Amphoran

But it doesn't actually get the advantage of a rotisserie, which is that the direction that fat and juices are falling is constantly changing, keeping more of them in the meat... Except for the trays, it DOES remind me of the Brazilian rodizio system, where the chunks of meat (on skewers) are moved around on a chain drive system so they pass closely over the coals, and them move up and over the bed at height to get some smoke, before coming down and makin another pass over the coals. The best of these systems also rotates the skewer, so a slightly different side of the meat gets exposed to the coals on each pass.

My daughter has talked me into doing the feast of the seven fishes for Christmas, so most of the dishes will not be kk material, but it looks like we'll grill some black cod for the main course. Cheers, Mike

Here's our Thanksgiving bird. Done with Beeps' modification of the Cooks Illustrated Herb paste, then cooked with the Mad Max Method for gravy. Going in the KK: At the flip, halfway: It was getting quite dark when finished, and the guests were ravenous, so we ate an imaginary bird. Raided the cellar though, and washed it down with these: Cheers, Mike

There are a variety of programs that allow you to copy your DVDs, both commercial and underground. The commercial ones will easily copy non-scrambled DVDs, but cannot include the "de-CSS" portion. There are a lot of utilities that do that. The simplest one I've come across is called DVD43, and it simply runs as a service on a windows computer, and de-scrambles any dvd you put in the drive. You can then access the content and put it on the hard disk. Mike

I use an HP Windows home server, and use old computers equipped with a good sound (and/or video) card to play media in static locations, and laptops can suck from it via the wireless router. I use Media Center as the player in all locations. Can simultaneously stream full bandwidth audio (NO MP3!!) to a half dozen locations without breathing hard, and HD video to the tv. All my CDs are on it, and am slowly moving all the DVDs to it as well. Its amazing how much MORE of your collection you listen to when its all available at the touch of a finger. The system as I've got it set up doesn't have a remote, but it could be. It is easy to use a laptop as a control for the static computer that does the playing, using remote desktop. The playing computer in the living room setup is a fanless passively cooled unit that is silent. If I was setting up today, I'd investigate the appliances that are available, but most of them seem to be designed for MP3 files and lack audio clarity. That to me was one of the big advantages of Media Center, it handles several lossless compression formats easily. I primarily use .ape. Music on! Mike

If you really like peat, try Ardbeg. Not widely available in the States, but I have seen it from time to time. I discovered it in the Scots Whisky shop in the Copenhagen airport (a GREAT place to browse...) However my vote for all time great sipping Scots is the Lagavulin 1991 Distiller's Edition! Mike

Beeps, Thanks much! That clarifies everything. My 16-pounder is halfway through brining as I type. Cheers, Mike

herb paste question Beeps, There are a couple of ways to parse the herb paste recipe. It states: "...for each part, use 2-3 cloves garlic..." So as stated there are 10 parts of herbs and other ingredients, so do you really mean to use 20-30 garlic cloves, or am I mis-interpreting something here? I further assume that a "part" in this case might be a loose handful. Is that close? I'm hoping to do this Thursday, it looked SOOOOOOO scrumptious! Thanks, Mike

I also store my cultures in quart mason jars, but I use the one piece polypropylene lids. Here's a link to several different brands of them from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?ur ... jar%20lids These are dishwasher friendly, and can be screwed down reasonably tight and still vent, and they won't rust! Cheers, Mike

BLUSH! That last bit was off the screen to right..... My one issue with this forum software is that sometimes lines don't wrap properly. Thanks for pointing that out, Sanny! Mike

Great looking bird, Beeps! Was that about a ten-pounder? Mike

Here is a link to a source of inexpensive cast iron 1 and 2 qt dutch ovens. http://cajuncastiron.com/eshop/10Browse ... y=CastIron I got the 1 qt for my smoke pot. Mike

Screw it in with a lot of torque and it will hold. You need to get it seated against the bottom of the socket so it puts lateral thrust on the threads. Cheers, Mike

You can lift one pair of legs a LOT more than 4" without it getting unstable. In fact, that is how I got mine up several steps in height all alone: Lift one pair of legs off the ground, and shove a 4x4 or 4x6 under the two lifted wheels. Go around the cooker, and do the same thing for the other pair. Now simply reapeat one side at a time until the kk is lifted as high as you need, and on the final lift, slip the ramps under the wheels and away you roll. You only lift an apparant 50-80 lbs to tip it, and you are never tipping it over center. It will also work with 2x6 or 2x8 pieces, just takes longer - or you could shove two in at a time. If you're fearful of the stability of the stack,you can also rotate 90 degrees every other pair, so you are building a square stack rather than a pair of rails. Mike

The non-circular shape of the OTB KK actually creates a more even heat profile than you get with the BGE or (single)K or the round Primo, and evenness of heat distribution goes a long way when cooking thin pizzas at high temperature. The other great advantage of the KK over the large egg is its sheer capacity. I started my journey looking at eggs, and like you, ended up here. One of the things that ruled the eggs out fairly early is that you can't really cook for a crowd on one of them. With the KK you can. My daughter got married last week, and I threw a cookout for all the out of town relatives. I fed seventy people from one KK. Four pork butts overnight, then three spatchcocked chickens with pot beans going above them, then finished with brats and burgers for the non-bbq conscious (yes, there are some in every family....). Mike

OOOOPS! Is my face red. My Fibrament is 15.5" in diameter, not 19. Just another guy lying about size, I guess..... My 15.5" stone weighs 9 lb, 10 oz, so applying some math, the 19" stone ought to weigh 1.6 times as much, or 15 pounds 7 oz. Hefty, but manageable. Mike

I have the 19" fibrament and use it with the heat deflector on the lump basket handles. Works great!

Bingo. I occasionally do brats or burgers on the lower grill, but mainly it holds the drip pan for all the butts on the main and upper ones! I do like the idea of a trapdoor, though, as I have had a burger slipslide right down that opening... Mike

I had a bad experience with the copper silicone putting in my guru tube. Either it never cured, or the heat at the bottom near the charcoal basket degraded it, but it became a permanent sticky mess and the guru tube could slip in and out easily. I re-mounted the guru tube with stove cement, and that has worked perfectly. Mike

Rats! I was going to ask you what he might charge to make up a few....

And the 300 series alloys can be heat treated to make them magnetic, and hence usable on induction cookers.

the new spring The new spring nails it. With fairly broad adjustment latitude, it begins opening much more slowly than the standard one (i.e. holds much less tension on the lid when closed), and opens just to fully open without rebound! Marvelous! There is one small potential hitch to installing it, so take a file with you when you go to install yours! The new spring material is larger in diameter (and the spring itself is also larger in diameter), and on mine, it wouldn't quite fit through the space between the edges of the hinge body between the spring attachment rod and the body of the cooker. This space is formed by two corners of stainless that have been folded horizontal. A minute of filing on the corners made the gap wide enough for the new spring to slip through, and everything was great. Mike

Truer words have never been spoken.

Dennis, Your commitment to customer satisfaction and product quality are without equal in my experience! Four cheers! Mike