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Pizza night last night. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know not everyone has access to beautiful U5 Shrimp. If you've never seen them here they are. These 5 shrimp weigh 1 lb. These were on sale this weekend for $12.99 per lb at The Fresh Market. I might go back today and buy a couple more lbs.  Here are 6 of these shrimp. Butterflied open, the floppy forward meat tucked back on top, then stuffed with crab.  Yesterday was my birthday and I had a few or more adult beverages so I really wasn't worried about pictures. But I did manage to not screw it up, have all the food done at the same time, and snap a money shot. Here's my birthday dinner. 10 oz Prime Grade NY strip grilled on the Nuke Delta. The stuffed shrimp cooked on the upper rack in my 19" Komodo Kamado, and some heirloom carrots pan roasted alongside the shrimp. 

It was a beef rib cook today. Sprinkled with equal parts of garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper and chili last evening, vacuumed sealed and put in the fridge overnight. Tasty or what, rendered edge fat!

I learned a lot from this experiment. 1. I am trying to figure out what types of wood smoke I like. I prefer the apple to pecan on bacon. So does The Husband so that's a win. 2. I had never had hot smoked bacon before. I like it. In fact I prefer it for this cut. Some of the fat gets rendered through the hot smoking process, making the resulting bacon more appetising. 3. The slice of hot smoked bacon did not need to be held down with a weight during cooking to prevent it curling, unlike the cold smoked piece. More recently I have been cutting the collar bacon into half inch slices and freezing them individually. They make for a really quick week night supper with potatoes or baked beans or salad. The two collars made a lot of bacon! The cold smoked The hot smoked And for @Alphonse, the side by side comparison once cooked. The cold smoked is on the right. I went for the hot smoked for today's dinner with bratkartoffeln and pickled cucumber.

There were no pics of shepherds pie, just the lamb roast. I used the leftovers to make a shepherds pie Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You're going to be KK free @Pequod? Or are you waiting until the new house is built to accessorise your new pebble 32 with the view?

Trying out my new Challenger Bread Pan. https://www.challengerbreadware.com

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I think pulling at 65ºC is too late for bacon and puts you up into ham territory. 65ºC = 149ºF and I've always thought you wanted 145ºF as the final temp. if you were cooking at 100ºC you will get a 5-10º F float (or more) after you pull it out. So if your target temp is 145ºF you need to pull it at about 135ºf. That hot smoked meat looks like it already firmed up and could be eaten like that.. This was hot smoked.. (and went a bit too hot too but still a bit fleshy like store-bought bacon when sliced)

Sorry, no fancy or pretty pics here, as I suck at taking pics. But it still tasted great. And probably the first time in 5 years since I've used my pressure cooker. Still working fantastic.

Hi KK Enthusiasts, Planning my dream BBQ area and stumbled across a photo of KK on Pinterest. Now I can’t do anything else. Problem is, the current design has a pizza oven and a gas bbq but no smoker or charcoal grill. Since seeing this, I am thinking ditch the gas and get a 23 or 32 KK. My question is, do I still want / need the pizza oven? Any advice? Thanks George

Now that I have Dennis' hot/cold smoker, I decided to try smoking my own bacon. In the UK I have only ever eaten cold smoked bacon. On this site you folks tend to hot smoke your bacon. Time for a side by side test. First deviation from norm. My favourite bacon is collar bacon. It comes from the shoulder and I think it is what Americans call pork butt. Here are my two collar joints, at about 3.5kg each, after curing for 8 days in Surfys traditional curing mix. I used up the last of my curing mix and so bought these two for future bacon loveliness I searched online for guidance on cold smoking. It ranged from hysterical - you will die from botulism - to complicated and fun. I went for complicated and fun. There is no fixed end time so I smoked for six hours with pecan and then wrapped in greaseproof paper. Advice is that you rest in fridge for a few days and then smoke again for a similar time for best effect. Here is the bacon cold smoking. I took out the fire basket and hung the meat off the half grate in the 23 using meat hooks. Wrapped up for its rest Today I started with the hot smoking on the other collar. I turned it upside down and around to the other side half way through the day. Let's hear it for the KK. I went out to run errands for a couple of hours and it stayed rock solid at 100C. In fact it stayed rock solid through the day. The smoke generation stopped because I had underestimated the amount of pellets required. That was easily fixed. I topped up with additional pellets and blasted with MAPP torch. I am smoking this cut with apple. After 11 hours the hot smoked bacon is ahead in the looks department. I pulled it at 65C. Cooling To be continued.

It's here A big thank you to @tony b. The box and lump looks in great shape. Can't wait until it's turn in the lineup.

Ckreef, wanted to see the difference so I bought a box of KJ xl lump. While cooking up 4 racks of pork ribs approx 6 hours at 250 I welcomed a noticeable difference in the amount remaining to the good. Argentine hardwood. 24.99 / 20lbs

I've never seen U5 shrimp before. Best I can do here is "colossal" - 10-12 count. The stuffed ones look awesome! Great surf-n-turf birthday dinner!

Maybe hot smoked, depending on how long you keep it above 140F?? But definitely NOT cold smoked, unless you have an affinity for botulism!

Now that’s a lot of pizza! Pizza pizza everywhere it not a bite to be had☹️

@DennisLinkletter Tony B. gets the credit and thanks for sending the Coffee Char

Lovely looking rib Mac. And you know I've got to ask - grapes? Were they for afters or did you eat them with the beef?

Thanks @DennisLinkletter. Nice looking bacon! Lots for me to follow up on. It took about three hours for the internal temperature on the hot smoked joint to creep up from about 59C to 65C in the KK. I did not monitor the temp after the resting period. Will do so next time given I like this slow cooking method and @Basher asked me a similar question about my lump of funky cow. It will be interesting to know what margin to allow in future. Yes, you are right, the hot smoked bacon can be eaten without further cooking. I like that effect because I can have yummy bacon goodness with my lunch at work with just a little light heating up in the office microwave. Your post prompted me to check what the difference is between ham and bacon. The answers were interesting. The term ham is usually reserved for the leg of pork and it can be raw cured, cooked and/or smoked. Bacon is for other cuts of pork and can range from wobbly cold smoked to rather less wobbly hot smoked. Happily that means I don't have to change the name of my post to HAM. Much less fun than BACON!!!!

I agree on gas grills. For example, all of these portable ovens are designed to make pizza quickly. That's the choice for those who don't care about size, but it's possible enough to make 13"-23" pizzas, which is enough for small parties. The image is broken. Was it like that? Because my husband is planning to build a setup like this around our KK.

Looks great! Happy Birthday, Charles!

Hehe....yeah, right! What's 4-5 days of driving (each way). If someone in Montana, Idaho, Washington state etc. was selling I'd be driving down on a moments notice...

Ok, 3 chickens on a stick! Now I know why I am leaning toward getting a 32!

Couldn't wait, you just had to taste one before getting the plated shot. I bet it was as tasty as it looks.

Just some bureaucrat flexing their "muscles" to prove to themselves that they have a meaningful job and doing something important! Sad indeed!

Come to Iowa, and go visit the Amana Colonies. It's an old German immigrant community from back in the late 1800s. It was a commune and they had big kitchen halls where everyone came to share what they had, cook and eat together. Now they are very nice rustic restaurants - all served "family style" - large platters and bowls of the main proteins and side dishes. Pretty authentic stuff. The local brewery makes a nice brew to go with the tasty food, too. My favorite is the rouladen. But the wiener schnitzel is very good too!

Because it's all high praise! You are truly worthy of all the accolades!

Rock steady!

Happy Birthday...Another successful trip around the sun! Great looking meal!!

I've bought it a few times from World Spice.. It is tasty BUT the problem is that it is VERY sensitive to humidity and wants to go back to its liquid form. Always gets ruined here in Bali. It ends up with the consistency of honey in a cold fridge.

TY MacKenzie - nice looking cake. Chocolate - is there any other type of cake? - LOL

Good pun on the meat hook theme Bruce. I thought it was funny how the meat hooks were so much more exciting than the meat! Your comment made me think Tony. I decided we would cut half of the once smoked cold smoked piece into slices and then do the second smoke on the remaining half. I also decided to try cooking and tasting one of those slices. I decided that there was quite enough smoke absorbed already and so abandoned the idea of a second cold smoke. Patience is a virtue. The samples are undergoing intensive testing as we speak. Er no, I did not know it was his birthday. Would have celebrated by barbecuing a GOAT. In fact, if Philly win this year I promise to get myself a KK that comes with a GOAT.

That’s actually what we did (staggered) - these were just the first and the last. Things get hectic with multiple pizzas being shuffled around - so no full stone pictures. Maybe next time . . . And with bigger pizzas for sure!

Everyone gets their own pizza, what more could anyone want.

Tekobo nice experiment, I would like to get my meat hooks on that shoulder bacon. Looking forward to the finished product.

Definitely an A+ on the science project. I as well wait with bated breath for the results. Nice color! Did you know today is a special day...........that's right, it's Tom Brady's birthday . And in celebration of the coming pigskin season you are cooking two bacons, that's wonderful. That was part of the plan praytell, oh if not...we here in New England salute you and await a slice

@ ThreeDJ16 and Tony, oh my goodness, I just read your messages before retiring for the night. I will fall asleep with a big smile on my face thanks for the compliments. Sweet dreams to you both.

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

Yes, I know this song performed by another Aussie musician.......none other than CGP Tommy Emmanuel!!!! Tommy is likely the best acoustic guitar players in the world........in the style of Chet Atkins. Check him out if your not familiar with Tommy! Cheers, Paul

Some just out of the garden fresh Swiss Chard with leftover pork and some d fries.

Leftover fried bean, potato and onion breakfast, the first of many, well until the beans run out.

George - I have the 23" ultimate and I'm putting in an outdoor kitchen with a built-in pizza oven and my KK of course. Let me give the KK some kudos first. The KK makes some damn fine pizzas. If I only had one piece of cooking equipment, its a Komodo Komado hands down. However, if you're making a true Neapolitan pizza, then ideally you need an oven that will get to 900-1000 degrees...which the KK will do but not easily and then the oven and the handle is hot to the touch. If you're just cooking one pizza, then this works alright. The issue with all kamado style cookers is that you can't see the pizza and every time you check it out, you're letting out the heat. If you adjust your dough recipe, you'll make damn fine pizza's at 500-600 degrees but the same issues persist and each pizza takes a bit longer which dries out the pizza a little more. Gas grills are for people in a hurry. The one thing I've learned about cooking is the best stuff, takes a little longer, which gives you more time to enjoy the process, your friends and a good drink...or more. In the end, I ditched the gas grill and I'm doing the KK and wood fired pizza oven for me...and a pellet smoker for my wife because its idiot proof. This way, everybody is happy except for my wallet.

My favourite ballad is by Tex Morten You'll Never Be Missed. Cheers, Kiwi Muz