jdbower

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.

Have a laptop? If so the Stoker may be the best since you can go to sleep with StokerLog running and have your laptop play whatever sound file you want. And the range is a long as you want it to be - you can even go out to Starbucks and grab a coffee and still have access to the alarm I have StokerLog running in my living room well over 100' away from the cooker with several walls in between - the Maverick isn't all that useful once I hit the kitchen.

It's surprising how useful a companion cooker is. Not only can you do a low-and-slow in one and high temp in another but you can also use different fuels easily. I keep my 23" filled with KKEC for L&S and my 19.5" with regular lump for grilling.

Re: This should be in the Fruit Cove, FL post Fixed that for you

Re: It is already there - the Stoned one to the right It was a long day, I forgot the stoned one was 19.5" They look great, I've been using my 19.5" mostly for high temp grilling and the 23" for low and mid temp stuff. The 19.5" is now greasier than the 23" since grilling involves a lot more splatter

It's like the potato chip marketing - betcha can't get just one! They look nice, when's the 19.5" showing up?

Depending on what you're burning (the KKEC stays alive for quite some time without O2) the temp probe port may be the culprit and I used aluminum foil to plug mine up. Another thing to check is that the lid is fully closed, there's two levels of latching and someone I know (who happens to have the same initials as I do, and I think he lives nearby...) sometimes forgets to fully latch the lid causing a decent amount of airflow. Beyond that your smoke idea is a good way to find it. It works even better with a power draft control (Guru/Stoker).

My one-man method of moving starts with a step of buying a set of pallet forks for your tractor Luckily i did end up using some moving blankets wrapped around the forks, even if I set them wide enough not to need to use them. Sorry about your "incident"

I'd figure on about 500lbs. ~100 for the top, ~300 for the base, and another ~100 for the accessories, fire ring, damper top, etc. Obviously I'd unload it before moving it by hand, and if you don't have enough people I'd also take off the dome top.

Anyone know where I can find a thermodynamics research grant? I've got access to an environmental chamber used for compliance testing and I'm sure I can load a KK up with a few hundred thermal probes to do some testing. KKEC would be great for this since it's much more uniform than standard lump

Cultural food differences are often (quite literally) hard to swallow. In Asia a McDonald's chicken sandwich is made from dark meat instead of a breast because that's more flavorful to the local audience (I found that out the hard way in Korea!). In Taiwan I went to Lawry's Prime Rib and they were concerned because I didn't eat the best part - the huge chunk of fat around the outside. In some places a properly textured lump of pure fat is the ultimate indulgence - here we just call properly textured fat "cheesecake"

Wasabi balls, they're pretty good with steak

And if you are using a Guru/Stoker I've noticed the reverse effect, in cold weather the blower has to work harder since it's blowing cold air into the chamber (I should try comparing the 10CFM with the 5CFM sometime to see if the 5CFM is actually more efficient). Of course this is pretty transparent to you since the temperature remains the same, but interesting nonetheless. I'm also not sure that what I call "cold" exists in Texas outside of superconductor research facilities.