jdbower

For charcoal it's hard to do any real research and *NOT* find TNW's site, but just in case you need it: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm In my large cooker I use pretty exclusively Dennis' extruded coconut charcoal for cooks around 350F or less. In my small one I like it hot, usually around 500F or so, and I use whatever lump's available - often Cowboy from Lowes but a local supermarket has Full Circle. Regarding the BBQ Guru vs. Stoker, I'm a Stoker fan. The Guru is a much more slick-looking implementation and works well out of the box, but I like the Stoker's computer interface and when paired with StokerLog (a free third party application to control it) I feel it's the superior device. The other benefit is that I'm usually sitting too far away from the cooker for a wireless transmitter to function so using Ethernet to talk to it is perfect. If you're not a "techie" and the Guru's wireless range is OK for you (assuming you want the wireless version) that may be the better choice. If you like to play or need multiple cooker support I think the Stoker is your better option - but there's a ton of opinions out there that go both ways.

Heretic! Uh, I mean welcome to the forum. We don't discriminate based on your, um, "lifestyle choice" but we may ask that you only gradually introduce green things into your pictures - some of us haven't seen them before So what kind of vegetarian are you? I've known some that don't include seafood, some that don't go for eggs or milk, and one that even knew enough to stay away from marshmallows (they have gelatin which is a bone meal byproduct). I'll have to dig through my recipe stash to see if I can find any that you can try out. I'm glad to see that Dennis' sense of taste extends beyond the carnivore genre, you've made quite an investment in quality and looks for someone who won't be sampling the animal-based meals. One of my favorite vegetarian conversations (from a British sit-com):

Out of curiosity, can you see the videos here? If so, it may show up here after it airs. The Today Show is also on Hulu (NBC is an investor in the site) but I know Hulu restricts the source IP address to US users only for licensing reasons. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28901249/ Here is the full MNBC link: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/ ... 6#30698556

Congrats! I'm sure you and the Mrs. will be very happy with the choice - a neighbor of mine commented that we should keep ours in the living room so we can gawk at them. It would also help you sleep better at night, assuming you don't need to wake up! However I'm not sure anyone with the moniker "sane"smith will be happy on this forum

Re: high temp silicone plugs I'll save you some trouble since I keep forgetting to mention that I've already got a ton, but I'll start a new thread so the information isn't lost here.

Congrats, welcome aboard, and klaatu barada nikto!

Re: Nightmare Weekend Sorry to hear that, maybe it's time to go with the Caracas-style architecture. When I was in Venezuela on business all the buildings had walls around them with barbed wire/broken glass/razor wire/etc. embedded into the top of the cement. Inside the complex there was often a wall missing in the building itself to let the air flow in - it was actually quite interesting how they did it in some buildings. Haven't figured out how to use a computer yet, huh?

Re: An All Swine BBQ/( The Swine Flew) Sure you can: Step 1: Cook what you did. Step 2: Attract neighbors. Step 3: Attract the neighbors' little kids. Step 4: Spend a week trying to defeat evil kid germs. Looks great!

Right and wrong Well, I was right about not being able to wait for lunch But I'd like to change when I said "a bit dry" to "extremely flavorful with a firm texture and not greasy at all". In fact, I'll have to get a pork butt to do a real comparison, but I like the texture enough that I think I'll actually be using a pork loin in the future for most of my pulls. At $1.89/lb for the cut it's well worth experimenting with if you don't like greasy foods.

Meat: ~7.5lb boneless pork loin Brine: None Rub: Dizzy Dust Fuel: KKEC Smoke: Jack Daniels smoke pellets Method: Indirect, Main Grill Rotisserie: No Pit Temp: 220 Pull Temp: 195 Time: About 20 hours Draft Control: Stoker On Tuesday night I made a trip to Costco to pick up a few things, including a nice fatty bit-o-pig to help season my wok. Unfortunately while Costco isn't nearly as busy on a weekend night as compared to a weekday their fresh food stock is a bit lacking. They had no ground beef patties left nor did I see any pork butt so I settled on a pork loin as an experiment. See I've been craving some nice vinegar sauce and even if the pork loin came out too dry that would just let it soak up more sauce Besides, I have a long history of unsuccessfully trying to fail on a KK cook so cooking a lean piece of meat to 195 is a well within my expected behavior! I trimmed the fat cap for the wok (and to make things that much tougher for Dennis' beauty to give me something edible), gave it a light coating of Dizzy Dust, and put the pork on around 10am at 220F: While waiting I made some Carolina Red and Pulled Pork Finishing Sauce and let them sit out at room temperature to allow the flavors to mix. StokerLog's ETA was reading 7am through the afternoon, so just in case I used the "Keep Warm" function (which reduces the pit temp as the meat temp reaches the finish temp). Late in the evening a neighbor stopped by and I couldn't help but to show off - but leaving the lid open a bit too long increased the airflow and pushed up the finish time to 3am. When I got up at 6 (didn't bother to set a local "meat done" alarm) I pulled the loin and foil wrapped it for an hour or so. So how can the cook be edible when I took a cut of meat that was way too lean, trimmed off the little fat there was, and left it in the cooker for an extra three hours? You'll have to ask Dennis! (I couldn't resist a quick taste before snapping that pic!) (the Carolina Red is on the left and the Finishing Sauce on the right) The pork shredded very easily and, while a bit dry compared to the butts seen here, it was much more moist than I expected. I think it's actually pretty perfect if you want something that really soaks up the sauce which was my goal for the cook. I can't wait for lunch! Yet another failure at trying to fail - I guess I'll just have to enjoy everything that comes off the KK no matter what I throw at it. Such is life, I suppose!

Again, found on About.com. A much more spicy flavor but a thinner sauce than the Carolina Red. It also lacks a bit of complexity, but does satisfy the need for a spicy vinegar sauce.

Shamelessly stolen from About.com. The net result is a tasty sauce with a mild kick and a bit of sweetness. Taking a taste test a few times through the day it's interesting to observe the taste migrating from a weird vinegar taste to a real BBQ sauce. Personally I like a little more kick, but the wife says this is good as it is.

Stir fried salt With the in-laws slated for a visit in a few weeks I decided to season the wok. An appropriately-timed visit from my neighbor's father (ex-Navy cook and VERY serious about his woks!) suggested the salt seasoning method. I decided to start out with the salt seasoning and follow it up with the traditional pork fat/chive seasoning. 1. Scour the wok thoroughly using a stainless steel scrubber and dishwashing detergent. This may be the last time the wok sees soap so make it squeaky. The point here is to get off the light coating of machine oil and any non-edible debris leftover from manufacturing. 2. Dry with paper towels. 3. If paper towels are black Goto 1 4. Heat the wok on high for a few minutes to dry it completely. 5. Pour copious amounts of salt into the wok - I used an entire 1 pound container. Stir constantly for about 20 minutes. Rotate the wok at angles to get the sides as well. After about 5 minutes I had to use my silicone BBQ gloves, after 10 I needed to switch hands to keep them cool. You'll notice in the picture below that the spots where I've heated the salt are turning a nice dark color. 6. The salt will be HOT - I dumped it into an ash bucket to let it cool. Pour a little oil into the wok and wipe down the inside - the BBQ gloves came in handy but the wok does cool (and heat) fairly quickly. The salt gets so hot that the stainless ladle I was using to stir started to turn a golden color. You'll notice some hotspots in the end result from when I was turning it. These should fade naturally if you want to finish here. 7. At Costco I got a 7.5lb boneless pork loin (I was hoping for a shoulder cut but I couldn't find any). I intentionally got a fatty one and I trimmed off most of the fat cap and cut it into small chunks. I turned down the burner to low and started to render the fat. It will smell delicious but try to refrain from snacking! Stir fry like you did with the salt, rotating the wok around to get the sides. 8. Once the fat reached a golden brown color and stopped liquefying I added garlic chives from my wife's garden cut to ~2" long (beware of splatter!). Crank the heat up to high again and stir fry for 10-15 minutes to get a blackened mess that makes you glad you're cooking outside. Keep rotating that wok. 9. Carefully add a bit of water to the wok, slowly pour it along the side to avoid splatter. You won't be able to see for a few minutes, but continue stirring the mixture anyway for about 5-10 minutes until it's mostly boiled away. The wok should be very dizzy from all that rotating you've been doing - remember that the point is to season the entire wok and as high up the sides as you can get. 10. Dump the mixture someplace that won't melt (I put it in the ash bucket with the salt and old paper towels) and wash the wok out with cold water. Dry with paper towels and then heat to finish the drying. I wiped it down with a thin coat of vegetable oil to help prevent oxidation. Note that you can't see the hotspots from the salt seasoning nearly as much anymore and a nice patina is forming. You can also see how yellow the ladle is getting compared to the spatula. I'd say the wok is now seasoned. The next few cooks I'll keep a bit greasy to keep things going. One nice thing about a wok is that it's a bit like a ceramic cooker in that you can do a ton of different cooking styles on it. However, if you intend to use a wok as a steamer I may recommend getting a dedicated stainless steel wok for that purpose - steaming tends to take off the seasoning and you may find yourself starting over. For my first real cook I make a heapin' helpin' of fried rice - a household favorite for getting rid of leftovers To complete (or at least add to) my review, the Eastman Outdoors wok kit is pretty good. I was a bit concerned about the thinness of the wok earlier, but it really doesn't seem to be an issue. Because of how thin it is water nearly instantly evaporates off when you dry it on high. When using it at extreme angles the handles get hot in some positions and silicone BBQ gloves are a good idea, but I have a feeling that in normal cooking positions this won't be much of an issue. While not as unwieldy as I thought a 22" wok would be, it still is pretty darn big for what I'll use it for! The burner gets very hot indeed. I doubt you'll have much of an issue with keeping temperatures high as you fill the massive 22" wok. It's pretty much exactly at the right height for the wok (and lowers for a stock pot) and it's stable. It lights easily but it does seem to burn, well, about as much propane as you'd expect from a 65,000 BTU burner on a 10psi regulator. About the only thing I don't like is the knob after the regulator to control the burner output. It's a bit loose and not overly intuitive as to how open it is. I'd rather have something like a gas grill knob with nicer tactile feedback and markings for off, low, medium, high, and "kiss your eyebrows goodbye" (I often had to back down from "high" during the seasoning phase just to keep things from burning). The included accessories are useful (I liked the ladle more than the spatula, but I may find use for the "shovel" eventually) and a decent quality, but other than being the right length they're not too special. In summary I think this wok is a great outdoor cooking accessory and I'd recommend it to a friend. More importantly I'd recommend it to a friend I'd like to keep. Other accessories that would be nice are cleaning whisks (these don't last long so order a bunch) and a wok lid (I'd rather have round, but they don't make them in 22" sizes!).

When you post a new topic at the bottom of the page is a way to add poll entries. I'd recommend a series of price ranges as well as options for "Not interested, I use a Guru/Stoker", "Not interested, I don't use a meat probe", or similar reasons why. These could guide development and help shape the target audience a bit - if he's got the RF experience it may be more cost effective to create a Maverick extender/repeater instead of a whole new product, for example.

Ask to borrow his smoker for jerky since the KK locks in too much moisture, then "remember" FM's jerky-technique success

I'm in South East New England, does that count? In a pinch I've got a laptop and a webcam if that'll help you out. I can also throw in some spurious "u"s when I say "favourite" and the like.

I would imagine it depends on your recipe - some pizza dough can be pretty sticky. I've never had a proper peel, but the SuperPeel is probably the one I'll get once I fill that gap. In the mean time I've been using a cookie sheet without a lip to transfer to the stone and a dusting of flour has been good enough for the oven (haven't tried a KK Pizza yet).

In the second to last shot, are you eating the pizza the proper way? All pizza should be folded in half before consumption - if you don't need to fold it you're making the crust too thick or too soft and if you use a knife and fork you're probably wearing a dress, a Red Sox jersey, or (most likely) both. We New Joisians take our pizza seriously!

That's a nice fan cover you've got. My only concern is what the plastic seems to be right against the guru port so I'm curious if it'll melt. Maybe a bit of aluminum foil and/or silicone as a gasket would help dissipate the heat a bit. If you notice that rain splashes from the ground up into the container you can also look into a fine mesh (like a screen door repair patch) which could help prevent even more water from coming in.

My problem is that I'm the odd man out so I travel for the holidaze. Even when I was in NJ I was the farthest away. However I'd be tempted to try some rabbit if I were home - maybe with a side of eggs!

I opted to wait for my matched set - while I'm happy I did I can identify with your hesitation at the word "settle" since really any color cooks just the same. Of course it was easier for me to wait since it was late fall and not peak grilling season, but that didn't stop me from many winter cooks!

I'm doing my part, not only do I browse from my home PC but I also now check topic updates from my Blackberry when I'm not by my computer so I'm responsible for at least two of those (no idea how often EVDO DHCP addresses are changed). Say what you will about the typing on the virtual keyboard the Storm has a nice browser!

Do you have a Guru kill plug? If so, wrapping a little aluminum foil around it can create a tight enough fit. If not a wad of aluminum foil can be used as a kill plug.

Just FYI the Stoker 25CFM fan would NOT be recommended for two reasons. One is that it's not adjustable like the Guru fans are so you'd really be overdriving the airflow. The second is that the physical interface seems to be different as it needs a different adapter than the 5CFM and 10CFM fans. I guess since with the Guru you're stuck with one cooker at a time there's no need for multiple fans like I've got with my cookers and the Stoker

I've actually been doing it indirect on the main grill with the lid closed and not turning - it also comes out great! The wife and I also like using apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar but balsamic also adds an interesting taste.