Pequod

Woops...that one slipped out of me and hit submit before I could edit myself. Still could, I suppose. Naaah.

Thanks! Mac gets it. Turns out flour has flavor! Who knew?? There's a compliment in there somewhere...I'll just go with, "thanks!" Thanks! @tekobo take note...that's how compliments are done! HEATHEN!!!

Greetings KK’ers. Whilst on sabbatical, I have acquired a Mockmill and been experimenting with Fresh Milled flour. The flavor boost is incredible. Quickbreads require no adaptation at all (so far). My first two sourdough experiments have also been smashingly successful and superbly tasty. A demonstration for your amusement: The mill doing what it does...milling. A loaf of 50% fresh milled hard red spring wheat. The other 50% is Giusto’s Artisan bread flour. This was 84% hydration with only sourdough starter as leaven (no commercial yeast), and no other agents like ascorbic acid or vital wheat gluten. This was baked in a cast iron combo pot in my oven and the result was superb. Much better flavor than any whole wheat bread I’ve ever had. This week’s victim was Spelt Sourdough, using 30% fresh milled spelt, 30% fresh milled high extraction hard red spring wheat (high extraction == some bran removed using a 40 mesh sieve), and 40% Giusto’s Artisan. This was 85% hydration and only sourdough starter leaven. Also, no ascorbic acid or vital wheat gluten. Used an oblong banneton for proofing and oblong clay baker for...well...baking. Again, a superb result and incredible flavor.

Found an interesting, zero waste approach to starter maintenance called No Muss No Fuss. My NMNF stiff starter is on the left, and my levain build on the right: Where there is levain there must be bread. Here’s my steam oven doing what it does...steaming. 40’ish minutes later: And the crumb...nigh upon perfect: And with that post I bid adieu for awhile. Every so often I take stock of how I’m spending time online and make corrections, reducing or eliminating participation on various sites. This time around I’ve deleted FakeBook and am reducing my forum footprint. Will continue posting cooks at Amazing Ribs and on Instagram with the #komodokamado hashtag (or follow me directly at @dr_jpr if you dare...), but reducing other BBQ forums as redundant.

Yes, absolutely. Nothing beats sourdough pizza. Nothing.

I came across an interesting formula and thought I’d pass it along. Pardon my French: 1, 2, 3 Sourdough Method Where most bread formulas dial in a particular hydration, offer up precise weighings of ingredients, and require fussy technique, this method simplifies all of that. It starts with whatever starter you’re discarding at your next feeding (you DO have a starter, don’t you?), adding twice that weight in liquid, then three times that weight in whatever flours you choose, along with 2% of the flour weight in salt. Mix, ferment, proof, and bake by whatever method you choose. Unless you retard the fermentation, you will be ready to bake in 7-8 hours (depending on room temp, of course). While artisan breads with precise formulas still win the day, this approach provides an easily remembered rule of thumb for just winging it with starter you’re discarding anyway. For example, this AM I took 150g of my starter, mixed with 300g of warm water and 450g of AP flour. I added 9g of salt after autolyse and proceeded to bake a couple of batards on my steam oven. Easy peasy.

I’ve used both regularly. I cook for a family of 2-3 most of the time, and use the 32 the most...by far. If I had to sell one, and I’m not, it’s the 23 that sees the door. “Better” includes not just construction quality, but also versatility for cooking. The half main grate alone adds much to versatility, with easy access to lower grates without removing upper grates, etc. It’s not the size in terms of grate space that makes it better. It’s the versatility that space - and the half main - give you. ”Bigger is Better” has NEVER been my position on this.

I have both. The 32 is better. And not just because of size.

Almost. Those appear to be beef chuck ribs (or so they call them here), which are also quite good. Beef plate ribs are these:

In a KK, even the direct side isn’t too intense on the main grate. But I would run indirect on the half main until about 20 degrees shy of done, then if the skin isn’t brown enough for you move it to a lower direct grate.

That never gets old. Great pics! Now to business...

Love it! Tone it down with Vegemite...

Congrats! Can’t wait to see what you do with it.

Had to look it up. Love the description. Starts with this: ... Sounds like a Caribbean cocktail of the sort that involves a paper umbrella. Then a smooth segue to: Yup...that’ll rip the hide off ya.

I think it is this: https://smile.amazon.com/HIC-Cutter-Stripper-Stainless-10-Inches/dp/B000PSFOF8/ref=sr_1_18?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1532872662&sr=1-18&keywords=corn+stripping+tool I’m also a huge fan of the Hutzler banana slicer...or at least the reviews: https://smile.amazon.com/Hutzler-571-Banana-Slicer/dp/B0047E0EII/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532872748&sr=8-1&keywords=hutzler+banana+slicer+571

Nice snags. Researching holy toads...

I could never find them here either. Even went to my local butcher to ask if they could special order that cut. They said no! I’ve obviously stopped using that butcher. I drove around the corner from him to a local ethnic/Asian supermarket and not only found them, but at a great price too. A few years after that I heard on another BBQ forum that that particular butcher had gotten religion and was selling them. Moral of the story: if you have a local Asian/international market, try there. That’s also where I was sourcing packer briskets until Costco finally got religion.

My response as well once I experienced real, 100% it is what it says it is pellets with no binders or other mystery woods. The mystery pellets made a quick exit to the trash. With the RIGHT pellets, they really are the best way to go in the cold smoker.

...and here I was expecting to FINALLY learn how to cook flamingo.

Finally got around to using this with some pulled pork tonight. My daughter the food critic and I both agreed it was excellent. Great stuff!

I did similar research earlier this year to figure out why the pellets I used (from amazn tube smokers) left so much gunk in the cold smoker. Those mystery pellets are junk. I ended up with cookinpellets.com. Much better.

Homemade dough can and should be considerably better than store bought. Even simple, no knead 72 hour doughs will produce fantastic results with very little effort. More advanced techniques produce even better results. Hard to go back once you’ve experienced those. My advice would be to start with something simple like the@ckreef artisan pizza dough tutorial and compare that with your bakery dough. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Still squirrely here. Haven’t been able to log in via the web. Had to install Tapatalk just to type this (more as a test of the emergency Tapatalk system than anything else). Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Darn. You beat me to it. I was going to tell him you’ve been posting Konro cooks weekly since January.

Ah...the joy and wonder of true two-zone grilling on display. Didn't even use the basket splitter. Just piled the lump to the side, letting distance squared do it’s thing. Simmered the brats in beer on the indirect side, then onto the direct sear with some corn. All done with the flick of a wrist and some tongs. Brats are done! Back to the indirect side to stay warm whilst the corn cooks direct for awhile longer. No grates were moved. Just some more magic with tongs.