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I watched a series about tacos on Netflix and got the taste for some. The pork went on at 4.30 this morning and I made a batch of tortillas this evening so they were nice and fresh, everything was good except for the bottles taco sauce / salsa, that’s getting made from scratch next time too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Saturday was this year's fabulous Pink Flamingo dinner. Appetizer was a salmon mousse, with house cold smoked salmon, with beet crackers. First course is always shrimp (Flamingo's favorite food!) cooked on the pink hibachi grill. This year I tried a new trick to get pink pasta - I cooked it in red wine. Had some color, but still searching for the perfect technique. Shrimp was marinated in ponzu and the pasta sauce was a black and roasted garlic butter sauce. Main course was grilled Flamingo (chicken thighs marinated in Alabama White Sauce with a bit of Uncle Dougie's wing marinade tossed in for the color.) I did manage to get a shot of them on the grill. A bit fuzzy on this shot - was running back and forth between the indoor kitchen and outside. Plated with Madagascar Pink Rice. Dessert was homemade strawberry ice cream, with Pink Flamingo sugar cookies. Still packing away all the decorations and stuff until next year's dinner!

I'm falling in love with the meat from Porter Road. Tonight I did the Denver Steak. It was even better than the Bavette that I did the other night. Can't wait to try the Picanha that I bought for an upcoming Argentine dinner party! Cooked indirect on the lower grate with a mesquite chunk. Veggie kabobs on the half-grate. Dome at 350F. Plated with chimichurri sauce and a side of cheesy polenta (parmesan, black pepper boursin, and a splash of white truffle oil). Kebabs were drizzled with a nice aged balsamic vinegar!

Berry klafoutis. Always a winner.

Decided to give the folks at Porter Road meats a try after reading about them. https://porterroad.com/ I like how they do the unusual cuts, so I decided to try a Bavette steak. They recommend a hot direct grill until medium. I tossed on some coffee wood chunks and cooked it on the lower grill. Dome was reading about 400F. They recommended serving it with a chimichurri sauce - twist my arm on that one! I had also cooked an ear of corn on the half main grate before tossing on the steak. Served along with some mushrooms and a side salad and a nice Pinot Noir. Next up on the menu will be their Denver Steak.

Came out very nicely...

Now that I have had it for a couple weeks and made a few things...its really impressive how much better this cooker is than the Traeger that I had before. Temp control is simple...almost too simple. My favorite food so far is Turkey and I don't really like Turkey. I spatchcocked a 12pounder and cooked it direct with a light spice at about 300. Smoky, juicy Turkey. Beef ribs are slow cooking tonight at 250 and smell yummy. I am really happy I jumped in and got the KK.

6:30 a.m. the 14lb choice brisket was on the Lang. Cooking with oak and maple and throwing in a couple charcoal briquettes every other feed. Not quite ready yet but, the bark has set well, 3 hrs in I added a rack of Cajun ribs. I also found a Bourbon down the packy that was offering some bourbon soaked brix free when buy a bottle special for smoking. Why not. I'll wrap later in paper and finish. This is how looks around 4 hrs in. Your all invited

Inspired by a recent Fogo vid, I tried my hand some grilled octopus. No pounding to tenderize or worries about over-cooking - just nice sous vide bath, an overnight marinade, and a few short minutes on the KK. Boom! A tasty meal for a Monday night after a day at the office. One afterthought - I imagine that if it weren't for the extra space taken up by the lemons and tomatoes, this would have been perfect for a konro (sorry Mac!). I say "imagine" because I don't have one but am verrrry intrigued....

Feeding Laurie's church today. Four pork butts in bourbon sauce, pot beans, cole slaw. Dry rub was California and Guajillo chiles, salt, pepper, and pimenton. We'll serve butt mixed with sauce on buns (sloppy joe style). I used dry ice to chill the six quarts of bourbon sauce, from a liter of bourbon. Fun play break (the dog was concerned) but next time I'll stick to conventional ice. I thought this main grill mound of four butts was being clever, and I'd do it again, but it has unintended consequences. That's more thermal mass on the main grill than I'm used to, causing a greater disparity between a pit probe reading anchored to that grill, and a pit probe reading through the Tel-Tru dome hole. More reliable to just cook with the dome hole, and make adjustments as needed. Also, the mound has a greater "effective mass" than a single ten pound butt, and so it cooks slower. 19 hours at 225 F is not enough. Though, as I've said before, I think the "disintegrating rope" standard for pulled pork is a scam, and I've never had decent pulled pork commercially in the Carolinas. I'd rather undershoot, than dry out the butts this way. Mine are more work to pull, but I like the juicy, tender result. Still, I'll move up from 225 F to somewhere near the recently more popular 275 F next year, and we'll figure out how to adjust the timing. The pot clamped for travel is the 22 quart Optio Sauce Pot 3095, our favorite big pot. There's a shorter version, but too short to cook four pounds of pot beans. After a brief hard boil, the beans simmered overnight in a 240 F oven.

Note the "No Shmucks" clause in my Craigslist posting. I'm thinking I might need a qualifying quiz for prospective buyers before I let them take it. 1. What is a reverse sear? 2. What is a chook? 3. What is "the stall"? 4. Lump or briquettes? 5. What is two-zone cooking? Must score 100% or you are, in fact, a shmuck.

Another Meater cook, easy peasy. I pulled my bolted spinach and managed to get enough for one last tasty feast. Ready to grill. I think I had a sprinkling of garlic, purple crack, pepper and thyme. On the grill. Done. Plated.

Trying out the new cocochar on a SRF American Waygu beef rib rack ..... (had a pork belly in the freezer so threw that on there too with Byron Butt Rub)

I missed this picture of the brisket when I saw your last post Mac. Super gorgeous. Brisket, the mew breakfast food! Nice job Tony. I love Bavette. I think it is a type of skirt but not sure. It is also awesome cooked hot and fast until rare. As for @El Pescador and octopus. How beautiful is that??? You'll have me running to the fish market this weekend. We should get Mac to do the trial run on her konro though.

I saw a piece of brisket in the store the other day, it's a rare thing to see brisket so I thought I'd pickup a package. It weighed just under 2 pounds. Rubbed with Worcestershire and sprinkled on lots of pepper, cayenne and granulated garlic. Let it sit overnight. Setup my very old Digi Q for a cook at 225F. It ran for 12 hours and the IT was only 172F at 12:30AM. I took it off the KK. h Had a couple of slices before going to bed. Flavour was great although the meat was a little drier than I expected. It has that flavour that take one bite and you want another and another. No bacon for this breakfast, brisket all the way.

My Billows arrived today and the spring arrangement they have to hold the Billows in place simply does not work on the KK, you cannot get a tight or any where near a tight fit. It flops all over the place. I contacted Thermoworks and they apparently are not familiar with the KK or at least the tech I was speaking with wasn't. I am going to contact someone I know who is a machinist and see what he says on Mon. The two wings of the SS spring are too short to go thru to the inside of the KK and the point of contact is soooo small on the side walls that there is not enough friction to hold the unit in place. In my opinion those wings need to be a good deal longer so that they go right into firebox of the KK.

That is sick, I'm onto you two, look out.

Thank you all. Am super happy, given I was so worried about doing that piece of beef justice. It was a legendary feast. Given I use these posts to remind me of how I cooked what I cooked, here are a few notes: Heston Blumenthal gives the option to brown before or after cooking. He claims the Maillard reaction "multiplies" during the cook if you brown first but you are less likely to overcook the flesh if you sear after the meat has rested and cooled a bit. I liked the idea of the long Maillard reaction and didn't want to be attempting to brown the meat with the guests all around so I went for browning first. The joint was browned in the 21. Too big to manoeuvre with tongs. Figure out whether there are gloves you could use or just use a torch to brown. The requirement was to cook at 60C for 4-6 hours. I targetted 100C on the assumption that the temperature close to the meat would be lower than the dome thermometer. Lit half a basket fresh coals in one spot with vents wide open. Throttled back once I had got to about 70C and let the KK heat up to 100C. Two hours after lighting the fire I placed the meat in the KK, towards the back away from the coals. Mistake not to have checked the internal temperature before then. In spite of having defrosted over 1.5 days and been left out for two hours before the cook, the temperature in the centre was -2C. Eeek. The MEATER was a great help. I steadied the temperature at about 80C and monitored the rate at which the IT was rising. All good. That is until about four hours in, the MEATER stopped working. By then I had confidence in the KK holding temperature so I just tested the meat occasionally with my ordinary, old fashioned stick thermometer. I used the hot cold smoker but the meat was only lightly smoked in the end. Good because The Husband was orignally against the idea of any smoke. Thanks @Basher for the reference, will experiment with smokiness on future cooks. Great joy at the end of the 7.5 hour cook to draw the thermometer through the meat and see it hold steady at 51C throughout. The meat rested for one hour before cutting but there was still a lot of leakage at the point of carving. It was very moist to eat in any case. Still super happy and won't be so scared next time.

I grew up in Easyville, just a few miles from Purdy.

You mean you don’t see it?? Good. Very good...

The party was just great. The weather was fantastic and we were sat outdoors until almost midnight. Quick run down. Banderillas - one set topped with anchovies and other with cubes of prosciutto. Amazing pockets of flavour to go with welcome drinks. Lardo on thin slices of French bread and topped with sweet anchovies. Not really anchovies, a nice sweet Swedish cured fish that I don't know the name of. Super delicious. We had a big pile of seafood skewers. I just put them by the side of the konro and folk turned up to grill their own. Everyone enjoyed that and it took the pressure off me. Deconstructed potato salad. Looks much nicer in the making than when mixed up. Other sides were available but I didn't get around to taking photos The beef. Took about 7 hours to get to temp. Here is the KK shot. I browned it in the other KK. Made big fire with the dripping fat. Won't do it that way again. Beef in the kitchen And starting to slice. A Every bit of beef got eaten up, bar two slices and some people had room for dessert!

You might "stump the chump" with #2! Maybe that one should become the "tie breaker" question - lol!

KJ came out with a Slow Roller. After watching the video, thoughts of the Slow Roller And is this possible for the KK ?

Hi all, this is my cook for Sunday, 7,3 kg Duroc Boston Butt, gonna be a first fo me so I’m thankful for all the help I can get. I would cook it a 225-250 and I’ve been told that i should calculate 1hrs per pound of meat + 2 hrs rest so I would be looking at 16-18 hrs in total, does that sound about right? Another question wrap in foil or not and if when? so as you can see I have a lot of questions

So there's more than just sausage being smoked in them thar hills!

Only a few days left for this bargain KK package with[out] GINSU KNIVES! This weekend it will be released for sale to the masses of Northern Virginia. Think about that for a moment... Beltway bandits. Politicians. Bureaucrats. LOBBYISTS, for cryin' out loud! The people who SPEND your tax $$. Don't let it happen!!

Deal! Clandestine like. We'll tell her it's California desert steak.

It's probably soot covered if you've done more than a couple of cooks in it.

Some great looking cooks here, sometime I miss this channel. Say El Pescador, I would pay for a seat at the dinner table when that was placed in front of Mac.

This particular specimen apparently lived his/her best life off the coast of Spain before tickling my palette here in California. If I've got my geography right, that means that at some point, that octopus flew right over your place. Shame one doesn't have the courtesy to stop in and say hello!

Yes, I have far too much invested in flamingo gear to switch gears now. But, Pink Panther would make a fun theme, too! "Excuse me, but is that your minky? Do you have a lysounce for that minky?" "Does you dog bite?" Started many years ago on a whim as a fun theme for a dinner party, based upon the prank at the time of folks covering your front lawn in the plastic flamingos, we're talking dozens!, with the provision that you had to make a donation to their charity to get them to come back and remove them. So, I was inspired to take to the next level. Took a long time to collect all the gear - plates, glasses, decorations, etc. Even now, I'm still adding stuff to it as I run across it. Now friends and family gift me items that they find out and about.

Black ops brisket rub, I think salt and pepper is good too. 71/2 or 8 hrs avg temp 260. I think this one would have made the grade for a turn in. Oh well, only a few guests, all gone. Thanks for looking

Looks great, alot of fun. btw, have you ever seen Monty Pythons Meaning of Life? "the salmon mousse" ~5:20

I wonder if beets sugar crystals would colour your past? Another fun night I'm sure, lots of laughs and tasty food. I know it puts a smile on my face.

El Pescador, holy smokes, what a beautiful cook, love the colours, the char and you did say it was chicken, didn't you? [emoji4] Just wait until tekobo sees your post. [emoji4]

And what an ending it was. Awesome smoke ring.[emoji5][emoji5][emoji5]

Of dirt?

Looks and sounds like a great gathering with lots of great food and drink that meat looks delish

That bark is looking lovely. For future reference I suspect 12 hours notice required for me to get to where you are...

I inquired before it was available. According to Thermoworks they will have adapters for certain grills available soon.

Bronze 22 inch table top.

That beef looked super, dark like cherry on the outside and pink as it should be on the slice. Nice knife too. Good idea with the Konro and the guests have a task to enjoy. The fish...could it have been a sweet pickled herring? Like the high tech probe, sticking out on the high end. Try as you might next time that'll be hard to beat

Straight-up Cuban - mojo (blood orange juice, tons of garlic and oregano). Nicely done!

Sounds like a roaring success.

So last night I cooked some ribs. Ribs turned out terrific. Everyone kept saying they were the best ribs I made so far. I got so drunk I passed out. I woke up at 4am and my KK was still going strong at 450 degrees. So my grill must have on for at least 12 hours if not longer at I’m guessing 450 degrees. I still got some charcoal left over. I found this incident funny but what wasn’t funny was I had to go to work with hangover. Just wanted to share my funny moment (funny to me).

Looking good, @alimac23! I've been out of commission the past week and a half or so and unable to fire up the KK. This eve, I finally put the roti and the new Meater Block to work. Simple S&P for one bird. The other got the Bexton's Mango Habenero treatment. So easy. So good. One question on technique. I piled the coals towards the rear of the 32 and lit 2 spots - one to the left and one t the right. The right took off better than the left and as a result, one bird was ready well before the other. Should I have simply lit a single spot in the middle? I've got my heart set on some beef tomorrow. @tekobo's thread on aged meats got me all excited! If I can get my act together, I'll throw a little sous vide octopus on for a starter. Nothing like making up for lost time!

I picked up a couple of nice racks of beef ribs yesterday, cooking them today for my parents fair well meal as they are headed back to the UK tonight. Smoking over cherry wood with Caribeque bold beef rub, more pics to come as the cook progresses. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My current back yard looks nice, but the surrounding area is insane with high population density and orange people. New backyard won't be as nice, but this is the surrounding area:

Thanks, Bruce, the good news is there are no calories from the pixs. LOL I think the heat wave is breaking, we just now had a thunder storm with rain so hopefully the temp. will drop out of the 90s.