tekobo

Work sadly!!!

Is there such a thing as too much meat?? Great looking cook @B. I reckon when you next think of doing a care package delivery you should head down our way.

I had planned to complete this thread with a brisket cook on the 23. However, the brisket was too long for the 23 and so I had to use the 32 instead. I say this because others have told me before that a full packer brisket fits on a 23 no problem. I suspect this is all to do with how briskets get cut out of a carcass in the UK. They are normally cut to be rolled rather than as a flat joint for low and slow and so I have to ask specially for them to be left flat. Photos below. Grateful for views about how/why this is different to they way they are cut in the US. Obligatory shot on the grill Pic to show you the size. I guess it could have fitted on the 23. This is probably the equivalent of a horror film for some, with the underside of the brisket hacked about by the butcher. The finished plate. Nice but not my best brisket. Was lightly smoked over hickory and served with couscous, pickled cucumber and spinach-made-better-with-bacon.

No, abbiamo mangiato brisketta (I don't know what brisket is in Italian so just add an a and blag it with a strong Italian accent) sta sera. Anatra con patate mi sembrano molto bene. No google translate was harmed in the production of the above text and all errors are mine and mine alone.

Gosh. I remember reading a post by @CeramicChef where he talked about taking time to learn and callibrate each kamado cooker he owned. I didn't remember to put that advice into practice when I dived into cooking on my KKs yesterday. I started with the 32. Impressive. On half a basket of cocoshell briquettes I got it up to 320C/600F in 1.5 hours with all the vents open. Smell of solvent but no bubbling tiles. I should have waited for everything to cool down a bit but I decided to start with baking some bread anyway. I created steam by dropping ice onto the billet of aluminium that @Syzygies turned us on to. Worked well and I got some very brown loaves. Limited oven spring but not surprising given they were heavy with rye porridge and walnuts and had been held in the bulk fermentation stage for two days. Sour and very tasty. Followed that with two pizzas. Added the meat at the very end - coppa on one and cured goose breast on the other. Both tasted good but I should have cooked the bases for a bit longer. As you can see, I need to cut the under paper smaller next time too. No steam this time but this picture lets you see the set up for turning the KK into a steam oven with the aluminium billet in a large baking pan sitting on the basket divider. For dinner I lit up the 16 to cook lamb chops. Again only a partial success. It took ages to get the 16 up to temperature. I think I needed to open up the top cap rather more than I did. I also used a mix of marabu and old binchotan briquettes - the hardest things on earth to light. Had a few flare ups and lots of smoke because of the fat on the lamb. Either need to use a shield over the fire next time or a griddle pan and allow more time. Opening and shutting a little 16 cools things down way more than it does on a bigger KK so I need to get it up to temp and heat soaked and then either cook quickly on the lower grate or slowly with remote monitoring of temp on the higher grate. I now have some brisket going in the 32. I got it up to temp very easily and installed the smoke pot with some chips in it. All good so far. I then closed the top vent and cracked it open a little like I used to on my 21 and 23. I came back about half an hour later to a dome thermometer that was still reading 125 C but no smoke and a dead fire. Revived it with my leaf blower and opened the top vent a little more than a crack. All going well now. Learning on the job and I guess it is less daunting because I have done this before. All good fun and nice to be reminded that cooking over fire is an art that needs to respect the science of the different size KKs that I am now working with. The table that I had made to fit between my 21 and 23 doesn't work with the 23 and 32. I have been trying to figure out what I would like and think I have found the perfect solution in the packing crate that the 16 came in.

I bought a spit rotisserie for my new 32 and 23 and a cradle rotisserie for the 32. I was dreading fiddling about to get them to work but when I read Dennis' message above this morning I thought I would give it a go. I fitted the spit rotisserie to the 32 in just under 6.5 minutes. I did it all on my own and was super pleased. The cradle rotisserie took longer but works beautifully. I will post videos on a new topic when I figure out how to do so.

That's a beautiful looking cook @Basher and the sauce sounds delicious. @RokDok we really are twins separated at birth. We were plunged into Tier 4 with Boris' announcement last night. No mixing for Christmas and so my Southern menu is postponed. Asked The Husband what we should have now that we only have ourselves to impress. He said, "toad in the hole". That's because that's what we had for our first Christmas meal together. With a bottle of Krug.

I'm greedy. I would eat both as long as the lamb turns out nice and pink. I love a lamb noisette, me.

It was really lovely to be joined yesterday by a group of people who know what it is like to want or to have or to build a KK. Thank you for bridging continents and time zones to make it happen. Today I have the best of all feelings. Waking up and remembering that you have a KK in the garden. There is no feeling like it. I lay there for an hour in the dark. I am up now and it is still dark. And cold. Soon, soon, I will be able to get out there and cook. Hooray for KKs. Hooray for Dennis. Happy Christmas!

That looks like max use of your outdoor cooking space @Troble. Those steaks look great! @MacKenzie. Snow? Really? We have to make do with rain here. Yummy looking chicken.

I had a super fun day today. Thank you to all the KK friends who joined the call to watch the unboxing of my new KKs. It was a bit weird, viewing the arrival of my KKs via video while talking to you and sometimes forgetting that the KKs were actually here with me in real life. It's official. I have defected. I switched from pebble to tile. And here they are. The autumn nebula colour that was on my shortlist the first time around is now mine and I love it. I won't be giving them names or dedicating my KKs to anyone but I will note that I am copying @tony b with this choice (I think!). The matt black on the 32 makes me think of @MacKenzie. She was the only person I told about my choice. I was wavering and thinking that I might want glossy black tiles. She said "no, we want a classy look here". The thing that made me smile the most was the "we". She was owning this choice of mine. And the 16 is truly a brawny bambino. @Paul was the first person to respond to my first message on this forum and he posted pictures of his 16, fully loaded, to help with my choice. I didn't get a 16 that time around but I have one now and am looking forward to cooking on it. There are lots of neat little innovations with the KKs since I bought my previous pair in 2017. I for one love this sexy fitted look with the sunbrella cover. I still have a room full of bits to tidy up and store. Tomorrow I am going to fit the rotisseries so that I am familiar with them and confident when I do want to use them in anger. First cook? Too dark and wet tonight and I am too tired but will certainly start trying things out tomorrow.

I was tempted by a recipe for quail stuffed suckling pig from The Book of St John. Perfect thing to try out in my new 32 but I bottled it (chickened out, in other words). Everyone looks forward to the food on Christmas day and I didn't want to take the risk of having a major centre piece and it going horribly wrong because I've never cooked a suckling pig on a spit before. Next year. This year I am going multi course Southern cooking and I have some quails and a lovely whole fillet of beef in the freezer. Will do a shrimp and grits trial run this Monday. If it works out I will be getting some bugs for Christmas too.

@Braai-Q the things on your list rank from never happening to very slim chance of happening on a wet, cold day in December in the UK. You will have to find out which makes the cut on the day.

Just one more sleep.

That wasn't me talking but me imagining what @SSgt93 said, and we didn't hear, when he was buying his 42s.

Yup, that's the Michael Twitty book I referred to. Reading it at the mo.

I found being in Brazil eerie. The gods they worship, the language they speak and the food they cook is so close to what we have as Yorubas in Nigeria. I sent photos of food to my parents in Nigeria that amazed them with the similarity to our food and I would walk behind people speaking a version of Yoruba that I could not speak but could just about understand. Separated by an ocean and centuries of pain, change and joy.

@SSgt93 may come along and correct me but I think he got both at the same time. If so, I think it was an awesomely kept secret. Yeah, did I tell you I was getting the 42? Twice? Done with style.

Thanks for the recommendation @Troble. My Southern food care package should arrive in the next day or two and I will see how I get on. I am intrigued by the intersection between Southern food and the food that I am familiar with from my childhood in Nigeria. I am reading a book by Michael Twitty to try to better understand the connections. Jubilee will come next if I find I actually enjoy dishes like Hoppin John from Mr Brock's book. And yes, I love Francis Mallman. His cooking on fire feels like it has no boundaries and it is beautiful without being too fancy or complicated. I look forward to seeing your creations.

I bought Sean Brock's South book first and found it very accessible. Practically of our Christmas dinner will be cooked using that book. I then bought Heritage and struggled to get into it because it was full of "fancy" recipes. I think that may be because Heritage was his first book and he was establishing himself. South seems more confident and less up itself. That said, I did found a couple of pages in Heritage that I liked very much. Simple veg preparations - carrots cooked in carrot juice (we've cooked it using shop bought carrot batons and juice and it was a revelation and so I imagine it will be great with heritage carrots and home squeezed juice), confit potatoes (to help preserve a large harvest of potatoes) and eggplant barigoule (yet to try it but it sounds really good). So I think I will get into Heritage by chipping away at bits of it. We don't have grits and the special beans and rice that Sean Brock recommends and so I cracked and placed an order with Anson Mills. Package should be arriving in the next day or so. I hope they live up to Tony's billing!!!

Lovely looking wagyu steaks @Basher. Why did you use the griddle and not your KK? The name heatlie brought back memories. I remember wandering round one of those enormous BBQ stores that you have in Oz and deciding that a Heatlie was the one for me. The only problem was that I was on holiday at the time and had no easy way to get it back to the UK. Happy with what I have and am looking forward to seeing your Argie Barbie.

Literally, an awe inspiring sight @SSgt93. Just gorgeous.

Congratulations. I just love the fact that Dennis is so close you. BB32 leaves his world today and arrives with you early next week. That and chicken rice are two good reasons to live in Singapore.

You can't go wrong with any of those books @Troble. In fact, I am jealous of how much fun you are going to have.