Leaderboard

I can’t believe SYZies got away with drilling holes in the bottom of a pot! This may be the biggest hurdle to do this - if my wife asks, Asian termite like cast iron

2 low and slow cooks this long weekend here in the states. Today is a pork butt with a rub from Oakland Spice Shop, which we highly recommend...one of those businesses with a rabid local following who might not make it through the virus. Tomorrow is brisket, which I don't have much experience with and will be doing some research on these forums later today. Last brisket was mostly not great as brisket, but worked great as a stew the next day.

The veges were a bit on the crispy side, maybe water base rather than oil next time..... but, that will compromise the crackle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You're off to a great start. One thing I've noticed on brisket, the better grade of beef, the more I look like a chef genius. More so than any other cut. I like the looks of that black tile.

This arrived yesterday so just had to try out the soft boiled egg that is like a sous vide egg. 4T water in Musui then 3mins on Med and 4 mins on Low will get you this. Then I added a little more spice, The white was very delicate and it just melted in your mouth. I doubt I could taste any difference in this cook and a sous vide cook. I did notice that all of the white was cooked unlike a soft sous vide egg.

That is a top drop. Beautiful winters evening here. About 12C That’s about 55f Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I also had a recent problem part and was experiencing some difficulties. I explained the situation to Dennis and he simply stated, "let me take a look around, I'm sure we can send one out." I had another Kamado in the 90's from Grill dome and the ceramic top developed a crack and eventually failed. When I tried to explain the situation to the company and recover a new top with my lifetime warranty it was explained to me that I must have over fired the unit. Yes, Dennis is much easier to deal with along with his staff

Not sure if this counts but leftover chicken from Wednesday repurposed with fresh handmade tortillas ($2.99 for pack of 15 from my local market) into quesadillas with fresh avocado (cause we put avocado on everything in San Diego)

Well, had a bird in the freezer, so decided to try something new.. After all the shenanigans to get the white and dark done at the same time, icing the breast and all. I looked around and found this.. If you don't know about Guga and his two YouTube channels.. Pretty interesting and entertaining.... I like parts of this technique, and dislike others.. Did not like his way of gravy making, so kinda did it my own way. I cut up the. bird as he did. Vacuum sealed and baptized in 2 SV tanks as instructed. 150 for dark, 131 for breast. Both for 24 hrs. I took the carcass and wings and scraps, and chopped up a leek, celery, carrots, onions, garlic and a few bayleaves and peppercorns. Into a shallow pan @ 425 turning once at 45 min, and the letting it go another hour or so until it was well browned with a nice fond on the bottom. I scraped out all the awesome brown "crud" as Mad Max calls It and reserved in the fridge for later. deglazed the pan with water and put it all that was left in a pressure cooker, with water to almost cover. Brought to high pressure for an hour, then strained out all solids, stole some extraneous scraps from the solids, dusted with cajun spices, and had a snack I mean a feller has to keep his strength up! Took the stock and am reducing bit today, with the giblets and neck. When it is ready will thicken with a little roux if needed, and chop up the neck meat and giblets and toss them back in.. (along with the "crud") I do admit, my house smelling like heaven right now! This evening, will pull the turkey out, pop into the KK until deliciously brown, and along with some SV taters, feast away! I will let ya'll know how it comes out!

Another Friday night steak dinner in lockdown! A nice Denver steak from the local butcher. Seasoned with Gunpowder and Dizzy Pig Raising the Steaks. Started out on the half grate (direct), then dropped down to the lower grate for the final sear. Mesquite chunks. Plated with air fryer potato wedges (sprayed with duck fat) and creamed spinach with mushrooms. Chimichurri sauce on the steak. Wine is a TJ's Malbec. My dog, Kipper, waiting, not so patiently, for me to take the pictures and give him a treat!

Stock reduced nicely! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We have one of these. My wife swears by it. My contributions to food for our family/parties are almost 100% grill & helping hand (slicing & dicing). She's the cook, and she's very, very good at it. This device is one of her favorite tools -- it's perfect for her style of cooking, which seems similar to those in this thread. We've been remodeling our kitchen for a while now, and this device was her go to (our new kitchen has an aga, so, same sort of thing -- low & slow simmers). Having said that, no small part of the value here are the refined aesthetics. That's the one we have. It's purty. My wife reminds me that you don't want to let standing water stand on the unfinished edges. You're probably already aware of this, if not lmk and I'll ask her what that's about.

I just moved into the 3 kamado group. This just arrived yesterday, the sand coloured Vermicular Musui Kamado. Not available in Canada so I had to import it from the USA. Yesterday I did a trial run with some very old cabbage from the fridge. Put a little oil, the bottom of the Musui and put the cabbage in, set it on med for 30 mins. some of the cabbage pieces were thick. I was just playing but the cabbage turned out just fine, guess it will now get eaten. You might just see it on a dinner plate later today. Here's a quick phone shot of the cabbage.

Tonight I’ll spin a pork loin marinated in oak aged balsamic with white truffle. Then spiced with pepper- purple and black, garlic, chillie and paprika. Half an hour into the spin I’ll add the double bottom drip pan with spuds, onion and bacon. Not sure how this will go and the timing- maybe an hour with the 1 and 1/2 hour spin? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The smalls definitely fill in the space between the pieces and kill airflow. Every time someone says their grill is stuck at 300º I know they poured the crap from the bottom of the bag in the grill.. The hot air escaping with the the lid latched and the top damper open creates vacuum and forces air thru the charcoal. It's actually forced airflow also. You really do not need to use the Guru fan at all.

I’ve been in isolation - forgive me for the lack of content! with isolation brings boredom which brings experimentation. I was getting pretty tired of buying 4kg boxes of charcoal, so thought I would find a wholesaler. I achieved that but they had a minimum order - I had to spend 100 bucks for delivery (80 USD, 500000000 AU pesos). So I made the order up with some timber I wanted to try: oak, Apple wood, and lychee. With all this wood, I decided to cook with just wood! The risk is obviously way too much smoke - but I miss the bbq from Austin and they do it in timber so worth a shot. my first try is Apple wood and ribs. The guy has cut the timber too Long for the 23” - so I decided to only put in three pieces. There was a bit of left over charcoal from the last bbq so I lit that up and a bit of the timber with my brazing torcch. ribs have an Aussie made run on them, can’t remember the brand but it is chipotle flavoured. about 4 hours later at 225 they are ready to take off. The girls like bbq sauce on them so I cranked the temp up to 400 and put the ribs back on lathered in sauce. i got a little distracted by the dog to be honest - the sauce was “over caramelised” or “Moroccan” in patches. Aside from that the ribs were bloody good. is wood the answer - fucked if I know but it is fun trying. I’m going to do Peking duck with lychee in a few weeks - if I can get that sorted it is going to be amazing stay healthy every one - and throw another steak on the barby to be sure! IMG_7156.MOV

Cosmetic! If you're cooking anything that could boil over, stay in the kitchen and don't let it happen. For example, don't let beans boil over and make a mess everywhere, just because you're worried about Phytohaemagglutinin. You're supposed to be in a Zoom meeting? Not a good excuse. Actually, a great excuse, but it won't affect the outcome. What you don't want to do is get liquid through the outer side vents into the electronics, while it's plugged in. This could trip your house circuit breaker, and kill the Kamado's power supply. There isn't a warranty seal on the Phillips head screws holding the base together. The base comes off easily. The electronics inside are very solidly built, with several submodules that Vermicular could easily swap out for an easy repair. There's no circuit breaker or fuse visible inside the unit. The coin lithium battery looks to be more easily changed than the battery in a Zojirushi rice cooker. At this price, one can imagine that if someone was this incredibly, inexcusably, "can't even fog a mirror" stupid, they'd find that Vermicular has exceptional customer service. This is all hypothetical, of course. I have an active imagination. I just wanted to take a look inside. However, I think I'll hold back on posting for a week or two, to let Mac have her day.

My 23” sat in one spot on an unreinforced deck for years. The deck started sagging there to the point I thought it unsafe. A guy came out today, added some new piers and 4x4’s and leveled it. What a difference, I don’t feel like I will roll off the deck there anymore! Definitely reinforce your deck for a KK. A failure could hurt or kill somebody.

Gravy!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With reduced stock and crud, I’ve got 3.5 cups of mighty delicious drippins! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, a neighbor asked me if my late mother had an apple pie recipe.. So I dug out.. Bad new for me though.. I figured I would make one too... Now I love baking them.. Just got an nice Le Cruset dish.. The pie releases easily from the ceramic. Lots easier than glass.

Nice, MacKenzie, but I'll stick to SV poached eggs. This toy is a bit out of my budget, especially for as often as I'd probably use it (see the 2 pressure cookers in my cabinet!) LOL

Giblets , neck meat, and “crud” ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Saucier that sounds delicious. I’ve seen a few of his videos and always liked his reaction to the taste. He spend 30% of his videos animating the tasting. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That looks good Mac. Does this mean we are now going to see you lift your game?[emoji33] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

She's correct and so far I have made sure those iron edges are dry because you know what Iron does when it's wet. LOL

Sure is looking tasty.

Sure looks perfect, beautiful evening, great campfire, sooooo relaxing.

I shared your concerns of way too much smoke and ruining the cook - but I thought it was worth a try. Maybe it was blind luck but it wasn’t too smoky or bitter. It was quite interesting to watch - as the smoker was warming up, I certainly cleared all the mosquitos away with a lot of smoke. Then when it got to about 180ish the smoke went back a bit. It was still a lot of smoke but I was no longer worried about the neighbours calling the firies. I’ll have a look at the smoke pot concept and continue my experiments. Although, I am a little worried that the meat will taste great but I am then at risk of sleeping in the kennel if I don’t use the pot. I like the idea of a series of chambers to get rid of the volatiles - I built a cold smoker that sort of worked like that years ago (the chambers also got rid of the heat thought and my neighbour certainly did not like the smoke - maybe a week was too long running it?) more work to be done clearly. Luckily I have nowhere to go so can mess about with the grill. If all else fails; I now own enough wood to add smoke to charcoal for ever!

The bikes sound like fun! And if you decide on the ground level, ferrying the food up and down will keep you fit too. Just so long as you no longer have to do the funny dance through the rest of your house. And, best of all, you have not ruled out another KK.

And that's exactly what I did Tekebo. Figured a little exercise was in order so I purchased two ebikes. Very convenient around town for errands to the store or local winery. They have the motor assist to reduce your work when peddling or if you want, just use the throttle. Very nice with a range of 25-50 miles depending on various conditions and factors. Think I'm leaning towards ground level, no balcony smokin for this guy, like the idea of another KK but I have 5 large smokers now. A new deck, 2 bikes, another KK at this time isn't in the mix, but never say never. That works, just hope I don't tumble down the snow covered steps.

@DennisLinkletter - interesting about using larger chunks, thanks for the tip. I'm just dumping the bag in (lump) with mixed stuff... charcoal dust and all... I'll try chunks next cook. I am using my BBQ guru as a full-time fan during my cook - with the probes out of the KK so it thinks it's in ramp-up mode all the time. I assume the fan-speed injection is better than just opening the door?

I'm down with the Stone mustard. Try their chipotle one, not super hot, but a nice smoky flavor.

Suddenly cold here tonight. No plants yet Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You always want to remember that temperature is airflow. If you want high temps you need high airflow. To get this it's best to use only medium to large or all large pieces of charcoal. We're talking large tangerine or more. This with your lower draft door open and the draft door open will get you hotter than you need to go. For Napoleon cracker crust pies, I wholeheartedly suggest using carbon steel / Baking Steels. Click here to better understand how it works