jdbower

What if we use Colgate?

Perhaps these will help you get things up and running

I found these on TVWBB:

I have the 23" set up for low-and-slow while the 19.5" is for high heat (for l&s I use extruded coconut fuel, high heat is lump). If I had to do it again I may have gone for two 23" grills in a similar setup; the 19.5" is a fine grill and fantastic if you're space constrained (for example, if it's going on a balcony in an apartment) but since I've got space I haven't found any downsides to the 23" other than being a bit more expensive. I think of it like my double oven. I never thought I'd want a second oven, and then I needed to cook two things at different temperatures. Once that happened I figured out that I could use one to keep things warm or put a light in there to use as a low temperature proofing box - all sorts of things came to mind. But hopefully I won't be in the situation I'm in now with my ovens, one is on the fritz and now I've only got the lower oven until my new one comes in.

I kind of figured that Bay Area was the greater San Francisco area - no want wants to live in Massachusetts... Yes, with a Stoker you close the bottom draft control. I leave mine open a bit during lighting but once I get the fire going I close it off. The top vent is cracked open just a tad. Depending on how hot you want it, maybe a crack and a half - if the temperature plateaus too early you'll probably want it open a little more, if it isn't stable you'll want to close it down a bit. There's a hole just under the lid on the right side for the probe wires.

Welcome aboard! U2PLT still posts here, including links to his latest creations like this one (admittedly from a while ago). Feel free to use our PM/Email to contact him but you may have better luck with his website.

Welcome aboard. I live in the Bay State, you must be nearby Excellent choice of colors, you'll love it so much you'll want another like me! Regarding the Stoker, it's pretty easy to set up and use - a 5CFM blower is probably enough but for my 23" I have a 10CFM (and I like it enough I'm getting another one for my kitchen to control a proofing box and to monitor my oven cooking). You can download StokerLog now and be fully prepared, but if you run into any snags we're here to help. For Lump Charcoal there is no better source than The Naked Whiz. However, most of the time I just end up using what's cheap and close - Cowboy from Lowes. BGE I think has Royal Oak lump which is a decent step up but not too expensive - if I had a BGE store nearby I would use it. Of course Extruded Coconut is great for low and slows but it's a bit hard to find these days. Cooking on a KK is, if anything, easier than the Weber I also previously had. The kettles are OK for high temp grilling, but can't hold a candle to a KK for low and slow - especially in Massachusetts winters. Another great book is Chris Lilly's Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book - a fantastic read.

I use my cast iron skillet for deep dish pizza at ~500F, I'd imagine that it should work just fine as a stone. Of course, I do plenty of mid-temperature stuff in it between pizzas which help maintain the seasoning and I do rub a coating of olive oil on it before use (and after washing). What I'm uncertain about is whether it would retain heat as well as a stone, it may cause a searing effect (quickly cooking the outer surface of the pizza) and then cool off significantly producing a different texture to the crust, but that may be the texture you're looking for anyway.

I found a recipe for a fairly flavorful hot sauce (original source in the link). It's not just heat like some of the sauces with Death in their name, but it's hotter than most while retaining a fairly complex flavor. And since I grow my own Thai chili peppers it's a great way to use them As with most sauces, a day or two (or longer) will let the flavors permeate evenly. Thai-Talian Hot Sauce 1 cup distilled water 3 level Tbsp crushed roasted Thai chilies 5 tsp Red wine vinegar 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp Dark sesame oil 2 tsp Extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbs Soy sauce 2 tsp Fish sauce 3-4 Large cloves garlic 1/2 tsp Onion powder 1/2 tsp Sea salt 1 Add the ingredients to a blender and blend on medium until smooth. Stop the blender occasionally and push down the chili sauce that has been splashed onto the side of the blender carafe with a spatula. This will probably take about 5-10 minutes. When fully blended, remove the carafe and hold it between your hands. Swirl the contents against the side of the container to remove all the bubbles. That's all there is to it! 2 Put this into one of those 10 ounce bottles of store bought pepper sauce such as Tapatio hot sauce. It has a plastic stoppered mouth with a small shaker hole that is a great way to apply this sauce to your food. Just pour the store bought swill down the drain and wash the bottle out. You can reuse the same bottle for years. You should have some room left in the bottle, top it off with more distilled water. If the sauce is too thick once chilled, add more distilled water when there is room. Once mixed, keep the bottle of sauce refrigerated between uses. Shake before using.

For what it's worth, I use Living Cookbook 2008. It works well for me but the main reason I use it is because it was the first I found back with the 2005 version. It has an OK import feature from websites (you need to cut and paste from the website and then highlight the various sections, but it's better than nothing) and I can export to HTML (see example - not great for exporting a full cookbook but I'm working on some CygWin scripts for that). It also has a feature where it will back up the database on exit - I run it off a network drive connected to my server (which is automatically backed up) and I have a tertiary copy that gets backed up to my local PC on exit.

Re: Please keep your charcoal inside the firebox The dome temperature isn't what worries me, it's the temperature of the charcoal itself. When my dome temperature is at 300 I know the pit temperature is much, much higher. Since the firebox is designed to absorb and deal with all that heat I'm not concerned, but the internal walls of the cooker itself aren't. I would be far too nervous about the temperature at the exposed walls than the temperature at the dome.

Well, for one thing you can actually use the Stoker the same way you use a Guru - you can use the menu buttons to set the target temperatures so if you run into this issue again you can always get away with a manual Stoker setup. My first Stoker cook was like this just to see what it was like, after I hooked up the Ethernet port I wondered how the Guru guys managed What probably happened is that your Stoker is likely getting its IP address via DHCP. This is an address that typically your router hands out and your router only remembers it until it reboots - and it may forget after a certain timeframe. If you haven't had your Stoker powered on for a while the router probably just "forgot" which IP address to assign to it and picked the next available one. Since the Stoker should probably have an IP address you can remember you can do one of two things: You can set a static IP address in the Stoker itself, the problem here is that you should make sure it's outside the range of the rest of your computers. Often the router will hand out an address like 192.168.1.10 or 192.168.0.10 and higher. You could probably set the Stoker to 192.168.x.2 or 192.168.x.200 and not have issues - but it's best to check this in your router before setting it up. What I do is reserve a special IP address for my Stoker. If you log into your home router there should be a means to do this, something usually called DHCP Reservation or something similar. Here you can find the MAC and IP address of the Stoker and tell the router to always give the Stoker this IP and never give it to anyone else. I know this can be a bit confusing if you're not network-savvy, but if you let me know which model router you have I can try to dig up a manual online and give you some more exact directions.

Water pan? What's that? I haven't felt the need for one, but I have been tempted to use vinegar to add some flavor. The KK locks in enough moisture I doubt the water pan would be able to increase the humidity enough to make a difference and it burns steady enough the water's temperature flattening effect shouldn't matter. For foil, the only time I use it is if I care about the looks of things like wingtips - otherwise you end up steaming the meat instead of smoking it. Most of the time I go without entirely because I'm lazy that way.

The biggest issue with buying dough is the whole pre-planning part. The cheese lasts forever and I buy flour in 25 lb bags so fresh dough doesn't mean leaving the house

Re: What a drag.... That stinks! I've had strong wind across the slightly open top damper (curse you, Bernoulli!) cause the temperature to rise a bit but never enough to kill a cook. Not a problem for me, I just keep an eye on StokerLog from the warmth of my house

My previous recipe seems not do have done so well compared to my memory, so I found this recipe which produces a very thin crust: 1 1/2 cups warm water 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoons olive oil 2 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar 2 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon yeast In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in water. Add oil and flour and mix for 1 minute. Sprinkle yeast over dough and knead for 10 minutes (I use a stand mixer). Divide dough into 4-6 pieces depending on the size of the pizza you want. Roll each portion into a ball. Refrigerate any unneeded balls and cover the rest for 1-2 hours at room temperature. Flatten into as thin a crust as you can, continue stretching by hand until 12-15" or so in diameter. Prepare the pizza on a peel (I use a SuperPeel so I don't bother with cornmeal). Use a modicum of sauce and be generous with the cheese. Please, traditional toppings only - real NY-style pizza doesn't get sushi and organic tofu. Bake at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until crust is golden and cheese is browned.

I used to use a balled up bit of aluminum foil as a plug. You can also just use the blower itself - Stoker blowers have a flap that prevents a lot of airflow when the blower is off. I now use a large silicone stopper, but there's a custom one from BBQ Guru that will fit the newer models if you've got the Guru-sized adapter.

As far as I know they're still around: http://www.ezqueinc.com/ They've been chronically short on the 8" cradle, but it has been available from Viking (same cradle, Viking resells them). There are rumors that Viking is ending the relationship, which may not be bad news as it may mean that EZ-Que will be able to get the 8" models in stock again.

I'm a bit concerned about that "needle-like tip" - are you talking about a small propane canister that you can hold in your hand? If so I'm guessing that you may be in a bit of trouble if you use it directly. You should be using a 20lb canister (like for a full-sized gas grill) with a standard low pressure regulator and that should fit without any adapters. If you're using one of the small tanks like for a propane torch you may not have any regulation at all and end up sending way too much propane through the burner. Note that some propane starters shipped with an awkward mount, if you have any troubles with it try to post some pics and we'll see if we can identify it.

Interesting juxtaposition here. I have to ask, is your wife covered?

I cover mine, but it has been known to snow up here in MA from time to time. In any snowy climate I like not having to clean it off to figure out where the damper is. In a rainy climate I'd rather have an extra layer of dryness just in case I leave something open. In a hot and dry climate I don't know that I'd bother, but cleaning bird droppings off the KK isn't any fun either...

I was in the mood for some arrabiata sauce like I had in Switzerland ages ago, the problem is it had chunks of thick bacon that I've been having a hard time replicating with the thin cut stuff they like to sell here. I tried a basic sauce (tomato sauce, tomato paste, a bit of crushed red pepper, some salt and some sugar) and, lacking bacon, I figured I'd toss in a handful of pulled pork from last weekend's cook with just a hint of liquid smoke (yes, I felt dirty buying it!). Not quite the same thing, but delicious none-the-less!

Re: Southern California Chriss Lilly Alert I like my steak rare, but not THAT rare!

Sorry, no picture can do it justice, but notice anything about this Tweet from last night's cook? Took a while to get up to speed when I started with 14F air blowing in (I had to add a few chunks of lump to the extruded). I wasn't using the small cooker so I usually put the pit probe at 10 degrees to "turn off" the fan. Luckily I reduced that to 1 since it got down to 8 inside my cabinet (I shudder to think what it was outside), I may need to go negative soon.