Syzygies

Re: SB XLV Chicken wings recipe? I have a friend who makes Buffalo wings indoors (deep fried) that are twice as good as any restaurant version I've ever tried. (As in, someone else ordered them. I wouldn't.) The two critical pieces of advice: Cook thoroughly[/*:m:osnzdnqv] Use a potent hot sauce to prevent soggy wings[/*:m:osnzdnqv] How one best translates this to the KK is a good question, but these two principles explain every dreadful wing I've ever had in a restaurant.

Re: Introduction, a bit late and my new love No, Kamado King is not RJ. Here's a guide to ceramic cookers (quite inclusive, they also list cookers made from portland cement): http://biggreenegghead.com/big-green-eg ... ic-cookers

Re: New HandHewnFloors.com Site up and Running So it's not prohibitive to ship to the states? You make me want to change jobs so I can build a house. Nice site!

Re: Thermapens on Sale We can't imagine not having a Thermapen for our KK. Laurie gave me a second one for Christmas, for my New York apartment. Just before the sale, which is on through Jan 31. I just used it to keep an eye on my "reverse sear" shell steak. Dry aged from Fairway Markets; vacuum packed with salt, pepper, butter and heated in a Sous Vide water bath to 134 F. Then pan-seared and sauced with mushrooms, side of sweet plantains.

Re: Grill Floss vs Billy Bar Ok, here's what I know, and what I don't know: The Komodo Kamado has 3/8" - 304 Stainless grates. This is beefier than other ceramic cookers. Grill Floss tools come with a "Dual Sized Cleaning Head", 5/16" and 3/8". The larger head matches the KK spec. Billy Bar tools come in a single size, which fit my previous K7 (not recommended) grates well. My guess (the site doesn't say) is that they were 5/16". In any case, I formed the impression that it was a poor fit for my new KK, so I gave the tool to my neighbor along with the (now tileless) K7. (He was thrilled, a fire is a fire, but given the choice he'd take the KK any day.) So what's the debate here? If the Billy Bar doesn't fit, it doesn't matter if it's made of Play-Doh, right? My primary cleaning regimen has been to place the grill in an Oatey 24" water heater pan (plastic or metal, Home Depot, Lowes, or Oatey #34078 24" Aluminum Water Heater Pan (Amazon)). Plastic is fine if the grill is cool, one also needs a rubber stopper for the plumbing hole in the pan. After a decent soak, a wad of aluminum foil does a great job of cleanup. I also like to alternate low and high cooks; only the second low cook in a row presents interesting hygiene questions. Then, I might use soap. Nevertheless, it's nice to get the grill as clean as possible before the soak, or before a high cook. I just ordered a Grill Floss; I'm convinced. Come to think of it, I've never used the hinge feature on the main grill. I mainly wish it weren't there, when I flip the grill in the KK to get a better scrape on the underside. I'd vote (and pay) for a reversible main grill, given comments here and my experience. For that matter, a hinge could go either way; the main obstruction to reversibility are the tabs for grabbing the grill with the lifter tools.

Re: Saying expectations were exceeded is like Well, I deliberately added "group" to try to deflect attention away from the Yeats "Love has pitched his mansion" quote...

Re: Saying expectations were exceeded is like Yeah, it's crazy how people mix up the terms "anal retentive" and "obsessive compulsive". Different muscle groups...

Re: SNAKE RIVER FARMS Whole Bone-In Pork Shoulder I planned on 22 hours at 225 F. I should have gone lower or shorter (210 F or 17 hours) as it hit an internal temp of 185 F well before needed. (I'm rather distracted by a work-related project, but one can "phone in" KK cooks with enough practice.) So I turned the Guru (the no-longer-available oven dial basic model) down to 195 F. I was a bit under the weather (seasonal cold) and I'm a rather spoiled and fussy eater (at least we cook for ourselves) so it didn't taste spectacular to me. However, pretty much everyone at the party said it tasted spectacular. Who knows! Laurie admonished me to accept compliments graciously. One South Carolina expat said it was the best pulled pork he'd had outside of the state. I'd take that seriously, but remember that the "standard" for pulled pork is chopped up rope shreds, leaving a huge margin for sloppy, indifferent execution in a commercial setting. We KK folks strive for better than that. Part of my "avoid rope" thinking is to stop below 195 F internal, never go above 200 F as some do. The cooking time/temp issues may have played in the shoulder's favor, as winter pork can be quite fatty, but this was well-rendered, with all connective tissue nicely melted. I'd take off the fat cap before cooking, next time; the smoke and our rub of salt, pepper, chiles didn't get through that side. On the other hand, many people honestly like bland meat. People chose the bark side (spicy, salty, good textures) or the interior meat (bland, wonderful texture) to suit their tastes. For the ongoing brisket debate here, I side with a slow cook while sparing no expense for the meat. However, for pork I'm now leaning toward faster cooks that still manage to render fat and melt connective tissue. Stall below 120 F to absorb smoke, race to 160 F and stall to melt connective tissue, then clear the 180 F to 190 F stretch quickly.

Re: SNAKE RIVER FARMS Whole Bone-In Pork Shoulder A 20 lb pork shoulder from Diablo Foods in Lafayette, CA, just went on to bring tomorrow night to what some dear friends consider an intimate gathering. (There will be lots of other food; she's a great cook.)

Re: Has anyone tried a salt crusted prime rib ?? By which you mean that you executed a procedure as well as anyone could, yet in this instance you were unhappy with the results (too salty). I believe that your execution skills are beyond reproach; I have one of your covers! This calls into question the procedure. How did it differ from the over-the-top procedure that I quoted? Same brand of salt? Same ratio of egg whites, water? If there were differences, then the details of the procedure might matter; that's what we're all trying to figure out. We all hit walls in cooking, where we can't possibly believe that apparently minor differences in technique matter. Most don't, but then there's the occasional epiphany that some do.

Re: Has anyone tried a salt crusted prime rib ?? Baking fish in salt is a common Italian technique, and it doesn't come out too salty. A recent favorite book of mine is over-the-top precise on how to do this; worth an experiment for crossover applications like the question here. The book is worth the price just for the swordfish recipe, which I can't stop making (Pesce Spada alla Ghiotta - Swordfish "Glutton's Style" with tomato, capers, and olives). I highly recommend this book, and you'll notice it made lots of holiday lists. I have many books discussing this method, but these are the most precise directives that I have seen: My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy's Undiscovered South [Hardcover] Rosetta Costantino (Author), Janet Fletcher (Author), Shelley Lindgren (Contributor) Branzino Sotto Sale Whole Salt-Baked Sea Bass 3 pounds (1 1/2 kilograms) Diamond Crystal kosher salt 4 large egg whites

Re: Coldest KK Kook? This seems like a good time to queue up again that food-porn classic by our very own Dave Zier: Scroll to 1:40 (See Food Porn for commentary.)

Re: Coldest KK Kook? Not sure I understood this. Which rub?

Re: Cooking a raw ham on the KK Yes. I take it you know Nigel and Matthew? Nigel bought a ceramic cooker after they had tandoori chicken on mine, one evening after class. Alas, I hadn't figured out yet that KK cookers rule. For anyone interested, here is Kasma's web site: Thai Food and Travel Her cooking is as good as the best found traveling in Thailand; I've made the comparison (on one of her food trips). I don't know a viable alternative for studying Thai cooking in the U.S. For people who need to travel to take Oakland classes, the weeklong intensives make for a great vacation in San Francisco. That's what the Seattle contingent did. We always included quiz night at the definitive Brit pub in SF.

Re: Coldest KK Kook? The KK is exceedingly well insulated. The basic equation governing heat transfer is Newton's law of cooling, which states The rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings. The KK loses heat both through its walls, and through the airflow needed to maintain the fire. Nevertheless, this rule is a good first approximation; it appears to agree with fuel consumed in various scenarios. I would believe it most closely for slow cooks, where airflow is minimal. A 210 F cook on a 90 F day is a difference of 120 F. A 330 F cook on a 90 F day is a difference of 240 F. Both are absolutely routine for the KK; the latter uses more fuel. A 210 F cook on a minus 30 F day is also a difference of 240 F. This is in principle no more difficult for the KK. The temperature differential should impose no more stress than other situations we consider routine. What would invalidate this would be some sort of vulnerability to very low temperatures in the materials used. One thinks of Richard Feynman, O-rings, and the space shuttle. I was once taken by surprise by these temperatures, winter camping with my brother; my outer shell tore like paper, leading me to discover the North Face brand back when it was more for specialized uses like mountaineering. I learned that the only sports enthusiasts who don't stay in their tents at these temperatures are cross-country skiers traversing Antarctica; they can control their pace to maintain constant temperature. At the other extreme, K2 is a much harder climb than Everest not only because there are actual technical climbing sections, but because one has to wait standing still for unpredictable intervals as one's team tackles these sections. Dennis knows best, but to understand the KK materials one needs to think in thousands of degrees. I doubt that any outdoor temperature swing on this planet poses a particular threat.

Re: Cooking a raw ham on the KK What a great site! They could make it more obvious they're in Seattle, WA. I have some Brit friends from Thai cooking classes who work/worked at Microsoft; hopefully they're all over this store. I just wrote their FAQ to ask if their free range eggs are flash-pastured. How do they keep the yolks from cooking?

Re: Beef Ribs vs Pork Ribs Wow, now you're talking. I was going to come by, but I see you're not all that local. In the same vein, I just made "Pesce Spada alla Ghiotta" from a new Calabrian cookbook, My Calabria. It was great, perhaps my best dinner in weeks, but it reminded me of visiting the "fisherman's table" on Alicudi. There, he would have started the local variant on swordfish over charcoal, then his wife would finish with a sauce not unlike this recipe. Made me wish I was on the same coast as my Komodo.

Re: POSK Stuck Damper Remover Great idea. I once hurt my shoulder for months after helping a friend force his stuck K5 damper. (He didn't move with me to a KK.) Rather important now to use a hardware store bolt and nut of the same thread, to thoroughly exercise all the threads past the wear they see in use. Keep them clean and (food-safe) oiled.

Re: Help - Do I trim these ribs? When I buy a whole bone-in loin, and brine it for a few days to make a house-cured ham, I divide the loin into very generous ribs and the center loin, for very different cooking times. One can buy the ribs portion alone as "country ribs" here in the U.S., and they're often as generous as your picture shows, so that's my guess. So enjoy! "Country ribs" cooked like spareribs comes out spectacular; the extra meat is a bonus. I'd go with this, whatever that cut actually is.

Re: Do I buy a Guru or Stoker? And why... Please vote/comm I gave a fancy Guru to a friend, so I could use the most basic model. Turns the KK into an oven with a temperature dial, no more. Works for me, it is possible to over-think a problem. Their new basic model has no dial, one bumps in 5 F increments either way from 225 F, and looks at the dome thermometer for confirmation and feedback. This would be fine if one is patient; the dome can be rather off from a probe near the meat, for hours until the cooker settles down. But in practice, one would likely plug in the new model, and never touch it, learning to cook at 225 F as a rule. Or bump a certain number of times at the start, according to personal preference, and again never look back. The Stoker is for checking your cook from an iPhone (or the browser in a neighbor's study) if a quick get-together goes into extra innings. However, this happens all the time to us, and we just wing it, using the Guru. I duck out, and bring whatever was in the cooker back to the party.

Re: Beef Ribs vs Pork Ribs We frequently do St. Louis pork spare ribs, and less frequently, beef short ribs. To a first approximation, the beef ribs cook exactly the same, with only total cooking time depending on the ribs. However, we never foil, till the ribs come off and wait toweled in a cooler for the meal. They wait briefly, or if we're bringing ribs to a party half an hour away that never eats on time, hours can be ok. We tried lots of experiments at first, went to a few cookoffs, and concluded that foiling and a great sauce makes the best of truly indifferent meat, while a dry, unfoiled cook makes the best of remarkable meat that can stand on its own. As BBQ originates as a kind of cucina povera, one should have great respect for the former, but that needn't include actually eating that way! Our household debate is usually whether to rub with just salt and pepper, or also with pan-roasted chiles. That and the smoke is as elaborate as we ever get, for either pork or beef ribs. My favorite way to buy beef short ribs is as a rack. My butcher can find these racks in back, if I ask. As they cook, shrinkage is much more of a geometric distortion than with pork ribs; the big bones can end up resembling pot roast popsicles. Not to fear, short ribs are one of the singularly best cuts to use for beef stew, up there with using shanks for lamb stew. And they make a mean hamburger component (with e.g. brisket).

Re: Very Sad Story + Photo. Need Advice. +1. x2. Heck, e^Condo + e^12

Re: Elevation and Ambient Temperature - Factors? I've noticed that cooking times are somewhat shorter in a Komodo than in an oven, in general. There's something primal about cooking inside a hot rock, this doesn't surprise me. I'd guess radiant heat in any climate, and a smaller effect due to humidity. We did a practice bird before this Thanksgiving, worrying about cooking times. Both 12 lbs spatchcocked, both took 2 hours, could have been pulled sooner. The "special" bird for Thanksgiving wasn't quite as good as the generic natural bird for practice, and cooked faster/tougher. So breed also matters.

Re: New to forum from AU Welcome! I loved my six week stay in Australia. I had kangaroo a few times, but not barbecued. Is that something one does, other than as an act of desperation or inebriation?

Re: Saturday Night Bone-In The rest of us chuckled to ourselves, didn't say anything, and you had to turn it into a joke about married people?