Pequod

15 hours ago, tekobo said:

Look at that!  I came back to this thread to comment on something that I had learned from @Syzygies.  Had to hunt for the quote and, en route, I saw these pictures of Pequod's.  Not fair.  That looks so good.  Still learning here. 

It only looks good because it is. 

15 hours ago, tekobo said:

I  have been doing pretty well with my bread baking.  The loaves rise reliably and folk like the taste.  There was one Tartine No 3 loaf that came out flat as a pancake when I first tried it back in February.  Thought I would try it again last week.  I felt like I was back where I started.  Sticky dough, wouldn't turn out of the banneton easily and it even stuck to the pizza stone in my indoor oven and ripped when I tried to drag it off.  Aaaargh.  It was so bad that I just slipped the loaves straight in the bin.  

Then I remembered Syzygies' comment above about hydration.  The recipe included soaked buckwheat groats and creme fraiche and called for 85% hydration.  Waaaay too much liquid overall.  I tried again the next day, dialling back hydration to 75%.  The perfect loaf.  Not as precise as S's spreadsheet but realising that the author of the cookbook may not have taken into account the variation in the amount of soaking water I might use helped me solve this problem.  And helped to restore The Husband's faith in my breadmaking.    

I know I've name dropped my BFF (Bread Friend Forever) Trevor Jay Wilson here before. Summarizing his mantra: Hydration is for squares. Okay...not really. But his point is: hydration is one of the last things you worry about in perfecting a loaf. For most amateurs (me), dough handling is far more important than hydration. His Champlain Sourdough recipe is only 75% hydration, and yet has a beautifully open crumb if you follow his dough handling techniques. 

50 minutes ago, jonj said:

VERY nice! One of the benefits of your new location, I assume. 

Yup!

You can be ready to cook with charcoal in a KK pretty quickly. Five minutes is faster than my experience. But 20-30 is my routine. Light it, go prep the food, it’s ready pretty quickly.

That said, nothing is easier than gas. KK’s are all about flavor and all around versatility. Grill, smoke, rotisserie, bake, pizza, etc. Gas is for fast grilling...and little more. But it’s very convenient for that.

G’day folks. Haven’t posted many cooks lately because I’ve been busy with a few things. Still cooking and eating 😳. One of my major distractions has just been eliminated 🤔. Another distraction has been building my time machine. It has the ability to look into the past!

Here it is:

Here it is looking at 2.5 million years ago:

2.5 million year old light. This is pre-processed. I’ll post the fully processed image later. Something streaked across the sky during exposure. 

Here’s a look at 7500 years ago. Also pre-processed.

4 hours ago, tekobo said:

@BOC there are unsubstantiated claims by owners of KKs with pebbles that say that pebbles cook best sprinkled through out the posts on this forum.  Nobody, not even those of us who own KKs with pebbles, really believes this claim but it is fun to needle those with tiled KKs.  Either way, your KK is going to be a revelation when you receive it.  

She spoiled the fun.

Consider yourself fully initiated. Someone will be along to show you the secret handshake and recipe for offal shortly.

Had you purchased a 42 there’s a separate initiation ritual involving a goat sacrifice. 

Oh and...color choice?

Hopefully you read the posts about the superiority of pebbles for cooking? 🤔

You need the basket splitter for sure.

consider a rotisserie spit rod.

🤮

Dreaming of a day when we’re allowed to leave our own borders and experience such as this... 😪😷

14 hours ago, tekobo said:

Aaaaa-ha! What colour???

Orange, obviously. 😮

16 would definitely be a great add to the 32/23 combo. Loads of flexibility there. The BEST flexibility. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Never been done before! 🤔

And the colour is?

That would be a GREAT setup.

1 hour ago, tekobo said:

Hey there @Mosca.  It's clear that you are not a kamado newbie.  I don't know how insulated a BGE is but I have found the insulation in a KK to be phenomenal. You talk about dropping a few briquettes into a corner of your Weber for a small cook.  I am guessing that is because you burn them out for that one cook.  Well, in a KK, you can light up the centre of your full basket of coals, put a grate low down in the KK (or high up if you wish), do a quick cook and just "switch off" the burn by turning off the air flow.  I would bet that you will use fewer coals up on a quick cook in a KK than you do with the dozen or so coals on your Weber.

Concur with @tekobo (hey, it happens now and then!). You can also purchase the basket splitter to give yourself two zones and reduce the amount of lump in the half basket. But, yes, you’ll find yourself using less charcoal overall due to the superb, but low airflow.

Who let you in here? 😜

Gave you my answer at the pit. Will let others chime in. 

Welcome aboard. You made the right call on KK over KJ. 
 

Pics are showing now!

Great looking KK. You chose the right color.

Sourdough with fresh milled Kamut harvested from a nearby Egyptian tomb. 

Welcome. We have a few UK member/owners here. @tekobo and @Braai-Q

On 9/24/2019 at 9:36 PM, Syzygies said:

Wow, how timely to find this thread active. I also have news to report.

I got tired of cleaning yard schmutz out of my stainless steel chains, so I ordered a second aluminum disk off eBay. My steam generator now consists of one cake pan and two disks, all aluminum:

Fat Daddio's PRD-163 Round Cake Pan, 16 x 3 Inch, Silver

1 Aluminum Disc, 1 1/4" thick x 14 3/4" dia., Mic-6 Cast Tooling Plate, Disk

To my surprise redoing my calculations, aluminum has a significantly higher specific heat capacity than steel: Water, 4181. Aluminum, 897. Ratio: 21.5%

Moreover, these disks are heavy. The cake pan and two disks combine to 44.9 pounds.

So, in a ceramic cooker or oven heated to 450 F, this steam source can boil off 803 grams of ice, or 964 grams of warm (40 C) water. I rarely use more than half that, enough steam to replace the air in a KK or oven several times over. Perhaps I should have just tossed the steel chain, but now I have two aluminum disks. Nice.

As for the no-knead discussion, is there any connection between no-knead recipes and cast iron enclosures? Or are we all playing Simon Says? Are the authors assuming no one is crazy enough to generate steam as Thomas Keller advises? A cast iron enclosure, and a steam generator, both work. They work differently. If no-knead bread is wedded to a cast iron enclosure for some technical reason, I'm all ears. I'm not seeing it. I've tried both ways with my bread (derived from Tartine Bakery which is a nuanced version of no-knead), and steam is better. What pushed me to experiment was a desire to pick my shape and make multiple loaves at once, not to be forced into the shape of the cast iron enclosure.

Finally getting around to looking at the aluminum disk thingy, but that link has aged out. Anyone have a current link to a source?

I’m a huge fan of the 32. That and anything else are a potent combo. 32/23 is hard to beat. 

I have one and rarely use it. Haven’t found the need. Others use theirs all the time. 

Do you have help with moving it? If not, any universities with ROTC programs nearby? I’ve found that a small bribe to ROTC cadets can help with moves like this. Seems like those 3 steps directly to the screened patio would be your best bet, provided you have help.

Dude, chill. It’s just a grill. 
 

Just kidding. Welcome aboard! 😷

Tony G. is the real deal. His book, "The Pizza Bible" is pretty much the only pizza book I've come across that is worth the price. He's even respected at pizzamaking.com, which is saying a LOT, because they pretty much hate everybody. 

2 hours ago, Wingman505 said:

Is this a good steel for us to buy @Pequod @tekobo @MacKenzie @ckreef?

 

https://shop.bakingsteel.com/collections/steels/products/baking-steel-pro-package

Yep. That 16” round is what I use on the KK. Great balance of weight and thickness. Packs enough thermal punch for whatever you throw at it.