Syzygies

demo lunatic It was bugging me that they looked like geese. Slow night, I guess. I once dated someone whose mom shot geese, didn't know how to cook them very well, so passed them on to me. I'd pass them to friends, who'd generally refuse the second time, as cooking a wild goose made them look bad. Finally I offered one to Giuliano Bugialli, who gave me precise directions how to prepare it before bringing it to the next class. He lined it inside and out with rosemary, prosciutto, salt and pepper, then swaddled it in an enormous flour-salt dough casing (in the day one might have used clay) to bake blind till done. It was spectacular. Years later he gives me a bear-hug at a large demonstration class at Macy's, and draws this story out of me as a remembrance for the benefit of the organizer, who didn't think his fan base would bother making fresh pasta. Perhaps not the first time I've been used as a "demo lunatic".

Bingo! One can make pizza in one of those kid's plastic ovens from the 1960's that use a 40 watt light bulb. But real outdoor pizza ovens are serious beasts. The KK is just big enough to make great pizza, and Dennis is the only manufacturer I'd trust to make a Kamado of this scale. There are a number of inexpensive Kamado manufacturers that make smaller cookers, but they all look far less flexible to me. A microwave isn't an oven, and "Low & Slow" and "grilling" together are a small part of the big picture: Cook anything you want, outside, better than you could inside.

So I'm staring at the pictures, thinking "Are the ducks really that dumb?" Then I realize I'm looking at decoys.

Komodo rib rack This is what our rib rack looks like, that arrived last week. Perhaps the previous picture is an earlier version?

Is this yours? http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2989 I've got to say, this shows off the not-exactly-round shape of the Komodo main grill wonderfully. It looks like it was designed to cook ribs, anything else is a bonus.

The dragon Err, to be precise, we give person's names to objects with voices. It would appear that our new cooker is referred to as the dragon (not a proper name, and not specifically our cooker).

Re: #598 finally home!

Yeah, it completely baffles me that a cordless phone with a $14 bump for one more handset gets reception corners of our yard, and this entire category is complete junk. Trusting the guru to do its job, and springing for a thermapen (now on $74 special!) to accurately check the temps manually in various places now and then, we no longer need to know anything a Maverick could tell us. The category is junk, move on? I was hoping you guys had discovered they'd cleaned up their act; our weather station probes do work.

Ahh, but David, they make pizza peels that could pick up a whole beef shoulder clod without blinking. Anyhow, restaurant supply stores are fun to browse.

Yeah, primeats busted me, I was playing. Laurie asked me to look at this thread and think about it before we did anything. "Mia moglie ha sempre ragione!" so I did. Jeff, good point on the wheelbase. On a level ramp (a.k.a. bridge), a Komodo is never a "center load". However, at the critical angle where a Komodo is about to tip over if unattended, all of its weight is on two wheels, and a center load is what we have. Any idea what this angle is? I also wouldn't worry about 1/10" deflections. But 3/4" sitting still? Since the Komodo isn't sitting still when we roll it along a ramp, this is too close for comfort. Anyhow "overbuilding" a calculation like this is called "bounding", and its a respected activity. One prefers tight bounds, but then there are always issues one doesn't anticipate, better to have those one can anticipate under control.

rise / length = me / cooker

No more so than a butt, and most likely when you move it from the grill. I like to use a commercial aluminum pizza peel as a "spatula" at times like this.

Lithium batteries To boost the performance of any wireless link like this, consider using lithium batteries, the AA or AAA cells designed for cameras and such. They're $2-$4 a cell, but can solve problems cheaper than needlessly replacing the unit. Lithium, NiMH rechargeable, and alkaline batteries differ in the voltage graph as they discharge. Alkaline batteries lose voltage steadily as they discharge, ok for dim flashlights long after they're of any use in electronics. Both lithium and NiMH offer fairly flat voltages until nearly exhausted. NiMH rechargeable batteries lose charge quickly even when not in use, while lithium and alkaline hold their charge for years. 1.5V is a "nominal" voltage, as in there will still be 1.5V left in an alkaline battery by the pull date. Electronics that accepts AA or AAA cells is fairly tolerant of a range around 1.5V, although each circuit has a minimum voltage below which it fails. The flat voltage offered by NiMH is below 1.5V (more like 1.4V) and some gadgets don't like this. The flat voltage offered by lithium cells is above 1.5V (more like 1.6V), and some gadgets love this. There are several generations of lithium cells for sale in drugstores, often side-by-side with confusing labeling. One gets pretty much what one pays for in "capacity" (how long they last); they all have the same discharge curve. So go for the cheapest, unless you're seriously not interested in ever changing the battery once installed. I've fixed devices such as wireless indoor-outdoor temperature probes that I was about to replace, by swapping in lithium AAA cells. I don't know for a fact that feeding them 1.6V increases their range, but watching alkaline cells in such a device is like watching a balloon leak.

It just dawned on me that my best mountain bike cost the same (ten years ago) as the Komodo Kamado that we had delivered yesterday. Nearly to the penny. Are plenty of people happy riding $500 mountain bikes? Sure. We have a working cooker from a different company of essentially the same size, in sufficient disrepair to concern the appearance-oriented. (Larger than a BGE, and I believe, the Primo XL, and the extra size often matters.) Nevertheless, we bought a KK. My impression is that Dennis designs then prices; this is simply the best cooker he knows how to make (this year). Bicyclists who love the sport invariably buy the best bike they can afford, and can tell the difference. My KK serial number is 592; think "limited edition sports car" one can actually succeed in paying for. In the Japanese woodworking apprentice system, there's a notion that one shouldn't use the best tools until one has demonstrated mastery of lesser tools. (And there are planes in this price range, they think of them like a Strad violin!) I've always differed on this point, it is easier to learn anything on the best tool one can justify buying. Better tools make better results possible, by virtue of predictability, responsiveness, the pleasure from use that keeps one practicing. They don't guarantee better results. Cut to the chase: Why did we buy? The things that go wrong with cookers are far less likely to go wrong with a KK. It's made with fundamentally different materials, by a different process. The right materials, and the right process, if you can afford it. And the tolerances are much tighter. I've slept through the night to find a too-hot fire on my old cooker in the morning. Not often; people cook great in open pits in Texas, it just takes attention. For me, a scarce resource. For the gamut from barbecue to pizza, tandoor, cooking with fire is a part of our daily lives, so we decided that this was worth it.

Re: skewered tandoor chicken And a great idea, indeed. Can't wait to try it. Meanwhile, in my first support exchange, Dennis cleared up my confusion between latex (for not holding tiles on other manufacturer's cooker) and acrylic (for holding tiles on new cooker). Doh! You'd think I'd know the difference. Tired of repainting my NY apartment, I used artist grade titanium white acrylic paint (in place of the latex paint you're supposed to reapply every four years) and years later the paint job still looks brand new, saving energy on lighting as a bonus.

Re: Uncooked... My food tour took me to visit a hill tribe in northern Thailand, where our teacher had set up fellowships to keep girls in high school. The usual welcome was yard chicken, and kiwi moonshine. This visit, however, a tribesman had died shortly after getting out of jail for drug trafficking, and there he was, laid out in a clearing, with neighboring villages over for the funeral. They had slaughtered a calf, laid out nearby on banana leaves, and we were the fortunate recipients of the best raw beef salad I've ever had in my life. This being the hill tribes, fish sauce reverts back to salt, and other simplifications, but it was spectacular. The next day, my fiftieth birthday, was marked by a very long "repositioning" van ride to get us near the Burmese border, and my bolting to inspect local facilities at every stop. Of course, it could have been the moonshine. Candied ginger works well for settling the stomach, at times like this.

Re: No one I'd rather ask this! (Laurie says this is as far as she unpacks before I get home from this trip.)

!!! When I saw the photo leading this thread, my first thought was that I was looking at an espresso tamper: http://www.coffeetamper.com I have one of these as a handoff from a friend, and it's spectacular with a La Pavoni Europiccola coffee maker. He wanted to go up from 49 mm to 49.2 mm (I love having friends that make me look normal!), so he gave me his old one. My second thought? I actually like the original cooker knob better! We went for a matte cooker, at least we're consistent.

Get a facebook page, upload to your status, then copy the image location... They're a great hosting service.

Re: Same boat Those are seriously long lag screws on the crate that arrived today. What's up with that?

That was quick! (I'm already getting emails from fellow K-expats who are jealous!)

brining Looking forward to cruzmisl's account of these, which indeed do look perfect. We use a 4-8 hour "light brine" (1/2 cup sea salt, 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar per gallon water) on chicken, fish, pork chops, etc. and invariably prefer the results. Imagine a dial with "unbrined" on one side, and "ham" on the other. Twisting the dial partway toward ham has remarkable results, without becoming too salty or "tight". It is important that the quantity of brine is significantly greater than the quantity of meat, as one is "diluting" the brine by adding the meat, which contains water. With enough brine and a short soak, one ignores this. For "house-cured ham" over several days, one instead calculates how much salt to add, taking into account the weight of the meat. Not hard, but not relevant here. I keep spreadsheets which tell me what to do, keeping notes on how the target salinity tasted to us, so we can adjust the target percentage for next time. (E.g. I like 0.8% salt by weight for dry-rubbed spareribs, working from gross weight (the price tag) including the bones.) We like to use Cambro food storage containers. Get the clear plastic ones; they cost more, but can tolerate boiling water, making them more generally useful. Either make the brine in advance (possible since we're not taking into account the weight of the meat) or add ice cubes to top up the volume, so the brine is cold.

I did 20 seconds once at 900F, and roughly, the fat just evaporated, boiled off, whatever; it was gone. Nice to see a more moderate approach works so well!

Thanks. Part of the reason realtor fees are so high in New York City is that to measure the square feet of a building, you need a bevy of window washers to hold the measuring tape around the outside. Knowing this, I went out in the dark with a headlamp to measure my K7 main grill. 21.5" (not 22.5") !! I'll leave it to others to have fun with this. I actually went out twice. This is the outer diameter of the round grill circle. If you measure the longest straight grill rod, maybe you can eek out 21.8", and that's being generous. I have a paella pan now that's a tight fit with the handles sawed off, there's a chance I'll need to go down a size. Other than that, they look the same. My plan, to switch to the new cooker and keep cooking, looks good.

Re: disorder (link)