jdbower

Ask and ye shall receive! I sent an email to Kaytat yesterday giving them a heads up that the Twitter additions broke StokerLog and today I see a new update: http://www.kaytat.com/ I'll have to give it a try later today, two thumbs up for responsiveness on a holiday weekend! Edit - maybe I'll wait, there's also a .193 that they just posted Edit2 - got tired of waiting, .193 seems to give at least basic StokerLog support so now there's no reason to downgrade, have to do some more StokerLog testing to verify it's 100% working and to figure out why I'm not Tweeting.

I've always had a dishwasher. From the house I was born in (well, the house my parents lived in when I was born at the hospital at least, but I'm sure the hospital had one too) to my first apartment to my first house. But for three long years I lived in a dilapidated wreck of a house while I was waiting for building permits that took too long (it's still for sale if anyone's interested!). During that time "we" had to wash dishes. I say "we" because my wife was very cunning and married someone who had a lower tolerance for dishes in the sink than she did. When we gave up building and moved to MA following my wife's job we got a much nicer house and once again had access to a dishwasher - no more scrubbing pots and pans, no rinsing off dishes, no drying the flatware, just pop them all into a machine and like magic they come out clean! But now not everything goes in. First it was the KitchenAid with the burnished attachments that would turn a sickly grey color if they aren't washed by hand; no problem, I'll just rinse them off right after I use them. I have a carbon steel wok that heats up in an instant and is fantastic to cook with but would rust away and lose that beautiful seasoning in the machine; it's too big anyway so a garden hose and a bamboo whisk followed by a light coating of oil cleans it up nicely. Yesterday I decided to get a cast iron skillet...and a stiff scrub brush to clean it after I christened it with some delicious Spicy BBQ bacon that I just had to try. I'm just a fine china set away from being back to washing everything by hand again! Non-stick surfaces can't get too hot so we have to use oil again. Clothes are dry-clean only so the washing machine sits idle. The A/C is too expensive to run so we open the windows. The furnace is way too expensive in the winter so I spend the summer splitting firewood. We have all these gadgets and new ways of cooking but we still go back to lighting a fire and putting food on top of it like we have since the dawn of man. Seems like we spent the latter part of the last century creating time-saving devices and now we're spending the first part of this one taking them all away again! I guess we do still have the interwebs to keep us amused so it's still a step ahead of where we were.

You're either a very brave man or a very inebriated one!

I guess that's why they call it beta! If Amir needs any log files or other data from me I'd be happy to provide it (I get the "Automatic Temperature Control Systems" daily digests so I can monitor his status). I'm willing to suffer without StokerLog for a bit and I may play around with the Tweets more later. Curiously I managed to get one with nothing connected when I was testing, but nothing today either periodically or when I reached temp.

Out of curiosity, have you managed to get StokerLog to work on the latest firmware? I'm running 2.6.0.188 and StokerLog v5 (March 2009). When I connect it seems to be OK, but after it reads the web interface it says "No (Fire) control Probes found" - probably because the web interface changed a bit. I was hoping this was an issue with a dual cooker setup, but I removed the 10CFM fan and probe, rebooted, and have the same result. Silly me, I connected at my desk right after I upgraded and expected the "No probes" error so I thought it was working fine.

Based on mguerra's idea and thanks to an afternoon downpour yesterday I decided it was time to protect my Stoker's fans a bit. It's cheap and easy to do, I used an 8 cup Gladware container (actually, an unbranded version from Target). Just cut a circular hole in the side for the fan and I used a rectangular hole for the airflow. Put the fan's gasket between the plastic and the cooker for a little protection and route the cable out the air hole. I then stuffed the air hole with cheesecloth to help prevent water from splashing or getting sucked in. Took about ten minutes to make one for both my 5CFM and 10CFM fans at a cost of about a dollar each if we include wear and tear on my kitchen shears. The downside is that Gladware is a little flexible so it's easier if I open the container lid to put the fan on, mguerra's container seems a little more solid and being able to mount the blower on the bottom also helps. If it gets annoying it's easy to add a support strut between the back of the blower and the container.

The fates have deemed that it shall be chicken and brats should it ever stop raining. And since the bird is too big for my loaf pan I'll go back to the Roadside Chicken favorite. The brats are another story, the first time we got them at Costco they were ale-flavored but since then they've been plain - and lacking that little kick. I've got some experiments going to see if I like marinading them overnight or boiling them in it a bit first. A few bottles of Harpoon is a small sacrifice to the great fire gods.

I think this may be a bit too close to actual food porn - real-time status updates so we can all drool over what everyone else is doing. All we need now is webcam support. And wouldn't it be cool to have one that supports cooking temps so we can put it inside the cooker?

Nicely done! Might I suggest fashioning a crude trebuchet to fling the cooker into the back? That'll be extra credit for next time

Mine saved the settings and even sent out a Tweet during testing (no probes or fans, just on my desk). My hopes of a real test today were dashed - we got just enough sun to give us hope and now the heavens have opened and made me wish I wasn't the only house in the neighborhood without a boat. BTW: I have a dedicated Twitter account for my Stoker set up here http://twitter.com/jdbower_stoker Rock's BBQ seems to have an example account as well: http://twitter.com/rocksbarbque

Thanks for helping so many stick to their diets! FM has more of a smoke issue than most because of all that body hair - he should really shave more often

Then I guess I'll stick with lump - smelling of smoke makes the fun last longer!

Some would say they're the bestest part - a lot of flavor in a small package At this rate I may do some smoked raindrops with a smattering of grilled fog - if I can dig my KKs out of the mud. This weekend will hopefully stop the bulk of the rain, but I'll still have to swing buy Costco and/or Shaws to see what tickles my muse.

Interesting product! I don't see why it couldn't be used, assuming it has the texture of Crisco you may be better off smearing some on the top before the cook and then mixing a bit more in after you pull it but when the meat's still hot enough to melt it. Personally I tend to like less fatty textures to my meat so I don't think it's something I'd try, but it could help turn pork loin into something a bit closer to a shoulder for some.

I've used a pork loin which is much less fatty but it's a very different texture than the shoulder I've done (I happen to like it a bit better). Sticking with a vinegar based sauce you should still be in the low fat category, but then you should still watch your carbs (go bunless? cut down the sugar?). Of course, the more fat you remove during the pulling process the better. I tend to trim out a lot during that time as well.

The current officially supported release of the Stoker firmware is available at Rock's BBQ website under support: http://rocksbarbque.com/downloads.html It's currently listed as 2.1.3 which was released in August of 2008. Since then Rock's made a few changes and Kaytat has been keeping up. While I wouldn't recommend updating the firmware unless you know what you're doing, they have been adding some neat features and I'm sure a ton of bug fixes. The latest is Twitter support, and the releases can be found here: http://www.kaytat.com/ Once a build migrates from Alpha/Beta to Releases it's a bit more happy to run, but if you like life on the edge go for it! Obligatory warning - firmware updates are often pretty scary and there's the chance you'll need to ship the unit back to Rock if something goes wrong.

Re: Another problem

This isn't a legal site it's a BBQ site. The only Latin allowed here is Pig Latin

Some brats being grilled, part way through I added a Vidallia onion sliced in half. Crappy camera phone says the onions are pure white and lost all the texture Yes, I too use the dreaded Weber "wok" - but I think I have an excuse! Two brats sliced and stir fried with sliced onions and peppers; the rest of the brats left whole. Not much space here - I may need to start using my 23" for some grilling or use another level! The halved onions came out well but I could have left them on longer. Also a spatula is probably a better tool over the tongs - it helps you replace them so you don't mess up the grill marks. Johnsonville Beer 'n' Brats are great!

With at least four able-bodied people to help I wouldn't worry about the ramp, just some 2x4s with a little padding (just in case) and they should be able to lift the cooker off the shipping base enough for someone else to kick the base out from underneath - this'll be a piece of cake! And here's that picture of Cozy's for those who are too lazy to search for it

My thoughts exactly, I think we're going to like her! You may want to download StokerLog 5 - it's a fantastic front end for the Stoker. But even without it the Stoker's not that hard to use - either through the device itself or the simple web interface. And we're always here if you've got any questions.

Re: The Today Show Dry rub Are you saying you need to be a mouse or other pan-dimensional being in order to fully enjoy it? Can't wait until my wife's Thai peppers start producing - she's got a ton of plants!

Congrats! If you're new to charcoal, I'd recommend pretty much any sort of charcoal sporting the words "natural lump" - Cowboy is available in many Lowes in the area and apparently Royal Oak in some Walmarts (but I've had trouble finding it in NJ and MA). You may also want to consider a BBQ Guru or Stoker (probably the Guru unless you like techie toys - the Guru has a nicer out-of-the-box user interface while I like the Stoker better once you hook it to your home network), these devices can really take a lot of the guess work out of charcoal basics if you've never had to regulate the airflow to get the temperature you want. Enjoy!

Re: Wheeling and Leveling a KK First, welcome aboard and warm up that digital camera Especially if you have the larger 23" model I doubt there will be an issue. The casters on the 23" are pretty big and glide easily over most surfaces. The 19.5" casters are a little smaller so you may have to use more effort or go slower but again there probably won't be an issue.