linuxwrangler

"Forearm Forklifts" (available at lots of truck-rental and hardware stores) or "Teamstraps" allow you to lift and move an amazing amount of weight. My friend and I lifted a 600 pound Kooker off the pallet with the Forearm Forklifts. I recommend keeping a set around the house just to avoid the temptation to wreck you back when moving furniture and the like. I was wondering how our old fridge would be wrestled out and the new one in but the guys just threw on some teamstraps and carried the old one out and new one in quick as you please. I wouldn't try to carry the whole thing much of a distance with the forklifts unless you had two pair and four people but for moving up over edges where it won't roll, they are great.

Happy birthday youngster (OK, so I'm only a year ahead of you...) Now that I know it's your birthday, I understand why the SF Chronicle food section just published a recipe for grilled cake: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 17RGOV.DTL

Couple of Costco tri-tips waiting and ready...

No, the *truly* anal would note that it is the pressure that is really important so you need to check the weather as well. And the incredibly anal would discuss things like impurities in the water the definition of a standard atmosphere and various changes to that definition then veer off into discussions of the difference between melting-points and freezing-points. And having figured out how to eliminate sufficient errors to determine the reference temperature of the pot to within a thousandths of a degree, only then will we repeatedly try to calibrate a device with at best a +-2 degree accuracy.

Re: Bring on the recipes! Cedar-plank salmon. Yum. Deep-dish pizza. Yum, again (but perhaps not low fat). All sorts of chicken dishes. Thanksgiving turkey. Don't worry - you'll find plenty to cook. And don't forget pork. A lot of modern pork cuts are pretty lean. It's unreal how many people you can serve from an inexpensive pork-loin from Costco and from my reading, the fat content is way lower than in most beef servings. Just do yourself a favor - you've shelled out the big bucks, now shell out a small amount more for a Thermapen. Modern pork should not be cooked till dry and a good thermometer lets you pull it as soon as possible. I target a center temperature of 137 since I have read that that is the temperature where trichinosis is killed. The temperature rises a few degrees while settling for a margin of safety (not including the margin provided by the fact that trichinosis is pretty much a non-issue anymore). There is one conundrum. Tasty food is more satisfying than bland food so you can do with less. But when the food is tasty, you may want to eat more.

Re: another dilemma Very funny.. My father was the poster child of NHTIOD! To name a few off the top of my head.. Let's see how I do, here: Ranching - Check Diving - Check Photography - Check Street bikes - Check (not really a racer-style but a BMW R75/6) Street bicycles - Check Planes - Check Sailing - Check (incl. 3 SF to Hawaii races with one win) Around here we call it NTS (New Toy Syndrome). For too many years I would try to respond to questions like "why do you need a welder?", with "rational" answers like "well, I'll save money fixing things around the house..." Unfortunately this always lead to followup questions like, "how many repairs do you need to make to pay for that thing?" and so on. I finally realized I was playing the wrong game. It has nothing to do with anything practical so my answer shouldn't imply that it does. I now respond to such questions with, "it's a toy." and the usual response is, "Oh." There's really nothing to argue at that point. His new table-saw/flashlight/weather-station (toys) is every bit as practical and necessary as her china/silver/linen (toys). It's actually more often friends and neighbors who tend to ask "why" - my wife accepts my taste in toys and I accept hers.

Re: another dilemma

Yup, in terms of cooking improvement per dollar spent, my Thermapen is one of my top cooking investments. I try to pull pork-chops and pork-loin at 137 which is, from my reading, the temperature at which trichinosis is killed (as though trichinosis were still a significant problem). I figure the additional few degrees of rise after I pull it is my safety-margin and it sure beats tough dried-out pork.

Wait. A year from now you will have forgotten about the wait but you will enjoy your choice forever.

As some wise person once said. "It's better to ask a question and risk appearing ignorant than to not ask a question and remain ignorant." While there is no shortage of people with, er, "issues" with the "other company", I personally prefer taking the "high-road" and referring to them as Kamado, Mexi-K or similar. The POSK moniker seems slightly counter to the inclusive nature of this board. I have "the other brand" and have had lots of fun using it. I've had a couple issues which I've managed (though often slowly) to resolve. Someday I'd like to upgrade, but things like school-expenses for my daughter preclude that at the moment. It's sort of a quandry - on the one hand my current cooker is in decent shape so the resale value is higher. On the other hand, the immediate need to upgrade is lower. So do you try to swap out now or do you wait to see if/when an upgrade becomes mandatory and both take advantage of intervening improvements and suffer intervening price increases?

I've become quite a fan of what someone called "cheater pizza". I put the stone or other heat-deflector on the lower rack and a half-baked Zachary's deep-dish chicken special directly on the grill. Adds nice smoke flavor and crisps the crust. And dead-simple lazy, too. The people at the store always ask if I've made the half-baked before and it's fun to see their expression when I say, yes, just pop it on the BBQ...

Firemonkey: .025 not .0025. On my mexi-k the cap thread is 10-pitch (.1" gap per full turn) and I need 1/4 turn for 220F hence 0.025" gap. Having struggled out of Reno on a hot afternoon in a gross-weight Cessna 152 following the air races(those casinos ahead weren't shrinking nearly as fast as I wanted...) and departing desert airports when the temperature is pushing 110, I've got my own experience with density altitude. (What is it about these things that attract pilots, sailors and geeks?) Yes, aircraft can produce more lift at low density altitude. As you say, one effect is that the engine produces more power. Although the denser air is, in fact, more impeded in its flow that is far more than made up for by the greater number of oxygen molecules in the denser air that makes it into the engine. But additionally, the denser air gives the propeller more to bite into and the wings more to act on. But there is also more drag - your climb-rate and lift capability are greater in dense air but your miles-per-gallon improve the higher you go. Long-distance airline flights step to higher and higher altitudes as they burn off fuel often ending up cruising 10,000 feet higher toward the end of the flight than they cruised at the start. Fortunately I haven't, yet, had to concern myself with my cookers lifting capability It is a bit difficult to compare a cooker where the combustion air is the result of convection draft and an engine where air is drawn in by mechanical means and typically compressed anywhere from 6:1 to 10:1 in a normally aspirated engine. I don't actually know how much effect air density alone has on cooking. I have never personally observed a temperature rise that correlated with nighttime temperature drops but who knows - maybe I need to keep looking. Or, perhaps, when the air cools it leads to a greater temperature gradient hence more lifting force and greater airflow. Dunno. I'm just saying that there are so many variables (I keep thinking of more and more all the time - like size of the air opening changing with temperature and the effects of solar heating - my unlit cooker can exceed 150F on a warm day and back in the desert I'm sure it would be far higher still) that without sufficient controls on the myriad other variables it is difficult for me to see that air density alone will cause a significant change in my cooking. But the discussion is fun....

I think it would take some very careful controlled research to determine the effect of air temperature alone. Yes, cold air is denser and thus has more oxygen. But it is also "thicker" and thus more resistant to being pulled through the openings in the KK. And as things cool down, more energy will be required to heat the intake air and the whole cooker. You would also need to account for moisture in the food and the charcoal, condensation on the lid and all sorts of other effects. One effect that I've noticed is that charcoal absorbs water. I frequently see the cooker "stall out" at about 200F then start a rapid rise. I attribute this to the elimination of water in the charcoal. If you try to start out for a low-n-slow at in the vicinity of 200, it can take a long time for the water to leave and you can be surprised by an unwanted rise. My solution is to open the vents and always let the temp get past the 200 level, perhaps to 350 or so, then damp it back to the desired temp. As long as you're watching, you won't overheat things and the temp will drop right back to desired. Another effect is condensation but this causes an unwanted drop. If you are cooking a lot of food low-n-slow on a chilly day, the water driven from the food can start to condense around the cap and block off airflow - pretty easy to happen when the gap is 0.025"

I saw one 2-3 years back. The ceramic is not as thick and I don't care for the looks - certainly not when compared to the tile. And even with a "discount" off the $5,200 list-price, buying one from, say, barbecues.com will set you back something like $4,600. But it serves a very useful purpose. First you pretend to lust over the Viking. When your spouse threatens to move out if you spend that much on a BBQ you "compromise" on the KK at half the price.

Was it food? Did its temperature increase as a result of being placed on the KK? Then it was a cook. One of my favorites is to get a half-baked deep-dish chicken pizza from Zachary's Pizza in Berkeley and do the final bake over oak charcoal. Re-crisps the bottom crust and adds a nice smoke flavor to the pizza. Based on the reactions of the eaters it definitely counts as a cook.

I've had great luck with the following method. There are several steps. They must be followed in the correct order: 1. Open charcoal container 2. Dump charcoal into the cooker 3. Light 4. Cook 5. Eat Seriously, I wouldn't obsess about it - of all the things that influence your results, compulsive charcoal-stacking has to be way down on the list. I really load the thing up when I fill it. Every few cooks I stir things up to knock the ash down. I get quite a few cooks between refills and wouldn't you rather be cooking than carefully stacking charcoal bits?

Went to light the thing on Sunday and had flame coming out of the draft door. Shut off the gas, flames stayed. And stayed. Opened the top all the way. Still had flames at the bottom. Carefully opened the lid and got a bit of a puff but with the lid open, I had a nice fire going. No gas. It took several minutes before I could close the grill though it was still burning inside. Got to 600 lickety-split. I finally figured it out. Apparently I left the gas open a tiny bit when I turned off the lighter Saturday evening (it seemed to open a bit more easliy than usual on Sunday). The charcoal was about 50/50 original good Kamado and recent lousy Kamado and doing what charcoal does, it absorbed a pretty good amount of the slowly leaking propane leading to 10 minutes or so of flaming charcoal. I do turn off the gas at the tank but it's a new tank (old one didn't have OPD) and the valve has a bit different feel than the old one. Coulda been worse: http://www.gocomics.com/features/66/fea ... ems/380002

Filet Mignon Got a Costco filet mignon (whole) and have been cutting off thick steaks to cook every evening. Yum.

Re: New KK owner = Happy Extraterrestrial Camper Watch it, you're dating yourself.

I test cuts like pork-loin and pork-chops carefully with my Thermapen and pull at 137 or a touch higher. From my reading, trichinosis is killed at that temperature so my safety margin is the 10+ degrees the temperature rises while settling. The speed/accuracy of the Thermapen has given me the tool I need to make great (read: not shoe-leather) pork.

Re: My OTB Gen 2.2 is a finished product. Cool. But since I have never met a tinkerer who didn't eventually find a way to tweak "just one more thing", I'm compelled to ask, "How are things coming on 2.3?"

One of my best purchases, er, wish-list items. Really helps nail the correct doneness - especially on thick or finicky cuts. Second only to the ceramic cooker, it's probably responsible for the biggest leap in quality and consistency of my BBQ results.