Hitman

My pizza stone is quite thick. If it is not getting hot enough after a full hour of heat soaking, something is not right! Next time I will try without the heat deflector, see if I don't do better.

This was my second attempt at pizza, got worse rather than better. I used pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joe's, seemed pretty easy to work with. First one was garlic-herb, second was plain. Both of them rolled out fairly easy to a 12" circle. I have a fairly large and thick pizza stone, put on the top rack, with heat deflector underneath, sitting on the charcoal basket. First cook was at 550 degrees, preheated the KK for about 30 minutes. Took about 20 minutes to cook the pizza, but it still wasn't really crispy, and the pepperoni wasn't crisp either. Second cook was at 650 degrees, preheated the KK for almost an hour. After 16 minutes, the sauce was bubbling, the dough was just slightly scorched in a few places, pepperoni was browned and crisp. The crust was still crummy though, very hard but also curiously doughy under the sauce. I'm thinking that the heat deflector is causing all the heat to focus at the top of the dome, so the Tru Tel reads high, but the actual temp at the pizza surface is much lower. My stone is too large to fit on the sear grill. I'm at a loss......

Line from a Club Med song... "I saw your wife, I HAD your wife! She was so nice, I had her TWICE!"

I drink my beer out of a bottle, then recycle. I cook my chicken on my Rocket. I like the way it looks, and it has snob appeal. OK, maybe slob appeal. There's no such thing as perfect......

My wife was in Trader Joe's, noticed they offered a shrink-wrapped Tri-tip roast, around 2 pounds. It was already marinated and rubbed with spice. We normally avoid shrink-wrapped meats with "20% solution added", but she decided to give it a try. Cooked it at 350 degrees over direct heat until internal temperature was 105, then tented it under foil while I opened the air vents on the KK, got the temp up to 750. Then back on the sear grill for 90 secconds per side, then tented it again for another 5 minutes. Sliced it very thin, served. This meat is very tasty, has a nice tangy rub, great meaty flavor. The consistency is very firm, but not really tough or "ropy" like skirt or hanger steak can be. However, it was not butter tender like I've had at some commercial BBQ joints. I will try again, lower the initial cooking temp to 250 or so, see if I can't coax a little more tenderness out of the meat. I will also take it off the grill at 100 degrees, resulting in a slightly more rare final temp. BTW, this was my first use of the Thermapen instant read digital thermometer. Great piece of equipment!

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with a 17" high-def (1020p) screen, and a Blue-Ray DVD player. I enjoy watching DVDs more on the laptop than on my 42" LCD TV. Does MAC make a high-def laptop?

That may be true, but that's even more of an issue for a flimsy aluminum beer can. I'm not convinced that the liquid has to boil. I just notice that the amount of liquid is greatly diminished. It's going somewhere! The acid test for me is the cooking time. If it is significantly reduced, I'd say it works. Before I stick my neck out too far, maybe I should read the Naked Whiz review!

Kewl idea!

This is a great product, extremely well made, fits well but loose enough to get on & off easily. John also gave me an extra piece of cloth that I plan to have embroidered with Saphira's name. Also has a nice "handle" sewn onto the top, makes for easier removal. I just hang it from a hook on my side porch while I'm grilling.

My latest gizmo is the "Chicken Rocket", which I read about elsewhere on this Forum, thought I'd give it a try. It's really straightforward, made out of cast iron, weighs about 3 pounds, will convey heat much better than a flimsy beer can. The center will hold about a cup of liquid. I had one of those veggie baskets, wrapped it in foil to use as a combo base and drip pan. That worked really well. I rubbed the 7-pound oven roaster with garlic olive oil, then put a spoonful of rub into the cavity, and some more rub on the outside. This was right before it went into the KK, next time I'll give the rub more dwell time. I put about a up of liquid in the center, half beer and half cider vinegar. Here's the bird, ready for cooking. Cooked at 330 degrees for 2 hours, last 20 minutes or so I bumped the heat up to 425 or so to crisp up the skin. Took it off when the breast temp was 170, inner thigh about 175, then tented it under foil for 10 minutes. The bird was perfectly cooked. Both wings fell off with a little finger pressure, and the leg quarters came off easily, but didn't fall apart. The dark meat was very moist, looked almost like it wasn't cooked enough, but pulled right off the bone. The breast meat was very moist and flavorful. The skin was very crisp, almost completely fat free. Probably typical results for a KK, but the cooking time seemed pretty quick for such a large bird. Next time I'll try a little smaller bird, maybe at a higher temp as well.

Saw another thread on this product elsewhere, but couldn't find it in this section. The Chicken Rocket is still being offered, and I just ordered one, had my first cook with it last night. Here's a pic: It's a sturdy little device, certainly more substantial than an aluminum beer can, weighs about three pounds. No way your chicken is going to fall over while impaled on this bad boy ! Also has a nice reservoir for your beer, or other liquid of choice. Anyway, I recommend it highly. Cooked a 7 pound oven roaster at moderate heat in about 2 hours. Bird came out very juicy. See details in the Cooking Pics section.

OK! I"m sold! Next cook is a Boston Butt! I'll try Wegmans.

There is a Wegman's right near the Costco I go to , but I bet they don't sell pork shoulders or butts for $1.39/lb!! Harris Teeter is a possibility, but I don't have a BJ's membership. Next time I am at Costco I will ask one of their butchers whether they ever have Boston Butts. I'm still a little leery of a bone-in cut though, seems like it would be messier to pull.

That would be nice. I live in Annandale, VA, just inside the Washington Beltway south of DC.

Thanks for the advice. I'm learning that you just need a tiny amount of air to maintain a low temp. I guess I've been overly concerned about the fire going out in the middle of the night, so I'm starting out with a little too much opening in the upper vent. Another thing I learned is that I don't like the picnic shoulders nearly so much as the larger shoulders from Costco. Costco does a really great job of trimming the meat of all the connective tissue and inter-muscle fat. As a result, the shoulder is much looser, and require some twine to hold it together. Would be nice to find a twine "bag" that I could slip the shoulder into. Also, the rub goes right on the meat, not on the fat. So, the bark stays with the meat when you pull it apart. The picnic shoulder is a lot more labor intensive. First, you have to decide whether to cook it with the skin on, or remove it. With the skin on, the rub is not going to sink into the meat. Even when I removed the skin (took about 20 minutes to do both shoulders), there was still a thin layer of fat on top of the meat. This did not really turn into bark, it was still fairly fatty when I started to pull the meat, and I decided not to include it. Pulling the Costco shoulder was a breeze --- it practically fell apart, and there was NO fat. The picnic shoulders took a while to pull, and it was MESSY, with lots of fat, membranes, and bones to discard. Guess I need to also try a Boston butt, just don't know where to buy one.