dstr8

I decided to try the pink paper wrap trick 2/3 of the way through the roast/smoke (pecan chips). The baby backs came from Trader Joes where I normally wouldn't buy meat but the last time I made these the pork was super flavorful; luck of the draw. These, however, were very mild without any real "pork" flavor; boring in other words despite the herb crust and pecan smoke. But its all about what they eat and I'm sure whomever raises these for TJ's can't afford anything special on the feed-front. The KK and I did our parts but ... next time I'll return to my favorite and tried & true: Spare ribs. Or hop over the hill to Sacramento and get acorn or pumpkin finished pork.

And the finish line

A couple more steps ...

No reason the unusually cold and gloomy winter weather here should come between good 'cue and us. Hopefully the start of something tasty. Stay tuned for "news at 5"

Your worker friend is just the type of customer the industrial food giants love! We eat high quality meat when we eat meat which is irregular/infrequent (prefer wild game). Quality produce, especially this time of year, is more expensive per serving and calorie than small farm meat. When ALL the factors are considered I would argue its less expensive to eat well than to eat cheap. When I started out in sales along time ago a peer of mine told me: "you can train for just about any sales scenario; however there just isn't a technique to overcome ignorance". Right he was. Unfortunately there are more folks that will step over a dollar to pick up a dime ... all things groceries and health included. People don't consider the ramifications of their food choices, for their own well being and those of the farmers and ranchers that produce our food... most never consider the plight of of the field (and slaughterhouse) workers exposed to toxic pesticides, herbicides, etc. Stay the course Garvinque as it will pay dividends in taste, your short and long term health and animal & farmer welfare.

tofu. <flip off>. Seriously, congratulations and welcome to hanging out with a fantastic bunch of KK addicts/folks! First KK? If so you certainly went big for first! Where do you reside?

My next "cooker" will be a real pizza/bread oven; a Valoriani/Mugnaini. The KK does an admirable job for pizza bakes considering its a bottom heat source but still leaves room on the table for all things Neapolitan baking where the dome temps are much higher than the floor which shares heat source and pie space.

My Mom is 100% Italian and I grew up eating Italian "cheesecake" using freshly made ricotta ... which I make to this day. No sour cream, no cream cheese ... think very rustic peasant style ricotta pie. Over the Thanksgiving Day holiday we tried something new: We made pumpkin pie with a 50/50 ratio of pumpkin to ricotta. Not going away

I made this and its fabulous! I love all things banana leaves. IMO they're mobetta for tamals (taste and ease of making) ... very versatile.

^ Tyson

I'll follow!

that's some batshit craziness right there. hope it was worth it

Yowza! Its pouring rain now with low land flooding in the Eastern Sierra. Thankful we don't have that snow here though ... as IH8WNTR!

<snip> "The second shot is from one of the family room windows." I thought you either had an extended deer hunting season in your area or you were poaching for dinner

Hmmm...reminds me of a Helen Reddy song

There, fixed it for ya.

I like your pastry bag trick Tony!

The trick with the CI pot, as others have reported, to use the flour paste trick to seal the lid onto the pot. It just works incredibly well. FWIW I use a 1qt Lodge which seems to be big enough for my smoking needs.

I use KK coco & coffee char exclusively for all types of cooking sessions on the KK including low and slow with the CI pot filled with smoking wood. If I find myself out of KK lump then typically source oak lump (Walmart). But the CI pot will work with any briquet or lump.

Pecan is my favorite wood for smoking for all things pork.

smoking wood goes in the cast iron pot. sometimes I'll add a chunk or two to already burning lump for quick smoke for pizza bakes ...

So this morning the KK forum is back to the more typical look and feel using the same Safari browser, same interface (MBPro), etc.

It happened about a week ago and then again this morning ... Experimenting/updating site firmware again or?

Schweeet! Hope you get what you want. Application driven like most things but a 16 and a 32 ... as other's have here ... that would be a nice combo for a couple empty nesters that do some entertaining.

The key is to get the KK thoroughly heat soaked (500F-ish); this is the beauty of roasting fowl on the KK. The direct heat from below is a higher temp for legs and thighs and the slightly lower/more gentle radiant heat coming down onto the breast meat is the best of both worlds; breast meat and thigh/leg meat (whole bird of course ;)) cook at about the same respective. No flipping required or needed for the best outcome using whole birds. If you haven't tried Judy Rodger's Zuni Cafe recipe yet ... its the only way I roast whole birds ... highly recommended.