tekobo

As you can imagine, I got bored after the first six books or so. I also realised that I was missing a couple of Fergus Henderson books that included suckling pig. Like @BOC, I have been thinking of a pig for a feast but a) I can’t have that many friends round yet and b) I don’t quite have the courage to try Fergus’ quail stuffed pig for my very first go at roasting a whole pig! That took me to a more Italian take on a pig with thoughts of porchetta in buns. Thank you @MassimoDG for sharing the your Sardinian recipe and pictures. From all that I have read, it seems like 350F or 180C for 3-4 hours is what I should expect. I will use a baste with oregano, garlic, animal fat and oil that I made up a few days ago and will be following this advice from Fergus: Sit the pig on an oven tray* in a sphinx like manner, then rub some oil on it as if it is Ambre Solaire on a good friend’s back. Season liberally and place in a medium oven for 3 to 4 hours. You want a pig at the end that offers no resistance to your carving. Gather friends** and have a feast. *Oven tray - commit to the rotisserie instead, it should reward you with thin, crunchy skin, like creme brûlée. **Gather friends - adjust to suit prevailing COVID regulations.

...made it as far as my house. I’ve looked at previous KK whole pig cooks and I see that most people cook them on the main grate. This little piggy fits nicely on the 32. However, I would like an all round crispy skin and so am planning to try the rotisserie cradle. It fits nicely. Planning to cook this pig tomorrow. It’s a discounted present from the farm that I have been buying from and sharing with friends all through lockdown. Planning to have friends come and pick up a pig sandwich tomorrow afternoon when it is ready. Two by two so we do not violate the Rule of Six in the garden. I used the eat my books website to find out which of my cookery books have suckling pig recipes and now have the fun of choosing one. Wish me luck!

What a beautiful dog @Bruce Pearson.

Naaa. I made it sound more complicated than it actually was. I just sat the pan on the grate handles. Cleaned up just fine @tony b using the soak overnight in dishwasher liquid with hot water. Yes, it did take a scrub and some elbow grease. I promise to compare with using PBW next time. Yup, the temperature did drop. I used all charcoal for the chicken cook and filled the whole 32 basket for the very first time. Burned through most of it - unusual for me. When I come to do the suckling pig cook I might go for coco shell briquettes to be sure that the fire lasts for the whole cook. I got in touch with Dennis this morning to ask about the clash between the cradle and the handles of the double drip pan. He talked about tapping the handles slightly to bend them out of the way. I recall someone else talking about that elsewhere on the forum. Will give that a go if I do decide to use the cradle instead of the spit for the pig cook.

Good trick - find something more expensive to buy first. I'm on to you. This is just a precursor to convincing Mrs S that a 42 is not too expensive after all. That said, beautiful truck. I love the idea of being able to chuck things in the back of a truck and go. Congratulations.

Really beautiful piece of kit @Basher. Good luck with your mission to convince your wife that you were fine to go shopping without the final OK from her. I like the words on your wall. Prepare for a bit of "we do REALLY LOUD".

Woo hoo! I just looked up the Stag @Basher. Great choice. Are you able to set it up now or do you have to wait for some reno to be completed?

Learned that motto at your knee Mac! Keep going and it will turn out right at the end. Yummy looking pizza.

Hey Troble. I put the double drip pan on top of the sticky up bars that you use to lift the fire basket. It turns out my KKs are on a slope and so the right hand side was a lot hotter and drier. The pan is soaking at the moment. Will see how well it cleans up.

What gorgeous food and what a beautifully laid tabl @PVPAUL. Thank you for the tips and I look forward to following you on this journey.

So, here is the recipe that I used to make crumbly semi cured sausage: https://www.thespruceeats.com/finocchiona-tuscan-fennel-salami-2018497. Well, it was a combination of that recipe and this method: https://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=7265 with curing lasting about 4 weeks instead of 4 months. A different texture and taste experience.

Oooh. I think I would be interested in your classmate’s Thai sausage. I have some kaffir lime leaves too although my plant has never produced fruit and is less than 4’ tall. Here our favourite sausages are very simple. Pork and sage wins hands down for fresh sausage and I like to make a semi cured sausage that is half way between fresh sausage and fully cured salami. Will hunt out the recipe. We tasted it once in a bar in italy and could not find it to buy. That’s the sort of thing that is worth making, in my opinion.

Nope, just normal UK size chickens in my 32. No 42, or goat, here yet.

I set up to use the rotisserie today. I wanted to use the double drip pan to avoid flare ups but found that it would not fit underneath the cradle rotisserie - handle clash. I swapped for the rod rotisserie but was worried because the last time I used it, it managed to "unwind" the adjustable point on the left hand side and got jammed in the KK because it was too long to get out. On that occasion I cut the chicken off the rod and unscrewed the end of the rod when everything cooled down. Today I made sure the nut was tight and then I watched when it started to rotate. Sometimes the current sends the rod rotating in a clockwise direction and sometimes in an anti clockwise direction. I tried a couple of times until the rod was rotating in the clockwise direction so that it would not be able to unwind the end nut. Perfect. No problems at all getting the rod out this time. Three chooks. One for us, one for the in-laws and one for friends. The double drip pan did an awesome job of allowing me to baste with oil and fat without flare ups. I noticed the difference, with almost instant flare ups, when I took the pan out to get some fire browning at the end. Very tasty and a great trial as I am planning to cook a suckling pig at the end of the week. We once ate the tastiest potatoes ever at a market in France. They were basted by a wall of rotisserie chicken, multi meats and sausages. Not quite the same today but tasty nonetheless.

The good news for me is that I am The wife and so didn't have to seek a wife's permission in order to get a dry ager. I did have to give up a standing freezer to make room for the dry ager but that was The Husband's only condition of purchase. Maybe you guys will need to figure out something you can "give up" in exchange for getting an ager. I tell you, it is worth it! Now that the long aging piece of beef is out of the ager I might change the temp and humidity to cure some salamis for a few weeks. @S and @M - glad to count you as members of the hacksaw club. Absolutely essential for meat butchery and it is all about preserving your quality knives. Arrive at a bit of bone? Swap out for a saw so as not to damage your knife. Others will catch up to this eventually. 🤪

Well done @Troble. I can feel an Indian summer getting ready to follow on from a hot Mexican spring.

Yesterday was Day 198. Here is the whole sirloin rack when it arrived back in September of last year. I coated three ribs in fat and the rack has been sitting at the bottom of my dry ager for months. I invited friends round last night. The fore rib, one shelf up, was the back up in case the long aging experiment had gone wrong. The fore rib had only been in for about 50 days. Sense of trepidation. I thought I could see some dark mould underneath the fat on the end face of the meat. I need not have worried. It was an amazing revelation to see such clean, beautiful meat on the inside. We did have to trim off the ends. Cooking pictures to make you drool. No plated pictures. We were too busy eating. Salad, sweet potato fries and bearnaise made for a lovely meal. The meat wasn't too funky, just a slight blue cheese flavour. Very very enjoyable.

Of course I couldn't resist. For UK KK'ers - this book is on a number of sites for over £100. I got the best deal, at £49, here https://puritandoors.co.uk/recipe-book-by-ranjit-rai.html

@Troble's beer, stack, beer, stack method is much more exciting than mine! I rotate mine by 60 degrees in each layer so that I return to original position every third piece. Exposes more of the edges to the flame I think. For my most recent cook I realised that carrying an exposed spike down the stairs to the KK was not the best idea I had ever had. Safety tip for the day: put a cork on it if you have to carry your trompo king around and don't have the meat or pineapple stacked to the very top.

@Bruine I think that half grate is a game changer. In combination with the basket splitter it gives you more flexibility and the chance to try out two zone cooking in your 23 or 21.

No restaurant planned but, if we ever get out of these lockdown restrictions, I am planning a themed banquet a month. Big trestle tables in the garden and menus themed by country. I cannot wait to see and feed my friends again!

@Troble is right, the achiote paste is fundamental to this dish and to other Mexican cooking. You use heroic amounts of it just to make this sauce so don't be daunted by the amount that he has sent you. There is a saying that The Husband and I have - what you are seeking is usually within 5 miles of where you are. I would bet you a lot of money that there is someone in Australia importing (or growing) and selling authentic Mexican chillies. Worth trying to find them to make this dish authentic. The instructions, as I copied them down from the video, are: Adobo sauce toast guallijo peppers, chipotles 2 oz of each take off ends and shake seeds out break up and put back in pan, cover with water simmer for 5 minutes to rehydrate the peppers lift out of liquid and into food processor/blender add half white onion, 1oz of mexican sugar, 1Tbsp cumin, mex oregano, thyme 1 tsp all spice 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 cloves garlic, pineapple and orange juices about half a cup, 1tsp salt Blend Marinade for al pastor achiote paste 14oz. mash up add half cup apple cider vinegar, same olive oil whisk add 2 cups or more of adobo sauce whisk

I am in this camp. Having a thermometer in your BBQ gives us the comfort of precision but I tend to simply use it as a rough guide. Just so long as the temps are in the neighbour hood of where I need to be, I’m happy.

Today my ship came in. Well, the UPS man delivered. I bought a load of corn to start my nixtamalisation journey. A bit daunting. I bought some masa harina to see what the end product is like. Made a few tortilla to go with our chilli tonight. Not bad for first try. Good but not transcendental noting that this is, admittedly, just the dried corn flour. I look forward to seeing how the wet masa turns out. It feels like the start of a journey. I hope the destination turns out to be worth it...

Hi @Troble, I am sorry that the pictures were so poor. It was our first contact with friends post lockdown. We were only allowed to eat in the garden so it was a bit of a rushed event, trying to cook and eat before it got too cold outdoors. I cooked the meat on the 32 and the flour tortillas on the 23. It all went well and I served them with pineapple, pickled cucumber, an arbol chilli sauce and other things that i cannot remember. I do remember that I forgot to serve slices of lime. Alchohol and happiness induced forgetfulness. Next time!