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Amphoran

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Everything posted by Amphoran

  1. Re: Grilling at two temperatures Using the new sear basket mod, I've been grilling a lot at two or more temps. Fill one quarter basket (one side blocked off, front/back with the charcoal in the rear half, Usually on the lower grill you can do steaks or burgers on the back half with direct heat and lower temperature stuff (buttered buns, veggies, fish) on the front half mostly indirect. Mike
  2. Re: KK shelter I spent several weeks in Melbourne whilst doing a stint at CSIRO. Lovely city, and to my mind quite similar to Seattle in many ways (right down to the trolleys, mate!) After about 15 months use, not yet.The back above the fence, the entire right side and half the front are completely open, so ventilation is good. I used 1 cm double wall greenhouse sheeting (polycarbonate), so at least the walls will be easy to clean off when needed. The biggest problem is clearing all the grape leaves off the roof in the late fall. By the way, love your screen name! I had a great visit to the distillery last year. Cheers, Mike
  3. Living in Seattle, where it can rain all day every day throughout the winter, I figured that I needed to build a shelter (my bbq pit) that would keep as much of the outdoor experience, but keep the cooker and side bench dry and let me use it more often. I built it last spring, and can state that it met the test! Cooked at least 2x/week all winter, and hardly a drop of rain fell on the KK! our rain and wind all come from the Southwest, so I really only needed two walls. I brought electricity to it, so I can easily run the EZ-Q motor and the looftlighter, as well as provide lighting and tunes. It is lit with led rope lights running along the joists. Bright enough to see quite clearly late at night, but only 10W! Here are a couple of pictures: n68547 n68548 Cheers, Mike
  4. Re: New Sear Basket - In Ready Stock - CA I've been using mine for a few weeks now, and totally love it! Cooking most of the time for just two, a quarter load of charcoal lights faster, kills faster and saves a lot of charcoal. Also, there are now two heat zones, so you can sear steaks on one half while toasting buns or roasting veggies on the cooler half. FANTASTIC JOB, DENNIS!
  5. Re: Roti Question The original name WAS Duck tape, as in cotton duck, the backing fabric.
  6. Re: Lighting Looftlighter My assertions are based on actual experience. I've not tried it yet on ECC, but on several loads of Royal Oak. I'll try the ECC in the next few days and report on how it works. My experience with Royal Oak, though (both fresh and previously lit) is that it lights faster and with much more control than any type of torch I've used, not to mention chimneys. Just my $.02 worth, but I'm hooked. Mike
  7. Re: Lighting Looftlighter Over the years I've used a MAPP torch, a modified Harbor Freight torch (Drunk J's design), a weed burner, chimney, but after getting a looftlighter a couple of months ago, there's really no looking back. The switch doesn't require much pressure to hold down, and you have a tremendous amount of control over just how much coal you light and how hot it is. I definitely recommend! Mike
  8. Re: Trader Joe's hardwood Briquettes Thinking back, I have smelled ammonia before, you're right. However, what has me concerned is my total lack of ability to snuff this stuff. It's just going to keep going until the entire bowl is burned out, even though all holes are plugged, all dampers are shut and no smoke is visible anywhere. Don't think I'll try it again...
  9. Re: Trader Joe's hardwood Briquettes I just tried the TJ hardwood, and wonder if its spiked with nitrates to keep burning? I set the KK up for a low and slow, and royal oak will always settle in about 225 the way it was set. After an hour it was at 225. After four hours, it was at 450. I shut everything down to extinguish, and 24 hours later, the kk is still at 220, and when the lid is lifted, you can smell a bit of ammonia. I've never had this happen before! Mike
  10. Re: Is the Benzomatic JT850 the best? The newer propane tanks with the overfill protection device also prevent flow if inverted - I keep one old tank around for refilling the small ones. Mike
  11. Re: Build Your Own BBQ Controller (w/Wifi) Yeah, TCs are probably fine for a cooking application. I had to go to RTD's in the software controlled still I've been building for a large client, because we really need 0.1 deg C precision AND accuracy in order to adjust power or reflux quickly and keep the column in equilibrium as the boiler depletes. I'm currently using a NI backbone, industrial strength, but very spendy. I was hoping that I might find something that would do the job in the open source community. Cheers, Mike
  12. Re: Build Your Own BBQ Controller (w/Wifi) Deej, Would it be difficult to add the capacity to use RTDs? They're much more stable over time than any thermocouple. cheers, Mike
  13. Re: Tru Tel Options** I've done pizzas successfully in my KK at 850 deg, and got typical NYC wood or coal - fired results: a thin crust, sparingly topped pizza cooked in about 80 seconds, with the proper amount of charring on the bottom of the crust. However, I burned a whole basket of charcoal to cook three pies, which wasn't making economic sense. I may have set up the KK incorrectly (i.e. I had the heat deflector in place), but I heat soaked the pizza stone for two hours. I have since shifted back to using an electric baking oven (stone lined) for making my pizzas, using the following technique: heat soak the pizza stone for two hours at 550 deg, then turn on the broiler (about 6" from stone) for about ten minutes. Turn off broiler just before sliding in pie. Pies cook in 3-4 minutes, but do give the proper char on the bottom (from superheating the stone), which you can't otherwise get at 550 deg. If I could heat the stone faster without the heat deflector in place, I'd give it a try in the KK again. I left it in because I was afraid that the direct radiant heat from a raging charcoal fire might crack it. Cheers, Mike
  14. Re: Pro Joe - New Ultimate Contender? Pizza!
  15. Re: Pork Shoulder Country Style Ribs Country Style Ribs are one of my favorite cuts. I use them for a lot of Mexican and Chinese dishes, because they're easy to cut down to the proper size for the recipe, and in braises of all sorts, but to be honest, I've never grilled them! I'll have to give that a try. Mike
  16. Re: Whatcha think? OTB Shaped Heat Deflector I think that would be a big improvement; it should block all direct radiant heat. I'd certainly buy one! Mike
  17. Re: Saturday Night Bone-In That sure doesn't LOOK like meat that made it to 220 deg F internal! Cheers, Mike
  18. Re: Ok, so we have a new look... Everything is looking fine now, on IE8. Many thanks! Mike
  19. Re: Ok, so we have a new look... Hear hear!
  20. Re: Ok, so we have a new look... And now its properly centered again. THANK YOU, whoever did it! Mike
  21. Re: Ok, so we have a new look... I'm also running 1920 x 1200, but even when I make the browser full screen, part of the page is off screen to the right. I, too, saw this behavior appear day before yesterday. Cheers, Mike
  22. Re: Ok, so we have a new look... having to re-drag the slider for EVERY SINGLE PAGE viewed is a major drag. If fixing it so it works right for phones screws it up for the largest installed browser base in the world, screw the phones. I wouldn't send anybody to a site where I have to tell them - "oh, by the way, you have to change your browser to read it properly".
  23. Re: Ok, so we have a new look... OK, so I log on this morning with my plain vanilla IE 8, and the forum is almost completely off the screen to the right. What was changed?
  24. Re: Say Goodbye to this Red forum Nope, Compatibility mode is turned ON for this forum. Another weird glitch - my sig is not appearing, although it is clearly there in my profile. Do I have to go some other place to activate it? Cheers, Mike
  25. Re: Say Goodbye to this Red forum OK, I found how to display posts in reverse order, which will function, but doesn't have the same feel as simply jumping to the end of the list in ascending order. Still no joy on seeing the links at the bottom of the page, but I did discover the little "jump to the top" arrow at the right of each post. Sure beats scrolling all the way back to the top! Cheers, Mike
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