Syzygies

13 hours ago, johnnymnemonic said:

One of the things I look forward to cooking on my KK when it gets here is Iberico pork raised in the US from this place in my home state.

Here's a California source I stumbled on at a local farmers market: Encina Farms

What I tried was pricey and spectacular.

18 hours ago, C6Bill said:

But of course any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

I'm reasonably certain that you plan to thaw and unwrap it before the cook.

Nevertheless, this reminds me of a great trail meal, as a kid. I was a junior counselor on a series of weeklong summer camp backpacking trip in the Adirondack high peaks. Freeze dried dinners were too new and unaffordable, but we had a decent series of conventionally dried stews one simmered for dinner. What do they say? Exercise is the best seasoning.

We were particularly excited about making dinner one night, because we remembered that meal tasting better than anything else last trip. Dumping the contents of the pouch in question into the simmering water, this time we noticed a flavor pouch floating in the stew. Spices. In thick plastic.

"Do you remember this pouch from last trip?"

Any comments on his take on Jealous Devil taste? He's become a paid ambassador for JD (and notes end of the other video that Fogo has a fail-to-disclose zombie army of "ambassadors"). He still says here that chicken at 300 F, JD is off. He prefers Kamado Big Block.

I use Fogo to protect my KK Coffee Lump (only 260 lbs left!), but I'm open minded.

Facebook reminds me that twelve years ago I still had an off-brand cooker, repaired as best I could.

On 10/28/2019 at 1:29 PM, DennisLinkletter said:

That being said I have not use the heat deflector in one of my grills for probably 10 years. Your results will be better using foil to create an indirect area.

I'm on my second decade with a 23" KK. I often use the 23" ULTIMATE DOUBLE BOTTOM DRIP PAN as a heat deflector.

My primary motivation for using a heat deflector is that a ceramic cooker heats from the bottom, and I often want my food exposed uniformly to heat. This happens naturally for low & slow cooks, where the generous insulation of the KK  encourages a uniform equilibrium. For hotter cooks, the "heat from the bottom" effect is pronounced in every ceramic cooker, and the KK's build quality can only partially mitigate this.

With a perfect understanding of one's fire and perfect control of one's schedule, one can cook at high heats on a KK after the fire has died down, cooking on uniform radiant heat that the KK does a better job of preserving. At this stage, it's much harder to taste the choice of charcoal.

It's much easier to use good charcoal and a heat deflector, and to cook as convenient after the cooker temperature stabilizes.

I make pizza and Focaccia di Recco on my KK. My neighbor makes pizza in his wood-fired pizza oven. We both screw up sometimes, but his wood-fired fire control is another level of complexity. Of course one can learn, but an honest appraisal beyond bravado would warn others that it takes attention and practice. At its best the wood-fired pizza looks more authentic than any picture I've seen here in decades. No surprise, that's what they do in Napoli. Anyone who thinks they can simulate a restaurant Salamander with their $5,000 home oven's broiler is delusional. One should still learn how to make the best of one's home broiler, or ceramic cooker.

We can reliably make pizza we're very happy with, in our KK. The crux issue is getting the KK hot enough without burning the damn crust. There's an easy fix for when this goes wrong: Move the pizza onto a round pizza screen, so it can finish without direct contact with the pizza stone.

Some people may have figured out pizza without a heat deflector. Can they explain what they're doing right? Remember that we regularly see posts from people who still struggle to just get their KK to pizza temperature, even as others can't imagine having this issue. Having a gift is useless unless one can understand it and explain it to others. I'm eager to put away my heat deflector for pizza, if someone can clearly teach me what to do.

On 7/22/2021 at 8:15 AM, tekobo said:

I also have some saltpetre that I keep in deep store and only get out to use and measure on my drug dealer scales when a recipe calls for it.

Ha! We use our drug dealer scale all the time. I'm told it's essential for formulating cola extracts. I use it to weigh yeast and salt for bread, or saffron for tagines.

I loved my trip to Morocco. I was cheated exactly once, in the most surprising setting:

    Hamid Fondouk li Houdi
   http://www.jaztravelweb.com/MOROCCO/Perfumery_%26_Herbalist.html

He was one of the most sophisticated gentlemen to take us into a shop. (After asking for the best spice shop, we were lead there by an official guide recommended by our hotel, but they probably had no idea what was about to transpire, and I am not going to tell them.) Along with other spices, my friend and I each purchased 5 grams of his highest quality saffron. He measured without hesitation by sight, with the authority one would expect from decades of practice. My friend then objected that this looked like less that five grams, so he moved over to an ancient balance scale probably not used since the Indiana Jones movies were filmed, and used an unmarked weight to demonstrate perfect balance. Like I said, decades of practice.

I got home, pulled out my drug dealer scale, and sure enough, measured 1.06 grams (not 5.00). Huh. I can easily afford the loss, and what little I have is great saffron. This was just deeply amusing. One doesn’t expect this from someone who proudly displays his picture taken with Bill Clinton. Or perhaps I am also naive about politics?

I fantasize about bringing a hidden camera, and getting him to cheat me again. He was too practiced for this to be a one-off. But one can actually be arrested for bringing such a scale into Morocco. They take the "drug dealer scale" bit seriously. What I should do instead is bring one and five gram weights, ready to use with his scale. He'll know at this point I'm a repeat customer.

39 minutes ago, 5698k said:

Are you free hand sharpening? If so, it could be nothing more than the way you happen to hold the cleaver compared to others.

Yes. On one hand, people overthink the angle thing, what matters is how often we sharpen, not how perfectly we sharpened last year.

I go entirely by feel. It's very easy to feel when one has slipped back to the point where the edge isn't making proper contact, or when one has slipped forward to the point where digging into the stone is an immediate risk. The sweet spot is somewhere right in the middle between these extremes.

I work in a quiet room (other than the dribble of the faucet). I use an Atoma diamond stone to smooth the surface of my Shapton Glass stones frequently, often between knives. Perhaps I secretly want to actually wear out a water stone in this lifetime. More likely, when the stone is very smooth it gives very good tactile feedback as to how the knife is riding. A just-polished stone is like waterskiing a glassy Adirondack lake at dawn.

There is the potential for a feedback loop, here, taking my knives off course: The feel each time I sharpen has everything to do with how I sharpened last time. My chef's knives may have drifted, while for some reason my cleaver sharpening is spot-on.

Further evidence for this theory is that I'd already noticed I can get the 8" Fujitake chef's knife sharper than the 10" Fujitake chef's knife. In both kitchens. I'd always assumed it was something different about the knives, but this could be a reproducible experiment coming down to how I hold each knife as I sharpen.

A variant on your theory: While the VG 10 core is the same, the cladding varies on the different knives, and how straight each edge is. Both of these would affect the feel while sharpening. I go for "what feels best" while sharpening (an apprentice Japanese woodworker asks how to cook the rice for rice glue? So it tastes good), but this may serve me better on some knives that others.

There have been many reasons I've craved a good microscope. This would be one. A really sharp knife is actually more serrated than a dull knife. Whatever we imagine, we're all really just using bread knives.

21 minutes ago, 5698k said:

I didn’t realize VG 10 was so hard..I guess that’s why knife makers use it!

This is a puzzle for me.

In each of two kitchens (my wife's home in California and my work apartment in New York) I have a set of three Fujitake chef knives and a Tojiro DP 3-Layer Chinese Cleaver. Since adopting the cleaver I rarely use the other knives. One can learn to do everything with a cleaver.

I sharpen my knives with an assortment of Shapton Glass stones. A deep dive reveals that one can buy Shapton Glass stones tuned for original, softer Japanese knives, or these stones for more modern formulations such as VG 10. I had noticed on previous stones that it was nearly impossible to sharpen western knives, while the Shapton Glass stones handle western knives easily. This is that hardness issue, again. Somehow I'd made it years without worrying about it, but I'm better off knowing.

So here's the puzzle: Nominally all of my knives are VG 10, yet it seems that I manage to get my cleaver sharper than the other knives.

Easy Popcorn Shrimp | Recipe | Almazan Kitchen

Now that's a knife.

My cleaver hasn't left my hand, despite owning many knives. "Unlike many of you" ?? I resemble that remark!

The Musui Kamado (Laurie calls it the "indoor K") is perfect for making ghee. Throw in the butter, set on extra low, leave unattended half an hour or more.

The new jar is Marcus Samuelsson's Ethiopian spiced butter, a version made by his wife Maya’s tribe, the Gurage. Ghee with aliums and spices. Incredible aroma. I'm reminded of a fish cookbook from decades ago (I've been unable to identify since) where a Portuguese chef is baffled he has to instruct his staff to put the paprika in fat not water, the best parts of spices are fat soluble.

Tonight's recipe also calls for a bit of Madras curry powder. We don't buy curry powder, like Indians we make a custom blend per recipe. I'm looking up what this is. Samuelsson's single best recipe could be his Berbere Spice Blend featured for example in his Black-Eyed Peas with Coconut Milk and Berbere; it's better than bought berbere from upscale sources. So of course we want to make Madras curry powder from scratch. It calls for curry leaves I happen to have just bought...

Huh. Curry leaves have an amazing flavor, usually unlocked by tempering in oil, somewhat lost if dried for a spice blend. Huh. The Marcus ghee comes back to me. I should make a Madras curry powder ghee, with generous curry leaves. Huh. I should make a custom ghee for rogan josh, and use sous vide to cook a lamb shank confit.

I identify with Samuelsson's trajectory and existential culinary questions. I've been listening to his Yes, Chef: A Memoir that he narrates. I love international food from everywhere, but French technique reaches greater heights than just checking off spice boxes. And whatever I do, my Indian tastes muddy, but my best French gets boring. Samuelsson left his Swedish restaurant to open Red Rooster Harlem, where he applies all of his classic training to world and soul food. I'm reminded of Alex Stupak's Tacos: Recipes and Provocations: A Cookbook where he applies his classic training to tacos.

1 hour ago, C6Bill said:

Franklin does a Masterclass, I bought it.

I actually bought a year, during a promotion that lets me gift a year. I haven't made my way to Franklin yet, as I've studied his book, but the other cooking videos are worth the membership. It's fun watching Thomas Keller relax over time. As a fellow teacher, I get distracted analyzing each person's presentation.

I can't give 32" specific advice as I have a 23", but I don't use a basket splitter, and I'm careful to use "too much" lump charcoal, larger chunks loosely spaced to maximize airflow. My hoard of KK coffee lump is precious; I'll use a Fogo charcoal for pizza.

My problem is usually overshooting, not undershooting. Till you figure this out, be generous and loose with your lump. You're an apprentice arsonist, hoping to work on the line someday. Aaron Franklin thinks in "smoke", his cooker designs are all based on his intuitions for airflow. I have no idea what he's talking about, but you clearly need to work your way down from "sufficient" airflow. The KK won't melt if you watch it.

1 hour ago, tony b said:

THE MAN speaks!

(2) BBQ with Franklin: Brisket Wrap Test - YouTube

It always helps to consider the source, and how their requirements are different than yours. Thomas Keller calls for quick 10% salt brines for seafood? In a restaurant kitchen there isn't room for an overnight "equilibrium" 0.5% brine. At home that same brine lets you buy fish for several days.

Most recipes are really dumbed down, and most people spread techniques that are only partially evolved. And a popular author could be aware that readers have foil, but they don't have pink (uncoated! white is coated, wrong) butcher paper. Do they say something?

I would only trust a source recommending foil if they explicitly make the comparison with pink butcher paper, and explain why they prefer foil.

Aaron Franklin is arguably the most deservedly famous barbecue guru today. He's primarily a restauranteur, not a "personality", so he's freed from a financial incentive to dumb down his advice. On the contrary, there's a showstopper chapter "Building a Smoker" in Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook], how anyone can make their own cooker from a recycled 500 gallon propane tank with "basic metalworking skills". I can do most things but this is still on my list...

He faces a restaurant constraint, perfect for you: All of his cookers run at 275°. Why? He prefers this to lower temperatures, gets better throughput, and doesn't have to juggle capacities of cookers set to different temperatures.

He gives the clearest directions I've seen anywhere for cooking a 12 to 14-pound packer cut brisket, wrapping at 6 hours or so in pink butcher paper.

I've varied my approach over the years: Temperature, wrapping, beef source, dry age? I believe that following exactly Aaron Franklin's protocol is spot-on.

For a different opinion, in Brisket Tricks and elsewhere, @mguerra has been advocating for 325° or so. What you propose is decidedly not "hot and fast". 275° is reasonable middle ground, not falling prey to equating seriousness of intent with slowness of cook. The very idea that "low & slow"  is such a sticky idea should serve as a warning not to take it as gospel. On the contrary, another of my favorite BBQ books is Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pitmasters. I don't follow any of the recipes, but I learned a lot about the diversity of approaches in Texas. It freed me from a blind adherence to "low & slow".

I believe that the most important factor in brisket is the beef itself. I'll travel an hour and pay three times what others consider reasonable to buy brisket from the Golden Gate Meat Company in San Francisco. They'll dry age a few days on request.

I also believe that the ideal cooker temperature is a function of the quality of the meat: 275° for the meat that takes an hour's drive and serious cash, varying up to 325° for more typical and affordable briskets. When there's less collagen/whatever to dissolve, time is your enemy. I no longer cook any brisket at 225°.

I've never eaten at Franklin's Barbecue, but the best brisket I've had in my life was in Elgin, Texas. (#2, #3, #4 would be my own.) They can source better brisket in Texas, the market demands it. It melts, you want to spread the fat cap on toast like marmalade. Aaron Franklin's advice is tuned to Texas brisket sources.

For potential owners, let me be clear that while Aaron Franklin uses an entirely different cooker, my own preferences are adapted to a Komodo Kamado. Compared to other ceramic cookers, a KK is far better insulated, so it maintains temperature with far less airflow. Airflow dries the meat out. Franklin's 1000 gallon cookers are good guides for us, because with scale he also controls evaporation.

On 1/19/2021 at 5:15 AM, 5698k said:

I have the TS Prof K03 sharpener, it works beautifully, but it’s expensive.

Iki Ruixin Pro Sharpener + 4 Whetstones Set ($119)

I keep getting hammered with Facebook ads for this sharpener. Versions on Amazon are $40 or so!?  Same basic geometry as the TS Prof. I'm happy with my much more expensive Shapton Glass setup, but would this setup be a good start for others? Or does it look like junk?

EDIT:

Wasabi Knives is the source of the Facebook ads I'm seeing.

I asked twice in the comments section for a source for their tag line claim "Voted #1 Sharpener 2020". While they answer other questions, they deleted my question twice, confirming my intuition that this is a baseless claim, something they made up.

Their products look nice on their web site, but in my experience whenever one ignores early warning signs about a company, one regrets it. A second warning sign is that there are indistinguishable offerings on Amazon at a fraction of the price.

There are plenty of other solid recommendations in this thread. I can answer my own question: Do not buy from Wasabi Knives.

2 hours ago, Sharky said:

Just to clarify my earlier post - when sealing liquid stock I go down to about 0.8 bar pressure (or 0.2 bar of vacuum) just to ensure a good “squeeze “ on the sealing strip without boiling the liquid. 

That's good advice for using a chamber machine to package liquids.

I have both a chamber machine and an impulse sealer, and I make stock all the time. If it was faster to use the chamber machine, or even just more reliable or less finicky, I'd use the chamber machine. For me, it's faster and easier to burp the air out of the bag, against a counter edge, and use an impulse sealer.

I'd make an exception if the chamber machine was a few feet away from the stock (mine isn't though I like the exercise; I routinely walk each packet out separately as I prefer the walk to waiting). Then, following your advice, dial in the exact seconds needed to reach 0.2 bar of vacuum so the chamber machine can complete its job unattended. Get the next packet ready..

I have three of the steam table trays shown in my earlier post. They're just deep enough to take the weight off a packet of stock, and the metal conducts heat so all packets freeze quickly. My freezer just has room to stagger the trays so each rim supports the next.

5 hours ago, tony b said:

buy the bigger belt size now

I don't wear a belt, after scratching my Dad's guitar with the buckle. One of my many lessons that adults were idiots; belts are nothing but trouble.

I'm on the same waist size for 30 years. But yes, some degree of moderation is called for, actually easier because the food is so good.

So vacuum packing our first 30 lbs of partially dried tomatoes, I improvised a funnel by cutting open a grape juice plastic bottle. I don't think in words (my grade school music teacher was dumbfounded that I could play notes without knowing what they were) so I was at a loss where I'd seen this idea. My wife recognized it as the bean funnel they use at Peet's to weigh out coffee. I found this small one on Amazon, in time for our second batch:

 CAFEMASY Green Coffee Bean Shovel

So this meter reading (just over 0.9 Bar) is as good as my VacMaster VP120 ever goes. I have the impression one can make watermelon jerky with an oil pump machine. Do they go further?

On 7/18/2021 at 5:06 PM, braindoc said:

Hasegawa!

https://mtckitchen.com/search.php?search_query=Hasegawa&section=content

Yes! @5698k sent me down a rabbit hole at Korin only to see that Asahi Rubber Cutting Boards were out of stock. This board is a perfect size for spot use.

My last international trip before the pandemic was a two week solo ramen crawl in Japan. My single best meal was “Shiru-Nashi Tantanmen” at King-Ken in Hiroshima, but otherwise I loved various evening Izakaya meals. I'd sit at the bar and watch chefs work. I love the knife work and the focus.

Edit: Arrived! I'm using this all the time. I love the romance of wood, but this surface feels like a knife upgrade.

On 7/17/2021 at 9:39 AM, Kosh said:

I have a bit of an up hill across gravel so my handyman suggested renting a crane.  It was the right idea.

That could be the first crane I've seen used for delivery. Give it a few years, you'll rent it again for getting back out of the pool... 

Quote

Over time, you may find that tiny particles from your cutting surface are appearing on food being prepared and sometimes can come off on something you use to wipe the product.  This can occur due to the nature of the product and is more noticeable with our slate surface color.  Your Epicurean® cutting surface is certified by the NSF (National Sanitary Foundation) to be non-toxic.  I recommend you try using a fine grit (220 grit) sandpaper to smooth and resurface your board.  This will decrease the likelihood of particles appearing in your food and give you a fresh, smooth surface for food preparation. We also sell a product called board butter, it isn’t necessary to use this on our products, but it will help keep the boards moisturized and looking new especially if you're using very sharp knives.

https://www.epicureancs.com/product/board-butter/

Any surface you cut on, whether it be plastic, wood, or our material, will get particles in your food, but we want to ensure you our product is non-toxic and this is not harmful to you.  The sanding should eliminate what you are experiencing.
I hope this helps and that you are able to continue to use our products. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you.

I did write Epicurean four years ago about this; above is their response.

I'd dispute the assertion that all boards are equally likely to do this, but their answer could nevertheless be helpful.

I had some of those Epicurean boards, so I could wash the board in the sink after a quick task, without involving my butcher block counter. However, once I learned how to really sharpen my VG10 Japanese chef's knives, I'd notice all these little black specks in minced garlic. I was shredding the board. I switched to some equally thin bamboo boards for this purpose. I know they're hard on knife edges, but at least I don't end up eating the board.

I have a nice end grain cutting board, for when I want to mince a few ingredients, again without involving my butcher block counter. It's my favorite board ever, worth the trouble to haul it out:

Olivewood End Grain Carving Board

However, for "cooking dinner" I use my entire counter as a cutting and staging surface. Two of our counters are made of rock maple butcher block. One is my wife's baking station. The other is my cooking station, by the stove. It overhangs, so one can attach an Atlas pasta maker, or a Venetian bigolaro, or a meat grinder. I added grooves so I can slide in a steam table pan to catch vegetable scraps for compost. Later, I wash and rinse the surface with a bench knife, scraping off the overhang into this same pan.

I learned this from my French cooking teacher. Cooking is limited by what one can get done. If one can spread out, one can get more done. Recently I listened to both of Bill Buford's food books while driving or hiking, and he drove home the same message. Motion planning, efficiency is a huge part of being a professional cook. At home, I'm a better cook with this much room.

For hot chiles, yes. Disposable gloves. The most expensive nitrile gloves are the most comfortable.

GrillGuns: Designed to Sear Meat and light your Charcoal Grill

Fun video, though that cheap cooker isn't doing their product any favors!

3 hours ago, GrillnBrew said:

@Syzygies Which model impulse sealer do you have, or is there one you would recommend?

This is somewhat a commodity market, with no brands you'll recognize. There are however differences in the quality and width of the seal. My first two (one on each coast) were $30 units that eventually broke. I splurged and spent $100 last year on this 12" model:

LinsnField Sealer Pro, Patented 12inch Impulse Heat Bag Sealer, 5mm Sealing Width

I do think 12" is worth it (the space as much as the cost) even if one's primary application will be 8" stock bags.

They all come with spare parts. Decide a permanent place to store these, and write that location on tape on the underside of the sealer. (I didn't, and I have no idea where these parts are.)

They all benefit from a warmup: press once without a bag.

There's a dial to adjust the heat. One might remember a setting for standard applications such as chamber vacuum sealer bags. They're great for sealing anything, such as half a bag of dried chiles from a Mexican grocer. The low settings do go low enough for truly sketchy bags, but one should test on parts of the bag you intend to later cut away.

For sealing bags of stock, practice with water. First goal is to not drop the bag under any circumstances. Then learn to slide the bag up and down against a counter edge. Get all the air out from below the contact point, and let the liquid above the contact point slowly drain to below the contact point. Slide down to glom the entire bag together, then move over to the impulse sealer and seal. One would think one could do this on the sealer itself (I actually built a stand once to try to get the angle right) but the "glom" is not fragile, and it really is easiest against a counter edge. Moving the bag and positioning the bag on the sealer is another chance to spill the bag onto the floor. Be generous with bag sizing (one can cut the excess later) and this is less of a risk.