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cschaaf

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Everything posted by cschaaf

  1. Yikes! Susan, you win the ultimate Scary Challenge for that picture! I hope you have a speedy and full recovery! Follow all the doctor's orders!
  2. I finally completed my storage unit. I kept trying to design something that used horizontal shelving then ultimately decided that @wilburpan had already designed exactly what I needed - vertical storage. His original thread is here: http://komodokamadoforum.com/topic/6027-built-a-storage-unit-for-my-kk-grill-accessories/#comment-61206 I don't have 1/2 the tools, 1/3 of the patience, or 1/16 of the skills that Wilbur has, but I still managed to get this thing together without too many issues and, more importantly, I didn't even get a splinter! No closeup pictures of my joints, they aren't nearly as tidy as Wilbur's. I'd never done half lap joints before and I did these all with my table saw - it worked well enough. I got better as I went. If you were to look at all of the joints, you could easily piece together the timeline of my build. lol I'd also never ripped down a 2x8 into 2x4s. Doesn't seem like it would be, but it's very difficult to find 'half'. I don't have a planer, so I was stuck with my best attempt at 'half'. I probably should have cut a thin edge off of each side of the 8" width to give me non-rounded edges. Failing that, I should have made sure my flat edges were used in the best direction. I made a few relatively minor changes from Wilbur's design. I put in a 2x4 under the center of each of the platforms (perpendicular to the top boards) so that I could put heavy objects on and not worry about the top boards sagging. Not sure if it was at all necessary, especially on the bottom, but it made me feel better to include them. I also noticed way too late that my shelf frames are upside down from Wilbur's. The middle support should help with that mistake. The second change was that I pegged the lap joints on the dividers - drilled two 1/4" hols and drove in dowels. Again, likely not necessary at all but I'd never done that before and it seemed like a good opportunity to practice. Last, on the lower shelf, I notched out the outside edges of the frame and top boards so that the uprights weren't hanging outside of the top and bottom shelf. In other words, the unit is flush the whole way down both sides. If you look at Wilbur's, his uprights are 'outside' of the shelves. Not sure there is a difference either way structurally. It took me three weekends working on and off to get this built. The wood, screws, and sealer cost me about $60. And I only had to message Wilbur once for assistance! Loaded in here are: the lower/sear grate, deflector, rotisserie basket and motor (in the bin) and smoking CI pot. Not loaded are: the main grate (unlikely this will ever find it's way to this storage bin, but it would fit if I need it to), upper grate, and baking stone (all three of which were in the grill working on some calzones for dinner).
  3. Looks great! Love that tweed. For a minute, I thought you were at my house - sandy colored bricks lightly green'd, bug spray on the window sill. I guess those are just GA things
  4. Wow, I go on vacation for a few days and look what happens! Congratulations, Mac!
  5. I'm not into the naming thing, but to each their own. That said, I think yours might have some good options based on the delivery issues alone Mia - a play on Missing In Action Coyote - the Roadrunners arch nemesis
  6. I used extra firm tofu and cut it into slabs that were a bit larger than 1/4" and tried drying them on paper towels. I put towels on the bottom, covered with more, and used a sheet pan to try to get even pressure. I changed out the paper towels and did it again. I still didn't get them dry enough to get a good, fast sear on them but it worked well enough. ETA: I just saw @MacKenziesmoked tofu - dang, I wish I woulda thought of that!
  7. He should target amusement parks and fairs. That's where the money is for novelty foods like this.
  8. When I use my fan controller, I completely close the kk bottom vents and let the fan handle the flow from the bottom.
  9. I made mine about 2 weekends ago. Other than the odd feeling you get in your gut when you drill into a perfectly good CI pot, it's a simple process.
  10. I took his meaning as - it is an 'off the shelf' serving tray that he includes as a drip pann. I remember that post and shortly after, he had a post that showed what was included with each grill. Drip pan was on the list, but serving tray was not. Either way, it is a piece of art.
  11. Interesting. I've heard of Detroit style pizza. Typically square with the crispy upper crust edge like Kevin got. Looks like it was started at Buddy's Pizza in the 40s. I think Little Ceasar's deep dish is more like Detroit style. I think they've even advertised it as such briefly.
  12. Glad this thread was started. My stone wasn't even close to fitting and I just assumed it wasn't meant to. I didn't measure, but I bet I had to spread the handles by 2 to 3 inches to get the stone in there. A 2x4 and a few firm strikes by a rubber mallet did the trick for me.
  13. Looks so good. I wish I could find a tri-tip. I've even looked while on business trips or vacations. Trends are slow to make it this far south, I guess. I've been hearing about flat iron steaks for years. I saw my first one ever at Walmart last week.
  14. It's the sumac berries - so don't go out and grab the leaves and use them ETA: That's not to suggest that you should go out and source the berries on your own, either.
  15. Thanks everyone. It was a new method (roti over the half basket) and a new spice blend for me. It all came out great. Only one downside, since the spices were added as a paste, the skin didn't get as crispy as I would have liked it - but it was still tasty!
  16. This is my "Fed in the Med" entry over on the Guru Za'atar is a generic name for a combination of spices commonly used in the Middle East. Key ingredients are sesame seeds and ground sumac - from there, different cultures add their own spin. My blend was sesame seeds, ground sumac, oregano, savory, a bit of salt and some fresh thyme from the garden. Here it is dry on the left and combined with olive oil and minced garlic to form a paste on the right. The sumac, which was hard to find, is the star of this show - it has sort of a lemon zest flavor that isn't as sharp and doesn't linger in your mouth as long as lemon zest does. Coat the chicken with the paste first, both over and under the skin, then sprinkle on the dry blend and pat it down. I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. Here is is on the KK rotisserie. I have the basket splitter installed and the fire is on the back wall (can't see it in this image). The pan of veggies has carrots, onions and cabbage and is sitting over the non-direct side. The cabbage really picked up the nice flavor of the za'atar blend. The chicken also had great flavor and you could squirt a little lemon on it to pick the flavor up even more. Plated with some couscous made with onion and sun-dried tomatoes. I haven't made couscous in years and forgot how easy and delicious it is. Money Thanks for looking.
  17. I think the wood is going to be heavier than the steel
  18. Sure looks pretty! And the first straight rod in the wild! Can't wait to see what you cook first.
  19. @Stile88 - I don't have a picture of them on the grill in the 'storage' position, but I do have this thread which shows how I stored them in my shed. They will hand on the grill the same way - rounded edge up. http://komodokamadoforum.com/topic/6527-side-table-storage/#comment-69836
  20. Yeah, wrapping would have at least helped the bark. Yes, I was cutting across the grain. I don't have a lot of choices for meat locally. Walmart has the best selection near me. Other than that, it's an hour+ drive to get to Costco. The last 4 or 5 times I've been to Costco, they've only had flats. There are a few Publix that are also about an hour away, but I've never seen any briskets there. Overall, they have a pretty disappointing selection of meats - especially when compared to the rest of the store which is fantastic.
  21. Yeah, I agree. Seems like there's no real reason to go 225. It was marked as Choice.
  22. Here is what I did - mostly following MeatHead's Brisket: 12.5# full packer, trimmed the hard fat off and trimmed fat cap to about 1/4" as best I could. It was the smallest one that Walmart had on sale. Injected with some beef broth then sprinkled with salt and let sit in the fridge for about 5 - 6 hours Set the KK up - filled the box with KJ and Fogo large pieces, sprinkled on some medium and smaller pieces to fill the gaps Lit the KK with half of a Rutland firestarter and dialed to get about 225 After about an hour, I set up my HeaterMeter controller for 225 Put the deflector on the lower grate, covered it with some foil and put in a drip pan with water. Let the grill get back up to 225. Pulled the brisket out of the fridge and dusted it with Meathead's Big Bad Beef Rub Added the smoke pot that was filled with hickory and pecan and gave it a few minutes to start smoking. Dropped the brisket on the top grate above the drip pan, fat cap down, and let it go - it was 8:17PM At 4:00PM the next day, the IT was at 191 and climbing very slowly.The HeaterMeter showed it would take another 2 hours to reach an IT of 200-degrees at the current rate. The HeaterMeter held the temp around 225 all night, but was a bit shaky with the fan. It was my first time using the HM on the KK, so I need to dial in the PID setting a bit. The average temp was about 225, but it probably ranged between 215 and 235 all night. Figuring I wouldn't have time to get it to temp and rest it, I asked on the guru how to slice and store it. Several recommended to crank the temperature up to 300 or so, which sped things along. I don't have HM shots from this point on, so I'm guessing on time. It probably took an hour or so before the probe temp hit 200 - meaning the brisket was on the grill for about 21.5+ hours. I probed it all over and it was pretty soft in the thick parts and around 200 - 203, but the end of the flat, maybe the last 3" were very hard to probe and at 208 or so. It was clear that it was super dried out. It was like bad beef jerky. I wrapped in foil and let it rest in a cooler with some blankets for about 1.5 hours. I cut off the point and set it aside and tried to slice the flat. The bark was super hard all over and very difficult to eat. Even the dogs struggled with a small piece of the bark. I had to cut about 3" back before I found something that resembled actual meat. Even then, it was so dry. By the way, there were ZERO juices in the foil that I wrapped it in. Literally no juice came out of the brisket while resting or while slicing the flat. There was zero smoke ring - as we know, not an indication of a lot, but I think it cooked through what smoke ring should have been there. Defeated, I sliced up the flat as best I could, but it was dry and just fell apart. I turned to the point. That was okay, not great... but a LOT better than the flat was. I planned on saving it for burnt ends, but I had to chop it up and mix it with the flat crumbles to give us something to eat for dinner. The flavor was actually pretty good. I liked the rub and will use it again on other beef. I really don't know what I did so wrong that it turned out so bad. Sure, I could have done a few things differently, but I can't imagine that they would make THAT big of a difference. I know we are our own worst critics and are often overly hard on ourselves - but trust me when I say this was a total disaster. It's not only the wort thing I've ever made on the KK... or the worst thing on the KJ... it was the wort thing I have ever cooked. By far. It was really that bad. Some things I can change for next time - it may be a LONG time before I try again: Use a higher temp Get HeaterMeter settings dialed in better Texas crutch Heck, maybe I'll just use the Serious Eats sous vide recipe next time.
  23. Those look great! I was hoping to have some burnt ends last weekend, but totally ruined a full packer cook. I used the smoke pot for the first time and didn't even get a smoke ring. Nothing went right with that cook at all. Still grumpy about it. For those that say the KK won't dry things out even if you try - I have proof that isn't true.
  24. I ordered a 2Q CI pot from Amazon yesterday. Should be on my porch when I get home. Hopefully I can try it soon. Do you guys use it for faster cooks - like, say chicken breasts?
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