tekobo

Perfect! I am just sowing my seeds here in the UK so I will track down some Huacatay and maybe the Aji Amarillo so that I have the ingredients ready for when you reveal your new and improved recipe. I do already have a LOT of chilli plants underway so I am less sure about the Aji but we'll see if we can fit that in. Looking forward to joining you on this journey!

Not at all. The genesis of my plan to go to my local bakery was seeing an ad for sourdough starter from California. "Wow" I thought, Tartine starter, here in my kitchen. And then I came back to the real world and realised it made much more sense to walk the five minutes to our bakery, get theirs and start using it asap with no yeast or other intermediate stage. Good to see that the KK shopping channel still lives. Congrats on your purchase.

Beautiful loaf @Pequod. I still think you need to learn Italian - Bonci is a genius. I am holding fast at the edge of this rabbit hole, nose twitching. For some people, not at all. I do need longer intervals between feeding because I am not always around and/or I don't bake or eat bread as often as I used to. I suspect a very important variable is the viability (or not) of my starter. We have a good sourdough bakery nearby and I think I will go and ask for some of their starter when I decide to get back on the sourdough horse. Until then, I look forward to hearing what others make of this interesting tool.

Wow @CaptMorg82! Marry me!

That is odd but it may be that semantics do matter. I can light my KK but if the fire doesn't take properly I can come back in 10-20 minutes to a cold KK. When you say half the charcoal basket was lit, was it actually burning away and then just stopped? Yes, getting the quality of cook that you are looking for is indeed a big part of what matters but we do worry about other stuff too - we wouldn't own a KK if we didn't care about getting good quality and service. If my KK was using too much lump or didn't hold a steady temperature I would worry. I don't worry about uneven burn and actually like the fact that I can light the charcoal in one spot, get to the temp that I want, snuff the fire out and come back the next day to a largely unburnt basket.

That's super exciting. Congratulations. The only blessing or wish I can offer is that she should grow up to love and enjoy food. Look how much fun we get to have!

You are a bad bad boy @PQ! I have looked this up. Good reviews. Expensive in the UK and out of stock in the US. As I noted to a friend who said he thought it seemed a bit clinical: there are two ends of the spectrum in the sourdough world - nerds and naturals - and both make excellent bread. I am in neither group sadly. All of the above is just stalling activity, I know. If/when I ever get back into making sourdough bread this would be a good tool. In the meantime I am going to focus on my pizza game this summer. There are some awesome doughs to use up those grains of yours in this book: https://amzn.eu/d/03mX8pi You will just have to brush up on your Italian. Or use Google translate.

That is a high pressure cook you are going for @jeffshoaf. Here is hoping your supplier gets you what you want the next time around, if only to reduce some of the variables. Good luck and we look forward to seeing the results!

Different strokes for different folks. I am not sure that it will make much practical difference to the outcome with the meat compared to foil but I suspect that it takes more fuel to get the KK heat soaked if you are also having to get the deflectors up to temp.

Tee hee @Syzygies. Your posts sometimes go over my head but this time I have decided that you must have been smoking those tamales when you wrote the last post. At the very least, thinking that makes me feel smart rather than the dumb kid in the class. Tamales looking like a good masa preserver. Game changer for me has been finding that frozen corn tortillas come up really well when you reheat them on a comal. Awesome news because it means I can make a load of masa in one go, make up the tortillas and have them ready to go with no fuss whenever I want a taco. I can see you all shaking your heads and wagging your fingers but give it a go if you aren't already secretly doing this. You can even get the magical puff during the reheating process.

That looks good @PVPAUL. Keen to know what recipe and cooking instructions you end up with after your fine tuning. So far, so very delicious looking!

Ooooh. That looks really good @David Chang!

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Happy Easter All! Yummy day of eating here. White sprouting broccoli and blue cheese tart. Japanese black cod. First time cooking it on the KK. Lost the skin but the flesh was much moister than it normally is when cooked under the grill indoors. Cooking one steak well done for our guest. Apple pie chaser.

I've never tallow aged pork either. Interested to see how it comes out. I buy my pork from a farmer who hangs his pork for 55 days. It tastes gorgeous so I imagine your dry aging should produce a good result. What breed of pig is it, do you know?

You couldn't resist, could you? If I had done rocket science I would tell everyone about it too!

Thanks a lot for the spreadsheet @Syzygies. There is some cachet in having your bread maths done by an uber mathematician! I think I called it spelt and you called it farro. Tomato, tomato? Maybe not. It is this recipe. Just wanted to know if you had refined it any further.

I see what you are doing there @Pequod and I am not falling for it. Proposed by S and endorsed by P doesn't equal an immediate buy signal. Give me a month or so.... Are you still baking bread, making pizza? Any new (or old) techniques or discoveries to share?

Thanks for posting this link Paul. I have used a cast iron smoke pot for years but rarely make the dough ring to seal the top. I have guiltily watched the smoke leaking out of the top, realising that my unsealed pot wasn't fulfilling @Syzygies design intent of pushing the smoke down into the coals to burn off the "bad stuff". I ordered my own little pot and am just waiting for a good opportunity to smoke something. Kudos also to @Cheesehead_Griller as I think it was he who originally suggested this style of pot. I will report back once I have tried it out myself.

Thank you @Syzygies! When I tagged you in my message above I hoped that it would trigger a response from you. There is no way I am going to attempt to reproduce your spreadsheet. Is there anyway you could post it somewhere it could be downloaded, if you are willing to share? On a much less complex level, do you have an up to date version of your spelt bread recipe that you can share for use and further tweaking as necessary?

P.S. Welcome to the right side of the tracks.

You can! I got to the point where I could see my ship on the map en route to Southampton docks, past my bit of sea, so I cycled out to the sea front near my house in pitch darkness to see if I could see the ship with my KKs go by. I couldn't but it was all part of the fun. Get Dennis' folk to give you the ship's details and you can track it online.

Yeah, I know. I had a friend come round who made beautiful bread in the most casual way possible. I have got comfortable with my loaf tin breads but still have something to prove (tee hee) when it comes to sourdough.

You need a bread proofer. Or you're a hack. 😏 You mill your own flour, right? RIGHT??? The above, rude exchange with @Pequod reminded me of this thread. Just spent a lovely 15 minutes or so re-reading all the old posts. Really must get back on the bread making horse. And yes, I do own a Brod and Taylor bread proofer in my home in the UK (thanks to @P and the KK shopping channel) but cannot bring myself to spring for another for the place in Italy. Will try the warming bowl in my Kenwood Chef when I am next there. I have visions of turning into @Syzygies, duplicating kit for his two homes before finally consolidating into one and having to find homes for it all! I really must try @C6Bill's recipe - you seem to get such reliable results. And I still have not got onto @Syzygies's spelt loaf. All in good time.

How exciting @Davidm! What colour, tile or pebble and when is your ship due in???