TheNakedWhiz

The carbon steel pans are traditional, but the main thing is to have a flat wide pan so the rice is in a shallow layer, and one that conducts heat fairly rapidly so you can heat the pan and cool the pan quickly. They sell SS paelleras so it should do ok.

This past weekend we made paella. I love having the room in the KK 22" OTB cooker. Most recipes seem to be for 14" pans which have handles that make the pan more like 18" across. It's a squeeze in my large BGE, but on the KK, it is so nice to be able to move the pan around as necessary and close the lid without closing it on a handle. Here's my web page on paella, if anyone wants to get into this tasty dish: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/paella/paella.htm

www.kcbs.us should have a schedule of all the kcbs sanctioned contests...

My Procomm can do 400+ feet. What are you seeing?

Wow! Do you do that for a living? If not, you should, lol!

Check out this thread on the Primo forum and look for Ask-A-Butcher's post. It is from the chuck. Really good eating. My local Harris Teeter doesn't carry them, but the butcher said he knew what they were and would cut me some next time he had a whole chuck to cut up.

I'd doing a St. Patrick's day chicken, lol. I'm in a wierd mood. I took a green marinade sort of thing for shrimp and I've shoved it between the skin and the meat and then poured some over the top. It looks real purty. I have no idea how this is going to taste, but what the heck....

Oh christ, you are bringing back flashbacks: "Ubi! Ubi! Ubi!, Mr. Hanthorn. Do we need to open the windows and let cold in here to wake you up? Ubi, Mr. Hanthorn?"

Another thing you can do is to place the bird in the refrigerator, uncovered for 24-48 hours. The skill will start to turn a bit transparent, but then when you oil it and cook the bird, you should get some really crispy skin.

Tony, The cheese method came from Egret at the BGE forum, and he more or less got it from Old Dave. I don't know where Old Dave got it, but that's where I got it.

You can actually go down below 100 without too much trouble. My web page on cold smoking cheese shows how. Needless to say, you can probably add more briquettes to raise the temp. But check out the pages on jerky and cheese and see if that helps. Smoking Cheese Smoking Jerky Good luck!

Sanny, I have an opinion on everything. Fortunately for mankind, I can control about 95% of them. The other 5%, well, we will all just have to show tolerance, lol....

Here is a link to the detailed review of what you get when you order Kamado's latest coconut charcoal offering: Review of Kamado Try It Yourself Charcoal. I have to say this is some of the worst charcoal I have ever tested. It is one of only three charcoals to ever get the Not Recommended rating and is currently the lowest rated charcoal as determined by readers at the LCDB. But if you are curious, you can buy a single box from them for $15 that supposedly contains either 11 or 12 pounds (depending on which statement from Kamado you should happen upon). Both boxes I received were underweight. The ash production is truly mind boggling. The picture below is the ash from ONLY 6 BRIQUETTES: I'd guess that an entire box of the "good stuff" (the Philippine extruded coconut sold back in 2003-2004) would produce less ash. Even Kingsford produces less ash. The burntime was the lowest burntime of any charcoal I have ever tested. So, at $1.50 per pound burning for such a short period of time, this was also probably the most expensive charcoal I've ever tested. Frankly, there's very little you can say about this charcoal that is good. I'd wait for Komodo Kamado to start selling charcoal. P.S. Here is a link to the comments left by readers about this charcoal: Reader Comments on Kamado Try It Yourself charcoal

Dennis, do you have a rough estimate of the weight of the smaller model? Perhaps something like "20% less weight" than the large?

Personally, I launch a new cooker with a flashback. At least that is how I christened my first cooker, LOL.

The sliderule wasn't used for the prediction that textured will be less. That prediction was based on the fact that customers are simply going to expect it to be less. Frankly, if I were a potential customer and if money were no object, I wouldn't even consider the textured model. The tiling is just too attractive to pass up for me. But then, people expect plain paper to cost more than ruled paper because you have the added expense of erasing all the lines!

It's a long story, but the charcoal isn't ready yet. Perhaps Dennis can provide an update though.

Syzygies, I was talking to Dennis the other day and I asked him out of curiosity how much trouble he was having with tiles and he essentially said after several hundred cookers, no real problems. (I'd be more specific, but I can't remember his exact words. However, that's the jist of it.) That's good enough for me. Dennis has proven himself to me to be honest and worthy of our trust. Let me assure you that if Dennis had problems with tiles falling off, a) we'd know about it and Dennis would be on the next generation of tile/adhesion design and c) Dennis would be making things right. I know I probably sound like some of RJ's defenders over on the K forum in years past, but I really believe what I just said and think I have good reason to believe it. And of course, if Dennis had any real problems, it would have shown up on this board, which it has not.

Happy New Year from The Naked Whiz! Tonight we are cooking in the kitchen, Morrocan beef stew, tabouleh, and peas. Tomorrow we'll do some ribs on the KK. I hope you all have a great time tonight, whatever you do, but don't drink and drive. Here's to a great 2008!

Now why didn't I think of that, lol

Syzygies, I hereby request that you start using a handle that I can a) type and pronounce. I have a sample of something from Dennis to play with. If I can, I plan to do a side by side with the Philippine charcoal that I still have in my small hoard. I think there is hope. Wish me luck!

At present you can't. Dennis is still working this out.

I have no doubts that your problems were this poor quality charcoal. I have never seen a charcoal that couldn't maintain 400 degrees with a BBQ Guru 10CFM blower going full blast. It made the charcoal unusable in my opinion. The ash would build up on the individual briquettes so rapidly that it insulated the briquettes and prevented the fire from heating the cooking chamber as hot as it should. Truly bizarre stuff.

My thoughts are with you, Dennis. That photo reminds me a lot of what my mom told us when our dad died. She told us to remember the good things and that photo looks like the very best of things. Doug

Saucier, re: your wanting more smoke on the meat so you cook it long and low: I guess I should have read your signature line, LOL!