jdbower

I've made it before. All caramel is made of is milk, sugar, heat and time (luckily a little of all three is included in sweetened, condensed milk but a lot of heat and time are still missing!). It takes patience since it burns pretty easily but it makes a nice caramel sauce that I once made for a dessert of some sort. I couldn't imagine being able to heat it evenly and slowly enough to make anything thicker than a tasty caramel sauce but maybe with a KK...

Maybe I'll have to see if I can get the lid on a bit tighter. I've got a cheap One-Touch Silver kettle and when I shut everything off the coals still burn to ash. Edit: Another big difference is I'm still using Kingsford fake charcoal (great, now I may be laughed off the site!), when I get some lump things may change for the better.

I'm sure Dennis knows that a smaller KK would be appreciated for when you need to maintain two temperatures (yeah, I know, you want to spend time with the baby - but this is important and you can always have another kid ), but how about other cooking implements? I'm thinking I'll keep my charcoal Weber for quick grilling, probably upgrading it to the Performer when my current kettle burns out. Of course when I light the Weber I have to let the charcoal burn out so maybe it would be easier to use the KK so I can smother the coals and reuse them... Ideally I'd like a propane burner or two for boiling water or general use. If nothing else, when I was in Thailand they made some wonderful meals using a little propane-powered wok similar to this one - I'm guessing they didn't spend $200 on it, though. A little fire pit would also be nice, mostly for warmth and ambiance but it's also sacrilege to make s'mores on anything but a real wood fire The new house will have propane heat, hot water and stove; with any luck I can tap into the main tank for all of these rather than deal with a bunch of smaller tanks... Anyone else have any auxiliary cooking devices around?

Re: Stoker users

Re: Stoker users I know you'd rather hear from someone who has both, but maybe you'll settle for a response from someone who has neither From my research it seems that either is overkill for a big ceramic like a K or a KK, even for a thinner BGE it's probably not as useful as it could be since ceramic cookers maintain heat much better naturally. From what I can tell the Guru (especially the new wireless version) seems to have some more advanced cooking features like the ramp mode and is easier to set up. The Stoker supports multiple cookers and is more gadget-friendly with an Ethernet management port, a flexible device port specification that may support more interesting sensors and devices like a KK lid opener, and upgradeable software (which may equal or exceed the Guru's possible advantage in cooking algorithms). My unsupported opinion of them is that the Guru is a more polished plug-n-play product for the typical grill-Meister but that the Stoker's multi-cooker and upgrade features make it attractive to advanced users (not advanced cooks who probably need neither, but people who like their gadgets). However I'm also acutely aware that highly flexible and upgradeable products like the Stoker rarely reach their full potential since the parts that the designer thinks he should make upgradeable are invariably the ones that remain static - Mr. Murphy was an engineer Even with that knowledge I'll probably start with a Stoker and, if my interest is piqued, I'll probably get a Guru as well in the future.

Hmmm, a mossy cooker sounds interesting. Perhaps make some puddles and get some dry ice and you could have Yoda's KK? "Maintain consistent temperature this Stoker will." I guess if you forget to flip the chicken there will be a light side and a dark side to it. May the schwartz be with you!

There is a 1-3/8" port adapter that may help. But I have no practical experience in these matters

It does two things. One is it indicates any color shift due to the white balance settings of the camera (mostly useless when you're looking at black coal, but a white flower may look pink or blue if the white balance isn't set right ) What most people use it for is a size reference. It looks like the squares are 1" assuming the can isn't really tiny and they're really 1cm squares...

I saw a Sonic Scrubber on TV today. It's nothing more than a large electric toothbrush but maybe it would work well on a KK. I'd probably start with the soft bristles if I were to try it, but is a clean KK like a clean tractor? If it's not all sooty it means it's just a decoration

Read that fine manual, silly! Luckily the manual's online and I could answer my own darn questions (forgive the strong language ). It seems like as of now it's a simple algorithm of turning the fan on full power if the temperature is too low. There's also a note about high CFM fans causing a much more coarse temperature control. I'm assuming that the 25% increase from 4CFM to 5CFM won't make a huge difference (otherwise I would hope he'd allow an order for a 4CFM fan or a 5CFM fan), but a 5CFM to a 10CFM may be more significant. Of course, this assumption is based on the theory that ceramic cookers are a decent percentage of the sales for this device so he understands and caters to this market but this may be flawed in several ways... The thought of temperature control via web browser sends my geeky side all a quiver!

Out of curiosity, is it that once you get a large enough blower there's no benefit in going larger or that there's actually a downside? If the Stoker only has an on/off for the blower I can see a downside (although probably not for 4CFM vs. 5CFM), but if it can slowly ramp up the impeller speed I'd expect that even an oversized fan would work if you'd like to try to achieve a plasma state in the cooker. This brings up a more interesting question about whether the logic is adaptive so it can optimize thermal control for any grill out there or if it's a simpler "too cold=fan on" logic... Gadgets are fun!

In some other forums I participate in we use Reseller Ratings as an impartial third party to help make our decisions as to which resellers are reputable. If you've got a KK why not let others know how you feel about Dennis and crew?

Here's a great resource for charcoal reviews. TNW rates both B&B flavors he's tried fairly highly it seems.

I know it's been mentioned before, but this seems to be a good place to consolidate product references. I just got my BillyBar on Saturday based on some recommendations and it looks like it'll work great and last a lifetime.

There was a suggestion for a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser in this thread.

I've found that most computer errors can be attributed to a loose nut behind the keyboard - at least when I'm around...

Thanks for the heads up, it had stopped over here but chances are what you're getting will head East to me shortly...

Now I'm even more glad I built it, after some much needed rain the "Sanny-box" is as stable as ever but the ground around it is all mush! I don't think there will be a problem with supporting a cooker on it

Ah for the heady days of being a teenager, back when I knew everything and had all the answers. Boy have I gotten dumb since then! John Ratzenberger (the guy who played Cliffy) is an interesting character in his own right. He's actually got a drive to encourage kids to tinker - not that I was a tinkerer myself as a child, of course!

Planter? Just get a tarp and you've got yourself a perfectly usable swimming pool! If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy

Yes, but the thought of pimping out my big green baby was disturbing enough my brain wanted to change the subject

"Pimp My Tractor", now that would be an interesting show! Are we talking about a Pat's EZ-Hitch, a hydraulic toplink and other useful toys or is this lowering the tractor with some neon underlights and some chrome spinners? Either way, amusement galore!

Thanks, it's a John Deere 2520 and has proven very useful here (pulling out fenceposts is fun!). The tiller is nice for leveling out some of the rough ground, plus I've got a chipper, loader and backhoe. I think I'll have to get some pallet forks to help move the cooker around, it's more fun than a bunch of guys with 2x4s. It was actually an innocent post on a tractor forum that brought me ultimately to you guys, I hadn't had an excuse to look at ceramic cookers until some kind folks there enlightened me to their benefits.

I haven't even decided what to order yet but I've got a home for when it's delivered! Now that I think I've ticked over two days old I can post this with an image - so this post actually is appropriate in the off-topic images forum (I hope!) I'm in the process of trying to get a house built (and have been for the past 21 months, but that's another story) so I have no level surfaces to put a cooker. I had initially thought of leaving the cooker on the packing pallet for a few months, but Sanny pointed out that the cheap disposable wood used in most shipping material would likely not be fire resistant enough to be safe. Couple that with the weather taking its toll on the wood and you're just begging for an accident whether it manifests as a fire or a tipped cooker. After hearing a few suggestions for quick and dirty solutions it occurred to me that building a small real patio isn't all that tough. So two trips to Lowes, about $100 (including a one-time expense for a decent tamper), and roughly three working hours later I've got a home built. In phase one I built a 3'x3' frame out of 6" wide decking material, used some metal braces for the corners to add rigidity and attach some stakes. Phase two was to till up the area where the patio was to go - this helped kill off the grass, level out the rough ground, and allow me to dig out the middle of the area much easier. Phase three - many whacks of a sledgehammer later the frame is sunk into the ground. Phase four (the picture was actually in the middle of this phase) involved 100lbs of gravel topped with 375lbs of sand - I made myself a Sanny box! Finally I got the slate-look pavers into the frame before the cats mistook it for a luxury litterbox and filled the gaps with more sand. Each tile measures level in both directions and are fairly even at the seams so hopefully it was a success. I even kept a bit of a lip around the border in case things start to slide around for some reason. I did learn a few things: 1) Always measure the bottom of the tile - 17.5" at the top meant about 17.75" on the bottom after I trimmed off some slop from the formed concrete paver. Luckily I built the frame a little larger but the rubber mallet got a workout. 2) If you're not sure if the paver has a scratch or a hairline crack, it's a hairline crack even if you rub it and it goes away. 3) It's really hard to concentrate on image composition when you're busy trying not to get dirt all over your expensive camera! Good practice for a real patio once the house is built and when I'm done with it I only have to dispose of 12 linear feet of treated lumber and (after some fun with a sledgehammer) a small pile of rubble that should be great for drainage fill. With the green toy in the second shot moving a KK around and disposing of a little patio should be a cinch