mguerra

Re: Thanksgiving 2011 I don't mind giving out medical info, as long as it relates to Ophthalmology! I'm not sure what the final level of salt is in a brined bird, but I know if they TASTE too salty, people wouldn't eat them.

Re: Thanksgiving 2011 My birds are thawed and the brine is chilled; I'll start brining at noon. We are going to find out just what a coffee wood smoked turkey tastes like! Not paying attention, I bought 8% solution enhanced turkeys. I believe it is recommended not to brine enhanced birds. I'm doing it anyway, but I cut the salt in half for the brine. I used one of Alton's brine recipes: A gallon of vegetable broth, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup(not the 1 cup called for) kosher salt, allspice berries, peppercorns, and candied ginger. Instead of using a gallon of ice water I'll use a gallon of iced apple cider! One bird for mini Thanksgiving on Thursday and one for the super jumbo family party on Saturday.

Re: Waxed for the Winter Pas, don't worry about the vague sexual implications on this forum! This bunch is pretty cerebral, not gratuitous! It's all plays on words and double entendres around here. High brow humor more so than crude raunchiness. Probably even at a level a pastor could chuckle at. Hardly ever comes up anyway...

Re: Freebie Coffee wood. Chunks of tree. For smoke wood.

Dennis sent me a freebie, unannounced. I found a box of KK charcoal and a box of coffee wood sitting on my porch a few minutes ago!!! Thanks, bro. No other company I buy products from ever sent me such a lagniappe. Those of you wondering about the quality of the product, or paying sight unseen, and so on... Don't worry about it.

Re: Goat: Cabrito So are you cooking a cut, or a whole animal? It's really popular here in Texas, I have never cooked it.

Re: Brisket using the new coconut charcoal from Dennis I might try one anyway just to see how it compares to other pork.

Re: Brisket using the new coconut charcoal from Dennis We talked at some length before about humane pork. I thought I would try the Snake River Farms product. $60.00 for the 14 pound shoulder and $69.00 shipping. I think I will stick with having the local high schoolers raising me a pig or two a year!

Starting a thread for all this years Turkey Day posts... I'm going to try Alton Brown's method of doing the turkey for the first thirty minutes at 500 degrees, then back down to 350 for the remainder. They replayed his Thanksgiving show last night.

Re: KK is here and first cook pics! First cook two pork shoulders. Now THAT'S a first cook!!! Super looking results.

Re: Assembling the rotisserie basket Voice over guy? Just have Siri do it!

Re: Anxiously awaiting my new kk These forums have thousands of comments, tips and advice! Welcome. Cook a pork butt first.

Re: Indirect/Water? If you are talking about cooking a big piece of meat low and slow in the KK, I believe only a minority of our forum members use a water pan. For indirect cooking we use the heat deflector supplied; it looks like a huge thick pizza stone. The KK retains moisture very well because of the very low airflow required. I do know at least one guy here has advocated for the water pan, though. You will quickly learn by experience if you need or want it! You probably won't.

Re: Hall's Hill It's pretty obvious from past discussions; you are going to get requests for both! With carefully thought out rationales. But why bother using an exotic wood, at least exotic from a barbecuers perspective, to make clean flavorless smoke? If we are going to buy coffee charcoal we might as well get a unique flavor from it. Something to talk about and brag about at the party or cook off. You can get clean flavorless heat from propane, and then add the smokewood of your choice for the flavor. So why sub coffee charcoal for propane? Let the "coffeeness" come through in the final product. There's my "carefully thought out rationale".

Re: Turkey Hash Time Again! I had some smoked mullet dip in Carrabelle, Florida in July. Heavenly.

Re: Hall's Hill S...

They seem to have vanished. I asked to be notified when the next batch of hickory will be available, but their website is goners.

Re: Bronze Behemoth Game On! 2 The pork butt came out indistinguishable from a 225 cook. Unlike the hot fast brisket, there was no foil involved, and it did not come out juicier. Of course we don't get dried out pork butts on a low and slow anyway. And I was not specifically trying to do a hot fast. I just cooked a pork butt with a leftover grilling fire that could only get down to 315 degrees. And it turned out fine! If you are in a hurry, or just curious to see how it comes out, cook one at 300 degrees.

Re: Bronze Behemoth Game On! 2 It's old school here in Kerrville. I go home for lunch. Kinda like Mayberry. It's a 14 minute drive down a Texas Farm Road. I sit out on the back porch, look out across the Texas Hill Country, with the pack of Coonhounds, eat lunch and listen to Rush. No Aunt Bea, though.

Re: Bronze Behemoth Game On! 2 Hot fast pork butt. Last night I cooked a couple of ribeyes and then decided to throw a pork butt on the fire. After having a grilling fire going, there is no way to ever get it down and stabilized at 225. So I just figured I'll crack the vents to the tiniest opening possible and cook the pork butt at whatever temp that gets me. Turns out that temp was about 315 degrees. The 5 lb pork butt cooked in about 5 hours to 190 internal and I pulled it off the fire, foiled, wrapped in towels, and went to bed. At lunch today I am going to pull it and see how it came out...

Re: Fully Open Top Damper Cooking Method (experiental) Actually I think my description was inaccurate. With the vent openings I described the fire would get hotter than 300 -400. What happens when I cook the chicken is the temp is increasing while cooking. You just get a good result in the end. About the time the temp is really getting hot the chicken is getting done.

Re: Must Read "physicist-cracks-bbq-mystery" For myself, I don't care about the stall. It's an interesting phenomenon, but nothing more.I just find the hot, fast, foil trick makes a juicier, less dried out flat. As a secondary benefit, you can get it done faster if that suits your time needs. I suggest everyone try it both ways. You can get a partial bark by extending the pre-foil cook using something less than 300 degrees for that part of the cook. A really juicy tender flat more than makes up for any partial bark!

Re: Salting Steaks My fajita adventure was a bust. It had nothing to do with the salt. Skirt steak isn't very tender, but can often be purchased tenderized. I bought the non-tenderized; and wound up with tasty shoe leather. If you live in Texas, buy the HEB seasoned and tenderized fajitas, they are superb. Straight, non-tenderized, non-seasoned fajita meat is not. Of course you may have an effective method to tenderize it. The salt crust did not achieve this. I'll try it again on another cut.

Re: Salting Steaks I'm trying this tonight on some fajitas. They are salting now and I will give them 30 minutes in the salt, then rinse. Then a light brush of olive oil to hold the fresh cracked Madagascar pepper and minced garlic. Thence on to the fire with a piece of pecan smokewood, wrapped in foil with a little vent hole, facing down in to the fire. It's my el cheapo quickie version of Syz's iron pot and pasted lid smoke pot!

Re: Flashback The Mallard reaction?! Mount your Benelli to your shoulder, aim, lead, shoot, collect duck. Oh, wait, you said MAILLARD! I dunno.