Syzygies

Re: KK in nytimes Back with my previous cooker (pictured above, which fell apart, leading me to upgrade to a Komodo Kamado), I only thought a Weber was good for improving wireless thermometer reception. But I've moderated my views... Yeah, I've seen (more on other ceramic forums) people dissing Webers, and it strikes me as as rather disingenuous. Or rather, insulting the intelligence of anyone who's a good cook with fire, and knows a Weber in the right hands is an amazing instrument. Tell them it's not, their BS meter goes off five alarms, and we miss out on another enthusiast joining our ranks. Tell them it's like you've established an interest in photography, now spend up for a good camera, and the argument makes more sense. Our little Weber sits near our KK, and we just used it the other day. A chuck steak, sousvide one hour at 132 F, and I just needed a minute of incineration on each side to give it a taste of the fire before serving. I sure don't miss having to wake up every two hours, and coming back to bed smelling of smoke. For high temps such as pizza, there's no comparison. While Laurie was enthusiastic, my ploy to lift the "wife acceptance factor" of this purchase was to make noises about building a pizza oven in our backyard. Ever notice how much those cost, and how much space they take up?!

Re: Delivery tomorrow Yip Yeah!

Re: 4th of July 2011 n66917 Of course, following this logic, I did try using a generic Surly Table terra cotta tagine over our small Weber. Struggling in conceptual quicksand, here. In Morocco they keep feeding the brazier fire, mini version of "two wood fires" for classic American BBQ. The Weber fire faded out, of course. Better just to choose a clay pot adapted to an oven, and use the rock-steady KK as one's outdoor oven.

Re: 4th of July 2011 n66914 n66915 n66916 So pot beans (precooked 18 hours at 195 F) going in on top to "see clay and fire". Meanwhile, we're plotting what to do with our first tomato... The clay pot is a 26 cm or 10.2 inch diameter cazuela with lid from Spanish Table. (Soak 12 hours before first use.) We bought it for Moroccan tagine stews, but it fits a pound of pot beans perfectly. It finally sunk in that traditional cone-top tagines are designed to go over a fire, not in an oven, so the cone stays cool and condenses steam back onto the stew. Sticking a cone-top tagine in an oven is rather affected. Same as putting a giraffe's food on the ground: Unclear on the concept. In Morocco they do put tagines in the oven (work with what you have) but they leave the top off.

Re: 4th of July 2011 n66913 Our brisket for a party on the third... Host's wife made special request not too fatty (I chose brisket over ribs or butt) and not too smoky (I figured she meant Apple not Hickory but couldn't remember the names ) Host assured me he and guests indeed nevertheless wanted BBQ.

From the New York Times: For These Chefs, Even Fire Can Be Improved Interesting. I liked the idea of "fire spice": Same idea as throwing Allspice onto embers for Jamaican cooking, if one doesn't have the tree. The tree grows like a weed in the right climate, but my attempt died the first winter of frostbite.

Re: Tri-Tip The SousVide Supreme Demi is $299. Vacuum pack any piece of meat and simmer for an hour at 134 F (medium rare) or any internal temperature you choose, to the degree. Then get the KK raging to finish before serving. This is how restaurants have been doing it for years. Same idea as (the inspiration for?) the reverse sear, with pinpoint control and no issues swinging the fire low to raging.

Re: Ok, some of you new kiwi members need to explain this! Somehow I'm making a connection with the cherry stem in Twin Peaks.

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details It's from Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. One pounds a charmoula of 2 tsp toasted cumin seeds, garlic, salt, paprika, parsley, cilantro, pulp of a preserved lemon, and olive oil. Rub half on a pound of fish (we used halibut) and set aside to marinade. Add a bit of water to the rest, layer in baking vessel with tomatoes, sliced bell peppers (we substituted), carrots, celery (we always substitute fennel), the fish and more of everything. Top with preserved lemon peel and bay leaves. Bake at 300 F till done. She gives proportions and I do slavishly follow recipes the first time (sometimes). Responsibility is on you however both to cook the fish properly, and get the proportions as tasty as possible. It was great, but I'd wing it next time from memory of the above description, not her exact proportions, paying more attention to how I think it'll taste. Also, I like my fish just done, so it would be tempting to precook the veggies a bit, then go much slower in the KK, uncovering the cooking vessel to cautiously take on a bit of the smoke. Water is a smoke magnet, so be very cautious here. The tagine knows it was cooked over charcoal (and so do you!) even with the lid on. [Edit] Tried this again, uncovered, and the fish drew in too much smoke, in a very unflattering way. Proceed with care!

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details n66906 Fish tagine in a soapstone pot in the KK. Why run an oven indoors, in this heat?

Re: Bronze Behemoth Game On! 2 Yep, the Windows theme song: "But I've found a driver and that's a start!"

Sous vide ribeye steaks So tonight, we cooked some local grass-fed ribeye steaks, sous vide in vacuum bags at 134 F for an hour then seared on the lower KK grate. A classic sous vide technique, known in the local BBQ dialect as the reverse sear. My first try at this with real sous vide equipment. The texture was amazingly like restaurant prime rib, my usual defensive dining choice at any credible place that means well. Next time we may go a few degrees lower (134 F is medium rare and we prefer a bit more rare) and I may encourage more of a raging inferno for the fire. The sous vide technique, nevertheless, makes for an extraordinarily predictable, reproducible result. I can see why restaurants like it.

Re: New to ceramic cooking It's a small world, and I don't know of a cookbook that does this justice. We've all learned by experiment and from each other. If one doesn't naturally cook with fire, it's possible a gift Komodo might not take. If one has grabbed every opportunity to milk the best out of whatever fire-cooking apparatus was available, I haven't heard of a single case of buyer's remorse. A good ceramic cooker (KK makes the best) is a pizza oven, tandoor, smoker, Weber, pie and bread oven, you name it, all at once. I'm a mathematician, we believe in going to original sources. The tandoor predates the KK by oh, thousands of years. One of my favorite cookbooks is Tandoor: The Great Indian Barbecue by Ranjit Rai, ISBN13: 9781585671441, ISBN10: 1585671444. Written for Indian audience, and alas out of print.

Re: Apricot Pork Loin Pinwheel Roast We're going to have to make this. Too good. A bit of a stretch, but this reminds me vaguely of "cima" a rolled veal breast popular in Genova, Italy. Nice, France and Genova, Italy used to be the same region before the countries of France and Italy emerged, and I learned a very similar dish in French cooking lessons. But apricots? Yum. Moroccan rocks, they do fruit and meat all the time.

Re: fathers day cook !!!!

Re: Trying High Heat Brisket For First Time (pics) And the verdict? (Another traditionalist, but very curious...)

Re: Fathers day piglet...... That's truly beautiful. I'm so jealous, Laurie won't even let me cook rabbit.

Re: Best Smoking Methods With KK? Smoke Pot (link) As the originator, I don't have WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor, a stereo term relating to speaker size) to ever try another method again. Try it...

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details Yum! Leftover pastrami makes great hash.

Re: House-cured pork shoulder and sous vide beans The interior dimensions of the SousVide Supreme Demi are 11" long by 8 3/4" wide, and 6" deep, with a domed lid giving a bit more headroom, e.g. for a 6" deep steam table pan set on a rack to insure water bath circulation. Here are the specs for steam table pans: One Sixth Size 6 15/16 x 6 3/8 176 x 162 mm 4" deep, 1.7 quarts 6" deep, 2.4 quarts One Ninth Size 6 15/16 x 4 1/4 176 x 108 mm 4" deep, 0.9 quarts

Re: House-cured pork shoulder and sous vide beans So the pork was great cooked eight hours to 190 F over apple smoke. Not quite pulled pork, but a section of shoulder handles the long cook and high temps better than chops, which are quickly ruined once they get too hot or sit. However, the outer bits were leaning dry. I solved this with some Mazi Piri Piri sauce (spectacular, artisanal production) but next time, wrap in bacon or caul fat?

So we picked up a 4 lb piece of boneless pork shoulder at a farmers market, and brined it a couple of days following a Paul Bertolli house-cured ham recipe. 2.5% salt by computed weight, scoring the meat as 80% water. Sugar, allspice, peppercorns, juniper berries, onions, carrots, fennel, parsley, thyme, bay, heated to 160 F and chilled. Meanwhile, we used a stoneware loaf pan in a SousVide Supreme Demi to cook half a pound of Rancho Gordo beans for 24 hours at 200 F, with garlic, white onion, salt, pepper and epazote. The Demi can accommodate either a One Sixth Steam Table Pan or two One Ninth Steam Table pans, which is what I'll use next time. Effectively, they sell the least expensive and most compact, precise steam table on the market; I'm trying to get them to make steam table adapter plates as accessories. Sous vide culture is hopelessly entangled in molecular gastronomy and skyscraper food, Alinea and El Bulli, when many of us just want to be Italian peasants using 23rd century equipment, on computer control so we can go work in the garden. Food elitism is a crippling disease. My to-the-point criticisms are that vacuum packing in plastic creates barriers to acceptance at many levels, and people are far better cooks if they can taste and adjust as they go. Vacuum packing is well suited to restaurant use where one perfects a protocol and repeats it endlessly. Imitating this at home has its place, but shouldn't be the only tool in the home sous vide arsenal.

Re: Chicken Fat - Split from First Rotis Cook topic.

Re: are cloth awnings over a KK ok?

Re: new member - waiting on delivery Colorado That works! Congrats x2.