mguerra

high temp silicone plugs

OK boys and girls, I have found a source for high temp silicone plugs for the thermometer wire hole and the fan port on our KK's. I'm not sure how to slot the plug for the thermometer wires, but I'll figure it out. Minimum order is $50.00. At lunch I will go home and measure the exact diameter of these holes, order some and you can buy them from me. More details after lunch...

Hmm, there is a little hunk left. Oddly, the end result of this little misadventure was quite palatable. In fact, I will offer the following: go ahead and use cake flour in a naan recipe. Mix it with an implement, NOT your hands. Don't try to knead it with your hands, keep your hands OUT of there! Let it rise just like the naan recipes say. Don't make little balls or try to roll it. Pour out the mix onto a greased cookie sheet and let it flow out as flat as it will. Cook just as Lead Dog says. You might like this!

Pics

Well, this is the pics forum, so...?

"Non-Bread"

Say you are at home, alone, and your wife is not there. It strikes you to make some naan. And you go to the cupboard and get out "the flour". You follow the recipe, and wind up with the weirdest, stickiest, pasty glue like substance that in no way resembles the you-tube video dough that Manjula made. Half of it is stuck all over your hands, and the wax paper you thought you could roll it out with. You've got wads of this stuff stuck to the cabinets, and counter top, and in your hair and on your face and shirt and the door knob to the porch. So you just flop whatever you can in a big pile on a cookie sheet and throw it on the fire. It cooks up into a giant lump of bizzare I don't know what the hell it is. A little run around the internet educates you to the fact that there isn't just one thing called "flour". In fact, it seems that "cake flour" is quite different... and in no way suitable for naan! So, gents, if you don't know your flours, and the Mrs. isn't home, don't go off on some wild ass naan adventure, or you will wind up laughing your ass off at the inevitable hilarious result!!!! Plus you better hustle to clean up the kitchen gluey tornadic nightmare, before she gets home.

inquiring minds...

What is Mojo Criollo?

modified

LarryR, you got me going with your pernil. I took a pork butt, pierced and inserted the garlic per that recipe, rubbed it down with olive oil and patted on a generic dry rub. She's cooking now at 220. Got it on the top rack. On the main grill I have a big brisket I'm cooking for a funeral tomorrow. We did not know the gentleman, the father of a casual acquaintance. Kerrville is a pretty small town, people tend to reach out a helping hand to other folks they only know peripherally. So my wife asked me to do the brisket. I haven't cooked since last Saturday and was in serious withdrawl, at least up until about a half hour ago. Now there's some aromatic mesquite smoke wafting around the back porch! Gonna head out there and fire up a CAO Criollo, and watch the Painted Buntings.

Pernil recipe

Check out this recipe:

http://www.weareneverfull.com/low-and-s ... -the-time/

Looks pretty tasty! I would cook it at 200 to 230 for the duration, it's just a low and slow pork, same as pulled pork.

Stoker fix

Here are the photos of the fix:

http://gallery.me.com/mpguerra/100135

I drilled one hole out of position, that's the bonus hole on the left. The brad head is visible glued in place in the hole on the right.

The internal view shows the brad just sticking down into the airway, surrounded by a hemisphere of glue.

That didn't work!

Well, that did not work. Within the span of one cook the flap/ceiling interface gunked up and stuck the flap open. So, here is fix two: I drilled a 1/16" hole in the ceiling of the airway, cut a little brad down to about 1/8" long, and glued it in the hole so that it sticks down into the airway a tiny bit. This prevents the full surface area of the flat plate flap from contacting the ceiling. The flap now swings up and contacts the tiny point surface of the brad. This is a fraction of a square millimeter of contact, so the flap can't get stuck. As soon as the fan cycles off, the flap drops right down. Let's see how THIS works!

It's the only rib roast I've ever made. Cooked at 225 for the duration, no sear. Marinade was just thrown together with reckless abandon. Try equal parts of soy and Worcestershire, the add as much garlic as you think and splash in what looks like enough olive oil. Make enough to cover the meat in a big ziploc bag and squeeze out all the air. That's as quantitative as I can get! Photos, maybe.

7 1/2 bucks

Minimum order 7 lbs. Free shipping. $7.50 per order handling fee. $25 discount per 40 lbs. They come frozen in a cooler, or an insulated box.

All the details on their website.

And now for the striploin...

In addition to the rib roast, I did a striploin primal, also from U.S. Wellness. It was spectacular as well. Especially for those who prefer a New York Strip to a ribeye. It's a little leaner and a little drier, and it cooks much quicker to reach 150. It also got rave reviews. Try this one as well! I'm pretty sure the slow smoke with mesquite was the killer on both of these.

http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Categories.bok

Unbeleivable!!!!

Alright folks, I know these forums are full of superlatives, but this is no joke. You HAVE TO do a slow smoked, standing 4 rib roast!!!! This may be the best meat I've ever eaten, superior to even the best filet mignon. I took a boneless 4 rib roast, about 8 lbs., marinated it in soy, Worcestershire, garlic and olive oil, and roasted it at 225. I put a LOAD of mesquite in there. Because this is in essence just a giant ribeye steak, I pulled it at what would be about medium, 150 degrees, and foiled it. It was out of this world good. If you are not a fan of ribeye steaks, do this anyway. Because this meat is so tender to start with, it doesn't require prolonged cooking. This baby was done in about 4 hours or so. After you do your first one, you can adjust your done temp to how you like it. I'm sticking with 150! You will absolutely be the star of the party with this one. http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Detail.bok?no=781

Speaking for all the home roasting fanatics out here, I will say OH YES, it's worth it!! It's easy, fast, and you get exactly the roast you want, every time. I would say without a doubt there are not people who can do a far better job than you. Roasting coffee is much simpler than making wine, for example. Apply heat to the beans, stop when they look done. That's it in a nutshell. Of course we make it more nuanced than that in practice, but not much. Plus, as a home roaster you have access to every bean in the world. I almost hesitate to recommend it because some of the best coffees are in short supply and we don't need to increase the demand. But KK people deserve it !!!

While you can drill a hole, you don't need to. There are a multitude of electronic thermometers that have a temperature probe connected by a length of wire to a base unit that displays the temperature of the grill, the meat, or both. It's OK to simply close the lid on the wire. For example:

http://www.thermoworks.com/products/low ... timer.html

There are quite a few others as well, including wireless remote display models:

http://www.yardandpool.com/Maverick-Rem ... /et-73.htm

For a straight mechanical gauge you can't go wrong with a 5" Tel-Tru:

http://www.teltru.com/barbecue.asp

You want the 5" model, look at the LT-225R series part way down the page. If you have not drilled through masonry before, practice on some scrap first. Just get a masonry drill bit of the correct diameter, drill your hole, smear some high temp silicone on your thermometer probe and insert it.

fix

OK, I tried this: Using a cotton swab I cleaned the flap surface that contacts the "ceiling" when open; and the "ceiling". Then lubed the flap surface and "ceiling" with some Teflon lube. Just cleaning it helped a lot and the Teflon even more. I think I will just do a clean and lube prior to every cook. She's out there cooking right now with an operational flap.

Stoker fail mode

When the Stoker fan turns on, the little flap swings open, which is up, and it "sticks" to the top of the opening. The fan turns off and the flap just stays up there. That is full open; you get runaway high temps in this situation. A little rap or tap on the blower assembly is sufficient to loosen the flap and it swings down. It seems to be a combination of a small amount of grease and moisture which adheres the flap to the "ceiling". The flap is aluminum and featherweight, which is important to allow it to blow open. However it has so little mass that the tiny amount of stiction from the grease and moisture can allow it to hang open. Yes, the Stoker is installed right side up! Anyone else have this happen?

Birthday beef

Just fired up the cooker and put on a striploin primal, 7 1/2 pounder. This is what you cut New York Strips from. Brined it for a couple hours and then piled on a bunch of dry rub a patient gave me. Along with it I put a 6 pound standing 4 rib roast that had been marinated several hours in soy sauce, Worcestershire, garlic and olive oil. Cooking them at 225 with a big pile of mesquite. I'm not sure what temp to pull them, by tomorrow A.M. I should have it figured out. These meats came from U.S. Wellness. I'll be taking it all to San Antonio tomorrow for my mom's birthday. A little Bordeaux wine, some Tito's vodka, and a bit of Don Julio Anejo, all in moderation of course, to add to the anticipation of plating this feast. That's "What's Cooking This Weekend"!!!

18 hour chuck

I will echo what has been said several times here and elsewhere; pulled chuck is spectacular and a worthy challenger to pulled pork. As Firemonkey has stated, it is drier than pulled pork but not dried out by any means, and as tender as you can imagine. I did about a six pounder at 218 degrees and it took 18 hours!! Damn Sam, it good. If you like, you can try U.S. Wellness meats, they are grass fed and I like them a lot. They have a big roast pack, not all chuck:

Box 40A - Variety Roasts - 27 lbs.

For the health savvy pot roast gourmet . . . 9 flavor tingling grass-fed roasts. 3 chuck roasts, 3 center cut shoulder roasts and 3 bottom round roasts. The flavor will make you smile!

Price: $182.00

Here's their site:

http://www.grasslandbeef.com/StoreFront.bok

They have a lot of other foods too.

poll

So, how do you do a poll?

possible solution

I am in contact with Randy Owen, the president of Thermoworks, makers of the Thermapen, discussing some of the shortcomings of the available wireless thermometers. He has indicated a willingness to develop a wireless transmiting thermometer of high quality and dependability. His concern is the price point. What are we willing to pay for reliable temp probes and dependable, long range wireless transmission? The higher the price the market will bear, the better product we can get. He needs some assurance of a market before beginning production. I will be posting this survey in a multitude of forums, so PLEASE reply to me in email so I can find all replies in one location. You may also post replies to the forums for discussion purposes, but I may not see all of those. The question is: What is the maximum price you would be willing to pay for a wireless transmitting thermometer with a grill temp probe and a meat temp probe, with reliable probes and excellent wireless range? The projected probe life is five to ten times that of current units like the Maverick, Polder, Oregon Scientific, AccuRite, etc.; and the unit will be all weather.

Email replies to: [email protected]

I will keep you posted as I continue communications with Mr. Owen

Michael Guerra,M.D.

Kerrville, TX

no comparison

Possibly his Q may be as good or better than KK, who knows. But he doesn't get the primal satisfaction of starting the fire, playing with the fire and smoke, feeling the warm tiles, dorking around with the Stoker or Digi-Q, trying all kinds of lump, playing with torches and charcoal chimneys and starter sticks and cubes; we just have WAY more interactive fun with our beauties! There's nothing like standing on the back porch with one hand on your KK, caressing the tiles, an adult beverage in the other hand, looking out across the Texas Hill Country, or your backyard, or whatever scene you happen to have. We've all known the primitive joy of sitting around a campfire, watching the dancing flames and mesmerizing smoke. That's the same kind of primordial appeal of a KK. Ever see any body sitting around in a circle staring at a Sub Zero? Electric refrigerator thingie my a..!!

no joy

None on ebay yesterday.

info

Shoot an email, not a forum post, to Dennis. He will let you know if anyone in your area can help you out

offer

Care to holiday in Texas?