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Been quite a while since I last posted a cook on here, so thought I would share this one. I really wanted to do something different other than just smoking another Wagyu Prime Rib for the holiday (yes, I know how weird that sounds to say, lol) and I was fortunate enough to acquire this beastie 2 days before Thanksgiving. Prepped with salt, pepper and garlic (kept it simple) and smoked it on the Ultimate 23 for 8.5 hours at 225 degrees using Coco Char with a combo of hickory and plum wood and end result was amazing, the flavor, juiciness, tenderness (and that A5 richness!) were absolutely insane, it literally dissolved on your tongue! Calling this one a HUGE hit with the family is an understatement, will definitely be doing this one again in the future!👍☺ Thank you, Dennis, for making such an amazing grill!!🙏👍👏😊

I got a really weird looking turkey for Thanksgiving this year. But it tasted great 😊

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.

Only photo from Thursday

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

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.

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,

Thanks, he is missed. He came here with his bags packed full of issues and he eventually got over most of them I'm in touch with rescue now as my house is just way too quiet without him

After having completed the bookcase, I was asked to create a small 'china' cabinet to fit a specific space and need. It is 49" tall. Made of ash, except the drawer bottoms. Crafted the wine glass rack as well. Stained it walnut, left the interior natural intentionally.

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.

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.

all this cutting board talk reminded me to sharpen my knives....

Mid-July I raised my prices to help offset the 19% tariff.. Shortly after, sales dropped noticeably. I've returned pricing to pre-tariff levels for the Christmas season and plan to adjust prices after the New Year. Just wanted to let you know..

Hello Tekebo, I always show up to the race late, maybe because I like to give others a head start. Here though I'm inclined to think there probably right, all cutting boards were not created equally, that's evident of the condition of your knife after some use on various boards. Personally I like an end grain board because they wear slowly, they are durable, they have enhanced knife preservation, self healing properties and lastly...they are as handsome as hell. You know I use to make cutting boards, gave em out for Xmas and gifts although they weren't end grain....preparation in sanding was an issue while exposed long grain was easier to fashion. Never did think much on damage to my knives, every few months I'd just sharpen the lot. I would still have to say though, I prefer a board that turns heads just like a pretty girl. A wooden board will always have my heart and be on my table, it's naturally attractive.

Not guilty, I only ban the ones that are a first post and contains links to a hair loss remedy, weight loss treatments or ED medications lol

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

HASEGAWA PRO-SOFT RUBBER WOOD CORE CUTTING BOARD FSR 19.7" X 13.8" X 0.8" HT Traveling solo in Japan, I'd often sit at bars where I could watch chefs work. I learn, and I have always taught my math students to learn, by absorbing the mindsets of others I admire. Cooking isn't following lists of ingredients. This is the class of board I always saw at the stations that relied on knife technique. I now have several sizes, duplicated when I had two kitchens. I consider these the canonical answer to your question, with the same certainty as "the JVR Vac-100 is far and away the best entry level chamber vacuum machine" (again I bought one for each kitchen, in each case replacing a far clunkier VacMaster). They do stain. One can ignore this, or soak with a mixture of bleach and water. My "Made in Japan" hall of fame also includes items one would expect to buy from China: the best cleaver and best wok I've ever owned, again duplicated while I had two kitchens. We saw the New York wok last night in constant use yesterday at California friends' Thanksgiving, for various veggie sides. They ship worldwide: Tojiro DP 3-Layer Chinese Cleaver 225mm (thin blade) Yamada Hammered Iron Round Bottom Wok (1.6mm Thickness) Yamada Hammered Iron Flat Bottom Wok (1.6mm Thickness)

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

While taking a mini vacation this week I stopped into a shop and picked up a cook book, as soon as I did it felt comfortable in my hand like a warm glove. It might have been the cover that was lightly stuffed or all the fine illustrations inside while thumbing through, anyway I found the recipes simpler and easy to follow, not requiring added steps with multiple utensils needed to complete. In there I found many suitable and easy to try for this coming holiday, here are two if interested. I believe the two autor/chefs are from England and have a restaurant, a place called Notting Hill or Nottingham if you live thereabouts. So for me anything that can simplify the process, keep the dishes looking top shelf and doesn't take half the day is right up my alley. Not to mention they appear all KK friendly. Happy Thanksgiving wherever you may be

Mid-July I raised my prices to help offset the 19% tariff.. Shortly after, sales dropped noticeably. I've returned pricing to pre-tariff levels for the Christmas season and plan to adjust prices after the New Year. Just wanted to let you know..

Olivewood End Grain Carving Board (Arte Legno, Italy) I do love a good end grain cutting board. Shown is my favorite; I used a UK source. The end grain testimonials here happened to coincide with my pulling out this board to bone some chicken thighs that I had cooked sous vide in a Chettinad pepper masala, best chicken curry of my life. My smaller "utility" Hasegawa board is shown for comparison. For any detailed knife work such as mincing, I always reach for one of my Hasegawa boards. I have a great capacity for creative delusion, balanced by high entropy, so I find what I do after I stop thinking to be informative. On the other hand, food is part romance. For anyone who hasn't admired the attentive composure of Japanese chefs working in front of you on a Hasegawa class board, the end grain wood is more romantic. And it rarely makes sense to have one type of tool, though my cast iron, carbon steel, enameled cast iron, and various clay pots are all talking behind my back as I go all in on Hestan NanoBond pans for utility use. Many reviews haven't made the effort to learn best use of this molecular titanium surface, yielding a metal pan that thinks it's ceramic nonstick. If with careful technique I can glide a fried egg across its surface like an air hockey table, and I don't want teflon nonstick pans for health reasons, then any other pan becomes a speciality player. I've had other kinds of laminated boards chip on me; my knives are sharper than they imagined. I don't see a health hazard with my Hasegawa boards. And I bought their sanding block, tried it once, and haven't thought about it since. I will simply buy these boards again when the time comes; they are that important to me.

@tekobo i don't know if asahi offers a sponge sanding block, but hasegawa has one to smooth out the board after heavy use. but i've never been able to smooth out the surface other than raising up even more plastic "fur" on top. but again, microplastics don't bother me. i'm asian and immune to it from years of eating hot foods out of plastic bags. and because i'm unable to smooth the board out, i am leaning towards wood (endgrain) for my next board. and if it dulls my knives a little faster, so be it. i rather enjoy sharpening anyway.. if i have to buy another synthetic, it would be the the black asahi for plebs, not the pro kind..

We spent the weekend at @RokDok's cutting up a rare breed pig. We got half and I spent an hour this morning cutting some up for mincing to make pies. Just look at that marbling! And just look at that space. It was a joy, cutting this up on my new Asahi board. I think this light coloured one will become my raw meat board. I'll be able to see any marks and stains and can keep it extra clean by sanding it down once in a while. Introducing these boards simply replaces the plastic and Epicurean boards that we used to use for food prep. I still have a wooden board for chopping and a range of wooden boards for serving. I hear you, @David Chang, regarding micro plastics but I don't plan to use a serrated knife on this and will be intentional about using a different board if I need to do any heavy chopping. It actually makes me wonder about how much chopping one actually needs to do when you are not butchering an animal and needing to chop through bone. I do the rocking action for cutting things small and chopping, on any surface, must incorporate little bits of the material that you are chopping on. I am enjoying this journey so far. The black boards are due to arrive from Japan next week. All of the boards that I bought are 20mm thick. My husband usually does the procuring of stuff around here and I think he felt a bit left out. He has bought a thinner Asahi board to cut up to make small boards for quick jobs. Lots to look forward to in the lead up to Christmas.

There’s no doubt that end grain boards can be extremely beautiful, and definitely have a place in the kitchen and beyond, i have just found that for the vast majority of my kitchen prep, the Hi-Soft, Asahi, Hasegawa boards are my go to. They’re light enough to maneuver, but heavy enough to stay in place. Their surface can be repaired from every day use, keeping them sanitary. They have a soft feel under the blade, reducing fatigue when doing a lot of chopping, and as i said before, are the best I’ve found at preserving your edges. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I love my end-grain cutting board!

Let the fun begin!

Hasegawa FSR (wood core) + Very soft cushy cutting surface Keeps blade sharp much longer - Expensive. Discolours easily especially chopping parsley. Not for hacking or bone chopping. Microplastics galore! Gouges and cut marks cannot be removed with their branded sandpaper block. Asahi Black Rubber Board (home use line with hole punched on the corner) + Thin, lightweight. Comes in handy small sizes. Soft, cushy surface. Not as soft as Hasegawa FSR. Cheaper than FSR but you get less board. Keeps blade sharp longer No discolouration (it's black) - Expensive. Appears to shed less plastic. Gouges and cut marks cannot be sanded. At the end, you still need a heavy wood block board for chopping bones and such. If you don't mind microplastics, either one is fine. Asahi thin board is my favourite for quick small jobs. Serrated knives will destroy these plastic boards but i use bread knives on them anyway...

Thanks @5698k. I remembered your obsession with knives and was hoping to get a response from you. I am particularly taken with you saying that you are able to hold an edge on your knives for up to a year as a result of using better boards. Thanks for this input re the Hasegawa board @Syzygies. It looks like it is lighter than the others as well. Before I started this post about boards I searched the site to see what else had been said on the topic and found a post from you that I would summarise as "go big or go home" i.e. get the biggest cutting surface that you can to help you work efficiently. As for you @C6Bill? Your input helped me remember that there are perfectly acceptable, cheaper ways to tackle this problem. That said, I was already half way down the rabbit hole when I posted and your message didn't succeed in hauling me out. I have ended up ordering one plain Asahi board at 600cm x 33cm x 2cm, two black Asahi boards at 600cm x 30cm x 2cm and one composite Hasegawa board at 600cm x 30cm x 2cm. We will try them out and see what we think. I see us reserving the Hasegawa board for sushi and fish filleting. I particularly liked the advertised heat resistance of the Asahi boards. The Apex boards I was previously looking at should only be washed at relatively low temperatures and have to be stored flat to avoid warping - not a great idea when enthusiastic friends or house guests might get hold of them and "help" without realising the damage they might do. There is a chance that we might cut at least one of the black Asahi boards down to get more manageable sizes for quick use. That might be unnecessary and we might end up buying a few small, cheap boards for things like cutting lemons for drinks or other quick tasks. Plan is to ditch our very old and scratched Epicurean boards and to select which of our wooden boards to keep. The only remaining wrinkle is making sure we have enough boards with a channel that allow juice from resting meat to gather. That'll be likely in the wooden board category. Thanks for all your help. I will report back when we have had a chance to try them all out. P.S. I just looked at my avatar and realised it is of Sinbad, our beloved cat, who died just a couple of weeks ago. He had the best death of any of our cats to date. Having just celebrated his 14th birthday he was still running around like a kitten until one day, he just went out to do his usual patrol of the garden and my husband later found him dead on the ground. The vet thinks he had some kind of a heart attack. Rest in peace S. He will stay here as my avatar.

Wow, I love your design. I'm very happy with my pragmatic design, using metal grids. And I usually cringe at the loss of bottle density in most "artistic" designs. Yours is great looking, celebrates wood, and doesn't give up bottle density. With the right jig and a great router table (I have Jessem's best table) can one knock out your vertical elements? I'd cut V's so the boards mated with the eighth turn bigger sticks. Or do I have this wrong?

That turkey does look good, but this year I am on my own for turkey day again so I'll be throwing a tomahawk on the KK 😀

Unless you are left-handed, put the closed side of the charcoal basket splitter on the right. The closed stainless part should shield your hand while cooking.. Right-handed setup

Roasted a chicken tonight based on a recipe by Samin Nosrat. Served with basmati rice, some veges and the green sauce from @Troble’s famous recipe. It turned out great- crispy skin and super juicy.

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

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

I think on the Johnny Harris's bottle it says "best if heated before using, and I think that is true. I put some in a sauce pan and heat it on low for a few minutes. Boiling would not help it any.Shelf life in the refrigerator, like a lot of barbecue sauces, is pretty long because of the proportion of vinegar in the mix. Different stroke for different folks- to each his own- but I think this is so good I could eat it on white bread. They also make a mustard-based sauce which I would only use on chicken, and I find it cooks off quickly, so I would apply that right at the end of a cook, or right after i take the meat off the grill. There's another mustard-based sauce from Lillie's of Charleston, though, "Hab Mussy", that has quite a kick and a little heat, so that one is work exploring, too.

I have some potential FAQs and forum folk could help with answers: 1. I'm sold, I love your product but I don't know how to convince my spouse/inheriting child/my bank manager that this is a good idea. What is a killer strategy that works every time? 2. What do new owners say surprises them the most when they first start to use their KK? 3. What do KK owners most like about the KK?

The very early grills have a CNC cut hole with vermeculite insulation in the hole. It can easily be removed with a hammer and screwdriver. This adapter from BBQ Guru can be tapped into the hole with a hammer and it's snug and tight.. https://www.bbqguru.com/product/1-3-8-adapter The hole in the faceplate is CNC cut for this adaptor.. Set the adapter into the hole at a little angle, then tap the high side with a metal hammer. It will click/snap into place and will be tight enough to require a happer to remove it. You will also need to get a plug for the sleeve. They come in both colors https://komodokamado.com/collections/23-ultimate-spare-parts/products/bbq-guru-plug-nat-teak https://komodokamado.com/collections/23-ultimate-spare-parts/products/bbq-guru-plug-black-1

Interesting, I’ve never seen one like that. Might need to reach out to Dennis on that one @DennisLinkletter

Hi all, I don’t post often. However enjoy following other members posts. A couple of weeks ago I was Banned for no apparent reason that I was aware of. I reached out to Dennis explaining the situation, everything was restored immediately. Again a thank you to Dennis for his quick response. Regards Seasport

I really think you’re gonna like those.. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The Hasegawa and Asahi cutting boards will have cutting surfaces superior to any other I have used. Both for protecting the knives and actually cutting food more effectively. Bamboo is hard on cutting edges; it's penalty work for my woodworking neighbor. Various synthetic boards chip on me; they aren't expecting my sharp knives. And a company that flogs pure titanium pans on Facebook also sells titanium cutting boards, which tipped me off that they have no idea what they're doing. Sure, titanium is softer than steel, but that's far from the whole picture. I'm loving my Hestan Titanium Chef's Pan which is actually a molecular titanium surface deposited on steel that is 4x stronger than steel, and slick, leaning in the "ceramic nonstick" direction but more durable. But pure titanium is a terrible idea for a pan. Luckily, my knowledge of cutting boards saved me from a mistake. The Japanese, of course, are expecting sharp knives. I have long had a raw butcher block work surface in each kitchen, with an overhang to mount tools. I wash the surface by scraping with a bench knife into an (empty) steam table insert that also collects compost as I work. Since getting Japanese cutting boards, I only use the bare wood some of the time, like for prepping winter squash. I am delinquent in bleaching my Japanese boards again, which does work. I lay down paper towels on the board surface in a utility sink, pour over a bleach mixture just strong enough to turn the paper towels back to pulp. But I'm not expecting Michelin inspectors any time soon (their loss!) and the stains don't bother me. Still, black? Clever. 600cm, wow. Cutting the Hasagawa boards (which you don't plan to do) would expose the wood core. Artists know this one: Cut both ends, make it look deliberate. 😀

Made a book case for a friend. Walnut w/ hardwax oil finish.

I have a couple but nothing extravagant, typically I just grab my OXO when chopping veggies or my Boos block for meat. I go to a restaurant if i want fish, i just don't cook it at home. So long story short, i can't help you lol

I use Hi Soft, very similar to asahi, and i love them. I’m a bit of a knife snob, all my knives are carbon steel, with very fine, sharp edges. I sharpen at roughly 12* per side. My point is that even with these edges, these boards are great because they dont affect my edges at all. I can easily go a year between sharpenings, and even then, the edges are never damaged because of cutting surface. They’re also very sanitary, they dont gouge like other synthetics, which is where bacteria grow. They’re also very can be bleached or sanded, should the need ever arise. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Oh my !!!!! That looks amazing !!!! Love that crust, i might have to try that method

WOW!

A distant cousin I presume, it only had one leg....I'm sure your didn't mind.

Reverse seared ribeyes at 450⁰ topped with chanterelles simmered in a garlic butter sauce. Steamed and grilled the corn and broccolini on the Napoleon grill at medium heat for about 15 minutes. Pulled the ribeye off the lower grate at 128⁰ internal temp and it's perfection. YUMMM!

I've started my pork back ribs, looking forward to having them for dinner this evening. Dressed. On the KK. Ribs just off KK. I know you can't tell from this pix but these ribs were verrry moist. Plated.