DennisLinkletter

Fascinating NY Times article about heat that makes one rethink what we're trying to do with charcoal and cookers. With water/and water in meat boiling at 212º maybe we need to brown and then cook thru the plateau at under 212º. They also talk about pre heating your probe before inserting it. My less than instant thermometer is soo slow and I hate to leave my dome open for too long, so I pre heat it in the probe tube first to where I think the meat is. I think you will enjoy this... The New York Times January 2, 2008 The Curious Cook The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen By HAROLD McGEE OF all the ingredients in the kitchen, the most common is also the most mysterious. It’s hard to measure and hard to control. It’s not a material like water or flour, to be added by the cup. In fact, it’s invisible. It’s heat. Every cook relies every day on the power of heat to transform food, but heat doesn’t always work in the way we might guess. And what we don’t know about it can end up burning us. We waste huge amounts of gas or electricity, not to mention money and time, trying to get heat to do things it can’t do. Aiming to cook a roast or steak until it’s pink at the center, we routinely overcook the rest of it. Instead of a gentle simmer, we boil our stews and braises until they are tough and dry. Even if we do everything else right, we can undermine our best cooking if we let food cool on the way to the table — all because most of us don’t understand heat. Heat is energy. It’s everywhere and it is always on the move, flowing out as it flows in. It roils the chemical innards of things, exciting their molecules to vibrate and crash into each other. When we add a lot of heat energy to foods, it agitates those innards enough to mix them up, destroy structures and create new ones. In doing so it transforms both texture and flavor. There are, however, uncountable ways to misapply heat. In most cooking, we transfer energy from a heat source, something very hot and energetic, to relatively cold and inert foods. Our usual heat sources, gas flames and glowing coals and electrical elements, have temperatures well above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Boiling water is around 212 degrees. Cooks typically heat food to somewhere between 120 degrees (for fish and meats that we want to keep moist) and 400 degrees (for dry, crisp, flavorful brown crusts on breads, pastries, potatoes, or on fish and meats). At the bottom of that range, a difference of just 5 or 10 degrees can mean the difference between juicy meat and dry, between a well-balanced cup of coffee or tea and a bitter, over-extracted one. And as every cook learns early on, it’s all too easy to burn the outside of a hamburger or a potato before the center is warm. That’s the basic challenge: We’re often aiming a fire hose of heat at targets that can only absorb a slow trickle, and that will be ruined if they absorb a drop too much. Are you ever annoyed by pots that take forever to heat up, or frustrated by waiting for dry foods to soften? A kitchen that becomes hot enough to be a sauna? Big jumps in the utility bill when you do a lot of cooking? The problem, as you will notice if you pay more attention to your kitchen’s thermal landscape, even in terms of what you can feel, is how much heat escapes without ever getting into the food. Among the major culprits here are inefficient appliances. According to the United States Department of Energy, a gas burner delivers only 35 to 40 percent of its heat energy to the pan; a standard electrical element conveys about 70 percent. Anyone thinking about kitchen renovation should know that induction cooktops, which generate heat directly within the pan itself, are around 90 percent efficient. They can out-cook big-B.T.U. gas burners, work faster, don’t heat up the whole kitchen, and are becoming more common in restaurant kitchens. Maximizing the transfer of heat from burner to pot produces better food. In deep frying, the faster the burner can bring the oil temperature back up after the food is added, the quicker the food cooks and the less oil it absorbs. In boiling green vegetables, a fast recovery time means better retention of vibrant color and vitamins. No matter how efficient an appliance is, the cook can help simply by covering pots and pans with their lids. Some of the heat that enters through the bottom of the pot exits through the top, but a lid prevents much of it from escaping into the air. This is especially true when you’re bringing a pot of water to the boil. With the lid on, it will start bubbling in as little as half the time. Turning water into steam takes a lot of energy, and every molecule that flies away from the water surface takes all that energy with it into the air. Prevent its escape, and the energy stays with the pot to heat the rest of the water. Once a liquid starts to boil and is turning to steam throughout the pot — the bubbles of a boil are bubbles of water vapor — nearly all the energy from the burner is going into steam production. The temperature of the water itself remains steady at the boiling point, no matter how high the flame is underneath it. So turn the burner down. A gentle boil is just as hot as a furious one. Cooking doesn’t get much more straightforward than boiling and steaming vegetables, grains, and the like. But sometimes it takes forever, which either delays dinner or results in crunchy beans and diners suffering for it later. And you can’t speed the process by raising the heat. In fact it’s easy to save loads of time and energy and potential discomfort with grains, dry beans and lentils, and even pasta. But it requires a little thinking ahead. It turns out that the most time-consuming part of the process is not the movement of boiling heat to the center of each small bean or noodle, which takes only a few minutes, but the movement of moisture, which can take hours. Grains and dry legumes therefore cook much faster if they have been soaked. However heretical it may sound to soak dried pasta, doing so can cut its cooking time by two-thirds — and eliminates the problem of dry noodles getting stuck to each other as they slide into the pot. The trickiest foods to heat just right are meats and fish. The problem is that we want to heat the center of the piece to 130 or 140 degrees, but we often want a browned, tasty crust on the surface, and that requires 400 degrees. It takes time for heat to move inward from the surface to the center, so the default method is to fry or grill or broil and hope that the browning time equals the heat-through time. Even if that math works out, the area between the center and surface will then range in temperature between 130 and 400 degrees. The meat will be overcooked everywhere but right at the center. The solution is to cook with more than one level of heat. Start with very cold meat and very high heat to get the surface browned as quickly as possible with minimal cooking inside; then switch to very low heat to cook the interior gently and evenly, leaving it moist and tender. On the grill, this means having high- and low-heat zones and moving the food from one to the other. On the stove top or in the oven, start at 450 or 500 degrees, and then turn the heat down to around 250, ideally taking the food out until the pan or oven temperature has fallen significantly. Another solution is to cook the food perfectly with low heat, let it cool some, and then flavor its surface with a brief blast of intense heat from a hot pan or even a gas torch. More and more restaurants are adopting this method, especially those that practice sous-vide cooking, in which food is sealed in a plastic bag, placed in a precisely controlled water bath and heated through at exactly the temperature that gives the desired doneness. All these are two-step processes, but the same principle works for three steps or more. Rotisserie cooking alternates high and low heat many times: as the meat turns on the spit, each area of the surface is briefly exposed to high browning heat, then given time for that dose of energy to dissipate, part of it into the meat but part back out into the cool air. So the meat interior cooks through at a more moderate temperature. Similarly, steaks and chops cook more evenly on high grill heat — and faster as well — if you become a human rotisserie and turn them not once or twice but as often as you can stand to, even dozens of times, every 15 or 30 seconds. Tough cuts of meat require longer cooking to dissolve their connective tissue, and stewing or slow braising in a low oven is a simple and popular method of doing so. But many recipes don’t give the best results, simply because they don’t take into account the vast difference between cooking with the lid on and off. Even in an oven set as low as 225 or 250 degrees, if the pot is covered, the contents will reach the boil, and the meat will overcook and dry out. Leave the lid ajar or off, and evaporation of the cooking liquid cools the pot and moderates the meat temperature, keeping it closer to 160 to 180 degrees. This is hot enough to soften the connective tissue in a few hours without also driving out most of the meat’s moisture. The challenge of heat management doesn’t end when you’ve cooked something to perfection. How often have you found that the dish that was perfect in the kitchen seems to have lost something by the time you sit down and take the first bite? That something certainly includes heat. Heat knocks molecules at the surface of food into the air where we can sniff them, so it increases the aroma. Inside the food, agitated molecules make sauces more fluid and hot meat more tender. And the sensation of a food’s warmth is satisfying in itself. The moment hot food is put on a plate, its heat energy begins to flow out into the cooler surroundings. Aromas fade, sauces thicken, fats congeal. So when you transfer heat’s handiwork from the kitchen to the table, take along some extra. Warm the plates to prolong the pleasure. And encourage everyone to sit down and eat it while it’s hot. January 2, 2008 Taking the Temperature of Dinner By HAROLD McGEE THE most important step in mastering heat is to get into the habit of using a thermometer to keep track of temperature — that of the food itself, and of the surface or space in which it is cooked or stored. There are two kinds of thermometers that can help. I use both all the time to keep tabs on heat flow in my kitchen. The common instant-read thermometer has a metal shaft that can be inserted into foods to measure inner temperature. Despite its name, this thermometer takes 10 seconds or more to give a reading that is sometimes lower than it should be because the shaft cools the food. (Warm the shaft before inserting it.) It can be useful in checking the inner temperatures of meats, fish, stews and sauces. A more recent arrival in the kitchen is the pistol-shaped infrared thermometer. Point it at an object from an inch or two away, pull the trigger, and it instantly measures the infrared heat energy (even cold objects radiate some), converting that measurement to a reading of the surface temperature. It is instant gratification, and makes it fun to explore the thermal world. The infrared thermometer is useful for checking the readiness of a cooking surface, like a frying pan or a pizza stone. It can also be trained on the various compartments of refrigerators and freezers, where the temperature determines how long foods will keep before spoiling. Most home refrigerators average 40 to 45 degrees, but they’d do a better job if they were kept colder. Drop the temperature to 32, and fresh ocean fish will last twice as long — for as long as a week.

most definitely pink.. OMG, I am not the only one who thinks of mint jelly any time they hear lamb! Those do look pretty tasty, Dennis. Is the meat still pink at 145 or so? Yes, most definitely pink, as it must be.. and I won't even talk about how much I love lamb fat. I know eating fat is no longer PC in the States. Ha I love it..

Perfect Thai? Lobo Paste... This is what the Thai's cook with.. http://www.lobo.co.th/currypaste.html Distributed in the States by http://www.anhing.com/ This is the only one as far as I'm concerned..

Start with good produce.. Three pair, one fresh basil and garlic, one garlic and fresh rosemary and garlic. one Char something.. (Char crust family) Tossed 'em in around 650º as the charcoal started to roar.. muffled down to 325º pulled them at 140º Can't argue with the results.

I just got on UPS online to send out a load of accessories and ground service is not an option only 2 day air and faster. The site has been newly changed but I still could not find a way to get some Tru Tels across the country for less than $21.00-2 day air, yikes.. Is it possible that ground service is no longer offered?

Re: Mud volcanos and landslides I was gone three weeks to the day and that's much too long to be away from my two year old little girl. But the love, attention and affection I'm getting 'cause she missed me is almost worth it. Daddy has been King last few days.. Yes, east Java is where a lot of the flooding and landslides have been. My house boy's village was under up to 6 meters of water. They think it's because the teak forest around that area was stolen in 97-98 when the country was lawless as ex-pres Suharto was thrown out. The mud volcano is still pumping out over 100,000 m3 of mud a day. The courts here decided to reject the lawsuit and the company drilling the well fined $110. The judges ruled that the mudflow was a purely natural phenomenon. Here is a site that has lots of info and shots http://mudflow-sidoarjo.110mb.com/index.htm Here is a site that has a flash satellite image that is Navigat-able and zoom-able. Those are words! http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/coverages/mudflow/index_IK_p24.html For those of you with Google Earth: http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/coverages/mudflow/kml/EJ20071122_5m_res.kml "Komodo Kamado factory" lat=-7.38318183769, lon=112.721277621 You can see I'm not that far away.. but far enough!

little adjustments and wait. Welcome to the forum Tom.. Remember that the temperature will climb after the walls come to temperature and start giving off heat. (get heat soaked) At this point you need restrict the volume of air/oxygen to reduce the amount of charcoal burning. Best to baffle airflow from the top as you want to keep the high humidity and heat in. Also remember that when you open the dome (to add your meat) after you have stabilized temps, the rush of oxygen will cause your temps to climb (charcoal to burn faster). Don't immediately change your settings.. It will go back to where it was and remember to make little adjustments and wait.

BTW Diamond sharpener When I clicked on Fast Freddie's link and saw the same sharpener I bought in July at Costco. I can't remember exactly what I paid for it but is was not any where near $80. I'm very pleased with it for taking a knife from reasonably sharp to a very sharp. http://www.cutleryandmore.com/details.asp?SKU=11130 Model 316: Electric Knife Sharpener for Asian Knives Stage 1: Honing - Fine 100% diamond abrasive. Stage 2: Polishing - Ultrafine 100% diamond abrasive. Precision guides sharpen at 15 degrees. Resharpen with ultrafine diamonds - knives last longer.

I'm on the plane.. I'm leaving SF thru Hong Kong to Surabaya.. Will be home in about 32 hours. Catch ya then..

Merry Happy to all.. Happy/Merry, Holidays/Christmas and Happy New Year to all.. Thank you for making 2007 a great year for Komodo and this forum. Thank you also for all your kind thoughts, notes and posts during this most difficult time for me, I really appreciate them. We had both a Southern and Northern CA memorial and I'll be heading home to Indonesia on the 28th.

This is exactly what you want to do in a nutshell This is exactly what you want to do in a nutshell.. IMHO Thanks for the concise post Syzygies, great to have you here..

Ahh the confusion.. needs clarification! I'll be going back later this week hopefully and I'll ask.

I'm in Palo Alto Hi Freddy.. I'll give you a call, I'm in Palo Alto and should be able to scrounge up something for you.. Dennis

He's now gone.. My father Jack Linkletter died in his sleep the morning of December 18th at his home in Dry Creek Valley after battling cancer for almost 3 years. He was the definition of a brilliant, amazing loving man and 70 years young. In his post-mortem screed to us he wrote, "I do have one last question: I spent all these years, feeding my curiosity, reading, questioning, analyzing, what do I do with all this stuff? P.S. I have just been cleared for landing."

Missing the boat is better than sinking it in a river! Did I say that? Oh well..Welcome to the forum, if you tear your neck off or just get overly frustrated, I'm happy to set you up with a KK stainless damper top assembly. Majestic and a few others have upgraded their Kamados with them.. Glad your here..

Thank you all.. Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful posts during this tough time. I've never been part of a forum or had forum friends before. I just want to say that I really appreciate having you all in my life.

Looking out at my father's Komodo, I knew I could not sit just there, had to cook.. Went out and grabbed the biggest, fattest baby backs I've ever seen from a premium German butcher. The meat was much thicker and wider than I'd ever seen... This had been one happy piggy. They were about 16-17" long and from a pig much larger than what I'm accustomed to buying in Islamic (read pig-less) Indonesia. They were priced very differently too.. The grand total was $42.68 for the two racks, yeowch! $7.99 a lb. The two racks totaled 5.3 lbs or 2.65 lbs each. I made up a basic brine (1/2x3), I needed a bit more to cover so I dissolved 3/4 cup coarse Kosher salt, 3/4 cup brown sugar in hot water with big squirt maple syrup. Then added ice cubes to cool and make up the full 3/4 of a gallon (3/4x3). I also added a couple table spoons of rub that had a little heat. Pulled the membranes off with paper towels and tossed them zip lock bagged in the brine in the fridge from about 8:00am to 1:20pm. I rinsed them off and dried them before slathering them with regular French's mustard and Pappy's rub, thicker on top than on the bottom. At 1:30 I then tossed the cold ribs into the pre-heated (body fully heat soaked) cooker which read about 280º dome (TelTru) and 255º grill on top of tin foil (cheapo Maveric) As they were a bit longer than the drip pan was wide so I smunched them together a bit to about 15" but thicker of course. I had added a big handful of apple wood chips which I don't like as they burn so quickly so I also made up a tin foil pouch of chips and threw them in with the holes down. Four hours later I took my first peek and bathed them apple juice. At five hours I peeked again and bathed them apple juice with maple syrup. The extra sugar starts to build a glaze. I grab the ribs with big tongs about 2/3rds across and give them a big bounce to see how they move. I'm looking for the meat to tear. This happened at about 6 hours and I needed to push them against the grill to get them to tear as they were so thick, probably cause I smunched them together. Pulled the out and wrapped them in tin foil for 10 minutes to rest, then cut them so there was full meat left and right by removing every other bone. The meat still stuck to the bone but pulled off clean and was tender and juicy. The apple smoke was present but not overpowering, as was the rub with just a hint of maple sweetness. They were the home run I was hoping for and the four of us ate them all.. I usually cook twice a week but can't remember it all coming together as well as these ribs. Every bite was a special treat with everyone grinning talking about how good they were. The Supreme front gas draft door with the airflow on the left has been standard for a while now. I'll stay whole but will always have a big hole in my heart. Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful posts during this tough time.

Re: Pizza question You can safely run a KOmodo at 700-800º. The dense inner refractory material is rated for 2,200º continuously and the outer insulating layer will ensure that you keep that heat in and burn less fuel.

Great idea.. I like it. Thanks for the great idea.. We could have links to a whole bevy of Utube videos. I like it.. I like it..

My father is terminally ill and has entered hospice. I flew back to be with him. No good time to loose a parent, I'm not sure how long I'll be here.

Now $39.90 but probably still a good value.. Now $39.90 but probably still a good value..

Re: Hmm can't go 20 hours? I can I've gone 30 hours filled up to the handles with tamarind lump.. I've never used RO of course but I can't imagine not getting 20 hours well packed bowl. You are cooking on the ONLY ceramic type cooker that's actually insulated with insulation.. (shameless plug) I also usually pour smalls and broken fines over a full bowl to get a very even burn.

Plain Wood? Curly Maple with Coco-Bola.. That's a far cry from plain wood. I love that. I better get off my butt and go find Cozy some rare and wonderful wood for a set before he gets to back ordered.. hobby turns to work/headache and he retires. Nice work Cozy..

Welcome to the forum Glen.. Welcome to the forum, I'm very pleased to see you here. I'm sure you already know many of our old timers. Your wealth of experience and knowledge will be greatly appreciated here. Thank you for joining.. Dennis

Looks purfect to me.. Looks purfect to me.. Did you go high temps at the end to brown up the skin? Basted?