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When I was trying to decide what size KK to buy, all those years ago, @ckreef's advice was to buy two. He was adamant you needed more than one to make sure you got all the components of your dinner ready at the same time. Well, I took his advice and here is Christmas dinner, cooked on my 23 (high heat throughout) and 32 (very low and slow for most of the time and hot at the end to cook up the pigs in blankets). Happy Holidays everyone! I never normally have turkey but here is a boned turkey leg which I seasoned and then my husband added lardo and rolled it up for roasting. Rolled turkey leg and standing rib roast in the 32 after first having been browned in the 23. Potatoes were roasted in the 23. And the pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon) were cooked on the 32 when the other meat was taken off to rest. I finished off the skin on the beef roast with the MAPP torch before resting. The cook was edge to edge perfect, with the very low and slow time it had in the 32. It was an outstanding Christmas meal, with just the Brussel sprouts and sauce cooked indoors. Deeeelicious!

3 bone prime rib, bones on the bottom protecting the spinalis. The pan is 16” wide, the 38” just swallows it up. Mixed in the butter is thyme, rosemary, garlic, and black pepper. I dry brined it overnight. Merry Christmas everyone! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Chicken cooked in double bottomed pan went very well last night. The bread heels soaked up the juices and were lovely. Followed by tarte tatin. Enjoyed the meal with @RokDok and his wife who came to ours for an overnight trip to pick up the sausages we made for them.

Maybe soon enough people will know what a KK is, and they’ll quit asking “is that like a green egg?” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cooked up an early NYE dinner today. I followed Myron Mixon’s porterhouse recipe and grilled it on the lowest grate in my KK and paired it with lobster tails that we did in the oven. Mind blown! There’s a reason Myron is a barbecue champion! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Picanha on the roti to celebrate an unusually warm 70 degree December day in St Louis.

Back in Italy to enjoy the lead up to Christmas. Cooked ribs on the 16 last night. Came out great. No pix. Used the heat shield/paving stone for the first time. It was a good call, the short distance between the fire box and the grate means I have found it difficult to genuinely cook low and slow without something to shield the bottom of the food from the fire. I am near Venice and in the home of bigoli pasta. Today I am trying three versions using a Chad Robertson recipe that uses up spent leaven. Here we are at the first stage: I am experimenting. Bigoli are made with buckwheat flour as the base. I made three variations. The first with durum wheat, the second with whole wheat flour ground from UK hard wheat grains and the third with Italian 00 flour. I followed the quantities for the recipe without thinking for the first one with durum wheat. It was too wet and I made the necessary adjustments for the second two. Will see how each extrudes, using the bigolaro, later today. KK action? Boiled meats are a speciality here and, as well as capons, they include beef short ribs. I have set the KK going and will do a nice slow cook in place of boiling and will see what the Italians think of it. Warming up now:

Zucchini, round and deep, cheezy and cooked on the the 23. Nice attractice addition for any table. Three layers of flavor, another way to present a cook on your table as a side. Make it with just veggies or add a layer of sausage . Prep is a concern, brine the cut 1/4 in Zuc for 1/2 hr in salt brine, remove, should be dry patted and then lightly fryed afterwards. Line your bowl in parchment and layer with Zuc, sauce of your making, and topped with cheese & breadcrumbs. Add any additional spices you like for your flavor expression desired. Oh, once it's done, about an hour or so to reach a 130-40 temp, let it cool to congeal but stay warm to serve. A good cheap side presantation, but it looks like a million. Use a casserole dish, easy prep

Say hello to Max, yes i named him after the Grinch's dog lol He is just the sweetest boy ever !!!!❤️

I wouldn't buy anything in that store, period.

He is a rescue out of Tennessee. He and his sister were lucky enough to be grabbed by a rescue group down there and shipped up here to the Boston area. He is 7 months old and as of yesterday weighs 72 pounds. Once he is all settled in I will be going back to get him a friend. They get 20 to 30 puppies a week from down south, up here they are taken in as family members. I think he likes it here,

Here's an incense burner that'll make you look twice. I enjoy the odor/scent incense imparts to a room, so over the years I've collected a few incense holders of unique design to pleasantly aid the eye with a sense of calmness smoke offers. My niece seeing my collection thought I needed a piece to match the smoking elements in house and yard, but with a twist. The piece incorporates a downdraft design allowing the smoke to escape from different areas mimicing a realistic interpretation. Although I found it unusually distant as compared to my traditional Japanese holders, I do believe it has a place. However, with as much enjoyment incense smoke contributes to your well being, still nothing beats the smell of a brisket slow cooking in the back yard.

We usually have something fancy for New Years, and this year I purchased some lovely scotch fillet from a legendary Melbourne butcher who is about to retire- had him slice them nice and thick for a reverse sear. It was also a chance to debut the RFX probes I received for Christmas, and to make a first stab at a Bernaise sauce. All in all a great success. Happy New Year!

Wow, what great cooks those were, Tekobo, mouth watering dinner. 👍👍A special mention to the potatoes, the colour- perfection.😍

This experiment was a big FAIL initially. The doughs were way too wet to put through an extruder. I remembered @Syzygies once lamenting the fact that some bread recipe writers do not take account of the amount of liquid introduced by the levain. Well, without counting the liquid added by the levain, the hydration of this Chad Robertson recipe was at 45%! Waay too high. My neighbours kindly and friends kindly ate what I produced but it was substandard. I finally ended up with a very stiff dough, somewhere between 28% and 32% hydration depending on how you count the water added by wetting my hands while kneading. It was really hard work turning the lever to push the dough through the bigolaro but the result was worth it. Bigolaro action: Really simple but delicious pasta recipe called bigoli in salsa, made with just onions and chopped up anchovies. The dough was fermented for 18 hours. I think the pasta tasted better than any I had made before but I will do a side by side test without levain to see if that is just my imagination. And the KK action came in the form of roasted short ribs (should have been low and slow but I fell asleep and they cooked hot and fast instead!)

Happy holidays everyone !!!!!! Turkey done earlier and the prime rib is in now, I’ll update later

Made it, your right, I was lickin the spatula clean. It's tangy and thick, but not too thick & keeps you coming back looking for more. Your right too, there's room for addition, hot sauce, side sweet..not sure. Done and bottled, I prefer a pork pair although I won't discount beef...just thinking how it will deliver after heat in the KK as a crusty pleasure or sticky side.

Seems like a fancy way to make toast, but of course a desirable end. Looking good Tekebo, your always shakin the boat.

I wish you many, many happy years together. Condolences on your loss. Your fellow dog lovers know the intensity of this. It has been more than 5 and 3 years since we lost our chocolate and goldendoodle. My wife and I still toast them every night.

If I had a dollar for everytime someone said that to me I'd buy a second KK lol

Then I won’t mention the duck breasts that may have been cooked yesterday lol

Should be in about 8-9 weeks at our current rate! My head is spinning to think 200k viewers watched the full 25 minutes! I can't imagine this will not drive crazy sales in the spring..

C6Bill, you know better than that, you ate before taking the pix. Next year you are getting a lump of coal in your stalking if you keep this up!

You will have to take my word for this but there were ribs in there lol

Well i'm thinking i need to go find a steak now lol

Hi Tekobo! Let me send you a custom handle! With some reworking, your torchio can take on any powered machine. I'm gearing up to make bespoke handles from Jatoba hardwood and laser cut stainless steel. Or if you like to do your own woodworking I can send you the DXF file for fabricating the boss plate. The handle shown above is a prototype using an oak dowel. Here is my response to being asked about my bigolaro on the Rancho Gordo Bean Club Facebook group: This is a "Torchio Model B" bigolaro by Bottene. They also make the powered Lillo Due for home and restaurant use. The Model B accepts the same bronze dies, opening up a vast catalog of shapes. https://bottene.net/en/products/bigolaro/ https://pastabiz.com/torchio-hand-press.html https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchio_da_pasta This design is one that has been in use for centuries in the Veneto region, primarly to make "bigoli" noodles. These are fat round noodles sauced with an anchovy, sardine, liver, or duck sauce. The noodle recipe is tuned for ease of extrusion through its namesake bigolaro, requiring less pressure than a powered extruder. Bigoli noodles are an obscure corner of the pasta universe. As we prefer homeground flour, we have long dismissed dried noodles, even from whole wheat, in favor of Atlas or similar (Otello is an upgrade) laminated egg noodles, or hand-formed shapes such as busiate. Shapes are nevertheless a major part of the Italian pasta experience. Pairing shapes with sauces for Italians is a profoundly deep enterprise. One cannot fully dry extruded pasta at home with the same care as an artisan factory: Varying climates is why there was an early trade in dried pasta. If someone tells you they're happy drying extruded pasta, they're telling you two things: They're happy, and they're drying extruded pasta. An Italian would not be happy; they'd find someone who can do this right. Pasta dried for part of a day is neverless a wonderful third category, that opens up the entire experience of pairing shapes with sauces. This is what most restaurants with extruders do. Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food https://www.amazon.com/Pasta-Story-Universal-Silvano-Serventi/dp/0231124422 I am thankful beyond words that Bottene chose to modify the design to accept Lillo Due dies, but we are left without guidance for how to best use dies designed for greater pressure. With a maniacal attention to detail, the "a serious bunburyist" blogger has managed to make good use of a variety of bronze dies, but even he has moved on to a powered machine. The basic problem is that a dough wet enough to extrude will come apart (gravity unwinds fusilli) and stick together. https://ibunbury.blogspot.com/2010/06/confirmed-and-secret-bunburyist.html Am I an insane mathematician, for figuring out what to do? (My hands played one, once.) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/03/11/a-beautiful-hand People go to more trouble than I went through when a drug is involved; pasta is also worth it. People roll their eyes that we grind our own flour, but they grind their own coffee? Same thing. What I'm about to describe is not hard. I don't want to clean, or store, or lug around a heavy powered machine. I love hand tools, such the better-than-vintage woodworking tools that Lie-Nielsen makes. https://www.lie-nielsen.com I've had my bigolaro for fourteen years, but only recently has it become our daily driver, the routine way we make pasta. That was a long road. A few years ago I destroyed the boss socket in the stock handle through misguided experiments with too-stiff dough. After some hilarious failed improvisations, I learned to respect the forces involved. I fabricated replacement boss plates from 1/2" thick stainless steel using the custom parts service SendCutSend, and mounted these plates to longer wood handles with better leverage. https://sendcutsend.com What broke next? Further misguided experiments lead to howling noises that I labored through; I wanted dinner. It turns out that all grease is not the same; who knew?! If a grease doesn't publish a Tinken Load and Four-Ball Wear Test, it will simply skip town under duress, leading to a howling metal-on-metal contact that grease is supposed to prevent. I replaced my worn threaded shaft assembly, and applied a grease a factory might choose, for a radical upgrade in performance. If one makes a single modification to a stock torchio, this is it: Disassemble the threaded shaft assembly, take it outdoors to strip any incompatible grease, and lubricate it with the best grease one can source. Apply a bit more for every use. If operation isn't dead silent under extreme loads, you're doing this wrong. https://www.grainger.com/product/CRC-Extreme-Duty-Food-Grade-Grease-12G591 I also upgraded how I mount the bigolaro to the same overhang I use for clamping other kitchen tools. I slightly enlarged the holes to accept 5/16" bolts and oversized nuts, washers. Now the bigolaro is effectively fixed to the foundation of my house. Believe it or not, there was some play using a 1/4" bolt, nut, washer combination. Now, one has a device that accepts Lillo Due dies, and with 20 pounds of force at the ends of a 26" handle can extrude with more power than a Lillo Due. One cannot now simply use a Lillo Due dough recipe, because the mechanics of extrusion are different. A powered extruder uses a twist screw, while a bigolaro is a piston that compresses the dough waiting in line. Nevertheless, one is now free to work out a more flexible range of dough recipes, less likely to fall apart or stick together after extrusion. In our case we use freshly ground flour (primarily durum and Kamut) and a sourdough process that improves flavor and glycemic index. I've settled on adding 4% psyllium (the same hack factories use to make gluten-free pasta) and extruding my dough cold after an overnight fridge rest. These steps both enable and require a higher hydration; for my specific dough I like 43%. My pasta doesn't fall apart or stick together. Now that I've figured this all out, I need to write up a web site with handle plans that even an apartment dweller can assemble (e.g. order 1 1/4" square staircase balusters online). I should also offer to make handles for people. Ideally, I can convince someone who already sells pasta woodworking to make handles. Probably this constellation of ideas is overkill; after one appreciates the issues in play, one only needs to address a subset. Start with the grease, then the handle, then tweak your own dough recipe. A torchio should be in as widespread use as an Atlas crank machine, rather than in a cupboard like a twice-used rowing machine. These challenges are easily surmounted, and the results are worth the trouble. What can we do to make this practical for other people?

Beautiful looking cook! I have to agree that two cookers is a big advantage. It took me a while to get a cooker larger than the 23”, now it’s like where has this been all my life. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have KK will travel. OK, you must have a dolley to move that or the stand is on wheels. Nevertheless it's gotta be a touchy situation...I give you credit though, the effort is only outweighed by the food that comes off of it. He ain't heavy, he's my KK.

Hi, y'all, it's been a long time, but I have been busy cooking and growing stuff. I just want to post about Johnny Harris's barbecue sauce, which I discovered many years when we visited Savannah and Johnny Harris's restaurant was still open. Went there on a local recommendation for barbecue, and while the barbecue itself was, I guess, okay, but the sauce was, I thought, really remarkable. When we got home back to Shreveport (our home at the time) I started trying to replicate it, and never could get close. The internet was just starting to blossom with online discussion groups, and I joined a barbecue forum, and got around to a discussion of barbecue sauce and I. mentioned Johnny Harris's and failed attempts to replicate it. A nice woman on the forum gave a "cheater recipe" for it that came pretty close, and it became the base for my experimenting to make something closer to my own making. Over the years, I would experiment and tweak the recipe, gradually evolving it. It still didn't taste exactly like Johnny Harris's, which I was buying through mail order (the restaurant has closed in 2016, I think, but the name and recipe for the sauce was sold to a 3rd party, and the sauce is still produced and marketed over the internet, along with several other sauces (they do a great job on the shipping end, BTW.) Then, a couple of months ago the Johnny Harris Cookbook came out, and much to my surprise, they published the barbecue sauce recipe: sauce recipes are usually closely guarded secrets. It is not much like anything I would have expected. So here's my recipe, below, and I attached a photo of the recipe from the Johnny Harris's cookbook. Johnny Harris- Style Barbecue Sauce 2 tbsp chili powder 2 tbsp fine ground black pepper 2 tsp white sugar ½ tsp salt 4 cups catsup 1 cup yellow mustard 1/4th cup Worcestershire sauce 1/2 cup real cider vinegar (may experiment with other vinegars, like champagne vinegar or sherry vinegar) ¼ to ½ cup packed brown sugar (prefer dark) (May substitute honey, and add dark molasses. Should be to your taste. 2 tbsp butter 3 Tbsps fresh lemon juice Directions: Combine catsup in mustard in large pot. Warm on low heat. Stir in all ingredients except butter and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Cook on low and stir frequently until well blended- 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool for 15 minutes. Add butter, stir until thoroughly blended. Add lemon juice to taste. Best if heated before using. Do not boil. This is the base recipe, and it is good for all meats- beef, chicken, pork, etc. I also usually use both honey and dark molasses (as above) for the sweetener. Taste at the end and add more honey or sugar or salt if needed. You could add cayenne pepper or hot sauce if you wanted it hotter- most of the heat in the recipe comes from the black pepper. I have also added several shots of espresso sometimes; tried dark chocolate once to good result; tried adding (separately orange marmalade or raspberry jam to give it a more fruit base.) You can also experiment using different vinegars (like champagne or Spanish sherry), but this is usually a lot more expensive for very subtle difference. You could also try adding a little cinnamon, Chinese five-spice, or both (not more than a teaspoon.) CDC1B288-7AE2-42F5-AA63-4AA328FF67EB.heic

My son-in-law, Cory, is having his office party at their place (four houses down the street from us) and has requested my assistance in making pork shoulder for what is planned to be a big taco table tomorrow. So yesterday evening I set up up with the Kamado, got the Fireboard all ready, and liberally coated the two Costco pork shoulders with Dizzy Pig's classic Dizzy dust. This morning I started preheating the smoker and put the pork on the grill a little before 10. By my calculations, they will be ready about 8PM. BTW, I don't know what anyone else's experience with Fireboard is, but mine is mine is somewhere between good and great. It does a really fabulous job keeping the temperature plus or minus 5* of where I set it. 90 minutes in: temperature is a perfect 170*, one shoulder is 102*, the other is 8o,1: I will have to switch them on the grill in another hour or so. Stay tuned. Photos of the completed project later tonight. 26AC4152-2310-4CCC-8F76-7A0CDFBC2E0A.heic EB3896C9-9E44-4614-AC14-5EB319BB13C7.heic

That's crazy. Being a young tech enthusiast I bought all of the gizmos and gadgets for my KK when I first started. Meater, Firebird 2 Pro, Thermapen, K-Type Dome probe, etc. In the ned, they just added more stress than they were worth. I HATE cords and the most reliable tech I used were the wired probes. In the end, I sold all of it and am back to the basics of my KK. Fill the basket full of lump, light a chimney of lump, pout it on, set the vents, and away it goes. I sleep 100X better and my cooking is 0% stress. Prior, I was checking the data, adjusting the probes, removing probes to wrap or mess with the meats, and it all just became such a pain int he ass. Furthermore, I live in Wisconsin so it gets cold as hell and most of these gadgets are all China junk and don't hold a charge or become so brittle when I cook at it's below 0F. In full transparency, I do use two RFX probes and those are handy at times. I had my growing pains with those as I had a few bad probes that needed to be replaced. The ones I have now work great but I try my best not to use them. Thermapen One for the win. It's the only BBQ gadget I can't live without after all of that.

What a wonderful way to start the year. The Komodo Kamado Basics video just hit One Million Views! 210K of them watched the full 25 minutes.. I'm thrilled..

Giant Grill Gauge: https://combustion.inc/pages/giant-grill-gauge

That would be great !!!!

SteveL, lovely steak dinner, mouthwatering.👍👍

Thx Tyrus. It is my cute grillfriend in any weather! And I agree on the restaurant comment too. I’m working harder now on presentation. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m not familiar with GGG. As I’ve said previously, I rarely use the RFX ambient probe as it’s been months. I rely on the Tel-Tru that Dennis includes with the unit. I’ve noticed some drop off in temp accuracy with that too, but have started taking it out every 3 months or so, cleaning the carbon off of the probe with SOS pads, and recalibrating it in boiling water. The accuracy of the dome temperature is close enough for everything I cook. I monitor the actual meat with an RFX wireless probe and have had perfect results every time. As Dennis has said on here as well as his videos, once you get the airflow down, you don’t need the gadgets and that makes sense to me. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wow. Great halloween decoration

Twisted? Hmm, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Would you prefer I drop a steak over it and use it as a smoker?

AI (our new family dog) says its a beef clod heart.

🤣

You know Syzygies deja vous, I recently popped a roast out of the freezer unlabeled and was wondering the same. My curious eye seems to think that it's a Chuck roast, has the cut & shape, grain and color, similar and in the same neighborhood. You can eliminate the flat, it has the markings and some orentation of being the point in the raw, but I'm leaning towards a tender chuck roast having seen something similar recently at the market and just purchased. Well, if your disappointed in the texture hold your head up high on appearance and a fabulous bark. I'm thinking a packaging mishandle, label or the new butcher on the block, happens to us all, don't despair and be thankful it wasn't bear. It might yet remain a mystery, however we can definitely rule out rib eye and tenderloin. When in doubt, ask the family dog...they gotta nose for these things.

Definitely a great marble going on there and a nice finish. Finding a new butcher...too bad, someone that's done you right so many times. There's always mail order, but that can get expensive, best of luck Remi and a safe and Happy New Year to all.

Hurray for Max! Nice pooch! Sweet face.

Hello Max! He does look like a lovely boy. Such kind eyes. What is his history @C6Bill? I do hope you have a long and happy time together.

The journey of discovery continues. The thinner Asahi board arrived and my husband set about cutting it down into more handy sizes yesterday. I think it is 15mm thick and it was pretty floppy as a large board. Cut down, it makes for good sturdy small boards for quick jobs. Pic of workshop set up below. He has since sanded down and bevelled the edges and we have already started using them for small jobs in the kitchen.

Much easier.. KISS works here.. These photos are of the mockup.. In the final version, the gap between the two triangles is filled.

Turkey Day on the KK followed by smoked salmon with honey and the recent post of a recipe of sweet potatoes. That recipe is a keeper, rich, but on occasion oh it's an addition to to the table. I used fresh sage with the fresh garlic, they balanced each other well....from the Out and about post recipe. The Turkey was basted with butter at the end on the skin, it was an easy cook and an enjoyable feast.

My sister asked for a teak wine rack, and I love the results. It's one of my favorite projects in 35 years of building furniture professionally. These are my hand-hewn teak floors. https://handhewnfloors.com