Leaderboard

Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

I did not mean to imply that you were displaying "poor intellectual form" by using these numbers in passing. You clearly have mastered making pizza with your equipment. Rather, we would be encouraging it in others to let these numbers stand unqualified. Most people who blindly reach these temperatures with their equipment will incinerate their pizza. The people I know with wood-fired pizza ovens back off somewhat from these numbers, even though they can go higher than a KK. I am sorry. I was focusing all of my diplomacy on avoiding the claim that Italians are lying. My teacher (proudly from the Mezzogiorno) stopped just short of this assertion, also. We all delude ourselves. Her measurements indicated a widespread phenomenon that the temperatures Italians claimed to be reaching were not the temperatures that they were actually reaching. Neapolitan pizza may be like Olympic-grade ski boots. Many avid amateur skiers get it into their heads that this is what they want. This is another idea trap; they don't deliver the best recreational experience, even for the strongest recreational skiers. Choose one's goals wisely. One can eat spectacular pizza in many parts of Italy. The Neapolitan approach is the hardest to translate to a backyard elsewhere in the world. Their ovens are typically larger than you'll find in any backyard, and scale is critical. Official Neapolitan standards specify the numbers you give, and some Neapolitan pizzerias have mastered achieving these numbers. But even at a randomly chosen "great" pizzeria in Naples, don't bet half your retirement savings that these are the numbers they're actually realizing. They're in a tight feedback loop, observing what comes out of their particular oven, and the line out the door matters more than adherence to some abstract standard. This is how it should be; this is what we should replicate in our backyards. The French have grammar police, just as the Italians have pizza police, but the French don't speak as theory claims, either. How and where do you measure? Like a KK, the dome temperature tells us little about the experience of the pizza on the stone. An infrared thermometer is most reliable when aimed at previously calibrated reference object that is not reflecting radiant heat from the fire. That's pretty hard to accomplish in a wood-fired pizza oven. Measuring 900 degrees is not necessarily achieving 900 degrees.

Let me know the next time your cooking pizza. I want to put my order in.

The reason why I’m such a Komodo fan is that they do everything really well. From cold smoking cheese to high temp pizzas, they accomplish the task and do it to perfection. As a huge fan of pizza, we make them often when having a family night or friends over. Everyone can make their own and that makes things better while keeping the conversation flowing. These were done on a 42” Serious Big Bad. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you're into geocaching I'm sure you'll like this. I had an old travel bug I used when I was geocaching on my motorcycle. I sold the motorcycle for a down payment on the travel trailer so I thought it was appropriate to turn that bug into a Travel Trailer Bug. I have this on both pass through doors and on the back above the spare tire. Feel free to discover this bug just let me know what forum you saw this on. If you ever see it out in the wild please discover it again and stop by to say hello. Charles and Susan

I hate to sound cruel, but those folks deserve to have a 24 hour power outage!

Rainy today, so probably no grilling out tonight, but I did get to last evening. Chicken Shawarma on the menu. Chicken was pre-marinated from Trader Joes. On a 325F grill, direct, with cherry wood chunk. Plated up with a cuke & red pepper relish and tahini sauce, Bibb lettuce for the wrap, and a side of curry rice.

My neighbors have a wood-fired pizza oven. It's wonderful. I took some cooking classes with an Italian "engineer" (actually Silicon Valley upper management) who retired wealthy at forty, and now teaches as a hobby. She took temperature readings at many of the best pizzerias in Italy, to understand pizza for herself. 900-1000 degrees is a simplistic myth. Yes, if your life depends on finding that reading somewhere in a wood-fired pizza oven, you could manage. If you instead read on the internet that this is the ideal temperature, and try to replicate it indiscriminately, you'll make suboptimal pizza. Where I grew up, I'd hear people say "ASSUME makes an ass out of you and me". They're still saying it fifty years later. I observe something similar in mathematics: It's human nature to clamp down for days, weeks, months, or years on a catchy idea. It's also extraordinarily poor intellectual form. For comparison, competitive swimmers are in great physical condition, but they excel because of ideal form. It is simplistic to believe that our best scientists excel because of raw intelligence. Generally, from what I've observed, they too have better form. They encounter a catchy idea, and their reaction is "I want that experience again in five minutes, with another new idea!" They don't get stuck on single ideas. I've seen many people get stuck on the single idea that a pizza oven should be 900-1000 degrees. The KK is not as nimble as a wood-fired pizza oven at making pizza, though both respond to careful attention. I'm sure that you know that 900-1000 degrees is an oversimplification. The state of any cooker is a high-dimensional time-evolving slurry of information we barely take in, poorly captured by single numbers. I cringe when these numbers are repeated, for I've seen how people take them literally.

Cool! If I find you, can I take your left rear tire and swap it for an old eraser?

I put my pulled pork to use to make a sandwich for lunch. I wish I had a Guinness.

Happy St. Pat's Day, ya'll! Having to celebrate at home though, as the local government asked the bars to stay closed today. A nice corned beef sandwich (not homemade) with a good Irish Ale! Sláinte!

I'm using Traeger pellets. After a few hours the burn was weak and dying, I used a 12" metal skewer as a "swizzle stick" to give it a stir for better airflow. Poked thru both vent holes and also down thru the top.

That 8:15 AM pork butt cook turned into a marathon cook, just shortly after 4 AM I pulled it off the KK. You know what comes next I had to pull and sample it was 5 AM when I got to bed. The start up. Ready to pull. It was moist. I was afraid it would be dry after that 20 hour cook. The first 170 F was at 225 F then I moved it to 235 F.

Gee whiz Mac you eat well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a butt on, it's been on since 8:15AM and is now in the stall at 166.6F. For lunch I had a nice Montreal Smoked meat sandwich.

Ribs going on and ready to come off. 3-2-1 method with house pork rub.

1. use the Mapp torch, I do remember "once" I pulled out the compressor because I was on a time table, that 90 lbs of pressure fired up the basket pretty quickly, I don't suggest this procedure for alot of reasons but it got me around the corner that day. 2. I use a shopvac, does a great job everywhere, even around the gasket. 3. Haven't yet, just let it drip down and dry and toss it out. The only time I'd put a tin down lower might be for veggies and that juice dropping in could be saved. 4. 3/8 in open wrench for the tuff stuff, next a brass wire brush and the wipe off with your choice of an old towel or paper towel. The PBW does a great job but a high temp burn after a pizza will burn give you some nice smooth grates. I see everyone does it a little differently, do what's best and most comfortable for you

Hi all l’ve finished my first cook and have been researching quite a lot using the search function but I have a couple of newbie questions I’d love some help with 1. What’s the best blower to fee for lighting? 2. What’s the best way to clean up the ash? 3. When doing low & slow like a brisket or pork shoulder do you use a foil tray to collect juices? 4. Best cleaner for grill grates? thanks in advance

I know I'm bad but ROFL.

Sometimes during a cold smoke, I'll lightly tap on the side of the smoker with tongs to make sure that things are settling and staying lit.

Haha Aussie. A mate dropped into the butcher the other day and the guy in front of him had 70kg of meat- that’s over 150lb...... panicking...... knucklehead! Harvey Norman are running out of freezers!.... insane! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I used trex to make a small deck in front of my generator lean-to i added to the back of my shop about 4 years ago. no special tools to cut it, i used a nail gun w/ stainless framing nails (yeah, not cosmetic) onto 2"x 6" joists. I did screw framing for the lean-to onto it w/o any issues, no pilot holes. 16" on center, 4' x 6' square.

All, thanks for your replies. Basher I really didn’t have that much variation. What happened is I needed to depart home for about 3 hours. I probably only had the upper vent turned about 2” from the gasket......I was trying not to over shoot my target of 185 and I was OK with it being less as long as coals were still going which they obviously were. After running my errands I came back to a smoker that was only just above 150F (which I was happy with) I then spent the next hour opening the gasket a little more at at time until I got to about 185F. My point is that because I was barely off of the gasket there was very little airflow And with the pump on a medium setting I was thinking I may be creating / pumping more smoke out the vent holes then was was going into the KK as there didn’t seem to be much smoke coming out of the vent. I will take Dennis advise of putting pump on it’s lowest setting moving forward. As for this cook I was using Bear Mountain Alder as I could not locate Lumberjack Alder. I have also recently purchased some bags of Lumberjack Pellets. I noticed these pellets burn rather fast when compared to other brands of pellets I had on hand (Not Lumberjack as I’m new to these). I always clean out the old pellets after each cook so I’m not dealing with ash or moist / wet pellets. I then fill the chamber partially to the level of the vent holes. I have a torch that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the vent holes so I can light them very good. Once I feel the pellets are well lit I then dump additional pellets in the chamber. I may try the idea of the vent pipe screen up for a cleaner smoke. As always I appreciate everyone’s input. Best, Paul

My deck is made out of Trex. I specifically made the contractor use the under decking system so that there were no holes on the deck planking. Added to the job, as they had to work on ladder underneath, but I think it was worth it to not have unsightly holes and screws showing. You can use shavings from cutting the planks as filler in the screw holes, but I dispensed with that need with the under deck system. As far as I remember (it's been over 10 years ago), but I don't recall the contractor using any special blades or drill bits.

Did OK at the local supermarket today, but they'd been hit hard yesterday, according to the folks working there. Many employees were out in the store re-stocking some items. Meat counter was a little thin, but most things were to be had. Unfortunately, in parallel, they'd run a sale on the thicker cut pork chops that I like, so naturally they were out! I had to settle for the regular cut ones - I'll survive! Soup and pasta shelves were hit hard, but the good imported Italian pasta was plentiful, which is all that I buy anymore. No paper products, but I didn't need any. Liquid hand soap was sparse, but there was plenty of bar soap - what's with folks? Liquor/beer/wine department hardly looked fazed - woo, hoo! The real adventure will be tomorrow when I hit up CostCo and Trader Joes. Will be interesting to see how hard they've been hit.

As well as nuts, salmon - you get the general picture.

Unfortunately it will be next month before the contractor visits my home to install the new Azek composite decking. When the screws are installed plugs are installed over the countersunk hole to hide any evidence. The bit Ckreef may be one unit having the drill bit and countersink on it. I haven't seen it but you would probably find that demonstrated on a Youtube video. For a nice clean cut use a blade with many teeth or a finish blade. Either ceramic or SSteel would be used I assume for reasons of rust staining. The screw as Jon B has stated may be a selfboring/tapping screw and then the plug is installed over it.

Charles....I have never worked with it............however I watched my Aunt's contractor install composite decking over her existing wood framework. They did use a special two part threaded screw made especially for the composite deck. If I remember correctly.....it kept the decking, screw hole flat & flush.........no slivers sticking up around the screw. That is the extent of my knowledge. Look forward to reading what others say.

No, I think if you plug those hole the fire will go out. There will be lots of smoke inside the KK. Make sure you get good pellets, ones that don't have a bunch of additives. It will make a world of difference in keeping your smoker running. I use Lumber Jack Pellets, others will probably chime in and tell you what they find to be good pellets.

That looks angry but yum Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Paul I’m not sure what you are asking about here. Do you have a fire going inside the KK with the cold smoker active? I don’t, and have minimal internal temperature variation over 4 hours. I’m either completely cold, or find I can get plenty of smoke flavour with wood and charcoal with internal fire lit. When you say top vent cracked, is this about 1/8 turn or less? I don’t plug the side vents on the smoker as I’m not confident that the small coals will remain lit and I’ll need to re ignite occasionally, and I also think these coals draw O2 from these side vents. The fan through the pipe just helps draw this O2 across the embers and force the smoke into the KK cooking chamber. One tip is, having the wire grate on the cold smoker internal pipe facing upwards has created a cleaner smoke for me. I hope this helps otherwise, please explain further. Keep sharing as we all learn with added observations. Can’t say I’ve perfected the cold smoker and will start experimenting with different wood chips/ pellets to see how this effects the results. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As promised the last box at the end of the day on the delivery truck. It's here and a hot and fast style of cooking is what it does. Ordered the Rib rack which can easily do 10 racks. I mainly got it for the advantage of bringing it to other locations for quick cooks because although it has some weight it's not a burden except it is large at 55 gal, bigger than the competition Pit Barrel at 30. The paint is Matte black but rated for 1000 degrees vs the other prettier models of color having 450. Burn in tomorrow sealing with some Pam and that'll be it

And spices, and tea. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Works like a charm on cheese.

Primerib cheese burgers...I must be living in the wrong neighborhood. Toney you did well, but you forgot one thing...a meal like that and no wine. Your slippin brother, your slippin

I think I’m going to have to pick one of these up. Would be great for cold smoking cheese. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another reason that I like you, MacKenzie! I, on the other hand, did not grind up my chuck roast. It went on at 275F indirect, with the smoker pot of mesquite, post oak and coffee wood chunks, rubbed with a mix of Oakridge Secret Weapon and Cimarron Docs, with an extra hit of fresh ground black pepper. Took it off at an IT of 200F, just like a brisket, except no pink butcher paper. Plated with another round of the French mashed potatoes (sous vide in butter & 1/2n1/2, seasonings - 192F for 90 minutes, then run through the food mill with the smallest disc, then added sour cream and boursin cheese (garlic & herb), S&P), with a Bourbon mushroom gravy. The potatoes came out almost as good as the ricer/screen version, but with half the work. Next time, I'll up the butter even more!

1) I use the FiAir blower - it's battery powered. Does a good job. Only complaint - the batteries can get dislodged with normal handling and it won't run until you take the back cover off and readjust them. Not a biggie problem, but when you're trying to get the grill up and going, it can be a tad frustrating (full disclosure - I have practically zero patience!) https://smile.amazon.com/FiAir-Charcoal-Tailgating-Campfires-Fireplaces/dp/B00D5FS7HA 2) Same as MacKenzie - scoop from the top. 3) Nope, just use aluminum foil on the lower grate to stop the drippings from hitting the coals and to provide indirect heating to the main grate. If I think that there's going to be a lot of drippings, I use the drip pan that came with the KK. 4) Everyday cleaning of the grates - I use a Grill Floss. A 3/8" open-end wrench works almost as well and is cheaper. https://smile.amazon.com/GrillFloss-Ultimate-Grill-Cleaning-Tool/dp/B000PAV28E For the rotisserie baskets and forks, I soak in PBW (Powdered Brewers Wash), which can be found at any homebrewing supply store/online. It's not cheap, but you only use a little at a time; it works great and makes cleanup a snap. A word of caution - stay away from cheapo brass bristle brushes and similar things. If you use the Kurly Kate recommended by MacKenzie, follow her "good practice" and make sure that you wipe down the grates thoroughly with a wet rag/paper towel afterwards. Folks end up in the Emergency Room from ingesting metal bits that find their way into the food. This is not an internet urban legend - here's a link to the CDC's website. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6126a4.htm https://globalnews.ca/news/4166966/bbq-brushes-metal-bristle-safety-standard/

2. I also scoop from the top, using an Oxo mini brush and dustpan. 4. I use a Powdered Brewer's Wash soak overnight before using the Kurly Kate (per MacKenzie) if the grates are "well used," which mine generally are.

Here is what I do. 1. I like the Milwaukee - M18 Compact Blower. 2. I scoop from the top into metal container. No need to get every last bit of ash out in my opinion. 3. I like to use a metal tray, like the SS tray that comes with the KK. 4. I use the Kurly Kate rub the grates when done cleaning to make sure there are no little pieces of metal that will get into my good.

For Neapolitan pizza I recommend using a baking steel at 450º rather than my baking stone at 900º you will get the exact leoparding on your crust and bake times. Check out Kenji’s posts on Modernist Cusines page.