jeffshoaf

I have the BBQ Guru cyberQ and the Thermoworks Signals/Bellows and external battery combo. I highly recommend the Thermoworks; I can't recommend the guru. The Signals can be used as just a 4 probe remote thermometer with or without external power or you can add the Bellows fan to get temperature control; the fan requires external power via either the provided AC adapter or the optional battery. The fan moves a lot of air so it requires the optional damper when used with the KK. The battery in the signals will last over 24 hours; the extension battery week power the signals and the fan for a long time as week - I think I've gone 17 or 18 hours and it still had some charge. The signals displays all 4 probe settings at the same time locally or you can connect it to WiFi and monitor by their very nice all on your phone; optionally connect to the internet and you can monitor anywhere. You can set your alert temps on the signals unit or vids the app. You get high local alerts on the signals and remote alerts on you phone. The signals, Bellows, and battery are all water resistant - you can use then in the rain. My only non-nit picky complaint is they use standard USB connectors for everything but everything needs 12 VDC instead of standard USB 5VDC voltage; they do provide enough AC adapters to cover everything but you have to remember to use this instead of one of the many USB adapters you already have. Again, highly recommended! The CyberQ requires external power via the included AC adapter. It has a one line backlit LCD display and membrane type buttons to configure it; these are painful to use due to the limited info that can be displayed and the poor tactile feedback from the buttons. It can be used stand-alone, but I'd only do that out of desperation due to the limited display and buttons. Once you connect to WiFi, you can use their cloud app to configure and monitor the unit from anywhere with any device via a web browser; this works ok but it comes with all the limitations of a web app and depends on you having an internet connection at all times. You get temp alerts via text and/or email and on the unit itself; this is a big issue for me since my main reason for using a remote thermometer and temp control is to do long overnight cooks - I don't want to check my phone every time I get a text or email while I'm trying to sleep to see whether it's an alert or just a regular text/email that can wait until morning. I've also had issues with the unit forgetting my network credentials when it goes unused for a while even tho it remembers the target and alert temps of my last cook - and even tho the unit has a local webserver you can connect to to do the network configuration, I've not been able to get it to actually get it connected to my network, leaving me too use the terrible UI on the device itself. Not recommended! BBQ Guru does have a newer controller that is supposed to address a lot of these issues but they've had a lot of software issues, including some that made the unit unusable or useable but with issues that could ruin a cook. They also outsourced their firmware development and haven't been able to provide updates in a timely matter, even when an update breaks the unit. I don't tend to rely on technical support much, but my customer support experience with high companies had been good - but I must caveat that statement by telling you that my last interaction with BBQ Guru was 7 or 8 years ago and may be different now. Hope this epistle is helpful!

Have you tried such a long hold on pork butts? I do a lot more butts than I do briskets. I'm thinking about getting an electric smoker (cabinet type, not the drum type) to use for long holds. I'm hoping to find a used one for a good price; I think they go for around $50 if the temp controller is bad; add an aftermarket PID controller and an insulated one should hold temp within a few degrees and a water pan should help keep the environment humid. I do a cookout for the extended family each summer; last year I smoked 4 butts overnight and then grilled 7 spatchcocked chickens on my big Santa Maria grill. I'd like to do a similar cook for another big group of two. I've been getting good results with minimal sleep interruptions by running the KK or insulated gravity feed smoker at 200° F overnight but it's hard to really get a good night's sleep while keeping an ear cocked for an alarm from the temp controller - I'd like to get a better night's sleep so I won't be so tired when all the company is here. Getting a good result with a long hold on the butts (and maybe briskets in the future) would let me smoke them overnight two nights prior to the gathering, hold for 24+ hours, get a better night's sleep, and focus on the grilling and other prepwork the day of. If you saw me, you'd agree that I need as much beauty sleep as possible! A bit of KK blasphemy... The very long hold would also open up the possibility of doing a hot and fast cook ask during daylight hours the day before using a stick burner. I have a bad itch for a stick burner but really don't want to stay up all night feeding one and wouldn't want to do a hot and fast cook the day of the gathering with all the prep work and grilling as well.

That's purty! Please tell us more about this warning cooler - sounds like a candidate for the KK Shopping Channel! May be something I'm looking for since I recently tested my oven for use as a holding chamber and it failed.

David, have you used the Anova to rest or hold a roast (a brisket or pork butt, for example) after smoking? I'm wondering if the sous vide mode could be used to keep it moist during a long hold.

Step up and get both like I did! I've had the Vermicular for a while now. It's my go-to for sauces and some veggies.

I guess I've entered the "grumpy old man" phase of life.... A couple more: "Delish" - something about hearing this just rubs me wrong "Unami" - this one isn't too bad but it's way overused

I spend way too much time on smoking, grilling, and pizza-making forums plus some time on YouTube and find several things that people do and say that really irritate me; I try to limit any response I make to constructive and/or educational comments (unless it's an attempt at humor), but sometimes it stresses my restraint... Assuming most folks have some of their own pet peeves, what are yours? Here are a few of mine: Calling charcoal "coal" - since there is an actual substance named "coal" and there are coal-fired ovens, this can just lead to confusion. Also, an appropriate term for burnt wood that hasn't been reduced to ash is "coals", opening another avenue for confusion. Calling pizza "za" - I don't have a logical reason for not liking this but it really irritates me.

The store opened in January; it's name is actually US Chef'Store. I'm disappointed in the prices for supplies and tools but they have some pretty good prices on some fresh and frozen meats and some very good prices on others. They also have some meat cuts I've not seen locally before. Prices on deli meats and cheeses are pretty good too, but you do have to buy the chunk and not slices. Some example prices on fresh meat: Whole chicken wings: $42 for 40 lbs Chicken wing drummettes and flaps: $47 for 40 lbs Chicken drumsticks: $23.55 for 40 lbs Whole chickens: $1.69 lb Beef brisket: $2.65 lb Prime beef brisket: $4.39 lb Beef eye of round:: $3.75 lb Beef shoulder clod: $3.55 lb Ground chuck 81% lean: $2.55 lb Pork butt: $1.29 lb They also have prime grade brisket and other beef loins at competitive prices. Local grocery stores have pork butts on sale pretty regularly for 99¢ lb but I don't know if there's any quality differences.

I think the issue would be retrofitting a temperature sensor in an effective location and then calibrating it across a fairly wide range of temperatures and materials. Most (all?) of the pid controller temperature sensors I'm semi-familiar with are immersed in the controlled medium (air or some fluid), but it's been a couple of decades since I was immersed in electronics so I'm definitely out of date. Any idea on how the Breville manages it? The Vermicular and Instant Pots with sous vide modes have it a bit easier since they only have to work with one pot. I assume all of these are using some type of sensor that is physically touching the pot/pan but I guess an infrared sensor is a possibility.

While I tend to agree, I feel the need to point out that lots of folks say similar things when they see the price of our KK's...

The Vermicular Musui-kamado controls the temp to the degree in sous vide mode but it's set up to just use the included enameled cast iron pot. I don't think it gets as hot in sous vide mode as the Breville does but might meet your needs. I tested the control with a pot of water and it was really accurate. It's not inexpensive in the USA but I don't know about over yonder.

If you're interested in the Spinn, it's on sale again at the black Friday price I missed - $649. Price good thru December 31.

Pork loin cook using the new Ninja grill's "roast" function.

Air fried a handful of frozen steak fries. Tasty but next time I'll add a light coating of oil to see if they crisp up a bit more.

This is long - sorry, but it's a long story! I like coffee but I'm not fanatical enough to spend a lot of time preparing it or grinding my own beans, so I've been using various pod machines for years. I wasn't happy with the original k-cups (just didn't make a big enough cup of coffee), so I was excited when Keurig came out with a new machine around 10 years ago that was a bit more flexible and could use bigger pods. After my usual research process and waiting for a while for the kinks to be worked out, I bought one. In general, I liked the machine; it could make several sizes of drinks and it let you adjust the strength, which addressed my big issues with the k-cup machines but it never took off and after a few years, Keurig discontinued the makers but kept producing the pods. Of course, after a few more years they discontinued the pods too. They did offer a pretty good discount on a new k-cup machine, but after having a similar chain of events with their espresso machine, I was through with Keurig. While looking for a replacement, I came across a new machine in Kickstarter called Spinn. Instead of using pods, it had a hopper for coffee beans, a burr grinder that automatically adjusted for various grinds, and a centrifugal brewing chamber, all controlled via an app. Dump roasted beans (up to a pound into the hopper that has a gasketted lid to help keep them fresh, select a coffee style ( espresso, Americano, drip, etc.) in the app, adjust the strength and size if desired, and start the process. The machine adjusted the grind size as appropriate for the coffee style, ground the beans, transported the grinds into the brew chamber for brewing. After brewing, the machine would dump the used grounds into a bin and go thru a cleaning cycle. Once drinking your fresh ground and brewed coffee, you could go back into the app and it would ask questions about how you liked it, make adjustments to the recipe if needed, and remember your preferences. The centrifugal brewing process isn't exactly traditional but had been around for a while. Basically, the chamber spins at a high rpm and hot water is injected into the middle of the chamber; the centrifugal force pushes the water through the coffee grounds and through perforations to filter and extract coffee. By varying the grind, rpm, and how long the water is held in the chamber, coffee strength and flavor profile is controlled as well as crema, allowing various coffees to be made. Reviews of the prototype machines were very positive but there was no guarantee that it would make it out of Kickstarter. They were pretty up-front about the issues they were having; the issues were mainly with grinder wear and jams in the mechanisms to move the ground coffee into and out of the brewing chamber. I decided to not risk my $$ on the Kickstarter and I needed a coffee maker. My research found that Nespresso had licensed the centrifugal brewing technology and was using in their Vertuo pod machine. Since the coffee in the pods was already ground, the pod acts as the brewing chamber, and the spent grounds stay in the pod, the Spinn issues aren't relevant. Barcodes on the pods set the brewing parameters so no app. I kept my eye on the Spinn but bought a Vertuo. I've been happy with the Vertuo but the pods are a bit pricey, with prices averaging about $1 per pod. I have mainly used the pods for 7.7 oz coffees and they're mostly $1.10 per pod. They have a pretty good variety of styles and flavors and multiple sizes from espresso to travel mugs. Meanwhile, the Spinn finally started shipping in quantities last year - only 4 years late - for $999. In the interim, they have resolved the issues but changed their plans a bit. Instead of the app asking questions and adjusting the brew accordingly, they now have a roasters market where they have beans from small craft coffee roasters all across the USA. Each roaster provides recipes of the brewing parameters they recommend for each blend they have available in the marketplace for each style/size of drink; you tell the app what beans you have loaded in the machine by scanning the bag or, if you bought thru the marketplace, your list of orders and the app loads those parameters to the machine. You still have the ability to adjust strength and size (within limits) and you can save those adjustments. You can also use beans that aren't in the marketplace but you'll probably have to tweak the recipes a bit more. Anyway, the machine was on sale for $700 black Friday; I didn't have time to do the research my conscience requires then so I missed it, but they had another sale for cyber week at $750. I calculated my Nespresso pod cost per year and figured the machine would pay for itself in less than a year if I buy beans from the marketplace, sooner if I get less expensive beans. The average price of beans in the marketplace is $20 for 12 to 16 ozs plus $3 shipping. The beans ship direct from the roaster so delivery time depends on locality. Anyway, mine was delivered December 2nd. I like it! There have been a fair number of reports of machine failure in the first month so I'm hanging on to the Nespresso for a few more weeks, but probably not much longer than that. Their customer service for machine issues has been very good by most reports. You get a $15 coffee credit for the marketplace when you buy the machine. You also get a $150 coffee credit for referring someone who buys a machine; strangely enough, you can set up your account before buying a machine and get a referral code that you can use when you buy a machine (effectively referring yourself), so I ended up with $165 in coffee credits. That helped justify the purchase. I'm not a coffee connoisseur, but I'm happy with the machine. I've not bought whole coffee beans before so it'll take some experimentation to find a favorite - one downside to the machine is that there isn't a simple way to switch beans before the current batch in the hopper is all used up, making comparing beans difficult. Other downsides: o The water reservoir seems small; there is a model that allows you to plumb on a water line and automatically fill but it's our of stock now and does cost more o The water filter seems expensive; I used filtered water in my previous machines and will probably not replace the filter when it's time is up. That will also allow the reservoir to hold more water. Research indicates that the machine will still prompt you for periodic filter changes and you'll have to step thru the filter change process in the app but the machine will still work without the filter. o The grinder is a bit loud; reports indicate is about the same as stand-alone grinders. o The hopper for used grounds and the drip tray have to be emptied a lot. The aforementioned self-cleaning process flushes water thru the brewing chamber and dumps into the drip tray. I'm trying to get in the habit of emptying these and refilling the water each night as my getting ready for bed routine, as well as staging a cup for the next day's first cup. o The Nespresso takes about a minute to make a 7.7 oz cup; the Spinn takes longer than that for just an espresso due to the grinding and ground transport. Different recipes take differing amounts of time. That's why I try to stage an empty cup in the machine each night - I can start the process from my phone via the app so the coffee is ready when I'm ready for it. Upsides: o The coffee is very good! o Lots of options on coffee drinks and they're adding more regularly; recent additions are pour-over style and cold brew. o They're constantly improving the app; I emailed an app suggestion and they quickly responded that my suggestion was already planned for the next release o The Nespresso put a crema on top of everything, even plain coffee. This never bothered me but I've had guests that didn't care for it. The Spinn only generates a crema for drinks that traditionally have it. o No pods to dispose of (in case that's important to you). Nespresso has a recycling program that provides free postage-paid bags to send back spent pods for recycling bit I'm bad to let them pile up before managing to get them shipped - there are 4 full bags sitting in my house right now. o While the app and wifi/internet are needed to set up the machine and tell it what beans you're using, you can make coffee without it. The machine has 3 buttons pre-programmed to make espresso, Americano, and coffee, plus 4 user-programmable buttons that you can assign with any standard or custom recipe. o The coffee is very good! (yeah, that needs two mentions) As I've mentioned, I'm not a coffee connoisseur so I'll not spend time attempting to give a critical review of the coffee produced in the Spinn but there are plenty of reviews by knowledgeable folks on the interwebs; they're mostly positive, especially for "regular" coffee but more mixed for espresso. https://www.spinn.com/

I will be trying the air fryer capabilities. I've avoided the air fryer temptation mainly due to space limitations and already having a convection oven but a recent coffee maker upgrade will be freeing up some storage space and I'll be able to rotate some gadgets from storage to counter top as needed. There are several things that I like that I rarely fix due to them not being worth the clean-up effort (French fries, etc.) but are prime candidates for air frying; this week's visit to the grocery store will be interesting. Speaking of the new coffee maker, I need to start a thread on that too...

I've always been one of those "I grill outside regardless of the weather" but as i've suffered from timing issues and neck issues and other issues lately, i find myself wanting a grilled steak but not surmounting those issues. I resisted when i stumbled across the top-of-the line mostly smokeless Ninja Foodi grill at 40% off on Amazon but when I saw i could get a $150 Amazon credit for signing up for an Amazon Prime credit card... I succumbed. It was delivered today and i had a 50 day dry aged ribeye dry brined and ready. The verdict: not as good as a charcoal- or wood-fired steak but still very tasty! $80 well spent! It also came with a griddle and an air frying basket, plus the guys got a box to play in.

I meant less pricey than the machine I linked to, not the jaccard. I had found a machine similar to that professional one for less $$ when I was looking before but it's been a few years and I don't remember where. Of course, it for have been that one and the price has gotten up. The one I was looking at could be set up with blades at two depths so you could cut the meat into strips and cube it in one pass.

I was actually looking at something like this; when I was looking I found several that were less pricey. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/cabelas-pro-series-manual-meat-cuber

I use round as well as London broil but it's been $6.99 lb and up around here and I just can't bring myself to spend that much for beef for jerky. So you use the cuber for jerky? Does it have a noticeble effect?

On other forums, I've seen folks cold smoking their beef for several hours to get the smoke flavor and then finishing in a dehydrator where conditions are easier to control. My dehydrator manufacturer recommends drying at 170° F. I haven't made any jerky since I got the cold smoker (I don't like it well enough to use $7.99/lb meat to make it); earlier batches were done all in the dehydrator but I'll try the pre-smoke then dehydrate if/when beef prices come down to a more reasonable level. Has anyone used a device made to make cube steak to tenderize beef for jerky? I was looking at them before beef prices got so silly.

A while back I posted a question about cold smoking and dehydrating milk to use later in a regional food called "chicken stew"; this is traditionally a chicken and milk stew cooked over a wood fire in a cast iron pot and I was looking to replicate the wood-fired taste when cooked in doors, I haven't gotten around to trying the cold smoking trick yet but we did have a small family gathering in mid-November and made chicken stew the traditional way. I forgot to take any pics but my sister got one. I cooked 4 whole chickens in instant pots, deboned and them, and then used the bones and skin to make additional broth. I also had several quarts of broth I made and froze a few months ago from the carcass of a turkey breast I had smoked. Dumped it all in my #8 dutch oven over a charcoal and wood fire, added whole milk, half-and-half, sour cream, butter, salt and pepper, and thickened with corn starch. I think this was the best chicken stew I've ever had! It had a rich, smokey, and buttery flavor. We had plenty left over so I have some in the freezer for later consumption. I think the smoked turkey broth really contributed to the flavor, giving me hope that the cold smoked milk is a good idea, but since I now have a chamber vac sealer, I'll probably defer on the dehydrating and just freeze the result.

I think I'd lean more towards a portable induction hot plate instead of a built-in. Should be cheaper since it wouldn't be rated to leave outdoors, plus it could be used in other places as needed, easier to replace if/when it breaks, and wouldn't be in the way when not being used. Of course there's the downside of needing a place to store it when not in use.

I did a little googling - is it kiawe ?