilbur's post of his Portobello Burgers reminded that I didn't post a recent burger feed that I did. While mine is nowhere as impressive as his, it still was pretty dadgummed good. This took place a few Saturday's ago while watching American College Football. So here is that burger cook ... I'm not wanting to do a grand cook just for my fat rat backside, so I decided Simple Is Best. Just a couple of grilled hamburgers on The Beast will do just fine! I found a new brand of Miller named "FORTUNE" and decided to give it a try for hydration purposes. The bottle is black and could be hard to see against The Beast, but it's a pretty good tasting beer. I prefer Miller Lite, but this is a good start. Here is the total extent of the seasonings I'll be using on this cook ... salt, pepper, and essentially garlic. Sometimes Simple Is Best. Finally, here are the hamburger steaks resting until The Beast is heat soaked and ready for the cook. I love a plain old every day ordinary classic hamburger. Mustard, dill pickle, a thin slice of onion, and some good cheddar cheese. Wait, I guess that cheese makes it a cheese burger! Ok KKers, here's the rest of Simple Is Best, but with an undocumented but true twist! So The Beast gets up to temp and on the burgers go! Here's another view to show you how small half-pound burgers look on The Beast ... Things are doing well. Run inside to get the fixin's ready ... As I said, simple is best and this is one very prosaic cook. It doesn't get any simpler or prosaic than French's Yellow Mustard. I grew up on it and I love it! Time to flip the burgers. I'm wearing my welder's gauntlet because it is dadgummed HOT in the belly of The Beast! The feast is ready and I'm so hungry my stomach thinks my throat's been cut. Let's get these bad boys assembled and on a plate! And as we're ready to sit down with a cold beer and a balanced plate of grilled goodness ... My dadgummed doorbell ring! Blast it all anyway! I open the door and it's my dear middle brother who lives just around the corner, not 125 yards away. "HEY, whatcha eating'?" he asks. "I thought I smelled you cooking! When do WE eat?" "We?, I asked. "Hey, what kinda beer you got there?" he asked as he walked on by to the table. Oh well, once the camel's nose is under the tent, he's gonna eat and drink. And so fellow Gurus, a sumptuous feast was had by yours truly and his feckless brother, now fast asleep on the sofa! And what did the fearless Sous Chef Skippy do during all this commotion? Where was he? Sitting on his cat tree watching the whole thing go down! And so they lived happily ever after. The End!

You should be able to find it then, or at least the sumac and blend up your own. If not, Penzey's carries it. (btw - they are my "go to" spice store. Great stuff!) https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/zatar/c-24/p-486/pd-s

Thanks, CC. My gift to the KK community! Hope you can find someone locally to fab one for you. Here's a secret tip. Make a mock-up first to make sure that it fits. While mine was made for the old POSK, it still works on the KK - luckily. But, I have to remember to take out the dome thermometer, as it interferes with the rack, even on the lower grate. Bent the crap out of the thermometer the first time I used it on the KK when I closed the lid! Fortunately, it straightened out without breaking. Here's the other tip/trick - put a piece of potato on the end of the skewer, so the meats don't slide off as they cook (helps to put spuds in between too so all the meats don't slide down to the end (see pic above). Learned that one the hard way, too (LOL!) Susan, it came that way. I've never had any issues flipping it over to use as a sear grate. Thanks for the tips, Wilburpan. Will just use the "manual" method next time. Done that many times to put herbed butter under the skin of chickens. Best part of that video, listening to the crunchy skin as he's slicing it off the bird!! I can just taste it - Killer!

LIAR?! Wilbur, you've got that mushroom thing going on in your cook! I'd have never thought of doing that! But then, I'm not a big mushroom kinda guy ... I would never think of ruining a burger with a fungus!

I used an attachment that goes on our KitchenAid mixer. If you have a KitchenAid mixer, and I bet you do, the meat grinder attachment is only $30 at Amazon. I don’t have the sausage stuffing attachments. It works great, and it really doesn’t take much time. Cut up the meat into 1†chunks, and feed it through. It was 5 minutes altogether, including clean up. Plus, there’s something strangely satisfying about reducing a solid chunk of beef into ground meat burger material.

Speaking of old slaw recipes - here's one from the old Kamado (POSK) Forum that I've used a lot. It really goes well with pulled pork sandwiches (it's a Southern thing!) Posted by Barry on Thursday, September 08, 2005- 4:24pm: Here is a coleslaw recipe I like to use with the pork..I use Napa or Savoy cabbage. I like the texture and sweetness it gives to the slaw. Rinse off a head of Napa or Savoy cabbage, removing the outer leaves and discarding. Wrap it tightly and slice into about 1/4 inch thick. For the dressing I use 3/4 cup Best Foods mayonnaise 2T Balsamic Vinegar 1T Rice wine vinegar 1/2t colemans dry mustard 1T Sesame seed oil 1/2t white pepper 1T white sugar 2-3 cloves of garlic smashed and chopped Whisk it all together in a large bowl. Add chopped cabbage by the hand full while stirring to incorporate it all together. This is all approximate since I made this recipe up and never measure it. Just taste it. It is all good. I also add a spice mixture called Zattar. It is popular in the middle east, particularly Jordan. The main ingredients of Zattar are thyme, roasted sesame seeds and sumac. It is not readily available in stores. I would think a google search would find a supplier. Zattar adds a different flavor to the slaw that no one can figure out. It goes really well with the pulled pork though. It is also, I have found, indispensable when you want to K a really good leg of lamb. I add the Zattar when I make it - about a tablespoon. The sumac gives it a tart, lemony component. And, the other thing is to let it rest for a couple of hours to blend the flavors.

It was custom made for me by the blacksmith shop down in the Amana Colonies. The skewers were an in-house basic item that I had them tweak by putting the hooks on the end. For the life of me, I can't recall what I paid them, but it wasn't a lot. They did several custom jobs for me back then - my pot rack for my kitchen remodel and my grilling table. Both were riffs on things that they routinely made for the gift shop. I just had them customize stuff for me. I just remember how cheap the pot rack was compared to what I found in catalogs for similar ones. I seem to remember that the hooks were the most expensive part of the deal!! The table got tiled during the house remodeling by the same folks that did the tile work in the kitchen. The blacksmiths just made the frame and the hooks, towel rack, etc.