DMAX

Realized that while I've been busy kooking and posting pictures of the delicious trials and not so many errors, I neglected to add my two cents worth here in the Kampground!

My online research brought me here after I saw an OTB on Ebay when I was literally a day from buying a Pitts and Spitts side box smoker that was going to take up my whole deck, but had the quality I was looking for.

I did my homework and started emailing and calling Dennis, who surprise, surprise, actually responded! How refreshing in today's sales climate to have someone as genuine and accessible as Dennis. What a class act.

I had a neighborhood rib cook off coming in less than two weeks and Dennis got the beautiful Gen II that I wanted onto a truck the very next day. Now while Mother Nature had her way with the cross country trip, my gorgeous Dragon's Egg made it home and was perfectly packaged to boot.

Needless to say, the folks on this board and Dennis himself continue to add their advice and mutual experience to aid in the trip over the learning curve, which has been delicious!

Kudos Dennis, a first class product, produced by a first class person and provided in a first class purchase. Keep up the awesome work and add me to your Christmas card list!

DMAX

an alcove similar to a niche you might see a religious statuette in' date=' but large enough for the KK to roll in and out of. [/quote']

Imagine that. A shrine to a KK. lol Burnt offerings, and all.

I would have thought DC wasn't warm enough in winter to have an outdoor kitcheny place. What do I know?

It will surely get more use three quarters of the year, but Al Gore told me it would be a good idea to build it anyway...

Kudos Dennis! That looks phenomenal!

DMAX

I will have pics to post in a couple of weeks when construction starts, but what we designed is a corner kitchen off the deck. The center of the "kitchen" is an alcove similar to a niche you might see a religious statuette in, but large enough for the KK to roll in and out of. The shape mirrors the shape of the KK and will be tiled in a complimentary color. The left side of the "kitchen" has a prep sink and fridge and a mini keg tap with storage cabinets beneath. The right side will, I know, I know, have a gas grill top and two side burners. The whole thing will be finished in a combination of tile and stainless steel strips and will have built in lighting in side the alcove and along the toe kick and backsplash.

DMAX

With your homemade brine you should achieve good results' date=' the pink coloring you are looking for won't happen with smoke alone. you will get a smoke ring like you did with your last brisket, but you need the nitrite or nitrates to achieve the pink. Good luck.[/quote']

Got it. Thanks!

DMAX

DJ - are you cooking your ribs bone side down the whole kook, or are you flipping them at some point?

DMAX

The corned beef I do is in a covered pot with liquid. I guess it could be done in the cooker, rather than in the oven or slow cooker.

I get the grey one from Whole Foods (or similar), rather than the one with the nitrates or sulfites or somesuch. One of those makes me wheeze. Must be sulfites.

Anyway, aren't corned beeves usually cooked "wet"?

Well thats what I'm getting at...I dont want to. The brining has to take place, but I want to do the low and slow in the KK, rather than in a dutch oven. I want to smoke the brisket indirect and have a pot of cabbage on there for the last hour or two. I just didnt want to try it if someone else here has already done so with poor results!

DMAX

Oh' date=' Sanny,nice soup too[/quote']

Uh huh. Don't mind me.

And my little dog, too...

Come on Sanny, dont be a hater. Twinkle, Twinkle!

DMAX

I had this one, but I wasnt feeling the three week brine, and I also wanted to attain the pink coloring from smoke instead of saltpeter. I thought an all applewood smoke would be a good compliment. Thoughts?

4 quarts water

1 cup kosher salt

12 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons pickling spices

8 bay leaves

1 teaspoon saltpeter (optional)

Bring the water to a boil. Remove from heat and add the salt and saltpeter (optional). Stir until the salt is completely disolved. Allow to cool. Stir in the garlic, pickling spices and bay leaves. The brine is now ready for use. For brining, always use a non-metal, air tight container.

Saltpeter, or potassium nitrate is a food preservative. It will give the meat a pink coloring and reduce the chances of spoilage. If you are careful with your food handling and don't need the pink coloring you do not need to add the saltpeter.

From this point you need to corn the beef. This is done in several different ways. The easiest and safest in my opinion is to use a brine. The salt-water brine preserves the meat and gives it the texture that we would call corned beef. The basic brine consists of water, enough salt to float an egg and seasonings like black pepper, coriander, juniper berries, garlic, etc. People who make their own pastrami usually end up with a recipe unique to them. The beef brisket should remain in the brine stored in a cold, dark place for anywhere from seven days to three weeks. You do need to regularly check on the meat and turn it to prevent spoilage.

DMAX

Gotcha! I'd like to do my own beef brine and then slow cook to make cb and cabbage. The brisket I made this weekend with a mustard seed rub made me think of it. The rub had the right taste but the meet was missing the bite that corned beef has.

Does any one have a recipe and cooking directions for a homemade low and slow corned beef?

DMAX

Wow! That looks delicious! No worries with the pot cracking?

DMAX

Yeah Sanny, sorry for the hijack.

I'd like to thank the Academy, my Mom, my dog and my agent...

Kind words from an obviously intelligent person! (edited for stupidity and laziness!)

DMAX

We wouldn't dream of thinking such a thing! Here are some pics from my own "soup" this weekend. A nice little 4 pound "bowl" of brisket with some awesome mustard seed rub. Did 6 hours low and slow and then wrapped her in foil and towels and let her rest in a thermal bag. YUM! I hate to say it, but these may be the last from me for a few weeks, getting ready to start a cleanse/fast, but I'll be back!

DMAX

Very Nice!

DMAX

Very nice! I'll be getting a brisket going here shortly, KK is coming up to temp right now!

Considering she just fell down the stairs when someone rang the doorbell, I dont think I'll be letting her drive. She's the kind that as soon as you open a vehicle door, she has to get in. She loves the ride!

And there, I changed my avatar, just for you!

DMAX

When I cook on my cooker, I pic. And I change my avatar regularly.

But, with just one person at home, and a small freezer, I don't have occasion to do large cooks too often. And it's too miserably cold (and snow and ice today) to fire the whole thing up for just a burger or fish fillet for one person.

My loss, more than yours!

Maybe you can get one of those new mini-me kookers that Dennis has in the pipeline! Besides, one person, one furball and two bunnies makes a family of four, plenty to kook for!

DMAX

Yeah, yeah I know. Dont want Sanny crackin' down on me! Seems though that there aren't too many pictures coming from her .....

True dat

Agreed, but I think where I am going is to determine whether 6 hours on the Kooker for ribs is good for multiple racks of ribs, but perhaps it would take significantly less for say one. But at the end of the kook, if their good then so be it.. just a compunction to figure stuff out I guess!

DMAX

I agree that the thermal mass equation differences are probably moot, but I'm still thinking that along the lines of the humidor comparison, that if there is one rack of ribs that has released sufficient moisture to reach saturation of grains of moisture at the given temperature of the air inside the dome, then multiple racks would reach that saturation point faster, therfore keeping each individual rack's amount of retained moisture higher. As energy (concentration of moisture being one) always reaches equilibrium with the area of higher concentration giving to the area of lower concentration until they are the same, the amount of moisture needed to be released from ten racks of ribs would cumulatively be the same but individually be lower as the area inside the dome is a constant.

So in theory, more meat in the kooker should equate to less individual moisture loss than less meat in the same volume and at the same temperature.

Right?

Well they did, but being the Nations Capitol, when so many metrosexuals started to infiltrate, the rules interpretation and subsequent enforcement became so convoluted, a closed quorum was held and it was decided that guilt would be presumed until proven innocent. Thus the backlog for illegal male status hearings became a political football, and there is a freeze on any being held for the foreseeable future. So until then, no BB&B, no mocha capaccino and no madras shirts...