Syzygies

I managed to disassemble and reassemble without directions; I recall it was tricky. Believing it is meant to come apart is half the battle. Only once it is apart does one see how everything fits together. My favorite version of this: Thirty years ago I had a Pelican fountain pen, and unscrewing it to add ink I accidentally took it apart further than intended. I was stumped for part of an hour how it went back together, till I made the assumption that it was supposed to be reassembled "wrong" in a way that made the ink reservoir a third smaller. It went together in seconds. I decided to "fix" it, but I wanted a spare of the part I was about to possibly demolish. I called a dozen pen shops around the country (how did one even learn who to call before the internet?). I finally called Fahrney's Pens in Washington D.C., and was put on hold, then their repair guru they normally protect from the public answered: "You won't figure it out. It took me three weeks to make the tool. Just send your pen to me!" She hadn't even been able to convice Pelican there was a problem. She routinely "upgraded" any Pelican pen she worked on, but I was the first person in the known universe that had noticed this issue, besides her. We were ecstatic to talk with each other.

There's a classic book from the early days of aviation that all pilots read: Fate is the Hunter The author was on a final flight before a long-awaited fishing vacation. The plane was making awful noises. He finally crawled into a wing cavity to explore, telling his copilot to do nothing. He then ignored the issue, and flew cautiously to a safe landing. There was a welcoming party. The other two planes of his type, same service history, had crashed while he was airborne. A long investigation concluded that the only way to avoid crashing was to do nothing. He took this as an omen, and retired. I believe that you're oversteering. Perhaps you're also starting with too much fire; always light just enough charcoal to pass command to the temp controller. See how close to sealed you can close the upper damper without putting your fire out. Partially close the valve on the bellows, if necessary. Wait twenty minutes between reactions. I like to file things into psychological categories. Controlling a fire, like some but not all cooking tasks, gets better when one stops "caring so much". I tend to place my controller temperature probe through the top lid hole that normally holds the analog thermometer, with an alligator clip (roach clip) as stop. This can read cold at first, and hot later, but I've had better luck controlling fires this way than with the standard advice to position the probe an inch away from the meat. It eventually doesn't matter; for low & slow the entire cooker converges on the same temperature, after this initial imbalance.

I came to KK from a POSK which dropped all its tiles. I liked my repair, I gifted it to my neighbor, but it "disassembled" when he then tried to gift it to our gardener. The Kamado Fraud Forum featured my POSK then took it down out of misguided "respect" for my feelings. I was proud of that repair. I figured I knew how to cook ceramic. Aside from all the superlatives that a KK is simply the best, it was a bit like learning to land a jet after flying Cesna prop planes. One learns, and it's all for the good, but don't kid yourself. Moving to something that "just works" is always an adjustment. On a parallel note, there's this idea in the tool world that one earns the right to the best tools. I disagree. An expert can make any tool work. A beginner really benefits from the best tools they can find, particularly in woodworking. For ceramic cookers, one "earns" the right to the best tool if one can come up with the scratch. End of story. No regrets.

I used to use chimneys, dating to before my ceramic cooker days. I'd buy a basic one and remove both the handle and the inside floor, so it was basically a cylinder with holes. I'd set it down on the charcoal grates, add paper and/or wax starters then charcoal, and light it in place. When the fire had developed I'd lift up with channel lock plyers, freeing the charcoal. The two advantages of a chimney are restricted airflow and additional height. Dennis is clear that our fireboxes are designed to restrict airflow (focus airflow on the charcoal) without help. I like to "design" my fire, so I want to set the charcoal in place before lighting it. This is crucial lighting extruded lump under a smoke pot for low & slow, and a mere personality quirk for hot fires. Pouring the chimney jumbles the fire. Lifting it out with channel lock plyers is less disruptive. Nevertheless, I had to adopt the weed burner approach for low & slow fires, and somehow they took over for everything (with the gas burner assembly being an experimental alternative). I don't know what happened to my modified chimney.

My overall favorite way is a pair of propane weed burners. I put hose clamps where I want the necks to rest on the KK edge, and trap the heads in the charcoal basket handles. This is especially effective for lighting the charcoal underneath a cast iron smoke pot. I have the gas burner assembly, despite fairly universal advice that this is a poor idea. The trouble is that it lights from the bottom, leading to an intense fire that burns out too quickly. Fogo for example sells giant lump as one option; big pieces work well e.g. for pizza (tonight's menu). I'm a huge fan of 99% isopropyl alcohol; I buy it in gallon jugs. That's routinely how I light a Solo Stove for quick grilling e.g. of salsa vegetables: A few wood chunks, more lump charcoal, pour on too much iso (oops) and light with a long match. Enjoy the sonic boom as the area birds decide to migrate! However one lights a fire, it needs oxygen more than additional flame, once it has started. Dennis used to use a hairdryer. I've convinced him and others to switch to a battery-powered leaf blower. The Ego leaf blower is too powerful for this application. If one already has joined the Milkwaukee battery cinematic universe, the Milwaukee leaf blower is perfect for fires, though anemic for other uses.

Komodo Kamado Grill Basics -- The Secrets Of Kamado Cooking (As Dennis shared in the KK forum thread KK Videos)

Take good care of yourself in recovery! You'll need a good story to tell people. Like, you were visiting an elephant preserve, and the vets offered to let you try ...

Taco nights! I like to start my carnitas in the KK.

Huh. My JVC is now with a friend, who's camping in Canada, so we can't run the experiment. This certainly wouldn't work with a chamber vacuum sealer bag. A bag designed for external clamp machines (there are many sources other than FoodSaver) is textured on the inside, with grooves that allow the air to escape. That's what you use. I'd bet that this works: The JVC becomes an awkwardly sized external clamp machine. Someone who can source the correct textured bags should try this. The JVC has another neat feature: A vacuum port to which one can attach a hose. This can create vacuums in external containers, e.g. to marinate meats. PSA along these lines: There are a multitude of off-label ways to use a chamber vacuum machine. Marinating meats, and making quick pickles, are two well-known ways. Two long cycles with pasta dough in a cereal bowl hydrated the dough better than waiting, and the monster movie expansion and contraction is fun to watch.

I've owned a VacMaster VP115 and VP120. When the VP115 failed after seven years, I replaced it with a JVR Vac 100 based on advice here. I've since gifted that machine to a friend, now that I've given up that apartment. I'm waiting for the VP120 to break so I can replace it with another JVR. The JVR is wide enough to seal two 6" wide bags side by side. I have workflows where that's huge. The JVR is designed to open easily, like the trunk of a car. The VacMaster is in every way an earlier generation. I hesitated to get an oil pump machine first time around. Oil pump machines are easy to maintain, don't get destroyed by water vapor, and develop a better vacuum. Anyone contemplating an air pump machine "to keep it simple" just isn't ready yet. Wait, then buy an oil pump.

Looks like a K5, not a K7, to me. A buddy bought a K5 when I bought a K7. Mine dissolved into the ground; his still (sort of works). A KK is worth the money. Anything of similar appearance to this K5, new in a hardware or box store, is a better value than this K5.

Taco party yesterday. We make too much food, and it all went. This is what was left of carnitas from two kilos of pork butt. Carnitas is typically a stovetop pork butt braise. However, it just felt wrong not involving the KK and smoke somehow, and one of my guests always want ribs. This could have been the best version I've ever made; I started by smoking 1 1/2" slices for several hours in a cazuela, using apple wood in a one quart smoke pot. The meat was easily trimmed of excess fat at this point, and the cazuela drippings replaced the recipe lard. Proceed as normal from here, stovetop recipe.

It's been a few years, but I've made many batches of fermented Tabasco-style hot sauce over the years. Like many of us, I have a chamber vacuum machine. The signature uses of sous vide and freezer preservation easily justify a machine. Nevertheless, we should all take inspiration from those "what goes in a blender?" YouTube videos. What goes in a chamber vacuum machine? A couple of sixty second sessions will hydrate any dough better than a long rest. This has an extraordinary effect on pasta dough. A quick refrigerator pickle such as a Mexican Cauliflower and Jalapeño Escabeche (Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling by Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral has the best recipe I've seen) benefits from vacuum packing and a rest. Some people ferment chiles for hot sauce by vacuum packing the peppers with a starter, in a large pouch with room for the gases. The challenge in fermenting chiles is getting white cloudy Kahm Yeast. While it isn't harmful, it's gross, and in my opinion it affects the flavor. The fermenting world is full of people who've never figured out how to avoid Kahm yeast, who consider worrying about it a silly concern. I usually don't get Kahm yeast, but I consider myself an abject failure of a human being when I do. The hope is that removing oxygen by chamber vacuum sealing the chiles will prevent Kahm Yeast. I also have an argon tank, for saving part bottles of wine, and I intend to experiment with displacing the air in a carboy, as an alternate approach. I adjust pH to below the botulism threshold whatever I do, measuring with a professional pH meter. You can get banned from a fermentation forum by suggesting such a thing, but it brings me peace of mind. Many botulism deaths are the result of ill-advised experiments that break with long understood tradition, such as Alaskan natives fermenting meats in a plastic pail rather than in the traditional sealskin. One should recognize that any novel approach to fermenting hot sauce poses similar questions.

Rob, I'm sorry! My new meds are working, and I no longer fall down rabbit holes like this. The way to think about any problem like this is to get so much practice that one doesn't need to think at all.

There may be a divergence between appearance and reality, here. In competition one starts meat cold, to maximize the smoke effect. There's a cutoff temperature after which a smoke ring won't form. And judges, who have their palates blown by competitors with coarse smoke handling, look for this ring. There's a camp that finishes in the oven, perhaps after transport, because smoke no longer matters after the ring has formed. I see the error in this logic, but I don't know for a fact that smoke at later stages matters that much. When I was commuting to NYC I'd smoke BBQ part way, chill it, vacuum pack it and freeze it, then friends would finish it any way that came to mind. In the oven? In a pot of beans? Choucroute? I don't have experience flipping this order, but my intuition is that late smoking isn't as effective.

Um yes, I tried everything, back in the day. My first cooker was an offset firebox, then a POSK before graduating to a Dennis-grade KK. I'm best known here for devising the cast iron "smoke pot" that came out of a related charcoal-making experiment. People complain that cast iron isn't nonstick, yet Michelin chefs use stainless pans easily? It's skill. Wood smoke can be seriously nasty. Barbecue using wood takes skill. More skill than anyone I know has, or perhaps I'm unusually finicky about how food should taste. Ideally one has two fires, one to prepare embers, and another for actual cooking with fully developed embers. True wood fire experts use some green wood, but that's getting into Olympic-grade difficulty. If you want to transfer embers into the KK, that have given up all nasty flavors already, you might be happy. Consider a large fire pit such as a Solo Stove, for preparing the embers. I had a friend burned out of his apartment, lucky to be alive only because his 70's Advent speakers were hung using fishnet that burned through, making a loud crashing noise that overcame his inebriated coma. I was first back into his apartment with him, aghast at the horror of his lost LPs and .. the smell. That's what cooking with wood tastes like, if you're not extraordinarily careful.

The P134H is $1,461 stateside. What model is yours? Effeuno Pizza Oven P134H 509 + Biscotto Clay Stone (Are you ok if my wife takes your name in vain, until she tastes the pizza?)

We put in 230v for our hybrid gas range / electric oven. The outlet work looks trivial; one pays for running appropriate wire and knowing how to add such a line to an already full junction box. If one ever does this (I was out of town or I would have hovered), mark the acceptable region with masking tape, and insist on seeing the work before letting the crew push the range back into place. My electrician was good at what he does, but could have found a better job had he actually been able to read a manual page. He installed the outlet in the wrong spot, range won't push all the way in. On my to-do list to move the outlet a bit; I've been busy. Just back from Japan.

Try sous vide before chilling or freezing the steak? Cook in a water bath at target serving temperature (desired doneness) for longer than anyone says. Like four to six hours for a cheaper cut, full of flavor but of need of tenderness. Then with a really cold start, one cooks the outside to desired doneness. As long as the interior can be plausibly served, it will be both cooked just right and very tender. We mathematicians call this replacing an equality with an inequality. Rather than hitting a mark, you're just trying not to overshoot on the interior.

Even Dennis isn't trying to spend your money, he just wants you to be happy. Yes, you don't need a Kamado stainless drip pan to fashion a heat deflector. For many years I lined a plain terra cotta plant saucer (they come in large sizes) with heavy duty aluminum foil. The terra cotta cracked every few years, and i'd be out $20 for another one. Once I bought the Kamado double bottom drip pan, I use it whenever I can. It makes an excellent heat deflector. If one's cook isn't overly salty, it protects the drippings from scorching. One doesn't necessarily plan to use the drippings, but cooking is improvisation, and anything remotely related to gravy needs brownings as a base. We all have different ways to measure expense. If cleanup is a bigger deal than purchase price, then one might worry about cleaning the drip pans. A terra cotta saucer lined with foil is surely a breeze at cleanup time, and one could use the drippings. One I bought an electric pressure washer to prepare our deck for annual oiling, I look for any excuse to use it. Like Arnold's flame thrower in Commando, it might be overkill but it gets the job done. I'm already using it to clean the grates, at which point giving the drip pan a wipe then also pressure washing it is easy.

Yes, 24 hours for a 5 lb butt does seem a long time. The pink (uncoated) butcher paper favored by Aaron Franklin for some cooks is something I'd consider here. One often wraps a butt in foil to rest in a cooler after cooking; the pink butcher paper somewhat breathes, so one can use it for the latter part of a cook with less detrimental effect than foil. This isn't a popular choice for butt, but 5 lbs is small. Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook helped me to reject orthodox thinking, like taking 225 F as gospel. Pit masters do what they need to do. Aaron Franklin cooks everything at 275 F, that's the house temperature for cookers sharing various meats. Especially with a smaller butt, I'd try this. One tells when a butt is done by touch, not temperature. When it yields, the bone threatens to wiggle out, the butt is done. I'll just say it, conventional wisdom is an oxymoron. The standard advice for when a butt is done is misguided. The butt I've had at commercial restaurants in North Carolina was very weak. It wasn't Charlie Chaplin shoe leather, but it might as well have been stewed unraveled cotton rope. There's a point cooking any butt where it transitions from needing to be sliced, to "pulling". There's a later point where the meat strands become ropey. One wants to catch butt after the first transition, but before the second transition.

It may not look like much but smoked it has an amazing effect on my guests' appetites.

I used to buy both Lazzari lump and Lazzari briquettes, again with a natural binder. I've moved on from both, but I don't have a prejudice against briquettes. Taste, convenience... They're certainly a quick way to get a pizza fire going.

I too have the JVR Vac100 and I love it. A generational advance over the chamber machine I had (and still have, other location). Call them? At a minimum, understand why they don't offer a 230v model now, and their future plans. Which parts would need to be replaced? The innards look easily repaired, like a 1950's car.