Syzygies

I'm disappointed that they're discontinuing the Pit Minder E-temp. I actually downsized to this, giving my fancier guru to a friend because I actively prefer the simplicity of twisting a dial, setting a temp, and that being the whole story. I am not a Luddite. I've built many computers from scratch, and designed simple circuits such as a current mirror that can charge 8 AA cells from an iPod power supply, getting by with only 0.1 volts overhead. So I'm not afraid of complexity. I just think that complexity isn't needed in a pit controller; nothing beats a simple dial.

FM, do you get arrested at airport security often? Or is this forum your safe haven outlet? I found a source of 3 oz bottles for making up a "carry-on travel" size of this year's hot sauce batch. The bottles truly are 3 oz each, but they look for all the world like they hold a quart, I was worried mine would be misjudged and then seized by the TSA. All manner of rejoinders to the TSA supervisor as to why the first agent got it wrong ran through my head, some not unlike your comment above. "No, Dave, you're an adult now. Just give up the hot sauce, get to your destination..." No problems. I was upgraded, with a decent burger snack in first for the red-eye, and slathering it with hot sauce was a nice new treat.

As Lazzari has their warehouse not so far from me, I systematically use oak lump for hotter cooks, and KK extruded for low & slows. For low & slows, I'd say that the KK extruded passes the final test for me. There's tremendous potential for wishful thinking here, but if there were any element of denial in my assessment, I'd be feeling an odd choke in my throat by now, each time I reach for the stuff. I spend a lot of time computer programming, and when I cook my one aim is to get the best food on the table for my friends, so my inner monologue is a slightly crazed rotation through all the views of what to check, what could go wrong, with everything reexamined and no sacred cows. If I were worried about the charcoal, I'd notice by now. Instead, I exhibit an odd preference for the KK extruded over my remaining hoard of classic K extruded. I have no idea why, but it doesn't let me down. 24 hour cooks use only a fraction of the fuel I can load, so the ash issue has had no practical consequences for me. If I had to guess, no coconut extruded is completely neutral, my KK hoard is fresher, and I am worried that my smoking wood is old enough to be past prime. (Lazzari sells huge bags, and I'm due.) So I'm reaching for the KK extruded to compensate. Whatever. We had a freak 70 degree sunny day last saturday, a record for Concord, CA, and a dozen friends over for butt, pot beans, tortillas before I headed to icy New York for a new semester. What a contrast!

Somehow, watching that video, I kept thinking how our snake doesn't always eat both rat fuzzies that we buy her. That charcoal is scaled nicely for an appetizer alternative to driving back to the reptile store.

Chasing links, here's Glenn's full blown treatment: http://www.kamado.com/discus/messages/3/33231.html?1162143829 (I'm the gumbo recipe he links to, "great article about stock". My off-brand ceramic cooker needs a repair, so tonight's chicken went into a chicken pot pie, lard crust from SF Farmers Market lard, home-ground flour. Made a double stock from stock and the new bird. The stock makes the dish.)

I too cut my handles, for the largest size I could close the lid on, true Spanish pans from "Spanish Table". Paella needs the smoke, from closing the lid.

Talk to Glenn (Jiarby). His chili rocks. There may be a recipe at one of his "past life" forums, or I could guess at a reconstruction. But he's the man.

Here's one way to catch them without being shredded: http://www.squirrelinator.com/ Note especially the "Plastic basin for safe transport". They don't warn you that the basin is watertight, in case the destination you have in mind is further away than the nearest park.

Here are a few ways one can vary this, to bring up the Thai notes: Add roasted chili paste (different flavor than "ground chili paste"): http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/nahmprikpow.html Add fish sauce. Swap in lime juice for the vinegar. Swap in palm sugar for the sugar.

Yep, a hot cook will always finish cleaning the grates, after a rough scrape. I chose the Billy Bar for its simplicity; I can't make a direct comparison. As farmers (used to) try to rotate crops, I try to separate my low & slow cooks with hot cooks, to clean the grill. If I can't, I find nothing beats a wad of heavy-duty aluminum foil, applied with prejudice after a decent soak in a $6 kiddie plastic wading pool. Bio-degradable soap optional...

+1 Of course, part of the fun here is you can run experiments both ways, and see for yourself. I have a plastic cooler handy, with two large bath towels dedicated to this task, and rolls of heavy duty aluminum foil. Butt, ribs, and brisket go in this to stay warm after cooking. One virtue is that I can then show up at a collaborative dinner half an hour away, take another hour to get to the meat course, and all is well. As a bonus we drive home, leaving dishes in someone else's home. The usual scam where bbq cooks give the impression what they did is actual work. It's a labor of love, but no one complains about this arrangement! I found that any foiling during cooking itself simply made the meat mushier. Try this first for spareribs, where the "3-2-1" approach (foil 2 hours in middle) still has traction. My impression (I'll put this as neutrally as I can) is that if one has bought unremarkable ribs on price, and has a remarkable sauce to apply, and guests who prefer their ribs falling off the bone, then "3-2-1" makes sense. If one wants the meat itself to show with a hint of tooth left (properly cooked pasta rather than mush), then one doesn't foil. Try the experiment both ways, no need to believe us. We want you to find out for yourself, perhaps you'll come up with a better way. For brisket or butt, foiling turns the cook into a braise, might as well be doing it indoors! Not that there's anything wrong with braised beef, it's simply a different dish.

Touch trumps reason Touch seems to function on an independent plane to reason. I'm struck by the parallel here, I was just describing in a different thread how my gurus taught me to touch a pork butt to tell if it was done, rather than depending on temperature. So ashes to ashes, butcher to pit, if one has a sense of touch, it trumps reason. Steak chefs can tell doneness by touch, only the inexperienced need to cut a steak to peek. I once shook Jerry Brown's hand during his presidential bid. He instantly (think: Stephen King's The Dead Zone) sensed I wasn't voting for him, and his hand went limp as his attention turned. I feel most comfortable with tomatoes, after picking them all summer in CA. Back in NY, all the farmers markets have signs scolding consumers not to squeeze ("Tomato = Banana, judge by color") yet with imperceptable pressure I can tell in horror I'm holding yet another tomato that wasn't ready to pick. So, yes, I don't doubt the story Dennis relays.

I remember David and Kim's take on this (from a different era some here will remember): Butt is done when it's done, one feels it, rather than measures it. That said, I usually try to "dwell" at around 170 F as long as I can, and take the butt off the fire before 190 F. I like the fat mostly rendered, and collagens liquified, but I find the standard for pulled pork to be a bit stringy. There's a lot of different muscles in a butt; I like them to separate from each other, without turning to rope strands.

Yeah Glenn (jiarby) posted to a forum two years ago about eating their triple bypass, which he also reproduces at home. (The picture of the one he makes looked better to me.)

Nice marbling! Nice marbling! Ribeye is by far my favorite classic "steak" cut. I also love skirt steak (completely underappreciated) and hanger steak (those who appreciate it lock up the supply, not that easy to find).

I am mildly annoyed, as hard as it is to get my goat online. You paid how much for your cooker, and you're trying to McCain me ("oh, I'm so working class!") by romanticizing cheap ingredients? Believe what you like, but a river in Egypt doesn't make anyone a better cook. I'm sure the judges favor classic style, and have serious pent-up hostility toward "precious" ingredients, but don't doubt for an instant that part of competitive technique is the ingredient selection process.

Spare the rod... That rod reminds me of high school. After skipping homeroom 40 times in a row I got called in, and chose the paddle over three nights detention. The hero of our era was getting a particularly "attentive" paddling for worse misdemeanors. He managed to slide out of the way of the swing at the last instant, and the paddle-wielding vice principal broke his hand on the table.

One of my favorite meat brands is Niman Ranch, except that they've gotten pricey enough to make me shop around. But their opinion on Berkshire pork is interesting: First and foremost, they like their pigs to live outside in the winter, and like dogs, purebreds are at a distinct genetic disadvantage to mutts. So they prefer Berkshire crosses. Alas, with all of these good intentions, their sleep-in-the-cold pork often ends up with simply too much fat to make ideal bbq.

I always dry rub the untrimmed ribs (pulling off the membrane of course), in part because I'm lazy and I can compute 0.8% salt off the package weight. (For me, 0.6% salt is too little, 1% salt is too much, and I've never seen anyone who doesn't do this at least weekly who can reliably hit this "strike zone" by eye.) Then, I quickly pan fry the trimmings, when the ribs go in the cooker. There is no better lean port, period, than trimmings from ribs. I wish I could buy them as a cut, for all my cooking, e.g. asian dishes that call for a "bit" of pork. They're good left on, but not as good as pilfered.

Ha! Until I read this, I was sure that was garlic. "Old school" as in lay on the garlic, please?

Pizza (we're busy, but we need to eat!)

I've posted a review in the charcoal feedback subforum: KomodoKamado Charcoal Feedback: Review and Comparison That subforum is restricted to posts and replies from people who have bought the stuff. I'd be happy to field questions and comments here, instead.

Pick up at terminal! I drove 30 miles to meet my pallet share, fitting 20 boxes on edge in a single layer in my VW GTI (with the rear seats folded down). I coud have fit 27 boxes easily. Anyone looking to save a buck should go to the terminal, if this works for them!