wilburpan

Great cook and really nice writeup.

I've seen the air compressor video before. I think my only concern is most air compressors have a small amount of oil in the tank and can also collect moisture in there. That in turn gets blown back out (and under the duck skin). There are filters and water collectors that can be added so nothing but clean air comes back out. You would probably have to buy these extra as most smaller compressors don't come with them.

I use to work in a scuba diving shop. We had to clean out the compressor filters/water separators on a regular basis. You definitely would not want to eat what came out of those.

What if you cleared the line before inflating the duck?

Awesome duck cook.. I laugh overtime you post a photo of a duck hanging in your back yard.  Are you buying these ducks frozen? If so you might be able to render out more fat with the boiling water at the beginning without cooking the meat by keeping the duck frozen for this process.

No, I try to stick with fresh duck whenever possible. There’s something about frozen duck that affects how the meat turns out in my hands, even after I let it thaw. Plus, it’s far easier to pick up a fresh duck and then start prepping it, as opposed to planning out the defrosting time, which is even more unpredictable than the time needed to cook a whole brisket.

The purpose of the boiling water is really to tighten up the skin, and that’s it. The rendering of the fat is primarily from the cooking process itself. With a frozen duck, the meat may not cook, but I would have to imagine that the skin would be affected by the increased contact time with the boiling water.

This month has been a great one for vacation, but not so good for using Smaug. The first week of August we were away on vacation. The second week I was slammed at work because my colleagues were away on vacation. Last week I was at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a camp for kids with cancer and blood diseases. I’m a pediatric oncologist, and I was there doing the volunteer doctor thing for the kids at camp. It’s a ton of fun, I’m happy to spend a week up there each summer, and my family gets to go with me. Our sons got to participate in the camp activities while I was working, which means my wife got to hang out while I was working in the infirmary.

However, being away at camp means eating camp food (burgers, hotdogs, chicken nuggets) for meals, and when we got back yesterday, I was CRAVING something Chinese. So I decided to make a quick and dirty Peking duck for our first meal at home in a week, and my first real cook on Smaug since the first weekend of August.

I picked up a duck from the local Chinese grocery store. They sell ducks with the head and feet still on, which is how you can tell that the duck is fresh, not frozen. The first step was to force air under the skin. I used a marinade injector with the blunt tip to do this as best as I could.



I’ve seen videos where they use an air compressor for this task. Every time I try this with a duck, I get one step closer to getting an air compressor.

Next, I boiled a pot of water, and submerged the duck for about 30 seconds. Having a duck with the head on is good, because it makes a nice handle.



The boiling water shrinks the skin so that it tightens up. This helps get a crispy skin.

I put a mixture of 2 Tbsp. five spice powder and 1 Tbsp. salt into the cavity.



And on the outside I drizzled a mixture of 2 Tbsp. honey and 1 cup hot water to glaze the skin.



Then I hung the duck outside to air dry as much as I could. Again, having the head on comes in handy here.



This was the first quick and dirty part of this cook. Ideally, you let the duck air dry for 24 hours, or 8 hours if it’s windy. The idea is to dry out the skin so that it’s slightly leathery in consistency, which also leads to a crispy skin. Today I let it hang for about three hours.

Once I was done letting the duck air dry as much as I could, I took off the head and feet, since they wouldn’t be needed for the roasting part.



I placed the duck in the rotisserie basket with the 6†reducer.



And put it into Smaug. You can’t see the charcoal basket, but I have the splitter in, oriented so that the splitter runs left to right, and the bottom half of the basket has charcoal in it. I didn’t use a deflector for this cook, so the duck gets direct exposure to heat half the time.



This is how it finished up. The dome thermometer read 300ºF for most of the cook, and and the end the temperature rose to 350ºF. I pulled the duck off when I hit an IT of 170ºF in the thigh meat. Total cooking time was about 50 minutes.



Here’s the glamour shot of the whole duck on a platter.



Sliced breast meat.



Here’s how I assembled the Peking duck for serving. Inside a thin pancake goes duck meat and skin, some green onions, and a sauce made from 1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce, slightly less than 1 Tbsp. sesame oil, and slightly less than 1 Tbsp. water. Tradition also calls for some julienned cucumber, but we didn’t have any.



And the finished Peking duck wrap, with some stir-fried bok choy.



Here’s one last thing I tried. Last year and two years before that, we traveled through China. On both trips we spent some time in Beijing, where there’s a restaurant called Sijiminfu that’s well known for its Peking duck. But saying that Sijiminfu is well known for its Peking duck is an understatement on the order of saying that a KK grill is a decent grill. Not only is the Peking duck at Sijiminfu better than any other Peking duck that I’ve ever had, all the other dishes that I had there were amazing. Even a basic stir-fried vegetable dish with oyster sauce was better than the same dish I’ve had elsewhere. We ate there four out of the five nights that we spent in Beijing last year, and I wish we had eaten there the fifth night as well. This is the sort of restaurant that I want to eat my last meal at. It’s that good.

Anyway, besides the traditional Peking duck, Sijiminfu did some updates as to the stuff that goes into the wrap. There was this plum jam, a garlic paste, and minced pickled mushrooms that they provided for the wraps that were quite good, and that I couldn’t even begin to try to duplicate. But the one thing that I tried to duplicate was taking some duck skin (no meat here), and dipping it into some raw sugar. This is what it looks like right before I ate it.



Success! This was quite close to what I remember eating last year at Sijiminfu. It was yummy. Try this some time.

I still have some room for improvement for this sort of cook. Here are some things I need to tweak.

First of all, the skin was mostly good, but there were some areas that were not as brown as I would have liked. There are several factors that could have led to this. The big one is the shortened air drying time. I don’t think there’s any good way of shortcutting this step.

Second, although the marinade injector visibly inflated the duck skin, I know this step could have been done better. Like I said, every time I cook duck I get one step closer to getting an air compressor.

Third, some of the lack of brown color could be from uneven application of the honey mixture. I need to pay more attention to this step next time.

Fourth, if/when I go the rotisserie route again, I’m going to try it without the splitter, and aim for a lower temperature to start to try to render more fat out of the duck. Compared to Sijiminfu, I got out about 80% of the fat. The remaining fat didn’t make the duck too greasy, but it’s not the same as in the big leagues.
As an aside, I was surprised that the temperature hovered at 300ºF for as long as it did. I was shooting for 350ºF on the dome thermometer. Some of that may be the fact that I’m using the splitter, but I did peek inside a couple of times to see what was happening. I think what was going on was that the duck fat hit the charcoal as it dripped away from the duck, which lowered the temperature of the fire. There was quite a lot of smoke coming out of the top vent. Once most of the duck fat had rendered, the fire got hotter, which lends support to my theory that the dripping fat was cooling off the fire.

Finally, I’ve cooked duck in Smaug before on the main grate with the heat deflector. I think that the rotisserie overall gives me a better result, but I’m going to try both methods for a while before deciding.

Bosco, you’re such a tease. Just imagine how good your cook posts will be once your twin KK grills arrive.

That’s a great little grill you have. It reminds me of a cast iron hibachi grill I had when I was in college. It was probably the exact same size, and the grates were also cast iron. We had some great little picnics with that grill.

I’ll play devils advocate here. What’s the advantage of putting a rack of ribs on a rotisserie? It’s not like there’s a whole lot of fat that needs to be rendered off, and what fat there is is usually pretty evenly distributed. And a rack of ribs is pretty even in profile.

Compare that to a chicken or a duck, where there are areas with more fat than others, and it’s a fairly asymmetric shape from the front end to the back. In this case, a rotisserie is really useful.

I can see the advantage of having a Rib-o-Lator in a grill with hot spots, like inexpensive gas grills. But in a KK grill, that’s definitely not an issue.

Thank you MacKenzie!  Yes, she is fun and its her fault I'm here!  Everytime I am on the KK site, she runs up behind me and says "They are sooooo beautiful" LOL that girl is trouble!!

The girl is smart.

Welcome to the KK forum! Now it’s just a matter of time before you place your order.

I used to be in the "foil camp" for ribs. This Komodo keeps things moist enough where it isn't necessary. I also don't like the steam effect or the fact that you can easily overdo them that way. Never again.

So true!

Great job on those ribs!

Kudos on your cooking and planning skills! Planning the timing for cooking multiple dishes is something I still struggle with.

That looks delicious! This cook inspired tonight’s dinner.

When using the coconut charcoal, I’ll hit two whole pieces against each other so that they split into 2-3 smaller chunks, and then put them into the basket. I’m usually shooting to break them into thirds.

I have found that lighting them takes longer than Royal Oak, which is my usual other choice for charcoal. I use a weed burner to light the charcoal, whichever one I’m using. If I’m using coconut charcoal, I’ll just keep the weed burner on it longer. Whatever your current method is of lighting your charcoal, just give it extra time.

Theoretically, I suppose that if I have the basket full of coconut charcoal, I could put a small amount of Royal Oak at the top of the pile, light that, and let it light the rest of the coconut charcoal. I haven’t tried that yet.

Dang.

That's all I can say.

I have the old single dial bottom vent. For low and slows, I’ll put the vent to about 1/8†open to start, and the top vent open about 1/2 turn. Then as I approach the desired temp, I’ll put it to an even smaller setting, like 1/16â€, and then use the top vent to fine tune.

In our area, the wind can go from zero to somewhat windy and back again over the course of the day. I’ve found that throttling down the lower vent really helps in stabilizing temperature changes from wind. What happens is that if it’s windy, the air moving past the upper vent will draw more air through the kamado due to vacuum produced by the Bernoulli principle. (Or Venturi effect — I get the two mixed up. ) By keeping the bottom vent as closed as I possibly can, this limits the amount of extra air that can be pulled through the grill. 

And to reiterate what Robert said, it’s best to sneak up on the temperature rather than to overshoot and then try to bring the temperature down.

FWIW, I haven’t considered the possibility of using the lower grate for a low and slow cook, primarily because it would be closer to the heat source. I’ll defer to the experience of others who have tried that, and maybe I’ll try that myself some time.

I’ve only used the lower grate for searing. Having said that, I have a hard time considering the need for more space than what Smaug’s main and upper grates give me in terms of real estate for a low and slow cook.
 
To compare this to the Kamado Joe D&C system, for Smaug, the space on the lower grate is a little less than what you get on the main grate, because of the way the base tapers a little from the main grate to the charcoal basket. You don’t lose that space on a KJ grill, but then again, you just get the two half grates, so you can’t cook on the entire area of the top and bottom positions at one time.
 
Where the KK really shines is in the top grate. Again, because of how the top lid is shaped, you lose a little area compared to the main grate, but it’s not nearly as much of a drop in real estate when comparing the KJ grill expander to the main grate of the KJ grills.
 
One last thing: all three grates are standard with a KK grill. For a KJ grill, in order to duplicate all this you would have to buy an additional two half grates for the D&C system, and the KJ grill expander, and even then the top level is less functional than it will be in a KK grill.
 
And since people keep talking about my rib photo, here it is again. Six racks!


 

And as for twin names, I don’t suppose you’d consider Zan and Jayna, would you?

I’m really happy to read about the updates.

Did Dennis mention how long the building phase would be?

My guess is the no untreated wood has to do with paranoia about foreign bugs getting imported on/in the wood that would then get loose in the wild becoming an invasive species.

 

I would say that is exactly the reason, and it’s not just paranoia. One only has to look at events like what the emerald ash borer has done to the ash tree population in North America to understand why these restrictions are in place.

It’s not just insects that can travel in untreated wood. Fungus can travel via the same route.

Agreed on that last part especially. Dennis and I had a good discussion around this same issue. Although I burned for almost three hours at a very steady 510-520 range, and had a fair bit of outgassing, i may not actually be done with the process yet. So, I am doing another sustained 510 burn right now.  Dennis also shared some specifics about the acrylic hide of the pebble tile finish, and how it behaves a bit differently from the square tiles.

Can you elaborate on this?

I had a few areas of bubbles with Smaug. Over time, they have pretty much all resolved, even some areas on the back side towards the bottom that I didn’t notice until after a few months.

One thing that I think makes the pebble finishes different from the square tiles is that it appears that there’s more grout involved with the pebble tiles, which is to be expected since the pebble tiles don’t line up nice and even with each other. That could easily lead to differences in the break in process.

Here she is, don't know why she is a "she," probably because she is so pretty.

Congratulations, PJ! Looking forward to seeing your cooks.

Doing six racks was a learning experience for me. I’m not sure that I’ll ever do that again, either.

What was going on that day was that we had friends over for ribs. I was trying to guess how many racks we would need. I knew that I could eat a full rack of ribs whenever we went out for BBQ, and based my buying decision on that. What I didn’t count on was how much meatier ribs are when you get them from a butcher as opposed from a restaurant. We were using leftover rib meat for meals for days.

thanks for the link and the motor is now ordered

 

I confirmed with Dennis today that he will add a rotisserie to the order.

 

Now the only thing that I didn't order was a rib rack.  Anyone want to convince me on that LOL!!!

I can do 6 racks in Smaug without a rib rack: three on the upper rack, and three on the main rack.

With your twins, that means 12 racks. If you think you’ll need to do more, then I would get a rib rack. For me, that’s the one accessory I don’t think I’ll need.

Congrats on the purchase, Bosco! Do we call this the bifecta?

Definitely get a rotisserie. It’s great for cooking poultry. Once you figure out the way the rotisserie is implemented with a KK grill, you’ll see that it’s far better than the Joetisserie.

Wow from the pics autumn nebula looked more orange.

I think I am down to three colours

Olive gold, harvest, autumn nebula. So many decisions and they all look close

Hi Bosco,

Those options are pretty close to each other. What I did when trying to decide on which exact KK grill to get was not to focus so much on the name of the color, but on how they looked in the photo in the online store page. One autumn nebula, for example, isn’t going to have the exact shade of brown as another KK grill in autumn nebula.

Just to clarify, what are you grilling that made you decide that you needed the space that a KK 32†provides? Is it that you cook for a large number of people on a regular basis?

What was it that tipped you over to a KK 32"?