tekobo

That is very kind of you Basher. No problem there. I already had the book having bought after I spotted it on a visit to San Sebastian last year. It was inspiring, even in a language that I could not understand and so I bought it on return to the UK. Thinking about it. I don't want to risk the whole piece and so may try the painting trick on some of it, noting that it has already been hung for 6 weeks!

I am back on the cow trail. My usual supplier of dairy cow won't be offering them until the new year at the earliest. COVID has affected his usual sales patterns to restaurants and there isn't the room to keep dairy cows and finish them with a few months of special diet. Instead he offered me some beef from a blue-grey cow. He said it had gone down a storm with his restaurant customers. So... I ordered a hind quarter of cow. For the last few months I have been sharing pork, beef and lamb boxes with friends. Not this time. Dan had made the blue grey sound so good that I wanted all of the meat to myself. Not quite true. I didn't want to fuss with other people's requirements and so I just had the meat cut the way I wanted. I wanted to try the Argentinian style of cutting and so sent him this link: https://therealargentina.com/en/a-meat-lovers-guide-to-beef-cuts-in-argentina/. The article is impossibly rude about one of my favourite steaks - rump - but I forgave the writer because they had such good descriptions of each of the cuts. The cow was ready to be sent on Monday and they sent me a preview photo from the packing room: Here is the star of the show, sirloin on the bone: I asked for whole muscles because the Argentinians cut meat that way and I wanted to stay true to their philosophy. That means that I have ended up with huge joints and I need to figure out how to deal with them given I won't be cooking for huge crowds in our COVID affected world. It may be that I get a big joint out of the freezer once in a while and offer some to friends who may be interested. That said, I certainly didn't have room to freeze this monster cut whole. It is the flank and weighed a mighty 15kg. I was at a loss as to what to do with it and so searched on the internet. Found this excellent Youtube video: The Husband and I once spent an exhausting day butchering half of a small Dexter cow. We never saw this cut. I think that is because, on an animal that has been hung for a few weeks, this belly part of the animal shrinks to nothing. In fact, when I first got interested in meat many years ago I read that beef skirt was the butcher's treat and it didn't used to make it to the butcher's slab for sale. Given my hindquarter came from a cow that has been hung for at least 6 weeks, I think that my lump of flank may have come from a different cow. I will ask Dan. All that said, I had a great big lump of meat to deal with when I finished work last night. Twas fun. It went from this: To this: And then we broke into this: And ate this while watching Lennox Hastie on Chef's Table BBQ: Yum and yay!

Hi Ron, hopefully before Christmas. Predicting the arrival of your KK can be hugely stressful and the variables are many. First hurdle is to get on the boat in Indonesia? Then I think there is a changeover in Singapore that will take its own time. Then they need to make the sea crossing. Clearing customs in the UK should be relatively quick but last time there was a Christmas backlog that meant the delivery date had to be moved. Naa. I am not going to get into the predicting game. I am hoping it will be here in November but anytime before 25 December is good with me.

I see what you are doing there. Giving me a taste of my own medicine, luring me into thinking I really must buy one. No, no pizza oven here. Famous last words. The best feeling, eh? I have seen photos of my KKs and just transferred the money today. Next they get on the boat and start their journey ....to me!!!

Gorgeous. I imagine it smells great in the evenings too.

@Basher, as a wife, I know what the voices were saying to you when you were thinking about buying that sign.

Ha! Some sales agent. I can confirm that paying for five KKs from Dennis empties your wallet but does give you lots of pleasure. As does helping others to make the right decision for them. Pushing the boundaries always helps with the "see, I only got three and didn't get that awful colour you didn't like" argument. At 100kg the 16 is not likely to be a beach accessory but I am hoping to take it on stay-cation in the UK. I hate using rubbish bbqs at holiday homes. Yay! I can't wait. In fact, might start practising with a drink tonight.

Beer, allotment, pig, pizza. Perfect combo. You are just missing a KK or two in your life @RokDok. I did the dancing girl/bouncing emojis in my last post to avoid going in too hard with selling the 32. I have never owned a 32 but I suspect that it is true that it gives you all you need if you are only ever going to have one grill/smoker and are going to sometimes have to grill for larger groups. Now that you are on the hook...I suggest that you consider getting two KKs at the same time if you can/want to. The tax and duty will be proportional to your spend but the handling and delivery charges to your house in the UK don't increase by much if you get more than one. That's my excuse for getting three this time. Of the three - a 16, 23 and 32 - I am really looking forward to trying out the small 16 and seeing whether it fulfils the promise of allowing me to light up and quickly grill for one or a light meal for two. You can certainly do that in a 32 with the fire basket splitter at the minimum setting but, as a clean grate girl, I like the idea of only having to wash a little grate after a small cook. I wish @Braai-Q wouldn't go posting links to pizza ovens here. It is a very pretty one too. Thank goodness all my money belongs to Dennis - for now at least. As for sofas. We had time to investigate while we were on holiday in Italy. Bought one. Now our only risk is it not getting to us before we hit Brexit at the end of the year. A good idea to get a new sofa. We are going to need something to sit on to watch telly through the coming winter lock down. Boo.

I tend to think I know more things than I really do when I have drunk more than I really should.

Hey there @Wilsonj. Your post made me laugh. "I'll just have to settle for a KK". Ha. That is one way to get an expensive purchase past your family. And then you casually slip in the fact that you have upgraded to a 32. Awesome. Way to go. It is going to be SUCH fun when you finally get your hands on it.

It's a draw. The Husband prefers the speck, stracciatella, fig and balsamic pizza and I prefer the crudo and stracciatella pizza. I am not keen on round food touching square food and that is what the sweetness of fig next to smoked bacon feels like to me. One of our Padovadan friends knows Dario Cecchini, the Tuscan butcher who was featured on Netflix. Apparently Dario is a very nice person and it is a pleasure to visit his restaurant in Panzano. We had the Cecchini experience here in Padova yesterday. Our friend ordered a box of goodies from the Panzono store and we had the opportunity to try some Tuscan specialities last night. Delicious. Great to be back, breaking bread with friends even though it was pointed out that I had bought the WRONG bread for Tuscan food!

That's really good storage @Tyrus. I am jealous here. I have to crawl into an old coal cellar under our house to retrieve the wood for our solo stove. And what a fire you have there. You must have laughed out loud you read my post, trying to persuade you to buy a solo stove. Your dog looks super fit. What's his name? I remember you saying you used to have a dog called Tyrus.

Welcome to the UK KK owner's group @RokDok. I don't think that is premature. The fact that Mrs RokDok found the KK site is a big bonus. I see a 32KK in your future. All that remains is the colour and pebble/tile decision. Here, I will go back to waiting for my replacement KKs having sold my first two about a month ago. Coincidentally The Husband and I are also looking at fabrics and choosing a new sofa. Have fun, the sofa could well be the gateway drug that gets you your KK.

Hey there @Wilsonj. This series of posts includes different people's methods for lighting charcoal and links to the kit that they use:

Hey there @buzilo, we will be sad to see you leave the fold. Your KK looks nice. Too far away for me though. You may want to show some inside photos and some of the back too. Are you advertising elsewhere too? I think others in the US have used craigslist. Good luck!!

Welcome @Wilsonj. As someone who has been through the waiting cycle for her first KK, i can tell you it is well worth the wait. I've never had a gasser and so cannot comment on the difference in the way the food tastes. I can certainly say that the "effort" of lighting charcoal is made less so by the excellent engineering of the KK (max airflow through the coals when you open up the vents) and by the techniques that I learned on this forum (MaPP torch and mini leaf blower to get the fire going). Welcome, again.

Today we returned to the bar and were introduced to a new variant that we were told was even better: stracciatella, speck, figs and balsamic vinegar. We had to try both, side by side to see what we thought. They were both good. May have to go back to check again tomorrow.

We have learned the hard way that pilgrimages don't always work. We drove all the way to Slovenia to visit the Hisa Franko restaurant that was showcased on Netflix. It was lovely to walk around their garden before dinner and the dinner itself was nice enough. However, the Netflix show gets you behind the scenes and makes you think they are your friend. In reality, the chef is not visible, sometimes is not even there and is definitely not waiting to cosy up to you to retell their life story. Shucks.

You do not know how right you are @Basher. The Husband and I love the Chef's Table series and we savour each episode. He came into the kitchen the other day in a state of high excitement. I guessed right that the exciting email he had received was to say that there was a new series of Chef's Table coming. What I couldn't guess was the fact that it is about BBQ. Much rejoicing. Will watch on return to the UK. Thank you for reminding me of the excitement to come. A couple of things for you. Lennox Hastie has an interesting book called Finding Fire that you might want to get if you enjoyed the show. There is also a programme on Netflix called Todo sobre el asado that is well worth watching, if only for the TV gold moment where a veteran griller is asked what he thinks of people who do not eat meat.

Lots of lovely looking food and techniques. Liking @k2krunk's quail on the top rack, @Troble's lamb on the roti and @Basher's heroics with the rib racks. Bravo. Not commenting on @MacKenzie's two cook gravy poutine - it sounds too tasty to be true!

Be careful what you wish for. We are super happy to see our friends and to be enjoying a relaxed time in this lovely town. However, with that enjoyment comes a concern that we could be vectors for disease, picked up on the plane here or as we wander round our old haunts. We are taking precautions but I certainly feel the weight of responsibility. Having said that, I don't think I will ever forget the sheer happiness of standing outdoors eating that pizza off a window ledge with drops of cold cheese that I missed dropping on the ground by my feet.

@alimac23 it seems like no time at all since we were congratulating you on the birth of your daughter and here she is, eating chicken wings already! How time flies. Appears she has great taste. Welcome to the house of yum!

Sorry about the slightly out of focus picture. I was so excited after eating my first piece. We finally made it back to Padova in Italy yesterday. For our first bite to eat The Husband chose one of his favourite bars. I was less impressed and was planning to say "I told you so" after we chomped our way through some sub standard polpette. And then the mini pizza that we had ordered arrived. The bar tender had recommended it. Wow. Wonderful, hot pizza base topped with cold stracciatella and crudo. Sooooo happy to be back.

Hi @Karolina Komodo. I use my smoke pot without a drip pan. For me it acts as a shield for indirect cooking and drippings from the meat just collect on top of the pot. I wash the lid periodically and all is good. However, if you do need the drip pan in place it would be good to see a picture of your configuration to better understand the problem.