tekobo

Both the corn and the bread look lovely Mac. How did you cook the corn? On the KK or in IDK?

If you can afford it and want it, I would recommend going for the BB42. You don't want to regret not having tried it and, as @SSgt93 said, you can manage the configuration to save charcoal. Buying a KK is not about being sensible, follow your heart.

There are not many desserts to beat a no nonsense apple pie with cream or vanilla ice cream. That looks yummy @Tyrus.

Wise choice. Less wise choice would be to go with my fantasy of having every size KK, each in a different "favourite" colour way. Not yet but very high on must cook list. It is a bit like making bread or pasta. If you do it regularly it is no big deal and you just get on with it. With a new thing like making tortillas I am afraid to fail and keep putting it off. Soon, very soon.

That's great @PVPAUL. Did you choose a different colour and/or tile style? I guess the advantage of having them in different locations is that you don't have to match. What fun!

Thanks @ckreef. You reminded me to get on to our fruit and veg man to see whether he can source some tasty peaches. I remember a road trip with family friends in California when i was 15. We bought a box of peaches from a roadside stall and proceeded to eat them raw, in omelettes and everything else besides. They were soooo delicious. I have not eaten peaches as good since. Letting nostalgia cloud things may mean that I can't bring myself to make this sauce. Having said that, there must be some good peaches to be had from Italy and places like that. Let the sourcing mission commence!

@Basher that looks like fun! How long before you will be able to do a taste test? Days, weeks?

Thanks! I guess a gasket change will come one day. I just didn't want to be hastening it by a factor of, say, 5. Looking forward to experimenting with bread again. I may end up back in the IDK but it will be good to see what the KK brings to game.

Ha ha. I used to be one of the (lay) IT administrators for our Unix system in the office back in the day. Main memory is the fact that, in spite of all the fancy checks we were taught, switching off and on again seemed to fix most things. The Husband is indeed a good person to have as a friend but never did Unix. Your post tells me I might, or might not, have problems with my current bread endeavour. We put the sourdough wholemeal loaves into the fridge yesterday afternoon. I got them out this morning to warm up and have only now, 24 hours from first putting the loaves in the fridge, put one into the KK to bake. I hope that is not too long a gap. Slight bubble on the top of one of the proven loaves. Oh well, we will see. It's a public holiday here so we have had time to do some research. The aluminium discs that @Syzygies recommended don't ship to the UK (not surprising, given their weight) and I cannot easily find similar in the UK. I then remembered that I had been considering getting a baking steel for thin crust pizzas. If a baking steel could double up as thermal mass for baking bread that could work well. So, more questions. Would I end up warping such a steel by repeatedly heating and quenching it in this application? Would two steel discs placed on top of each other in a baking tin work ok and not bounce or get excited if water got in between them? I ask the second question because I could buy two steels from these folk to make up the weight: https://pizzasteel.com/pages/shop. Alternative is to get a custom circular big baking steel from these folk when I come to the US later this year: https://shop.bakingsteel.com/collections/steels/products/the-big. Or I could try cooking pizza on an aluminium shop disc if I order one to be delivered to my brother in Texas. Lovely hot day here in the UK. Off to check on my loaf!

Thanks @Syzygies. Really helpful. I need to figure out whether I can get hold of the aluminium discs here in the UK. If not, I will need to go with the chain. I hardly ever bake cakes so it is good to have a better use for one of the cake tins adorning my basement store room. The only question you did not answer was about the gasket. It sounds like you are a KK power-user (The Husband says they are called super users but you know what I mean...). Does all the steaming you do affect the life of your gasket and, if so, how often have you had to change it?

Hi there. Have you decided on what to do about legs/wheels or not? I am thinking that two 22" table tops might be a really good aesthetic if you don't like the legs. And one could be in pebble and the other tile. Cobalt blue of course.

Great, thanks! I thought you had forgotten this request. Now off to find some peaches to do the recipe justice.

Yum. I have tried @MacKenzie's Spanish egg method the last two mornings and this morning I got nice crunchy edges and soft middle. Yum! The thought of doing that with bacon drippings is making my mouth water...

Thanks for all the feedback Charles aka Lump Whisperer. You are helping me edge towards a decision. I am intrigued by the different charcoals that the Oxford guys make and offer. I will get in touch next week to see if I can get one of each at a sensible price (including any they may have a few of but are not advertising) so that I can do my own experiments before committing to a larger order. My char journey has been simple and uneventful to date. I hope I will have a fun time trying out different chars and seeing how the make a difference to the cooking time, method and taste.

Wow, this is spooky. And timely. I am just embarking on my KK bread making journey and was about to try out the measly 2kg length of chain that we had at home. Will check whether the chains are indeed stainless. Does using a chain and creating the steam that way make a significant difference to the bread? Are there other ways to generate the steam e.g. heating up a cast iron pot and introducing the ice? And does the process impact your gasket's life significantly? Thanks!

I have only ever used cocoshell briquettes in my KKs and they have been great. Looking to get a new grill soon and was in the market for "ordinary" charcoal. I happened to see a TV programme that included this company showing how they make charcoal sustainably in the UK: https://www.oxfordcharcoal.co.uk. When I rang them up they mentioned the fact that they have some Cuban Marabu too. That sparked (tee hee) my interest because I remembered seeing you folks talk about Marabu. I was going to go all in and buy some for the KK as well but I now see from your earlier posts, @ckreef, that you think Marabu charcoal is too sparky for the KK. Oh well, I might buy a bag of Marabu to try out in the konro and will also try out their locally made charcoal. I've paid no attention to your recent char burning experiments Charles because I thought I was all set with my cocoshell but I am now on a mission to try these single species charcoals. Hard to imagine how alder char differs from wild cherry char but that will be the fun of exploring.

Wow. Blast from the past - yahoo chat room! Funny how much the world has changed since the days of dial up modems and ringing someone to tell them to log in to their email because you'd sent them a message.

I agree! The massive 42 roti basket is what finally convinced me that hankering after a 42 was just plain mad.

Please don't take offence at my going off topic @Ticket2ride04. It's about your name. I sometimes catch the hovercraft over to Ryde on the Isle of Wight in the UK. I hum "She's got a ticket to Ryde" under my breath as we bounce across the water. I was going to post a photo of the ticket but it is rather dull and does not mention Ryde. I like your name. Welcome.

I do. I think it will also help with your duck cooks using the rotisserie. Not sure how what direction you would split in a 32 but it would be good to have the duck cooking indirect for a while so you don't have a fire basket full of dripping fat.

Hey there @Basher. There are some good videos/articles online about the production of Binchotan. Will see if I can dig some up.. This is a bookmark that I saved but there are many other links about how binchotan is made. I am guessing Dennis won't like it because it involves cutting down trees but they do have to conserve the source to make it sustainable http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160317-the-secret-to-japanese-grilling Works out "economical" because I don't burn it for general cooks. I use it in the konro and I extinguish and re-use so individual logs last for 3-4 cooks.

Thanks. Lots of good suggestions there. Will consider sous vide when we come to cook the cotechino and will definitely smoke a few sausages in the KK. No, won't be opening a deli. Keeping all the goodies to myself! Taking "dang" as a compliment - not in my Afro-British lexicon. Yes it was hard work but The Husband is always very clear that such things should be fun and not a chore. We did it in three separate three hour stints and managed to stay jolly throughout. Dotty amused us by wanting to know how we could spend so long in the kitchen without producing anything that she likes to eat.

Congratulations and welcome @coolpapabill! Looking forward to seeing photographs of your new friend. Good luck with your cooks. I found it easy to get started, never having cooked on a kamado before so it should be plain sailing for you.

I am looking forward to hearing more about the method and the results, especially how much your kids enjoy their creations.

I came across an interesting duck giblet sausage recipe the other day and, somehow, went from a small bag of goose giblets in the freezer to half a pig and two days of sausage making. Here we go... First soak your skins. The sheep's skins are thinnest but were actually the easiest to work with. Duck giblet sausage from the Pitt Cue Co book. I am guessing it is an Italian recipe given the fact that your "sausage" ends up being wrapped in the neck skin. My necks came skinless so I opted for chipolata style sausages. Colourful rub ingredients, including orange zest. Goose necks, giblets and chicken wings ready to go. Onto the KK in dairy cow fat. Smoked at 100C for three hours and then added hearts for two more hours and then livers for a further 20 minutes. I am a little squeamish about hearts so this was a good recipe for processing all the interesting bits of poultry. I know the idea of poultry necks will be daunting for some but just look how familiar the picked meat looks - you wouldn't know that that wasn't a (small) pile of pulled port, would you? It was very hard work to get the very stiff mix into chipolata skins but here are the resulting sausages, waiting for their debut. Think very skinny liver sausages with the added benefit of chopped pickled cherries. Here is the head of the lovely pig that gave up his/her life for the rest of the sausages. At the end of day 1 we had all the meat cut up, seasoned and waiting in the fridge for mincing on Day 2. First we made cotechino sausages. I totally loved these winter sausages when we bought them from Italy last year. Imagine my surprise when I find that they are made of half and half skin and meat. I guess that is what gives the sausages their unctuous flavour. I found two different recipes. One had parmesan in and the other red wine. I made both. Here is the batch with red wine, I think. @Braai-Q recommended Luganega sausages in a previous post so when I saw the recipe in my sausage making book I thought I would give them a try. Here they are, looking luscious. We made a couple of batches of bog standard pork sausages. One coarse cut Italian hot sausage and one fine cut old favourite, pork and sage. And finally the Cornish Hogs Pudding or White Pudding. Made with a mix of pork and "lights" (lungs and hearts) and groats. They are a "white" equivalent of black/blood pudding. You have to poach them for about 50 minutes. In the past we have had them break at this stage, filling the pot with your precious sausage meat. This time we paid attention to the definition of "poach", didn't boil and didn't have any breakages. The cotechini need to hang for up to six weeks and the rest of the sausages will go in the freezer. Will taste over the coming weeks. I imagine some of you will be uncomfortable about the "nasty bits" that go into sausages. Don't be. Sausage skins encase and make all meats wonderful. Here are my left over skins, salted and waiting for their chance at greatness.