tekobo

Just in time for the Abba reunion I have discovered something really cool about my money. I have been saving £2 coins for years. The pace has slowed recently because we use real money so rarely these days. A week or so ago I thought I really ought to count up the coins to see how many I have. I counted and weighed the first ten coins and then twenty to callibrate and then weighed the lot to see how much I had. £562. Hmmm. What to do with it? I can spend that easily with a few clicks online but spending real cash feels like a greater responsibility. First candidate was a medium Korin and some Binchotan but I am not sure if that is quite symbolic enough. No decision made yet. In meantime, I happened to mention my piggy bank to my greengrocer. His shop is one of the few places where I still spend and receive coins. He told me that some £2 coins are worth more than others. My curiousity was piqued and I found an article online this morning: https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/3524236/rarest-most-valuable-2-pound-coins-designs/ What fun, searching through my pile of coins. I wasn't aware of the different designs and the stories that each represent. The majority of my coins are the least valuable. But I have a number of different designs across the spectrum. And one of the most valuable on the list. This £2 is worth £40. I know this has nothing to do with KKs but I was so excited that I had to share this with someone and you were here. I like playing with money.

Ha. That made me competitive - I wanted your target time so that I could beat it! In reality I generally have things to do while the KK warms up and don't need to rush.

Yes it does. Like I said, I need to chill.

Looks like you have picked out something that is just right for you. Looking forward to seeing your shelter progress. In the meantime, you had better get out there and win some competitions!

Thank you all very much. I used a modification of @Drew's method - kept the pink paper I had already wrapped the brisket in and put it in the oven to keep it warm. It turned out very well. In fact our neighbour's 15 year old daughter was so mesmerised by the meat as I sliced it that I had to repeat the question about how many slices she wanted. I like @tony b's method of wrapping the joint in a bath towel to keep the brisket warm and I definitely want to try @Tucker's more predictable method. The funny thing about trying so hard to make sure that the meat was ready bang on time was that, of course, my guests were not. Reminded me to chill...

Thanks for the really prompt response @Drew. My guess is that your briskets are a lot larger. This one came off a breed of cow called a Dexter - they are cute, relatively small cows that taste very good. I will accept that I will lose the bark and report back on how it eats later.

Every other brisket that I have cooked has ended up with a long stall. This MEATER graph from last week's (small) brisket cook illustrates it well. The green line is the ambient temperature in the KK and the purple line is the internal temperature of the brisket, temperatures in Celsius. As you can see, i broke the stall by increasing the temperature at the end. I am cooking lunch for the neighbours today and I had originally planned to get up at 4am to start the fire and put the brisket on but then decided that starting last night would be a better idea. It was a chance to have the time to ride out the stall and find out how long that takes. Well, what happened to the stall? It all cooked super smoothly and was ready at 4:45 am with no intervention from me! Double boo! I had to get up early anyway AND I now have a brisket resting that won't be eaten until about 1pm. I wrapped the brisket in pink paper and put it in a cooler. Will it last until 1pm? Should I put it back on the grill later in an attempt to re-set the bark? Any advice welcome please. Back to bed now!

Definitely going to give this a try. I too am doing a (relatively) low carb diet but, happily, have allowed myself one pizza night a week. Great fun for trying different doughs although The Husband is getting a bit frustrated with the less successful ones and just wants an improvement on the first one that he thinks was the best so far. Hoping the Chicago Thin will give him something to smile about next week.

I have not ever needed to use a blower. I just open the vents, light one or more spots using my MAPP torch (purchase down to @tony b suggesting ti!) and wait about 15 mins to make sure the fire has started and then up to an hour for full warm up for most cooks. Thanks to this post @MacKenzie, I understand that the blower could save me some fuel in my torch. I am not sure if that is worth it, given my gas canister seems to have lasted forever. Do you get to cooking temperature significantly quicker? Trying to help @Bruce Pearson save some money and cupboard space!

Wow, it has been a really productive week. The WFO looks great in-situ and I am so excited about the food bit. Roll on pizza night!

Tee hee. Your daughter and dog look so patient - not! What fun. A really beautiful KK. Welcome and welcome again!

I think it is called a boning knife. It sharpens well and is a bit flexible. Good for "parting" (word I learned from @Bruce Pearson) a bird.

Another KK shopper snagged! Nice looking cook. In over seven years of owning a sous vide machine, I think I have only used it a maximum of ten times. It is great on Southern fried chicken wings but I am loving my KK for wings now. Will try a thick steak like this sometime soon to see if that kick starts my enthusiasm.

This is the most delicious ugly picture you will ever see. I promise you. The goose legs from my earlier posts had been curing for about two and a half months so it was time to give one a try. This was another husband-and-wife-stand-at-the-kitchen-counter-stuffing-your-face wonder. It was genuinely transcendental, standing there with a slice of goose in your mouth, chewing, letting the meat and fat meld and savouring the fabulous flavours. And then there was one. I plan on leaving the second leg for a few more months to see how it matures. The guy who posted the original recipe said he'd hung his for six months. Patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue... I cut up goose number two and it is now in the curing process. I soaked one breast in whisky and will smoke it as before but this time I am trying this recipe for the second breast: http://ladyandpups.com/2013/06/10/gateway-charcuterie-goose-prosciutto-eng/. The breasts will be ready in a week but we will have to wait rather longer for the legs. We now know it is worth the wait.

Others more experienced me will advise you on the cooking bit. From me - a very warm welcome to the 21 Club!

I rely heavily on your "laziness" @ckreef! That post of yours where you ran your KK for many cooks without cleaning it out made sure I don't fuss about getting all the ash out after every cook. Free the masses from needless toil!

Yeah but Mac is XXX-rated. Come on, close ups of layers of carb, succulent meat and unctuous sauce. There should be warnings posted in advance. Don't look here if you want to resist using that extra hole on your belt!

Mac, really! Stop with the food porn. I am so so hungry now!

Yummy! Your poker friends will either soon be contributing to your KK costs or buying one of their own if you keep on at this rate!

Thanks all. They both love to eat and the added dimension of feeding her a long lost cut was great @Bruce Pearson. @amusedtodeath, I was laughing out loud most of the time - she tells some very bawdy jokes! @MacKenzie, I was planning to use the one KK but the brisket stalled for ages and so, in a panic, I lit the 23". Didn't need it in the end. I broke the stall by raising the temp in the 21", pulled the brisket when it hit temp and while it was resting I cranked up the 21" for the chops and turned off the 23". First World problem - how many KKs shall I light today???

Really lovely food story from the weekend. We had a couple over for Sunday lunch and I was worried that the two small lamb loin chops that I had allocated for each person would not be sufficient. I bulked the meal out with Brazilian sides like coconut rice, farofa and beans. I also had a back up with a rather small brisket joint that I had untied and unrolled (they are usually roasting joints here) and put on the 21" early that morning. Well, that brisket became the star of the show. Our friend is in her 80s and from Brisbane and she said the last time she had eaten brisket was when her mother cooked it for her many years ago. There was no appreciation shown for my smoke ring but much love for the rub (coarse Dizzy dust) and the "crunchy bits" (burnt ends). Needless to say, there is no meat left but I have lots of rice and beans to eat up. Hurrah!

Hurrah! Show us more!

When I saw this I thought, @amusedtodeath has forgotten that I live in the UK. Why would I want to order a grill from the US with all the extra shipping and tax costs? Why indeed? Of course I could not resist going onto the korin site. Even with a hefty delivery charge and estimated UK tax of about 22%, buying a large konro from the US works out £100 cheaper than buying one here. Wow. I called up the korin folk and they say that the ETA for out of stock items is for customers with back orders and that new orders may not be fulfilled until the winter. I am willing to take a chance on that but I am still waiting on news of a refund from my non-responsive supplier here (they are based in the Netherlands). If that gets sorted I will be straight onto korin. Thanks for the tip, I think. No more shopping after this. Although your binchotan is so much cheaper than ours that I might sneak a little bit into my shipment. I really should stop reading stuff on this forum!

Yup, thanks. I hadn't cottoned on to the wooden skewer challenge. I shall now go back to look at the grills and decide what I really need. A little one would be available now and would be more practical for storage and portability. On the other hand, the urge to go large (extra) is always hard to resist.

Yes, it is an interesting site - good references from some of our more famous chefs too. Did you get a LG or extra LG? And when you say that the extra wide versions would force you to use a screen every time is it because you wouldn't be able to bridge the gap with a standard person sized skewer? I may well have to be patient to get the right one but hope to get a konro in time to try it out in the garden this summer. A step up from those nasty smelly portable foil bbqs that I hate sooo much!