mguerra

The last feral cook before Penny gets home: I am adding a cantaloupe to start easing myself back in to "normal' food. And I put on some pants, too! Trying to get the cigar smoke out of the house also.

ideas 0% APR for 60 months on a 2011 Camry or Corolla. That's a deal. Also, one of the best values you can get on a car is certified pre-owned. Got a great Ford Escape for my mother in law that way.

Did you catch that, perchance, on fly? No Gorton's fish sticks for you!!

not that bad Well, I actually cooked the Gorton's fish cakes purely as a joke to post here, for laughs. But they were fairly tasty cooked on charcoal in the KK! Not really disgusting. So, if you are ever really pressed and don't have time for even a simple prep, throw a pre-prepared frozen something or other on the KK and see how it comes out. I have a sack of frozen chicken tenders or some such thing which I will try. You can make the case that there are plenty of fresh items you can toss on the KK with almost no prep time. Especially chicken and fish. So there is no need to use some of these processed, frozen entrees. But I'm just playing. And the wife isn't here to object. Hmm, Tony's Pizza Rolls might be good tonight. And I DO have that bottle of 2000 Chateau LaTour...

couture I did put on a T-shirt yesterday. At the office, I have to "fool" everybody by wearing actual doctor clothes. Even shoes. But as soon as I get home...

scorcher Well, Firemonkey, it was way hotter here last year. We started in the 100's in June! When we have a hot southwest wind blowing up from Mexico, Kerrville is usually a degree or two hotter than S.A. At least this year we didn't hit that til August. My wife is cooling her heels out in Monterey, California, where it's 59!!! Which reminds me I have not tried that Santa Maria style tri-tip yet.

hey Syz You tried it yet? Seriously, though, when I first got my KK I didn't think there was any reason to foil anything. I figured it was a crutch or remedy for high airflow steel cookers. With our low flow, moisture saving environment in our KK's I figured it was unnecessary. I only tried it because I was curious, especially about the concept of doing a brisket in a few hours instead of overnight or all day. They promote it over at the Weber Smoky Mountain forum; those are steel cookers. Anyhow I tried it once just to see how it turned out. That first try flipped me to the technique. Anyway as I have said, try it to see if you like it, and you will probably use it some or all of the time when doing a brisket. The only times I don't do it are when I want to go do something for a few hours and can't monitor the relatively fast 4 or 5 hour cook. Then I just set the Guru or Stoker to 225 and forget about it til I get home. Then I can resume the hot fast, or just let it go low and slow.

salmon One of the better fishing trips I had was fly fishing for Silver Salmon in Alaska. An absolute ball. They were tasty, too.The spectacular beauty was inspiring; the big grizzlies scared the hell out of me, though.

feral fun I put on a T-shirt, cuz the AC was a little cool. When my wife comes back, I'll have to resume normal feed, and clothes. But until then...

Easy Oh for crying out loud Cook, we're like a family here. A little bit of light-hearted ribbing doesn't take away from our serious posts about KK cooking. It adds to the joy of living! We have the best Q forum on the net, and some of the coolest members, I think.

C'mon ya'll, I'm floating you straight lines left and right here and can't get a rise out of anybody. I gave you the note about letting my dogs lick the grill clean, figuring somebody would come back with a smart remark about canine grill floss or something, but nothing. Then I give the physicists a deadpan remark about Heisenberg being "uncertain" about his pork butts. That should have stirred up some crafty wordsmithing intertwining BBQ with the Uncertainty Principle; and again, no witty remarks. Then I cook those disgusting frozen fish cakes with sausages, plate 'em up on an artistic plate and pair them with an expensive Bordeaux. I expected some serious piercing sarcasm with that one! Props to Conodo and T for coming back with a little something there, though. I'm setting myself up for some serious zingers here, ya'll need to take aim, crank up the puns, reparte and sarcasm, and let something fly.

From a couple of tasters: 95 points from the Wine Spectator: "A classy and impressive young Bordeaux from an appellation that stepped up in '96. Dark-colored, with plenty of currant and spice aromas, the wine is full-bodied, with very velvety tannins and allspice, berry and currant flavors. Long, long finish. One of the wines of the vintage, it's a beauty. Best after 2005." (01/99) 93 points Robert Parker: "Made from 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot, this is a huge, backward wine. The 1996 possesses an opaque purple color, as well as pure aromatics consisting of cassis, grilled herbs, coffee, and toasty new oak. Massive in the mouth, and one of the most structured and concentrated young Cos d'Estournels I have ever tasted, this thick, structured, tannic wine has closed down significantly since bottling. It requires 7-8 years of cellaring, and should last for 30-35 years. It is a fabulous Cos, but patience is required. Anticipated maturity: 2006-2030." (04/99) My opinion: It smelled fabulous and tasted great. That is as nuanced as I get when tasting wine! I either like it, or I don't. This I like!!! And I just poured another glass, mmm, mmm. And that habanero was scorching, baby.

more useful than a big one OK, we are ready to see the mock-up of the KK OTB Junior....

One mustn't neglect the proper pairing; and presentation for such delectable fare:

My wife has only been out of town two days but I've already gone feral. Sitting around the house naked eating salami and a block of cheese the size of a car battery, watching fishing shows and smoking cigars in the house. I decided to have a nice meal:

NaCl I put a very light dust of Kosher salt on most meats before applying a salt free rub. This allows me to absolutely control the amount of salt I use. Most pre-prepared rubs have an unknown amount of too much salt in them, it is normally the first listed ingredient. So I make my own, salt free. There are a number of popular rubs oft mentioned here, like the Dizzy Pig. I have no idea how they stack up, salt wise. But if you make your own you have total salt control.

I'm pretty sure that shelf of mine from Home Depot is some cheap Chinese product. If you want a quality American made shelving unit, check out Metro: http://www.metro.com/ Look at all their product lines, not just consumer, you might see something you like for an application around your house or at your business. Not 100% of it is made in U.S.A., but most.

I'm fixing to do something goofy. I'm going to cook some of those frozen fish cake things in the KK. You know, the Gorton's Fisherman things. Not the fish sticks, but those bigger slabs. Just for fun and out of curiosity. I'll throw them on there frozen and see what happens. Maybe with a big hunk of bologna from the deli, too. I mean, what the hell, might as well play with the toy!

Do both Anyone who cooks briskets on the KK should try both methods, low and slow without foil and fast hot with foil. Then you will know when and why you want to do one or the other method. Both methods produce excellent food!

yes I would say at the temps and times you indicate, that is normal.

hybrid Don't forget you can hybridize the hot fast brisket with low and slow. You can do the first unfoiled part at any temp, if you want to lengthen the time in the smoke, and for bark. The first part could be at, say 225, then foil when it hits 165, and then crank up the pit temp to finish up faster. The trick is the tenderizing that occurs in the foil. Part one of the cook will be shorter or longer based on the temp. Part two, in the foil, will be pretty quick in any case. But I will say that even a hot fast part one will have good bark and smoke ring.

heretic Gas?! Not a chance in hell in this house. Even if it's only a little nuance, I want a trace of wood smoke. But hey, it works for you, so enjoy.

We touched on this before, but be careful with veggies and too much smoke. I shut the lid on these squash and zucchini slices to keep the fire from raging out of control. Oh boy, they were WAY too smoky. I think the trick would be to cook them only a few minutes directly exposed to the fire to pick up a little grill flavor; and then pull them off, put them in foil, and throw them back on to finish cooking. That should do it. Or put them on the fire on a piece of foil, cook a few minutes exposed to smoke, and then close up the foil. I put a little EVOO, kosher salt, and pepper on these and that was good, but cooked them all the way to the end in the smoke. Not good. The steaks were so so, not the highest grade; I do believe for steaks you should buy the highest grade of quality you are willing to pay for, as Syz has said. Jalapenos are a crap shoot! Some we get these days are absolutely heat free, more bland than a bell pepper. You never know. These were good and hot, thankfully.

This shelf unit is from the Home Depot. The shelves can only be mounted one way, with the flange or lip down. So the shelf is then flat across the top. I thought I saw some at Container Store that could be mounted lip up, to keep stuff from rolling out, but we don't need that for this application anyway. So the pan is larger than the shelf is deep, but it fits on there fine, so long as you get a shelf wider than the pan diameter. I took off the top extension and the fourth shelf because it was too tall and spoiled my view out the back deck.

menagerie One Black and Tan, three Treeing Walker's, and one Bluetick.