Syzygies

Difference: Them Us

Re: kk tool accessories

Re: SF Bay Area Buy Laurie was thrilled to hear we're joining this order, even though we've got lots of earlier stock on hand. I'd been saving extruded coconuts for low & slow, though I do less of that, more of everything else. She tasted a bit more off flavors from the oak lump in Saturday's burgers, even after I let the fire really burn down before cooking. So I proposed that we could start using extruded coconut for burger nights. We never go out to restaurants as we'd rather cook at home (the KK is easily paid off from this perspective), so why not? She says she likes that I spoil her. I like that I get so much support from Dennis spoiling her! Charcoal is like wine.

Re: kk tool accessories They're for removing hot grates. Reach in to opposite sides, twist to grab, and lift.

Re: Turkey Bikini Jiarby would put a half lemon under each breast.

Don't vary the recipe Neither of the specified all-purpose cleaners (409, Fantastic) contain bleach. One cannot substitute an arbitrary cleaner here without checking the ingredients. Nearly everyone who experiments with homemade mixtures like this knows the most important equation: Ammonia + Bleach = Death Google this first, if you didn't know this, and have any temptation to modify the recipe given here. I label my cleaning products with a sharpie if they have either of these ingredients, and include this equation for the benefit of anyone borrowing my apartment.

Re: SF Bay Area Buy I'm pretty set, but I'd like nevertheless to have some of the new charcoal. I can make up the breakage (e.g. the last 6-8 boxes) to make up a pallet, or I can yield if someone else turns up, if which case I'll make the same offer to the next SF Bay share. I'm up in Concord, so Pleasanton is not so far away, but San Jose is further than I'd like to drive. Were I actually out, I'd want a 28 box pallet for myself. I trust that Dennis will keep making the stuff, so I'm happy to float like this...

Get a second charcoal basket! I bought a second charcoal basket from Dennis. I don't recall it being expensive, and it was well worth it. One holds local hardwood lump for high temp burns, and one holds extruded coconut lump for low & slows. I always use more than enough ECC, and I rest the spare charcoal basket on a terra cotta plant saucer in the garage. Shutdown is a tricky balance. One wants to snuff the fire without getting a stuck top hat. Get the bottom sealed tight, and the top loosely tightened. One can tighten further on one's pick up pass after dinner. (After the waxing ruckus I started, perhaps I should reword that? ) I haven't tried the new lump yet; I'm working through my old stock. The first batch Dennis offered (not made by Dennis) has the flavor characteristics I want, and is probably more fragile than the new stuff. In any case, lifting out the charcoal basket avoids handling the partially burned charcoal. I like to alternate, swapping baskets before each cook. Grill cleanliness is the Achilles' heel of low & slow cooks, but high temp cooks do a wonderful "self cleaning oven" job of cleaning up, after a grill floss cleanup. Now that ECC is readily available, maybe more people will spring for the second charcoal basket.

Re: Waxed for the Winter This was not your fault! Sorry I didn't use a smiley.

Right forum? n66981 Boy, when I first looked at "view unread posts" I really had to wonder if I was on the right forum...

Re: First Burn of KK Extruded Coconut Charcoal Now I'm wondering, does the coffee charcoal work like coke?

Re: First Burn of KK Extruded Coconut Charcoal

Re: Guide the break Ok, I'll bite. I feel like I'm 13 again. Laurie couldn't explain it to me either. I don't get it! As a friend says each time she finds something I build in the back yard, "Explanation please?"

Guide the break Of course, another basic engineering principle is to "guide the break". One slashes bread to control the oven spring. Sidewalks come precracked for expansion. Taking down a large tree is all about this principle. You pre-crack the internal firebox collar in a KK. A systematic design flaw in my "off-brand K" was that it was designed head-in-sand for all sorts of similar effects, rather than recognizing the effect and attempting to guide it. I'm a big believer in lubricants and solvents before forcing anything, to give it the best chance to move as designed. One can always clean the nasty liquids off later.

Re: tight top vent Be careful not to go too tight after a very hot fire. After the metal contracts it might be very hard to get the top back open. I tighten part way, come back in an hour when the fire has died to the point where the top hat is cooler. Oh yeah, if I remember.

Re: Indirect/Water? Yep, you talked me into it.

Re: BBQGuru New Product (drum roll...) You say that like it's a bad thing!

Re: Indirect/Water?

Re: KK is here and first cook pics! Oh man that looks good...

Re: Covering your KK In California, we use the cover for rainy season, and leave it off for the dry half of the year, including summer. Otherwise I'd get tennis elbow taking it on and off, and we like looking at the KK. Rain carries messy particles (look at your car) and a partial load of charcoal stays dry enough to use again, this way. Even closed up tight, I feel the damp has a better chance to get inside without a cover, and that I don't want.

Re: Assembling the rotisserie basket Nice. When we filmed my one line in A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe complimented my voice, and then said I had "a good face for radio."

Re: Getting Close!! That's wild stuff.

Re: Indirect/Water? A ceramic cooker retains moisture better than a Weber, and a KK is the tightest of the ceramic cookers. This effect is nevertheless a matter of degree, and worth considering. A very full ceramic cooker performs differently from one with a small load. This is true across brands, less so with a KK but the effect is still there. I've recently made some "village bread oven" experiments roasting with my KK, where I don't begin cooking till the fire is basically out, and the KK itself is thoroughly heat-soaked. Opening a fairly tight cooker to check on a roasting chicken, I had quite the surprise: The steam equivalent of flashback. I didn't actually burn myself, but I could have. I'm gearing up for KK experiments with baking hearth breads. Home baking is a tricky subject because you basically have to take people's word for it that they're getting good results, all you can really take on faith is that they're happy with their results. Professional bread ovens inject steam to a degree impossible in a home oven. Spritzing like a banshee and pouring boiling water into a cast iron dutch oven can sure appease the "effort" gods (if they can pull themselves away from "Flashdance" reruns to notice), but is not a match for a professional bread oven. The Egyptians baked bread in covered pots, an idea quoted by "La Cloche" bread bakers, simplified by the no-knead crowd to using a Le Creuset dutch oven, and simplified by the Tartine Bread book to baking in a covered cast iron pot (Lodge LCC3 Logic Pre-Seasoned Combo Cooker). Here, the dough generates the right amount of steam for its baking chamber. So, does a loaf of bread generate enough steam for a very tight, thoroughly heat-soaked KK after the fire dies? I'm not sure, but I doubt it, and I'll be experimenting with adding steam. For ordinary roasting in a KK, I'm not sure worrying about steam is worth the trouble. One can easily add too much. Nevertheless, this is an issue everyone has to work through for themselves, before developing a personal style. Or (yes, you there lurking) just buy one and demonstrate to the rest of us what minimal effort really looks like. The KK rewards that style of cooking. (Channel your inner Jamie.)

Re: Alice our new puppy is in the house! Our neighbors (the ones that got handed our off-brand K that shed its tiles, when we got our KK) have a pair of golden doodles. From puppies I befriended them, not wanting any territorial responses through the fence. Now they're escape artists, and whenever they get loose they show up at our door. I've been pretty generous with the BBQ with them over the years, and they don't seem to mind. Lovely dogs. Very doggy. We call them the snickerdoodles.

Re: Clamp and Seal Sous Vide The word "boil" is an oversimplification, but an aid to shopping. I've never simmered anything over 195 F using sous vide techniques, and usually in the range 140 F to 160 F. If a bag can't be boiled, and they're not telling me where the limit is, then I'm assuming the limit is below a temperature I might use. For comparison purposes, Cambro tells me their temperature ranges: http://cool.cambro.com/CamSquares_Poly_ ... orage.ashx CamSquares - Poly Withstands temperatures from -40°F to 160°F (-40°C - 70°C). http://cool.cambro.com/CamSquares_Camwe ... orage.ashx CamSquares - Camwear Withstands temperatures from -40°F to 210°F (-40°C - 99°C). I certainly cook above 160 F, so I buy the more expensive Cambros, to be safe. These are guidelines, and even below 160 F I've bought a better margin of error. A helpful question to ask yourself might be: Why do the vacuum pouch manufacturers sell two grades of bags?