tekobo

Laughed out loud. On your BFF, he is indeed good and I learned a lot from watching him. My point was less about chasing hydration and more about realising that I needed to use my brain and not assume that a recipe's author had actually taken into account how I soak, drain and handle the dough at my end. Soooo many variables with bread and I am the biggest one.

Hi there @Adam Ag 98. Obviously too late to help this cook. How did it go? When I am going low and slow I light the coals in one spot, open the top up to 3 turns and the bottom wide open. My target temp for say, brisket is 115C and I wait until I am at about 80C. At that point I close off the large bottom vent and open the largest hole on the RH bottom vent. I close the top vent and immediately open it back up to max an 1/8th to get up to temperature. Once up to target temp I then tighten the top vent so that it is only just off its seat to maintain this low temperature. I don't normally time this but I am guessing it takes between 45mins and an hour. I don't wait for a "heat soak" at this point. I just put the brisket on and leave it to cook.

Boy, that sounds like hard work @Jon B.. Well done to you and to your sister for caring for your mother and showing her that you love her so much.

That looks wonderful @ckreef. I hope you and @skreef had a lovely evening. Hurrah!

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.

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.

Welcome @Siu. I always hate it when people start the answer to a question with - "I don't have the gadget that you are asking about but, in my opinion....". Please forgive me but that is how I am about to answer your question. I have never had a gas grill and I do not have a 42 so I cannot talk about either. What I have had is an Argentinian open grill alongside two KKs - a 21 and a 23. Lighting the Argentinian grill takes more effort. I use a fire starting chimney and then you need to build a decent bed of coals before starting to cook. You may even want to burn wood down to embers for extra flavour. Fun but not fast. The KKs are fast. I can get from lighting to cooking in 30 minutes for a steak or other such fast cooked item. Not as fast as turning a knob on a gas grill but I am guessing tastier and more fun. As for the lids? The spring mechanism that works the lid makes it easy to open the lid with the flick of a couple of fingers. I imagine it is the same on the 42 (with much bigger spring!!!) as it is on my 21 and 23. Maintenance wise, sweeping out the coal dust at the bottom every few cooks is fine and I choose to wash my grates after every cook but others just brush or burn off the residue from previous cooks. If you have the money and the space for the 42 I would get it. Just for the hell of it. You won't be disappointed.

Hi there @KKash. I was going to pass on this one and then realised that any and every vegetable dish cooked on a KK has the chance to pass your vegan test. Here are a few cooks that may help: Nothing beats a slow roasted pepper. I do this with mini tomatoes too and they turn into little sweeties to pop in your mouth while you wait for the main event. The main event could be a caponata. Here mine did catch some smoke alongside a meaty cook. Or a fancy pants Thomas Keller ratatouille for a special occasion Finally, roast peaches and figs for dessert. Sorry, no actual recipes but all are easily discoverable online and can be tailored to your taste. Jealous of your 42. It does mean you have loads of space to cook your daughter separate meals alongside the rest of your cook. Guess she would not appreciate the goat accessory that comes with a 42.

This part of your post interested me. The thing I like best about KKs is that they use so little fuel. OK, of course that is not what I like best - the way it cooks and the aesthetics rank higher but the third best thing about KKs is their efficiency. When I start a cook I fill the basket to the brim and light the coals/briquettes. Usually just in one location but if I want a very hot fire then I might light three locations. In two years of owning my KKs I only ever finished a full fire basket of cocoshell briquettes five times. There was always unburned fuel left over. When my cooks are done I close off the bottom holes and the top damper and rest easy, knowing that the air tightness of the KK will mean that the fire will go out and the remaining coal is available for use for my next cook. I don't want you to miss out on this great benefit.

I agree with you @AAAsh about wanting the grill to look more streamlined. Does the cabinet have wheels? You could wheel it up to the KK when you need it. Or you could get one that has a cut out that snuggles up to the KK if that looks good to you. Whatever you do, a cabinet is essential for keeping everything that you need close at hand. You confused me there @sovsroc. I live about 30 minutes' drive from Southampton and wondered why your KK was going via Southampton to the Netherlands and back. Guessing your grill is close to Nigeria, my home country, rather than Southampton. For my part, I am still waiting. My KKs didn't get to leave Singapore last week. The agent in the UK guesses it was due to storms at the weekend. Either way they are now due to set off on their journey on 8 November. The Husband and I laugh whenever anyone says their build/[insert any other project of your choice] will be done by Christmas. I am still saying my KKs will be here by Christmas and I promise to laugh when they arrive.

@Sir Bill, my understanding from @DennisLinkletter is that there is only one colour for the stuff that goes between the tiles (it has a fancy name, not grout) and it is grey. It looks different in different lights and some people on the site rub their KKs with heat resistant car polishes that might change the appearance again.

Very nice. Stay safe!

Welcome @Boom Boom. Your new KK looks just gorgeous in that setting.

Well, @Aussie Ora? Have you got your hands on the bike yet? Good to be back on a bike? Sounds like fun.

I learned the technique from a restaurant in Wales and I wonder if they learned it from Lennox originally. Thinking of writing to them to find out if they have ever tried going the as long as 200 days and whether the meat was hung beforehand or not. No harm experimenting but I want to know my percentage chance of success. Aging larger chunks of meat mean that you lose less (end) surface area and gain beautifully tender and "clean" meat on the inside cuts. it is also a whole lot cheaper to buy a quarter of a cow, making prime cuts like this so much more affordable.

That looks yummy. Looking forward to getting back to some KK cooking! At least 30 sleeps to go. Might need some of that wine you've got on order to keep me going.

Thanks Basher. The meat had been hung for six weeks before I received it and then I dry aged it for just under three weeks before that cook. Now trying the 200 day age on the remainder. Not sure if I will have the courage to last the distance though!

Some gratuitously meaty pictures to show the cutting and cooking of that mighty sirloin. I have not included the picture of the cooked steak cut up for eating because it was wonderfully blue. Good for us (every single scrap was eaten betweeen five of us) but I would like to leave you imagining that it was cooked exactly to your liking.

I thought you'd got me there. I agree he is not lacking in initiative but the word feckless came from the gut when I thought of him and I wondered why. Looks like the dictionary definition agrees with both of us - the lawyer lead is irresponsible. In a truly mad and fun way. feckless /ˈfɛkləs/ adjective lacking initiative or strength of character; irresponsible.

I am very happy to report that I do not remember those scenes from Rake. I hope that means that I will enjoy re-watching the first series as if it was my first time. Fighty, feckless Aussie lawyer lead. Yay.

I have just left green tomatoes in a warm room for a couple of weeks and they go red and can be used as normal. 'Fraid I don't have any tried and tested green tomato recipes.

@BARDSLJR I was going to come back after you posted your first list of Australian shows to say "wot, no "Rake"?". I watched the first series a few years ago and thought it was wonderfully irreverent. With a new lockdown looming in England I think I will go back to the first series and catch up on the later ones too. Thanks for the reminder.

Looking forward to your photos of hanging meat and your taste test. Here I tried to smoke my most recent bacon using the @Syzygies smoke pot on my Argentinian bbq. The smoke pot performed well but, given I was trying to smoke bacon that was sitting on a shelf above the grill as opposed to inside a kamado, it didn't take on much smoke. Will just have to go with green (i.e. unsmoked) bacon this time around.

Hi there @Boom Boom. Is this your first time making bacon from the shoulder? I hope you like it. I love it. Good fat alongside the meaty goodness. I prefer cold smoked bacon. Here is a thread I posted about hot and cold smoking a while ago.

Happily Dennis handles all the insurance, iceberg or not. Sofa from Italy and KKs both due in early December. So if all goes to plan we will have an early Christmas and Santa can sail past our house this year.