Syzygies

Congrats! If it comes off with shop rags, go for it. If it's just cosmetic, call it a life well lived. I took a rag to mine for comparison, and what came off was dry powder, and not so much. Make a pizza at 500 F, and declare it clean. Grates are an interesting question. The best degunking tool is a 3/8" wrench (shown) with a rounded opening that matches the grates. Some people never clean grates, but that can get sketchy after a slow & low cook. Some of us plug the hole in a metal water heater pan to make a wash basin, and use the scrubbies one finds in the painting aisle to clean while hosing down and soaking. I've heard tell of leaving grates in a trash bag with ammonia, but even if this did restore a "new" look, what would be the point. I happen to own an electric pressure washer, and I like using it on my grates after a messy cook. It makes me feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger wielding a flamethrower in Commando (or Jiarby lighting a fire with his flamethrower, for a more local reference old-timers might get).

We've already harvested 100 pounds of tomatoes this year, well ahead of our usual pace. Warmer nights in the early growing season. Shown: A quarter of this haul, cooling after 30 seconds in boiling water to loosen skins. We slice, salt, partially dehydrate (to 25% or so by weight, still "gooshy"), and freeze in vacuum pouches. We haven't opened a can of tomatoes in 15 years; when I need coconut milk for cooking Thai, the hardest part is finding the can opener.

Resident mathematician here. Any pit controller (BBQ Guru, Billows, ...) is implementing a classic feedback mechanism: proportional–integral–derivative controller If your fan is always on at 200 F, always off at 240 F, and on part of the time in between, proportionate to the pit temperature, then your pit will stabilize at some temperature between 200 F and 240 F. Where? It depends on everything. Same as a hiker climbing a mountain, and a hiker descending a mountain, they have to cross paths somewhere. Not necessarily at the halfway point, just somewhere along the trail. Suppose that you want to stabilize at exactly 220 F? The PID mechanism learns the system it's controlling, and adjusts the fan rate to nudge where your pit stabilizes. Every pit is different. It doesn't matter, the PID mechanism figures it out. I have several sizes of fans for my BBQ Guru. It doesn't matter, the PID mechanism figures it out. Here we get abstract. Abstraction is easy, it's forgetting part of a problem that turns out to be irrelevant. Here, your PID controller sees the effect of turning a system on and off at regular intervals, as measured by the pit thermometer. It has no clue what your pit looks like. It has no clue what your fan looks like. It sees a system, as a black box that it controls. Where am I going with this? If the Signals fan output is 12V like all standard computer case fans, then it can control any fan you like, such as a BBQ Guru fan that happens to perfectly fit the existing Guru port in our KKs. There are several complications here. First, there are two flavors of fan control: On/off, and pulse code modulation. In other words, one could run a fan faster or slower as needed, rather than cycling it on and off. The BBQ Guru fan doesn't support this. Can anyone who has a Billows tell us? Does it run at a variable rate, or does it cycle on and off? Second, we have a cabling problem. The Billows connects via a USB-C cable to the fan adapter. Now, frequently USB-C is used merely for charging, in which case we need to splice the appropriate wires on a USB-C cable to make something a Guru fan can plug into. Billows Replacement Fan Adapter (Single) Third, the Signals needs to recognize that a Billows is attached. Here, hopefully it actually detects the fan adapter. Can anyone who has a Billows play with this? Does Signals "see" a Billows attached when the fan adapter is attached, but the Billows itself is not? I'm not hopeful here. Many devices can tell when a USB cable is successful. We're talking a ten cent circuit, to insure that the Signals handshakes with the Billows via the adapter. If they engineered this way, then we can't swap in our fan of choice. If the handshaking is only with the adapter, then swapping in our fan of choice will be easy. The PID mechanism doesn't care, it sees a black box.

Feeding Laurie's church today. Four pork butts in bourbon sauce, pot beans, cole slaw. Dry rub was California and Guajillo chiles, salt, pepper, and pimenton. We'll serve butt mixed with sauce on buns (sloppy joe style). I used dry ice to chill the six quarts of bourbon sauce, from a liter of bourbon. Fun play break (the dog was concerned) but next time I'll stick to conventional ice. I thought this main grill mound of four butts was being clever, and I'd do it again, but it has unintended consequences. That's more thermal mass on the main grill than I'm used to, causing a greater disparity between a pit probe reading anchored to that grill, and a pit probe reading through the Tel-Tru dome hole. More reliable to just cook with the dome hole, and make adjustments as needed. Also, the mound has a greater "effective mass" than a single ten pound butt, and so it cooks slower. 19 hours at 225 F is not enough. Though, as I've said before, I think the "disintegrating rope" standard for pulled pork is a scam, and I've never had decent pulled pork commercially in the Carolinas. I'd rather undershoot, than dry out the butts this way. Mine are more work to pull, but I like the juicy, tender result. Still, I'll move up from 225 F to somewhere near the recently more popular 275 F next year, and we'll figure out how to adjust the timing. The pot clamped for travel is the 22 quart Optio Sauce Pot 3095, our favorite big pot. There's a shorter version, but too short to cook four pounds of pot beans. After a brief hard boil, the beans simmered overnight in a 240 F oven.

This is indeed zucchini season. Remember to roll up your car windows at church! Our favorite indoor version, from Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni, the remainder pile cookbook many of us of learned from back in the day (we make boats also, rather than tubes):

Cake - Sheep go to heaven goats go to hell (with lyrics)

There are electric barbecues; I'd research the best ones before deciding what to do. What would be gained, keeping your KK under these circumstances? Thermal mass. Huh. Great once at cruising altitude, but that will take a while with an electric heating element, and you'll never reach pizza oven temperatures. I'm reminded how FibraMent used to refuse to sell their thicker stones to consumers, knowing no consumer would have the patience for the long preheat these need. A restaurant keeps their pizza oven on all day, different story. Those "Forged by the Gods" (anyone seen the https://komodokamado.com/ home page lately? I don't remember Dennis looking quite like that!) steel grates. I'd miss them. Otherwise, if you need an electric BBQ, buy one from someone who has perfected the form, similar to how Dennis has perfected the KK form.

1. Look at how the gas burner assembly works for a KK. Start with another door, and fashion something similar with an electric charcoal starter? It will survive extended use, as we're going to toggle the power to it. 2. One can still buy sous vide controllers with an A/C outlet, from many sources. Many of us use a BBQ Guru or similar for charcoal fire temperature control. The basic idea of a PID Temperature Controller long predates these BBQ units; they all control the heat somehow in response to a temperature reading and a target temperature. One could use a thermometer in the KK as input to ta PID controller toggling power to the electric charcoal starter. 3. Would your condo allow use of the KK KK Cold Smoker ? If not, I'd experiment with ways to use the electric charcoal starter to also generate smoke. A lightweight alternative to my "smoke pot" would be an all-steel water bottle and cap, such as the Klean Kanteen and the separate all-steel cap. Remove the silicone seal, and drill a few holes to relieve pressure and let out smoke. Rest on the charcoal starter; you'll get smoke but not flame, as oxygen can't get in. This is mostly guesswork, but I have a reasonable track record inventing KK gadgets. I do have experience with PID controllers. In the early 80's I read Harold McGee on food science, and I also read how in restaurants in France that had vacuum packers, they'd package fish and marinades as an alternative to steaming. (I'm probably conflating two stories in imagining they then put the fish in a dishwasher.) Huh. A light bulb went off, as McGee's main point was how arbitrary the boiling point of water was, yet cooking technique leans against this particular temperature because we're too lazy to stand up. I imagined Sous Vide cooking without ever having heard of it beyond these two clues, and researched gear for chem lab temperature control. I gave up, not sure it would work and barely able to afford the gear in question. It turns out that Restaurant Troisgros had already been using sous vide technique for a decade, to get better foie gras yields, but the idea was not yet popular. A few decades later, when I heard to my chagrin that sous vide was a thing that actually worked (and I still couldn't afford the official gear) I rewired a soup warmer to be controlled from a PID controller, and started cooking sous vide.

I use my weed burner screwed onto a small camping propane tank, like you'd use with a camp stove or lantern. It takes very little space. I also attached a hose clamp along the tube, to aid in balancing the burner in position. I adjust it every minute or so, rather than standing there holding it.

As a kid on a family camping trip, I fashioned a slingshot, and went foraging in the woods for suitable projectiles. I found an inexhaustible supply of perfectly formed pellets. I was briefly chagrined when my Dad identified them. If memory serves me right, though, I kept using them. The traditional diet of hare in the south of France (where it is now 45 C) is wild-grown Herbes de Provence. They would be spectacular in a pellet smoker.

At first glance, those pavers look like you're provisioning Hawaiian grilled spam for a party.

I'm very happy with my 23" Ultimate. There are valid reasons to want or prefer a 32, but no one should feel they're short-changing themselves by buying the 23". If I had another comma in my net worth I'd still buy the 23".

The Day the Fire Died

Here's another cauliflower recipe that works great on the grill, from Ranjit Raj's Tandoor cookbook (highly recommended).

Smoke pot plume in a (not recommended) off-brand K7, before I came to my senses and bought a 23" Ultimate KK. One only sees such a plume in too-hot conditions for reasonable smoking, but the experience is nevertheless amusing.

I'm all there on this argument. I'm thrilled with my 23" Ultimate. As I said on another thread, I wouldn't swap up if I inherited another comma. Nevertheless, one can practice charcoal conservation with any KK. A tight seal is critical; if your fire doesn't go out right away on an older KK, then a seal replacement is mandatory. I start by lighting (propane burner then leaf blower) the old charcoal again for my next cook, then add fresh charcoal as needed. The official KK basket splitter pays for itself quickly if one has a taste for good charcoal. 23 Ultimate Charcoal Basket Splitter The idea of the basket splitter is to channel the entire airflow through half as much charcoal. This matters if one cares about efficiency reaching an oven temperature. I tend to grill fish, or sous vide meat then sear briefly, where only the radiant heat of the fire matters. For that, I love using this charcoal basket: Broil King KA5565 Keg Caddie Charcoal Basket It holds less charcoal than my 23" Ultimate basket splitter, closer to my lower grate. In summary, one can conserve charcoal while using a larger KK. I conserve charcoal while using a smaller KK, and I'm very happy.

We have a 23" Ultimate KK, and a small Weber I sometimes use for preheating my smoke pot. Our neighbor has our previous K7 ceramic cooker, and a wide selection of other cookers including a pellet smoker, one of those South American grates that goes up and down, and a wood fired pizza oven. I'll go out on a limb and say one can only achieve pizza greatness in a wood fired pizza oven. One can also lose a pizza in a blink of an eye; constant attention is needed. I also have experience with various roadside wood fired pizza ovens; a stand between Salem, OR and Monmouth, OR comes to mind. In general, a smaller wood fired pizza oven than a restaurant in Italy would choose saves fuel, time, space, and money, at the expense of the pizza. While I'm completely happy with my 23" KK and wouldn't change it out if I inherited another comma; my neighbors are already plotting a size up for their wood fired pizza oven. It's very simple: In a too-small oven, the fire is uneven, and the pizza needs frequent fiddling and turning. A larger oven is more stable. If one knows one's KK and one's pizza recipe, and has a good sense of one's fire, one can pour wine at the table like there's no tomorrow, armed with only a timer for retrieving a credible finished pizza. The main issue with the KK (once one learns to get a hot enough but not excessive fire) is that the heat comes from below. I like using the KK double-walled drip pan as a heat deflector, to protect the KK pizza stone (as good as a Fibrament stone, and it fits) from radiant heat from the fire. For a wood fired pizza oven, go big or go home.

How to Drill Into Cast Iron The main point is to be patient, let the bit do its work. I use cutting oil or any handy lubricant e.g. soap. Drilling the first smoke pot (still in use), my thinking was the fewest, smallest holes that would keep the lid from blowing off. The smoke pot was inspired by how one makes charcoal: Seal a container with holes underneath, start a fire underneath, and soon gases will flow from the container and burn, sustaining the fire needed to complete the conversion to charcoal. One doesn't get any nasty byproducts from the wood burning completely. This is selecting the best components of more wood than one would ever use loose in a fire. Think armagnac versus moonshine. The easiest way to be a good cook that doesn't require talent is to practice selective yields. I've never liked the results over 300 F; at higher temperatures considerable pressure can build. I remember various experiments that made flames the size of the smoke pot itself, shooting out the bottom holes. Were this to instead blow off the lid, causing two quarts of chips to catch fire, dinner would be ruined. I chose 1/8" thinking that going much smaller would create undo pressure; I'm sure 3/32" is also fine. I could picture an unlucky chunk blocking a single hole, again causing the lid to blow; three holes is insurance. Too many holes risks a fire inside the pot, defeating the idea. I usually get the smoke pot hot enough while lighting the fire, by using a propane weed burner aimed under the pot. However, sometimes for a winter low & slow I'll start the KK well in advance of adding the meat. In this case I'll heat up the smoke pot over a small side fire, to add with the meat. This is obviously working far too hard, but if 80 people are expecting pork butt I want to get it right. One could probably / most days get away without the flour paste to seal the lid. However, fires shift, charcoal collapses as it burns. Again, if the lid bounces free and two quarts of smoking chips catch fire, the cook is ruined. I don't mind the flour paste bit. I mix up flour and water in a little baggie, nick the corner to make a dispenser, and apply to the lid like squeezing toothpaste, with paper towels handy for cleanup. There's a romance here: In Morocco, where pots rarely fit well together in days of lore, one would use flour paste and towels to secure a good fit for making couscous. At some point in the past, I decided that "fearing complexity" was holding back my cooking. If one could measure manual dexterity output, most of us do less in a day than a concert pianist in ten minutes of practice. I find that downright embarrassing, an outcome I refuse to accept, so I go out of my way to find opportunities to keep my hands moving. The flour paste bit isn't that bad.

Actually it looks like someone followed my instructions for resurfacing an RJ K that had all the tiles fall off. Black concrete dye, in some mixture that I've long since forgot. But it looks exactly like mine, now in a neighbor's yard.

Nearly the same here: Our freshly milled flour is 1:1 red wheat to rye.

I'm ordering 20 boxes to my house (again no loading dock) in Concord (40 minutes north). If your share doesn't get local traction, perhaps you want to add to my order?

Cod with red charmoula.

(This is the attached image in the original post.)