tekobo

I've been meaning to come back to this post Tony. The point of posting the story and the picture of all those truffles was to illustrate the opposite. Well, not quite. It was indeed a lovely gift. The point is that, in season, truffles are abundant and accessible to many more people than would even dream of buying them elsewhere in the world. Black truffles are relatively cheap in season and our friends had the equivalent of a chilli cook off, but with truffles.

That was fun to read Pequod. Hero worship or what? As for being cool? I always thought that "cool" required a level of insouciance that is hard for an obsessive or a nerd to fake. Maybe one day I will be a cool aunt. In practice I think I will always be a mad aunt.

So pleased that you are getting a cover @jeffshoaf. Our Argentinian barbecue was not as well made as the grill that you are getting and when we spent £600 on it 11 years ago we thought that was a fortune to spend on a bbq. Sadly the lack of a cover did for it and I wouldn't have wanted you to go through the sheer frustration of having a piece of kit that isn't worth keeping after too few years. I am planning on all the stuff that I buy now outlasting me.

Hey @Laurie, I wouldn't fess up to adding the chicken fat. Just say it tastes extra good for some other reason 🤪 @Syzygies, we are quits. The Netherton Foundry was recommended by @Sir Bill. A lovely place to go to just look at stuff. So well made. I have a paella pan from them too. All good. I get that a food processor probably won't be up to it. The Husband walked by a minute ago. Not impressed with the thought of a new piece of kit that he thinks I don't need. The Stone Wet Grinder is on my wishlist. Will do more investigating before i dive in.

I love you and I hate you @Syzygies. The good news for me is that I have gone far enough down this rabbit hole myself to be able to stop myself diving headlong into your side burrow, yet. So far I have found: Flour tortillas can be very good. I roll them with a rolling pin and am trying different variations. The most recent one included chicken fat from a roast chicken and tasted finger lickin' good. I cook them on this Indian chapati pan. It heats up well enough and, after a quick flip on this pan I sometimes place the tortilla direct on a gas flame. Helps give them a bit of puff and a bit of char. For corn tortilla I use the standard masa harina. I get that Mexicans weep at the taste of home when they get the real stuff but I have never had it and so can console myself with the fact that what I make will taste better than if I bought pre made tortillas from a store. I am not in the market for a press because I have these two. The first is a brutish piece of kit that I picked up in a local Mexican store in Houston, Texas and the second is a fancy pants press made here in the UK. I follow your method to avoid sticking and to get even pressure but I use waxed paper squares that I have for wrapping apples rather than a plastic bag. With all of that said... I am still very interested in trying to make my own masa. I had previously followed the trail of the Nixtamatic, found some unfavourable reviews and was relieved not to have to contemplate figuring out how to get one to the UK. I will look up your other recommendations. The Macienda site that you posted earlier does describe doing this at home with an ordinary food processor. There is also the option to do it manually using a matate. Have you tried one of those? How did we get here from a pizza stone post?

For the uninitiated, see above for @Pequod's post about the Chicago Thin. I can just taste that fennel sausage now. One to make very very soon.

Congratulations @buzilo!

And anatomically correct i.e. square cut. I have not followed your South Side Thin recipe in at least a year, if not more. Mouth watering. On the to do list.

Nooooo, don't drag me down this rabbit hole @Syzygies. I spent some time investigating nixtamalisation and found that getting a decent piece of kit to grind the corn properly is a fool's game unless you want to buy an industrial machine from Mexico. Please tell me that it is the Masienda flour that you buy and that you haven't found a way to nixtamalise and grind the corn yourself. If it is the former then I will calm down and think about getting the flour when I next make it to the US. If it is the latter I would like to know how you do it and then I will worry about how far down this rabbit hole I want to follow.

You got really good marks on that chicken for an IDK cook @MacKenzie. Best baked beans you have ever tasted? They must have been good. Can you wangle a copy of the recipe for us? That looks like a lovely Valentine's Day spread @Troble.

Chicken schawarma over Jollof rice. Delicious. We ate way too much. I put a casserole into the KK afterwards, to cook slowly for supper. Now not sure I can eat again before tomorrow. We were out of pineapple so I topped the schawarma with a half red onion and half of a quince. The latter made everything smell like Christmas.

A multi kamado home. My sort of place. Welcome @Will

You're right. I usually only light one spot, maybe for 20s, but I keep the leaf blower on for longer (maybe up to a minute) and return to do a follow up blow about ten minutes later. Never fails.

I think your logic is sound. There is really not that much difference between the 21 and 23 so, if you are going to size up I would definitely go for the 32. See how you go. If you do get the 32 you could use it alongside the 21, space allowing, to see if there are benefits in running both sometimes. I certainly find having more than one KK very useful when cooking outdoors in the summer. Cuts the number of trips back into the IDK and is just more fun all round.

Thanks all. It was a nice and easy cook and yes, the smoke pot, was a good fire shield @MacKenzie. I am in the middle of another chicken schawarma cook, @Troble. Going to mix and match cultures and have it with Nigerian Jollof rice.

The half grate comes as standard with the 32. Even more grates come as standard with the 42 if you were so inclined...

Yummy. Here is the 16 looking pretty. Rapicca gloves were good for taking the hot smoke pot out after the quail reached 64C IT. Took quails off, raised the temp, basted the quail and put back on to finish. Took about five minutes. Maybe I should have used the lower grate to get crisp quicker. Finger lickin' good.

@Tyrusasked, "what's cooking?" on another thread. Not a lot outdoors recently. Toooo cold. Today I am braving the cold and smoking these four quail. Normally I just cook them with salt and pepper but today I am trying out a recipe. This is the first stage with the Pitt Cue Co House Rub. Now then, which KK to use? @MacKenzie had said in the past that the challenge with a 16 is the short distance between the fire box and your food. So I considered the 23. No, I have that set up for pizza cooks and it has a full basket. This cook was better suited to a half basket. Try the 32? It is all set for two zone cooking. Really? A 32 to cook four little quail? Naaaa. So I have got the 16 going with my smoke pot between the birds and the fire. Will report back on how it all turns out.

You jest. Getting hold of the best truffles in season and at the right price involves going into the back of shops or standing at a particular place at a particular time, waiting for your "drop". I write down the price per gram each time and the further you get from the person who dug it up themselves, the higher the price got. Unsurprisingly. The best deal was this bag of free black truffles that a friend passed on to us when he and others had had a full day of truffle related cooks and could not finish the haul that they had somehow wangled from somewhere. Truffles. The real deal.

So, where are you with your debate on 32 v 23 @buzilo? Will you definitely move your 21 on or might you keep it?

Welcome @mstang1988! I would say all of those considerations are things worth buying. The one that some never seem to use is the double wall drip pan but I can see it coming in very handy for either catching juices or just stopping flare ups from fatty foods. I am straining to remember what I picked for my matte black 32 and the only thing I did not get was the side shelves/wings.

One of life's great pleasures is to eat in Italy when a particular ingredient is in season. When white truffles are in they are (relatively) cheap and are used generously on eggs, steak, pasta, anything and everything. Don't judge truffles by the overpriced stuff we get in our shops. Getting truffles direct from the man who went out with his dog to find and dig them up the day before feels like a drug deal and gives you the same high. Note: I am not advocating drug taking but I do advocate that you don't pass on truffles if you get to eat them close to source.

I didn't respond to @buzilo's question when I first saw it because it confused me but I didn't know why. On reflection, just before I went to bed, I thought that the answer must be "it depends". Happily, @Pequod agrees. I have my 32 in a permanent half basket config for two zone cooking. That half basket is probably equivalent to a 23 basket and, as Pequod said, you can generate more airflow through the 32 and so it lights very quickly. Therefore, for a hot and fast cook the 32 is quicker and for heat soaking to cook bread or pizza it is slower. No precise timings here because...it depends.

That looks great. I really enjoyed the video @jeffshoaf. Congratulations. My only reservation is about the mild steel. Shelter and a cover I think will be important. We had a mild steel barbecue for a few years and it was a PITA trying to keep it from rusting. We ended up painting it a couple of times. It was in a sheltered alcove but we didn't have a cover. It was a waste of the £600 we spent buying it in the end.

Congratulations! Looking forward to the photos.