Pequod

Awkward angle, but I'm holding the 32's top cap up to my 23. I call that a perfect match. Only disappointment is that no rotisserie bracket or drive shaft was included, so my plans to roti my first cook are shot.

Bad lighting, but color looks to be a perfect match for my 23. Will find out for sure tomorrow when they're standing side by side.

A little something I found. Let there be genuflecting to Dennis.

Unloaded the coffee char and accessories so far. Waiting for my daughter to get dressed to help me lift off the crate. Then rolled into the garage overnight until Burley Hurley and the boys stop by tomorrow evening to roll it to the back.

32. I said Fat Man, not Morbidly Obese Man.

Good idea on the setup. Will find out soon, but guessing that when I get my 32 I can position my round 15" baking steel griddle over a half basket and still have the other half shielded.

Better not drop your fork!

An hour of heat soaking should do it. I'll start spinning down the top cap when the temp gets within about 50 degrees of my target. You'll find the temp will likely drop a bit on the dome therm, but wait a few minutes and it will start creeping back up. As it approaches the target you'll reduce the lower vent to dial it in. If you know the vent setting for a particular temp, you can just dial that in immediately and let it run up slowly. Just give yourself enough time.

Once I'm heat soaked I can turn down as low as 1/2 turn and barely open on the lower vent. Maybe not garbage charcoal, but you were operating with a higher flow rate, with higher combustion rate and higher heat release via the top cap. You can clamp it down, reduce the burn rate and still sustain 325.

Not normal at all. I can go much longer than that on a full load. At 325 you shouldn't need more than a single turn of the top cap and a small vent setting on the bottom. Use the top cap for large movements of temp, and lower vent to fine tune. Maybe try plain old Royal Oak Lump and spend some time with the vent settings. You'll find it doesn't take much airflow at all to sustain 325.

Nice first cook. Sounds like you've figured this out pretty quickly.

Interesting cook. Never even thought about boar ribs.

Do you have a recipe for donair sauce you'd be willing to share? I'm thinking these OctoForks would be a great way to spin some Chicken Shawarma, stacking boneless, skinless thighs. A doanair sauce might be just the thing for that.

My wife made the salad, and it went perfectly with this. Everyone but my daughter agreed these were the best gyros we've had, but she's 17 and stickin' it to the man in her own way...

We did homemade tzatziki, which is the cucumber dill sauce you see on the pita.

When I sold my KJ and Jotisserie recently (separate buyers) I took each of them to my backyard to show off the KK. Dennis can expect their orders any minute now.

Got my forks. Besides uses for spinning food, they'll obviously do nicely as a home security measure by placing them on the floor inside entryways at night.

Shuley posted this recently: Besides looking awesome, I couldn't help but notice the cultural mash-up of an American cooking Greek cuisine using the recipe of a Canadian of Indian descent. In today's world, that's practically an act of rebellion! So here I am stickin' it to the man with my own cook. Not spinning it, but did smoke with a bit of coffee wood. On it goes. Gotta have fresh pita. Done. Beatiful! Plated with an Israeli couscous salad, just to mash cultures further.

Only because I've never been there. I think they rose to fame after my time. Need hit that one sometime when I'm back.

I've done both dry and wet cures. Both work and both are easy. I've tried various recipes, but like the maple bacon recipe from Amazing Ribs the best. I've always hot smoked using the KK cold smoker and keeping the temp below 200 until the internal temp of the bacon is 150. Then wrap it in plastic and keep in the fridge overnight. Makes it easier to slice when well chilled.

I'm in Ft. Wayne periodically for work. I'll have to ask my folks there about Oley's. You're close enough that I'd recommend a pizza crawl! Start downtown and hit the original Pizzeria Uno (NOT the heretical chain of the same name), Malnati's, and Gino's East. Then head to the south side and hit the original Aurelio's in Homewood for thin crust (my first stop whenever I return home). Move over to Sanfratellos for a completely different deep dish. The original has closed, but they still have locations in Dyer, IN. And if you're still hungry head down to Champaign-Urbana and sample Papa Del's. Different take on deep dish, but totally awesome. Almost forgot! Must get a stuffed spinach pizza from Edwardo's in Chicago, and Giordano's as well.

This thread is all about authentic Chicago Style Deep Dish, but cooked on the KK, of course. I did a thread similar to this on the Guru once. Put the entire site to sleep. If you caught that one, feel free to skip this one. Heck, skip it if you're not interested too. I won't be offended. Or you may find you need a nap in the middle. That's fine. We'll still be here when you wake up. First, let's parse the name. Most deep dish I see posted on the internet is NOT Chicago style, yet most people feel the need to insert that word "Chicago" in front of "Deep Dish", no matter how heretical it may be. Bottom line is there are a lot of deep dish pizzas out there, many quite good, but only some of these qualify as Chicago Style. Nothing wrong with making and enjoying those other pies, just don't offend a great city by calling it Chicago Style when it's not. So what makes it "Chicago Style"? To me, it comes down to two key things: The crust and the tomatoes. First, the crust. Many people think Chicago Style pizza crust is similar to a loaf of bread -- very doughy. Others think there is cornmeal in the crust. Don't get me going on that one. Let's just say I agree with this: http://www.realdeepdish.com/2009/05-06-pizza-rant-2-6-pat-bruno-im-calling-you-out/. Both of these are WRONG! The classic Chicago Style pizza crust, such as you'll find at Lou Malnati's, Pizzeria Uno, or Gino's East, has a biscuit-like texture. A bit crisp on the outside, giving way to a biscuity crumb on the inside. Again, if you like cornmeal in your dough or making pizza out of a loaf of bread, by all means keep doing it. Just don't call it Chicago Style or you'll be labeled either a heretic or a Cubs fan! Next, the tomatoes on a Chicago Style pizza have a distinctly bright flavor, and are usually a bit chunky as well. The closest I've come to replicating that flavor is with a particular brand: 6-in-1 All Purpose Ground Tomatoes. They aren't chunky enough, but the flavor is spot on and you can always add some high quality diced or hand crushed tomatoes for chunkiness. Let's start with the dough. Here's my favorite dough recipe for a 13" Deep Dish pizza. The recipe you'll find at http://www.realdeepdish.com is also excellent and I used to make one very similar to that, but I like this better: 350g AP Flour - 95% 20g Semolina - 5% 170g Water - 46% 64g Corn oil (17%) 14g Olive oil (4%) 1/4 tsp Salt - (.35%) 1/2 tsp Sugar - (.5%) 2g instant dry yeast - (.5%) First, mix all the dry ingredients except for the yeast, then pour in the oil. Remember, since we're not making bread, we're trying to *avoid* gluten formation, so we don't want to proof the yeast and we don't want to over-knead the dough. Partially mix in the oil, then add the water and partially mix that too. Then sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir that in until just barely combined, then knead the dough in the bowl with one hand for no more than two minutes. Now cover it with plastic and let it rise in the oven with only the oven light on for heat for up to five hours. It will rise, but not much. While that's going on, we also want to drain the tomatoes in a strainer over a cereal bowl. Some people like to spoon them right from the can. I prefer to let the water drain out so that the pizza isn't too wet. I also like to de-fat my pepperoni so that we don't get a grease slick on top. Put the pepperoni on a plate between paper towel sheets, then nuke for 30 seconds. Amazing how much grease is pulled out. Sliced and sautéed my onion for just a bit. No pics of that. Instead I give you my fancy new teak cutting board. Sweet, no? After five hours, the dough has risen, but gluten matrix is weak to non-existent. No way that dough would pass the windowpane test. Grease my decades old, highly seasoned steel deep dish pizza pan. I've been doing deep dish pizza much longer than I've been doing barbecue. Bought this one while I was still in college and realized the need to master this before leaving Illinois for good. Spread the dough, and pinch it half way up those two inch sides. You can use 8 to 16 ounces of mozzarella, depending on how cheesy you want it. This mozzarella is from a cow I own in the Shenandoah Valley, then delivered the whole, unpasteurized milk to an Italian Grandmother nearby to make the cheese for me. I lied. Safeway had this in stock. I'm using 12 ounces of the stuff. Then top the cheese with the sautéed onions. Now ready for the tomatoes. Here's what they look like after draining all afternoon. Look at all that water. Most, but not all of the drained tomatoes go on the pie. Now sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon each of dried basil and oregano. I prefer fresh basil, but none available today. Grate some parmesan directly on top. Then all of that de-fatted pepperoni. Onto the KK at 450. Turn it after about 15 minutes. Don't know if I really needed to do that in the KK, but always do it in the oven and it's a habit, And after about 15 minutes more, we're ready. Let it rest for five minutes. Remove it from the pan. Plated. Perfect. Here's the bottom.

I always turn my fat cap to the side, but that's just me. Sometimes I shoot for a 45 degree angle.

There ya go. Dennis is discounting this one from Project Smoke Season 3 by $1000 (I think I read that somewhere):