mguerra
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Posts posted by mguerra
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Bobby Flay
For some reason I haven't much watched Bobby Flay's show. Does anyone know if he ever features ceramic cooking?
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frozen butt, roller coaster cook
I cooked a pork butt that was huge, and not fully thawed. In fact the bulk of it was frozen solid. My thought was it would cook unevenly and not be too good. The first two hours the temp got up around 270 because my Stoker failed and I didn't notice it. So then I removed the Stoker and set the temp with the vents to about 200. I kept the temp at 200, thinking the outer thawed part would cook slowly while the inner part thawed out. Then I went to bed and didn't worry about it. The fire went out, unbeknownst to me. I woke up at 5:30 finding the no fire situation, the grill temp was 121 and the meat temp was 129. I restarted the fire and kept around 230 for the remainder of the cook, til the meat temp hit 185. Total time was about 16 hours. It was the best pork butt/ pulled pork ever!! Even when the fire went out, the thermal mass of the KK held the heat. Obviously a frozen pork butt and a wildly out of control fire in a KK is one of the most forgiving cooking escapades you can have. I served this up at a family party yesterday and they all just went nuts for it.
There's a guy over at a site called Bamaque who says that low and slow pulled pork is hands down the best use for a ceramic cooker. And that if you ONLY did L&S pork butts, they alone are sufficient justification to have a ceramic cooker. I concur wholeheartedly.
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Cowboy
The Naked Whiz tested Cowboy Lump and got fire temps up to 1030 degrees! The second highest he ever recorded.
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steaks
Jdbower really nailed it with his summary above. Here's one little mod for steaks, if you want some good smoke flavor on them. Grill them at about 350 degrees with a load of smoke wood to your desired done temp. Use a meat thermometer. This is much cooler than typical grilling temps but you will love the result! They cook a little slower and have time to pick up the smoke. But they don't cook so long they dry out. It's a kind of low and slow for steaks, but takes about 20 minutes versus 18- 24 hours for a butt or brisket. Keep the lid shut and only open it once to turn the steaks. I turn the steaks once; when their temp is raised 50% of the difference between starting temp and done temp. For example if they start at 70 degrees and my done temp will be 140, I flip them at 105. Ya'll try this trick and you won't be disappointed.
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Another problem
I'm getting a little peeved with my expensive Stoker! It runs non-stop. The pit temp probe seems to be working, but the fan will not turn off. Example: Target Temp for the pit set at 225. Pit temp gets up to 270 and fan still running. Power on and off, no help; change ports for the fan and the pit temp probe, no help; reset the target temp, no help. I actually had to go old school and use my vents to control the temp, oh the humiliation! Anybody experience same?
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pull temp
OK, I did a center cut shoulder roast. It is a part of the chuck. Anyway you do not want to slow cook it to 180 or higher! It comes out way too dry. So the second one I cooked I pulled at 150, it was much juicier and probably 140 would be OK for this cut. U.S. Wellness meats again. Apparently, different parts of the chuck need different cooking methods and a low and slow to 180ish is not needed for this one!
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latch
Definitely put a drop of blue Loctite on that nut.
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reheat
Hmm... steam it, eh? OK; I'll do it tonight. Sounds excellent. As far as unbridled enthusiasm, do some of ya'll find you are asking people to cook for them just so you can play with your toy? It's gotten to the point I'm asking folks to bring me briskets and pork butts to cook for them. I guess it's a newbie thing, sigh. Probably wear off after a while.
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2nd try
OK, I re did Manjula's naan, with the correct all-purpose flour. Holy Schmoley that's good!! Fresh, hot, yeasty aromatic bread; nothing beats it. Manjula lets the dough rise several hours, I gave it one hour and it worked perfect. As a contrast, tonight I tried a boxed foccacia mix from Firenza, (the company, not the town). Nowhere near as good. I did a 15 hour pork roast and then jacked the fire up, baked the bread while the pork was resting in foil. Pulled the pork just as the bread was done, scarfed both. This is the plan, man.
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just do it
Just buy it, sight unseen. You will NOT regret it. C'mon, everybody's doing it!
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sauce
Basically, I use no sauces on my meat at all, just marinades or dry rubs. This in my vast experience of 6 weeks of KK cooking! But... if you are like me and cooking way more meat than you can eat, because of "unbridled enthusiasm" (remember Billy Mumphrey?), then you might do this: put a little something like Sweet Baby Ray's on pulled pork that has been in the fridge a while. It moistens it a little, and does not seem to cover or hide the taste of the meat at all. Same for any other meat you made too much of. Enjoy it au natural off the grill, maybe sauce it a bit after some fridge time.
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note to Sanny
I re-read my note and see I worded it improperly. I did not mean Sanny should give her KK away. My thought was anyone who does not like the smokey flavor in general should not be cooking on charcoal. Not you personally, Sanny! Plus it wasn't you yourself you referenced, but one of your guests. Just to clarify.
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one man's opinion
Some people don't like their food too smokey, I prefer it strongly smoked. Give your KK to someone else and cook it in the oven if you don't want smoke! At my autopsy, I want the pathologist to say, "This man had KK mesquite lung disease."
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Rosemary Chicken
I roasted a chicken thusly: Get some butter and soften to room temp. Mix into it garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper. I got a split whole chicken, made a little slit in the skin of both halves, and worked my finger around under there to loosen the skin and make a space. Put the butter in that subcutaneous space and squoosh it around. I cooked on the main grill indirect at 350 til thigh joint was 180 degrees. Pretty dang good!!!!
Photos:
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moisture
Easy, pardner, tcoliver is not offended, just being a little light hearted! Yes, the food retains its' moisture because of the extremely low airflow moving through the cooker. The KK radiates a tremendous amount of heat inside once it is up to temp. It requires very little fuel to burn to maintain its' temp, so very little combustion air is needed to move through it. A metal bodied unit radiates away a tremendous amount of its' heat, therefore requires a constant larger amount of combustion to maintain temp. And thus a lot more airflow which carries away the moisture. You can cook a piece of meat for 12-24 hours in a KK and it will be moist.
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evidence
Here's the finished product. I did not use any smoke wood at all, just rub. Next time, smoke wood. They are juicy, tender, succulent, but I want more smoke flavor.
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first ribs
Well, because of that thread about Chris Lilly and the Today show, I decided to do my first ribs. Made the rub per the recipe, and have them on there now at 250. Baby backs. They are on the top rack, indirect, with my lava rock deflector down below. Problem is, I'm hungry now...
Remember last year I was trying to flip my wife to "our side"? She gets home from work tonight, sees the wisps of smoke from the Gold Monster and says, "Man I'm exhausted, I'm really glad you got that thing."
Pics to follow when done.
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again
Did two chuck roasts for Mother's Day. Marinated for about 30 hours in Allegro Marinade, then cooked at 200 degrees for 13 hours. It came out spectacular, again. I'm thinking there is no need to cook this to 180 degrees or higher. My guess is that once you pass 6 hours, then pull the meat any temp of 140 or higher. I'll try this and report back. I have a feeling it will be tender enough after 6 hours. Stand by...
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Yep, you can roast coffee in a KK. By using the rotisserie. I have not done it, my Gene Cafe roaster works beautifully. But you would make a cannister to put in the roti, get the temp up to between 450 and 500, and figure out a way to monitor the roast progress. That would be the one problem, that you monitor the roast by watching it. But you need to keep the lid closed on the KK to keep the requisite temp. If I figure out how to do it, I'll post it. You CANNOT roast by time! If there was a way to reliably keep the effective temp at roti level with the lid open, that would do the trick.
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bronze beauty
I call mine the Bronze Behemoth, but the wife calls it the "Gold Monster", because for the first few days it scared the hell out of one of our coonhounds.
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appreciate it
Thank you Larry!
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You can make naan, with uh, cake flour...
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details
So, let's hear some K tales of woe. Got an airplane? Ever thrown a bug at a tarpon?
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Using a Guru and a Stoker!
in KK Features & Accessories
Posted
returned
I sent it back yesterday; I'll call them today to find out if they are going to reimburse me for shipping. This unit is 2 or 3 months old.