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those shrimp look Delicious.I hope I can just go out and make dinner on the spur of the moment like you guys do. I bought two side shelves when I bought my kk32. I gotta tell you; Dennis is a first class woodworker. the workman ship on the side shelves is superb. The attention to detail is amazing. I liked it so much I am having him build me a teak cabinet. here is a picture of the underside of the shelf to show the workmen ship.

Recall the notion of a degree day. For example, growing degree days add up the surplus heat over a base temperature, often 10 C. Three days averaging 15 C, 20 C, 25 C add up to 5+10+15 = 30 degree days. What is the best rule of thumb for degree hours in barbecue? For example, in the thread Dinosaur Beef Ribs, Hector cooked 10 hours @ 235 F. Dave cooked 8 hours @ 285 F. Different pieces of meat, but it was rather evident that Dave overcooked in comparison to Hector. Could one have predicted this by an easy rule of thumb? A base temperature of 35 F makes these two cooks the same: 10 * (235 - 35) = 8 * (285 - 35) = 2000 degree hours, either way. But 35 F is obviously too low, and we know Dave overcooked compared to Hector. One can sous vide pretty much indefinitely at 135 F. We have 10 * (235 - 135) = 1000 degree hours, while 8 * (285-135) = 1200 degree hours. That difference is closer to what we observe, studying the two cooks in the thread. The rate of ideal heat transfer is proportional to the temperature difference, but real world roasting is far more complicated. One follows the water as much as the heat, to understand what is happening. For example, one can model the dwell in a pork butt cook by watching what happens to a wet towel. Nevertheless, a rule of thumb like I propose could be useful for anticipating the effect of small changes in protocol. If I know how long I like to cook a pork butt at 225 F, how do I adjust my cooking times for 240 F? That sort of question could be easily handled by a rule of thumb like I propose, at least for a first guess.

First off， I can't figure out how to copy this post from kamado guru So any pointers with that? On Saturday I was really looking forward to learning the vents on my kk so I wanted to do the burn in right away (I am a nerd so this was fun for me!) towards the end I did some smash burgers and stuffed mushrooms which I totally forgot to take a picture until I was eating! Saturday a family member was having a gathering so I didn't get to cook. Sunday morning I was ready to go with a fatty for breakfast (which I ended up finishing in a CI pan) and a pork butt for lunch. The pork butt was on for about 6 hours. I couldn't believe how stable this guy was. I was confident enough to go on two shopping trips and head to my parents house for a swim and when I got back it was within 10 degrees of where I left it. Pork was definitely the most moist to care， and the smoke ring was unreal. This picture doesn't show it at all. Made for awesome sandwiches. (so good I ate 2!!!)

Sounds like someone might get invited over for another dinner and after dinner drink!

Yes. I've seen calculus students, when asked to calculate a volume, give a negative answer. They weren't being idiots, they were just forgetting to ask the question, "Is my answer reasonable?" We all have to guess plans, 10 hours @ 225 F. And the best plans go awry, in all the ways you note. But we still need initial guesses. Yes, I'm saying that to a first approximation, linear interpolation is a valid methodology for adjusting cook times. My 8 hours @ 285 F felt at odds with Hector's 10 hours @ 235 F, even though the pieces of meat were different. Degree hours makes this precise; one would need to posit the ridiculous base temperature of 35 F for those two protocols to be similar, whatever the shape of meat. Let's back off and say that two protocols are plausibly similar if they correspond to a base temperature anywhere near 140 F. If the computed base temperature is nowhere near that range, then one is being an idiot. At least I was being an idiot. We're screening for plausibility here.

Congratulations on the new grill! You’re going to love it. Since you’ve used gas grills, having a KK is going to be a revelation. I’ve often said that using a KK grill is like having a charcoal grill that’s nearly as convenient as a gas grill. I’ve had that burn-through thing happen, where the fire seems to leave a part of the charcoal basket alone, but that rarely happens. I haven’t identified any specific factor, but having chunks of lump that are too big seems to contribute to this. For building a low and slow fire, I try to distribute the bigger chunks across the basket, instead of having them all in one area.

Great looking cooks. Post your cook on Guru. Immediately edit your post. Highlight the entire post and copy the highlighted text. That should get your post into your systems clipboard. Come to the KK forum and start your post with a title. Go into the body area and paste from your clipboard. I do this using Tapatalk. When I post pictures I post them direct from my gallery to the forum without using any hosting software. When I do the above procedure it posts the entire content including pictures. Hope that helps a little. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Ok, the two data points here: Hector, 10 hours @ 235 F. Dave, 8 hours @ 285 F. As an experiment I was following Aaron Franklin's protocol for short ribs, a departure from my typical instincts aligned with Hector. He got beautiful sliced ribs, I got pulled beef with bones. Or, more simply, I overcooked these ribs. The "burnt ends" on each tip veered dry, my guests tore through the bark and the meat between bones. They did not share my disappointment. To balance the meal, hedge my bets and feed everybody, I also had a large prime Chateaubriand steak, sous vide 90 minutes @ 132 F. When I took the ribs off to rest, I cranked the KK up to 350 F then roasted the steak a generous number of minutes on each side, indirect same setup as the ribs. Had I done nothing, this would have sliced like restaurant prime rib, no sign of fire. It seems to be an unquestioned religious tenet that one should sear a sous vide steak briefly over direct flame at a very high heat. I don't actually enjoy the surface damage that induces; my approach here is a third way. The meat looked done with surface color and gentle sear marks from the grate, tasted of fire, and sliced up to a plate of medium rare goodness counterbalancing the ribs. I'll do this again and take pictures, highly recommended. For the record, 7 lbs of generously cut beef back ribs, and 2 lbs of Chateaubriand steak, served six adults with hardly any leftovers. This was part of a full meal with appetizers, sides, desserts and too much wine. I reflected later on my mistakes and the zen of barbecue. With a busy day and a "fly by wire" BBQ Guru setup, I did not handle the meat very much, and I should have. It then took me by surprise how completely the ribs fell apart. The meat can take frequent prodding, and the KK is stable enough to easily recover. Cooking indoors, I taste and prod everything at all stages. I can tell when fresh pasta is done without tasting it, by the exact tension as I stir the cooking water. The best pit masters (a level to which I have no right to aspire if I cannot learn this lesson) experience meat the same way. This is not a last-minute check for doneness, this is a continual opening of a door of perception. Imagine that one is serving guests that day, but also training for a future game where one will be presented with many pieces of partially barbecued meat, and asked to assess each piece with no context of cooking history. If one can learn to see this, one realizes that one was cooking blind before. I'd liken this to playing darts. The difference between math and games is that in math one gets to redesign the rules. One could imagine that a gift for barbecue is a knack for knowing cooking times looking at each piece of meat, like being able to throw a dart from a distance and hit the bulls eye. However, if one can redesign the game, one does far better to walk up to the target and push in the dart without a throw. This is continually handling and observing the meat as one cooks. Of course, one does need to play conventional darts, because we need to pick start times and temps for a rough target serving time. And the KK is remarkably stable, it steers like a freighter ship. Agile adjustments in temperature aren't really an option, at least downward. Recall how one finds camp along a river, bushwhacking in the woods: One deliberately aims to miss one way, so one knows which way to turn reaching the river. Here, one should start aiming to overshoot the target serving time, with temps like Hector, and know that there is potential goodness in Aaron Franklin higher temps. Observing the cook all day, decide exactly how to climb the temp to stick the landing at meal time. I'll try again, and that's my game plan.

Great looking pie. Strangely enough I've never had a Rhubarb pie. Mrs skreef has eaten them her whole life. She says she's going to make one soon. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Me and Mrs skreef were busy this weekend. We stained the garden fence. A total pain in the rear but it's done - Yay This is pretty kewl. The flowers in the yellow pot we got on Clearance this spring for $1 (scraggly and almost dead). It normally sits six feet away from where it is in this picture. At some point that little baby one in the ground decided to jump ship and go solo. A home grown pineapple plant. Kewl experiment but we'll talk about that next weekend. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

So I really had not planned on grilling today, as the party I cooked for was on Saturday. However, while running an errand at my local grocer, I noticed some shrimp were on sale and I was developing an appetite sooo...... Why not a little bacon wrapped BBQ shrimp to top off the day? Grabbed a bundle of asparagus too. Quick, easy, and delicious. My charcoal basket was full, so I just lit one side. Got a nice two zone effect w/o using the basket splitter. On a side note, this was my first cook with the recently purchased side table. I like the silhouette of the 23", and to me, at least in pics, didn't care for the look of KK's with those that had them compared to the unaccessorized, 'clean' grills. Well, I very recently broke down and bought a side table just for utilitarian purposes. Low and behold, I really like how that looks on my grill, and tonight I'm asking myself: 1. Why didn't I purchase side tables when I purchased my KK last fall??? 2. Why in the hell didn't I purchase two last week instead on just one??? They(it for now) look great, better than in the website pics IMO, and they really make the brown hints in my Terra Blue tiles "pop." Love the wood.

Personal preference, but I like to cook mine w/o foiling, no water pan etc. ~225F the whole way, pull at 203F IT. Results in the bark I so crave. Oh that bark!!!

That will come when I get side table #2

Food looks good but what about a picture the side table. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Here are pics of the first cook

There's a great pub at the end of the cable car turnaround in San Francisco (the name escapes me at the moment), that claims to be the "home" of Irish coffee. It's a fun experience to watch them in action, as they make like 20 at a time. Line up the glasses on the bar so that the rims are touching each other, move down the line dropping in the sugar cubes, continuous pour of Irish whiskey (they don't stop between glasses, just start at one end and start pouring, moving down the line), followed by pouring the coffee the same way, finished off with the whipped cream on top. On a busy evening, they can't make them fast enough.

Your challenge (pun intended) is to pick which dough recipe you'll use, as you have a complete palate to pick from??