tekobo

Jaw droppingly beautiful setting @tangles163. I had a good butcher when I lived in Sydney but you guys in WA look like you are up another level with your meat. Might one day persuade me that it is worth making the journey west!

Tee hee. I forgot how much you dislike the creepy crawlies from the sea. There were some left over so I had a prawn omelette for breakfast.

Yup, that'll do! I had prawns for dinner tonight. If I had been close enough to Mackenzie's home in Canada I would have broken in and stolen her ribs/ asked for an invite to dinner.

I think there needs to be an emoticon for salivating in anticipation (and jealousy)!

@jonj that Chef's Table series can be really inspirational. One or two of the chefs irritated me but most of them have really interesting stories and drive. I am sooo over fancy restaurants but I do get tempted by some them. The trouble is, I just want to be their friend and to cook and eat with them - not sit in their fancy restaurant! Dream on...

Thanks Mac, good to see this use of the Octoforks. And ribs are my favourite after wings. Nice. I never thought I would be saying this, but I too cannot imagine using my ODK for a big grilled or fried meat cook now!

Woo hoo. That cook looks great! Good to see what a 32 can do.

I was surprised too. And I promise my judgement wasn't clouded by the wine! Thanks Aussie, I am so glad that you reminded me that Aussie's have a good name for everything - shorties indeed! Yes, that was the Mallman recipe that I used. And yes, @jonj, it's a good book. The meat is fun but it also pushes the envelope of what you can do with veg. Salad on the BBQ, whatever next?

After watching a chef programme on Netflix my husband decided that he really liked the Argentinian chef, Francis Mallman and his fire cooking. I got the book "Mallman on Fire" to see what all fuss was about. Today I tried his beef ribs recipe. Here in the UK we don't tend to get racks of beef ribs. They are cut individually and we make them in up slow cooked stews. So I was happy to see this familiar cut in Mallman's book even though he cooked them in an unexpected way. Here they are at the start of their journey, on a thick cast iron "plancha" in the KK. I get jealous of all your talk of side tables and cabinets. I have to use my other KK as a side table!! Looking forward to sorting out a proper ODK in the summer. This is the surprising bit of the cook. Here the ribs are, done. They were up to the correct internal temperature after just 24 minutes of cooking - 8 minutes on each "side". My thumb got in the way of the shot of the endives/chicory cooking on the plancha so here is the plated shot once I had taken them off. And we had some roasted sweet potatoes to go with the meal. They came out OK but putting them directly on the coals was just a little tooo aggressive for the skins. So, the quick cook was surprising but what was even more surprising was just how delicious grilled leaves (dressed in mustard, vinegar and oil beforehand), beef short ribs and baked sweet potato were. The Husband said it was an outstanding meal. What more could a girl ask for? A glass of nice red. And it was forthcoming. All good.

Those steaks look nice and juicy. I keep wanting to borrow Bruce's line, bust camera or not, the pictures make you want to pick them up off the screen and eat them!

I agree that this company seems to be particularly incompetent. However, it isn't unusual in my experience. The delivery co for our KKs was helpful but we did need to specifically request a tail lift truck, pay extra AND remind them of the weight of the KKs. All of the information was available to them but they seem not to pay enough attention to the detail that can make or break your delivery.

Thanks all. Given I have to wait at least another two months, a lot of wine and cider will be drunk before I get to eat the results of this experiment!

So, the goose legs have had their time in the cure. The next stage is to hang them for two to six months. We have done salamis and chorizos in the past and have a space, outdoors and under the eaves, where we hang them. I have never been sure about the outdoor hanging, particularly in the summer. I looked up "curing chambers" and found a lot of DIY sites. I skipped those and went on to the professionals. This version was very very beautiful and had the advantage of great German engineering: http://www.dry-ager.co.uk At over £3000 it was also the cheapest of the professional/specialist solutions on the market. Back to the drawing board. I now realised why there were so many DIY sites! The good news is that the humidity and temperature requirements for good meat curing are the same as those in a good wine fridge. For less than a tenth of the price of the (very beautiful) dry ager, which I still covet, we bought a wine fridge and I am on my way with the goose legs. Here they are, smeared in goose fat: Covered in cracked black pepper and coriander seeds: And hanging in their new home: See you again in a few months. The neat thing about modern tech is that we have a little monitor in the fridge and can check on temp and humidity over time. I may put in a small bowl of water if needed. Looking forward to this working. It'll transform my charcuterie making and I will feel more confident about feeding it to others.

Wow. That is beautiful.

Welcome. Look forward to making friends with your new KK. It is a unique experience. They are easy to get into, with lots of options to explore over time.

I hope you are recovering from your bout of flu @Tyrus. I am sure we will reach an accommodation.

Yes, it was a great game. Both teams showed up. Well worth staying up for. 3:30am here, to sleep!

Here just off to have a snooze so I can stay awake later. Wings and ribs will help get us through the night. Go EAGLES!

Yes @Bruce Pearson, it was a bit like ham. A nice, satisfying cooked ham that tasted just different enough for you to know it was goose. @Tyrus, not arduous at all if you compare with the effort of getting to Milan to beg for some more. We are endlessly amazed at what it is possible to do for yourself - the first time we made bacon we thought it was a thing of wonder! I will still bow at the altar of the great Spanish ham makers but it is fun to do some charcuterie yourself. @MacKenzie, we made a pile of paper thin slices of the goose last night for my in-laws and friends. It tasted more like the Milan cured version when sliced thin. Sadly, none left to mail to you - that breast all got eated! Thank you for prodding me to look at other thermometers. The £15 battery operated (wired) thermometer took about 15mins to set up and saved me from having to keep opening the KK to check on progress. @tony b I love the concept of the MEATER but, for some reason, it is not working for me. Will do some troubleshooting with their team this week.

Your daughter will live a happy life. I think the best meat is found close to the bone. Those wings look great.

Well. All I can say is: delicious! I stopped the cold smoking after 3.5 hours and introduced a bit of heat by lighting a couple of coals with my MAPP torch after 2.5hours. The whole "cook" took 5.5hrs by which time the breasts were at 62C. Left to cool and re-fridgerated overnight before having some for lunch today. Definite "do again". Just as soon as i have tried another recipe that The Husband found for goose breast proscuitto. That will likely be closer to the Milan experience but this German version is very very good too.

Butter. Just a nice thin layer. Like Bruce, I could well eat one of your food pictures Mac.

Yes I do and I will see if I can rig it up quickly if the MEATER doesn't "magically" connect half way through the cook like it has in the past!

So, the goose breasts have been cured for the requisite number of days and we are now into smoking. The recipe says to start the smoke cold and then gradually heat up to get the breast up to 140F-150F. My plan is to cold smoke for two to three hours and then introduce a hot coal into the KK and let the heat build from there, probably maxing the KK ambient temp at your 220F, my 105C. Does that sound about right? This was the easy bit, setting the cold smoker going. I used oak dust. Less easy was figuring out how to get enough depth to hang the breasts. Don't ask why, because I don't know why, but I settled on using the upper grate from the 23" in the 21". More importantly, I ended up hanging the breasts horizontally as you can see here, sitting on the 23" waiting to go into the 21". How do you hang your meats when you smoke in the KK? Do you just put them direct on the grates and don't fuss with hanging them? I stuffed one breast into netting as recommended by the recipe and left one au naturel. Want to see what the difference is. All in place now for the next few hours. Hoping to use the MEATER to track the meat temperature. Annoyingly, it is stubbornly refusing to connect but I am hoping it will start working before the critical point in a few hours' time. Also hoping it isn't this I.D.10T operating the MEATER that is the problem but I am close to sending it back if I can't get this replacement to work more consistently. All advice gratefully received!

Very nice. I like the in and out of the sauce trick. I'm sure they were tasty.