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Pizza night here. Made two loaded pizzas so there will be some for a snowy day. Pizza Crust.

I am hoping you will help make the title of this post a reality by posting what you have on your Christmas present wish list. I would very much like a decent pair of heat proof gloves/gauntlets. Any recommendations you may have in this department would be gratefully received. Here are things I would recommend: Cookbooks Dry: Non-Alchoholic, Cocktails, Cordials and Clever Concoctions by Clare Liardet - we take three days a week off alchohol and this book helps keep me on the straight and narrow. There is a danger that you end up ingesting more sugar through the use of syrups and juices but this still feels like a healthy choice. La Grotta Ices by Kitty Travers - awesome. Inventive flavours for home made ice creams and sorbets. Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes by Cortney Burns - this is a recent purchase and I am intrigued by the interesting techniques and flavour combinations. One to report back on but fun for the adventurous cook. The next two are books that I would have added to my Christmas list if I had not been impatient. They are on their way so I can't yet tell you if they are any good yet but they are: South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations by Sean Brock - others on the forum have recommended Sean Brock's books before and this one looks like it contains a lot of grill action and will help with using the produce from our allotment in new ways. Kitchen Secrets by Raymond Blanc - I could not resist a book that one reviewer said had helped her master pastry by explaining the "why" as well as the "how". Kit Brod & Taylor Bread Proofer and shelf kit - so versatile and it folds and packs away neatly when not in use. Great for temperature controlled bread dough proofing. Also works for making yogurt and an intermediate step when making burrata. I have not had as much success with making koji but that was not the proofer's fault. Solo Stove Bonfire - great for sitting outdoors late into the night. We will be testing its efficacy as temperatures drop at the same time as we have been barred from meeting up with friends indoors. Outdoorchef accessories for use on the Solo Stove Bonfire - I got the two part cast iron cooking grid and the plancha griddle plate. They both work well when placed on top of the Bonfire for cooking. Grain flaker - a bit esoteric but I am looking forward to making my own flakes to go on top of loaves and also flaking groats to make oats. Very difficult to find. Mac pointed me at the FlicFloc but it has been unavailable for months. I ended up buying the Eschenfelder Grain Flaker. Pacojet - this is a seriously expensive toy but what a toy. We bought a "new in damaged box" Pacojet on eBay during the lockdown at a much reduced price and we are loving it for making ice creams and sorbets. They are unbelievably good. Other uses have been to make and freeze horseradish cream, basil pesto and truffle butter. These are all things that are difficult to preserve in good condition so freezing them and using the Pacojet to drill out a portion at a time is a preserver's dream.

Yup I couldn't resist. The newly released PKGO. PK's latest addition, a table top version for camping or tailgating. Can be used as a single unit with a lid or used as two open top hibachi grills. Dual top and bottom vents. Even comes with a probe port in the back of the lid. Should make a great addition to the Travel Trailer. Had to try it out with a few quick burgers for lunch. "Hi my name is Charles ........ I have a problem ........."

Thanks all for your tips. I used bits and pieces of what you all suggested and from Amazingribs.com. I wetbrined the turkey overnight in a stock pot, and I spatchcocked it. I seasoned with butter, a dry rub, and a sprinkling of herbs from the garden. I cooked it in the 300-325 range and removed it at 155 breast / 160 leg temperature. I put a lump of apple-wood in the fire basket, but I forgot to wait for blue smoke before putting my turkey in, so I probably got some black smoke on it. It still tasted great and was very moist. Highly recommend smoked turkey - easy to execute and delicious!

Egg salad with KK bacon for breakfast.

You guys are all so helpful. I am going online the second I finish thanking you, to order several more boxes of extruded coconut fuel from Dennis. My suspicions are being confirmed, that “slow and easy wins the race.” Reminds me of my early pilot training in a Bonanza; trying to overcorrect variances in altitude, keeping the wings straight and level and the speed constant. Those first few lessons, I was flying through airspace like a porpoise. I will now use high quality, consistent fuel and restraint. Maybe now I can “navigate” to blue smoke and ultimately a great brisket, by the time we can safely entertain again. Thank you so much, Dan

Hit it hard upfront - Cowboy is CRAP charcoal made from scrap lumber. Burns up quickly and you never know what kind of wood it's made from! While the advice of your other smoker (Stumps) against lump charcoal probably makes sense for that grill, it does NOT translate to your KK. Go lump, dump the briquettes as they contain binders that are very harsh - a likely source of your bad smoke problem. Dennis' cocochar is not made the same as a briquette, it's extruded under high pressure - no binders. Folks here are high on Fogo, Rockwood, Jealous Devil and KJ Big Box. Check out the Naked Whiz's database on the different charcoals. The Lump Charcoal Database -- Naked Whiz Charcoal Ceramic Cooking Search the Forum for the instructions on making Syzygies' cast iron smoker pot. Best solution for getting nice clean smoke from your smoking woods. OR, use the cold smoker unit from Dennis and wood pellets. As Robert said, for a cook in that temperature range, you don't need to light a ton of charcoal. As we preach here to new owners, "Don't Chase The Temperatures!" Once the KK gets heat soaked, it's very difficult to lower the temperature. And the Guru can't do it either. If the actual temperature is above the set temperature on the Guru, it just shuts the fan down, but with the fan damper open, the KK can still draw enough air in to keep the fire going, so your temperature won't come down. Two tricks for using the Guru - top vent should be just barely off the seat - make the fan do all the work; and, close the fan damper to at least half closed. The fan will still push enough air to maintain the temperature and you don't risk the KK drawing in too much air on its own when the fan isn't running. Hope some of this helps. Good luck on that next cook!

See my post about cookbooks? Or my knife collection?

I thought that I had just about kicked my habit and then Tekobo posts this! 😄 I literally have hundreds of cookbooks. Most are in boxes in the basement. I actually have a bookcase in my kitchen for the majority of the ones that I actually refer to. I periodically go through them and swap things around. I need to do that again soon, as I have a stack of newer cookbooks that need a home, with this one now on the way! Plus, the huge stack of printed out recipes from the Internet, as well.

Thank you both. I have some of Dennis’ Coco Char fuel, but it was stacked with random boxes in the garage. Cowboy Brand Natural Charcoal Briquettes are highly recommended at BBQ competitions, and my other smoker manufacturer (Stump’s Gravity Fed Smoker) recommends against “lump charcoal,” because big lumps clog the feeder chute. Sounds as though I need to use Dennis’ Coco Char extruded coconut shell fuel exclusively. For those of us who can justify buying such a great cooker, fuel cost is hardly the issue. My wife, Martine is not a fan of harshly smoky BBQ, so I have to remedy this problem quickly. Sounds as though I have an “overkill” issue with both smokers, trying to light a fire hot enough to fire enamel jewelry and able to grill a steak in a half an hour as with my Viking grill or a Weber. It seems these sophisticated cookers require much more restraint and are far more efficient, able to burn at smoking temperatures for 85 hours on a basket of fuel. I overdid it and then over-controlled to tamp down the raging temperatures I created. Thanks for pointing that out. Dan

I find that if I have lots of leftover lump it doesn't take much new lump to have a good fire. The smoke will clean up fairly soon too. One thing to remember, poultry soaks up smoke like a sponge. Was your turkey at room temperature when you started?

I’m not terribly familiar with cowboy brand lump, but if I remember correctly, it not highly thought of. That’s step one, make sure you’re using quality fuel. Secondly, it sounds like you had too much fire lit. A full chimney in a 21” is pretty full, so I’m not sure the coals were fully smoldering. Even for a 300°-350° fire, I suggest lightning and one or two spots and let the temperature come up naturally. It sounds like you were more keeping the fire down as opposed to simply controlling the fire with airflow. Between fire management and fuel, I believe that’s probably your smoke problem. Dennis’s coco char is the best, but in lieu of that, I’ve had good luck with forgo and rockwood. There are more out there, so do some research and find a good quality fuel. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

@MacKenzie, those pizzas look great. I am going to have to try your dough recipe and your method of putting the pizzas onto some greaseproof paper. I have made such a mess of the inside of our IDK oven, flinging pizzas onto the stone from my pizza peel.

@Braai-Q Nice looking amp - I've never seen so many buttons on a combo. Yes it's a shame that you can only track the shipping once it arrives in the UK. Enjoyed the Led Zeppelin anecdote - I read it to Mrs RD who is a life long fan. She's got a first edition Led Zeppelin 1 album - would be worth quite a lot of money, but as a teenager she listened to it non-stop so there is barely a groove left on it. She went to the last two UK concerts they ever did in Knebworth, we've seen Robert Plant and his band a couple of times recently. My oven is no in Singapore having shipped from Surabaya on the Bankok Bridge. It's waiting to hitch a ride on a boat heading for Southampton- from Tekebo's experience this could take quite a while. @tekobo - if your ovens and sofa do arrive on the same day - you'll be able to sit down in comfort and watch the ovens being unloaded - every cloud ... Hopefully by late Spring we'll have some sort of normality and we can sort out something then - the pub has six rooms and if anyone wants to come from further afield they would be welcome ...

Anybody tried smoking with materials other than wood? I'm thinking of things like peach pits of pecan shells.

Our Spatchcocked Thanksgiving Turkey made me realize I need help. I have a new KK 21” Supreme with all of the accessories. There was already lots of charcoal in the basket from a previous cook I had smothered, but not realizing that, I filled a charcoal chimney with Cowboy brand natural briquettes and combusted them to red hot and little or no “dirty,” white smoke, added it, with four small chunks of Post Oak and hooked up the BBQ Guru and fan bellows, fully opened and also opened the exhaust chimney wide to get things going. (It was 21 degrees Fahrenheit at the time.) I set the Guru for 350 pit temperature and the Turkey probe in the center of the breast at 155, figuring it would continue to 165, while resting. After about 40 minutes, having partially closed the exhaust chimney and with the Guru fan running regularly, acrid, “dirty” smoke was still billowing from the exhaust damper and when opening the cook chamber, but it was better and time to start cooking, so I put the turkey on the top grate. There were red charcoal and red flames by then, but still lots of smoke and NOT the almost invisible “blue smoke” we all strive for. I lowered the desired pit temp to 300 degrees and went inside to monitor the cook from the warm kitchen, basting quickly every 30 minutes or so. Most videos had estimated a 90-100 minute cook time for a spatchcocked, 16-pound turkey, but we were prepared for a longer cook if necessary. The Turkey probe was probably not inserted, because it read 145 very quickly and repositioning didn’t seem to fix it, so I switched to my Thermo-Pen and relied on that. At 100 minutes the chamber was 300 and steady and the bird about 145, but looked magnificently mahogany and juicy, so I took it off at 150 instead of 155 and rested it for a 40 minutes, but when I tried to remove a leg-thigh, I realized it was far from cooked and put it in the oven, already preheated from side dishes. When I rested again and carved, the breast was juicy and appetizing looking, but so smokey we only took a few bites and focused on the dressing and the wine, happy that it was just the two of us this year and no embarrassment to be shared. I have the same “smoke-fire management issues with my Stump’s Junior, Gravity Fed Smoker, so I am doing something basic in a very wrong way, but I am determined not to regress to my old Traeger. That Turkey went out with the trash! I need your help. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Dan.

I have seen a few videos on YouTube cooking a Rib Roast at 500* for 5 minutes a pound and then turning off the Oven and letting the Roast sit in the oven for 2 hours. Is there a way to do the same cook in the KK ? I know the KK will get Heat Soaked and at 500*, the KK will not be coming down for some time and the Rib Roast will get over cooked at 2 hours. Would a lower temp work and if so, any ideas at what temp ? Also plan on using a pan as I want to make an Au Jus. Thanks.

To be fair, I don’t think it is big enough to be counted as another whole grill. Maybe 1/2 or 3/4...

Like MacKenzie said, I think it works best as a reverse sear, which is how I do mine. Smoke at about 200 - 215 F grate temp until the roast reaches around 112 F (or slightly higher if you want it above medium rare). It will take about 2 1/2 - 3 hours depending size of roast (my times are for a 6 pound net trimmed boneless roast) and your actual KK temperature. Pull the roast and tent with foil while opening the top and vents to get a dome temp of 500 and sear all 6 sides of the roast for about 1 - 1 1/2 minutes each. Roast temp will increase to about 120 - 124F. Then refoil, wrap with towel and hold in a cooler until your desired is reached. It will go up another 10 degrees while in the cooler.

To me cooking in the KK is more like cooking in the kitchen oven, the fuel is lump and once you get within about 50 degrees of your desired cooking temp, start closing the vents, mainly the top vent until you settle at the desired temp. By then the smoke should be good so put your goodies on the grate. Unlike the kitchen oven your cooking temp. will remain stable and not a lot of air passing through the KK if you keep the lid shut and you should. The result will be a much moister cook than the oven.

Why not cook it at a lower temp and then remove it when the IT is what you want, open the vents and let the fire roar then sear the roast.

https://www.vermicular.us/ I'd like to add the Vermicular Musui-Kamado to this dream list. This really is an item that the more you use it the more you find things that you can do with it. Not a day goes by that I don't use it for something. It does a fantastic job on veggies, eggs, you name it.

I think this might be a first world problem but when it arrives, I can say with certainty that as a proud male of the species, I will also not read the manual. I think what amused me reflecting on it later was what an utter idiot I was in not recognising the situation I found myself in. That was the point of the story. Nothing to do with name dropping. I'm entirely unbothered by all of that but I am always held in awe of someone who has attained a level of knowledge and craft skill to those sort of levels in any discipline. Particularly when you have an appreciation of what it took to get there. On a slight segue, you should check out Rick Beato on Youtube if you play. He does a technical song analysis - 'Why is this song great' and he deconstructs songs by their elements. I know he has done a few Led Zep tracks, you might enjoy. Great to have something cheerful to look forward to.

Thanks, Tekobo. The only thing you will have to worry about when using the parchment paper is that it might slide off the peel before it gets to the oven. There is a cure for that, a finger on the edge of the paper.

A little Medicated goo

Delicious Mack! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And, the problem with that is what??

Sometimes it just takes Blind Faith!

You know that's a first. Let me explain the glitch. When I hit the submit nothing happened, generally you would see the post and done is done. So I tried again and again and without seeing anything, I just gave up. If it's something related to your post being at the bottom of a full page well, that might be a clue. Anyhow this computer has been acting a little weird as of late, have no fear we'll get to the bottom of this Watson.

I am glad that sear triggered multiple posts from you Tyrus. So good you greeted it seven times! It was a divine combination for a weekday dinner. The space left on the plate was for sweet potato fries which were still cooking. The orange mush on the right was one year old home made kimchi which was delicious and just right in combination with the duck, mushrooms and fries. One to repeat.

We got notification today that our sofa is with the "transporters" and should be with us, at the very latest, by Dec 10. It will be super weird (and stressful) if the KKs and sofa decide to arrive on the same day! In the meantime I will drink to a vaccine to get us out of this mess. See you on the other side.

@Troble - inspired to go heat up leftovers for lunch!

No turkey here but I went back to my go to method for cooking duck breast last night. Quick and delicious on the Solo Bonfire. Over wood.

Hope all is safe and in good health. Here is my contribution to a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family.

Thanks for the tips, Steve. Three hours on the dot from putting it on the grate to 165 in the breast. It probably got closer to 400 at the grate for some of the cook, but it was fantastic. Moist and delicious. Gravy from the drippings was on point as well. I highly recommend the turkey bath and ranchero seasoning from All Things BBQ.

I've got my turkey drying now after brining for the last 24 hours. Spatchcocked it. First turkey cook...ever, so hoping it turns out well. I plan to rub herb butter on the meat under the skin, put some seasoning and avocado oil on the skin...I still may inject the breasts with butter, but not sure that's necessary... Planning to cook at 350 temp or so. Anyone have a ballpark of how long an 18lb bird will take at that temp? I'm worried about having to pull it off too soon, or worse, not having it done by the start of dinner. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Wow! That's a large batch of beer (20 gallons!) I'm actually going in the opposite direction and brewing smaller batches (1-3 gallons), as without beer club meeting and other festivals, I don't have an outlet for full 5 gallon batches. If I have to drink it mostly myself, I get bored with it well before it's gone and I'm ready to move onto another style.

Rokdoc you will have to take it easy drinking that beer through a long slow cook. I’m looking forward to tasting your stout meat pie with puff pastry and left over KK brisket cooks Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I generally use the Meathead method. Simple, dry brined, delicious. Go easy on the smoke wood. One chunk of peach or apple and that’s it for me. I’ll be doing mine over KK coffee wood lump with no added wood chunks his year. https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/turkey-recipes/bbq-and-grilled-turkey-recipe