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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/14/2015 in all areas

  1. Thanks for the comments! There were leftovers, which was not a surprise, given that there are just four of us, and my wife doesn’t eat lamb. I chopped the leftovers into small bits, made a batch of mashed potatoes, and made shepherd’s pie. It was also tasty.
    2 points
  2. Received my Cookina mat yesterday in time to use it to make dinner. First, I went out to measure the mat on the grill. It is bigger than the main grill on the 23†OTB. I decided to cut it to fit the upper grill. I cut it vertically to fit between the handles. The bigger piece works well on the main grill in the horizontal direction. Fits between the handles and doesn’t cover up the opening lid in the front. The smaller piece will work well on either grill for smaller pieces of food. The mat cut easily with scissors. One note of caution after reading the directions: like many “non-stick†cooking appliances, it says to avoid using metal utensils, like spatulas, as you might scratch the coating. The test cook was chicken breast and thighs, marinated in Big Bob Gibson’s White Sauce (one of the few commercials that I use, because it reminds me of Cornell chicken). Wanted to have a “sauced†cook to see how the mat performed. Pre-heated the KK to 350F, direct, cherry wood, upper grill. When the KK got to about 250F, I put the big piece of the mat on the upper grill to preheat for about 20 minutes. Then on went the chicken. Here’s a shot about 30 minutes into the cook. You can see the juices starting to pool up. About 45 minutes in, flipped over the chicken. As you can see, no grill marks, and more juices puddling. I put the smaller piece of mat onto the main grill to begin preheating. At a little over an hour in, put the asparagus on the mat on the main grill. The asparagus is dry (I’ll dress it with some lemon juice, EVOO and herbs de Provence after it comes off). Also, raised the temperature to 400F and flipped the chicken again to crisp up the skin. After about another 15 minutes, pulled the chicken and asparagus off. Note – some browning of the asparagus, but no “grill marks.†Off the grill. Asparagus has some char and the chicken is nicely browned, despite sitting in the juices. However, the skin wasn’t very crispy. This might have been due to only exposing it to the 400F temperature for only about 15 minutes. As advertised, it did clean up really easily with just some warm soapy water and the scruffy that came with it. However, I did make a bit of a mess on my deck taking the mat off the grill, as the juices were still runny - the KK wasn’t “cold†(still around 200F) when I wanted to take the mats off and put the cover back on the KK. Conclusion: It’s an OK product to have in your BBQ “tool box.†It has definite applications, especially marinated or sauced foods or small foods that could fall between the grates, like the asparagus. Will likely try it with a piece of fish, which can often stick to the grates. But, the claim of “grill marks†IMHO, is just some hype, based upon the asparagus cook. Don’t see myself cooking any dry rubbed steaks or chops on it for that reason either!
    1 point
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