Loquitur

Re: KK Inside Temp Variation I find the Tru Tel in the dome reads about 25 deg higher than my Stoker temp when I'm cooking on the main grill level in the earlier parts of the cook. After a couple of hours as time goes on and the grill heatsoaks and the food heats, the temps come closer together. Its hard to predict because there are a lot of factors such as the temp of the food when it goes on the grill, the mass of the food, the temp you are cooking at, etc. When you cook up high on the sear grill on top of the main grill, the proximity of the dome to the food creates a different effect than cooking at the main level. It's a good place for pizza and I also do spatchcocked chickens up there to ensure a crispy skin. It takes a little while to figure out what you like to cook at what level and at what temp. Having all those options is one of the things that makes the KK so special.

Re: Ribeye Roast cook Molly Stevens has a spectacular picture of the high temp rib roast on the front cover of the book and a couple of other great shots in the preface and at the recipe page. But a picture from a member of this group is far more valuable than a cookbook picture. Susan

Re: Ribeye Roast cook This is the first time I've seen a carving picture of a rib roast pulled at 115 deg. and it looks perfect!! I'm planning on doing a 4.5 lb two bone for New Year's Eve according to the Molly Stevens roasting book which is a high temp cook the whole way and pull at 115 deg. I wasn't sure about that end temp but now I know I'll be happy!! Great job!!

Practice Makes Perfect My fourth Christmas Wellingtons (10 oz filets) Don't mind my decorations - I never graduated kindergarden art. Tips: 1) Don't roll out the puff pastry at all. Separate the sheets into three pieces at the folds and piece it back togther by putting one edge on top of the other and pressing evenly across just at the seam. 2) Tie the filets so they are plump and don't cook too much during the sear. 3) Sear steaks and make duxelles the day before so everything is cold. 4) Work on one at a time with all other ingredients in the frig. 5) Put in freezer for 45 min immediately before baking. 6) Brush with eggwash thinned with heavy cream instead of water before placing in oven. 5) Roast at 450 for 15 min. My temp at this point was 88 deg. 6) Reduce heat to 375. Cook for 7 more min. or until temp is 118 and remove to rest. Temp will continue to rise as it rests. 7) Rest

Re: KOSHER SALT VS. SEA SALT I'm pretty limited as to what I can do on a computer but this is how I post pictures. I get the picture I want up on the screen and then right click it. This brings up a Picture Manager. Then I click as follows: Edit, Resize, Predefined width x height Document large 1024 x 768. Then I save it and rename it so I know that picture is resized for posting. Then you look below the KK editor box and click Upload Attachment, choose your resized picture using Browse and then click add the file. You should be able to see your pitcure when you hit the preview button. Would love to see your turkey.

Re: KOSHER SALT VS. SEA SALT Eggary: How did your turkey come out? Did you think it was too salty?

Re: KOSHER SALT VS. SEA SALT Eggary: I've done a bit of brining and find my brined foods don't taste salty so long as I don't apply much additional salt, if any, to the exterior before cooking. Sometimes I forget that I already salted the food by brining it then I get in trouble with too much saltiness. If you are cooking a kosher turkey, do some Google research on Kosher turkeys and brining as I believe they are already brined and shouldn't be brined a second time. Susan

Re: Whole Beef Tenderloins Teddysurf: What temp is your Oregon Scientific reading when you remove the tenderloin from the KK for rare? I would prefer it more rare if I were cooking just for myself and my husband but think medium rare is a better choice for a group. Since I'm usually only cooking for two I don't do many large beef cuts and don't have much experience with the carryover cooking time, which I assume is longer in a roast than it would be for steaks or burgers.

Re: Whole Beef Tenderloins I was recruited by my sister to do tenderloins on the KK for her annual Christmas party again. It was a smaller group so I only had to do two of them and I had the good sense to do some research and have her buy "peeled" tenderloins. Last year she bought "trimmed" tenderloins and I had to spend about two hours I didn't expect trimming them. All I had to do with these was trim for a minute or two and tie them. I did them exactly the same as last year, described in the first post of this thread. They took a little less time since they were slightly smaller - about 18 min for the smaller ones and 22 for the larger at 400 after a 90 sec sear per side at 500 on the low handles of the sear grill. I pulled them off the KK at 120 to 122 and they were a perfect medium rare. After slicing them, I turned to get my camera but somebody grabbed the platter and once it was put on the table I couldn't get near it. So this is the only shot I have. It is such a easy yet spectacular cook - certainly one of the very best uses of the KK.

Re: New from Sedona Welcome, Jim. There's tons of info on this forum but don't hesitate to fire away with your questions. You are going to be a very happy man when your KK arrives!! Which one did you choose? Got any pics yet? Susan

Re: Happy Thanksgiving Lee: Thanks for posting that gorgeous pic. Your turkey has such a beautiful color and even finish - did you glaze it? It appears as if its on the sear grill on the tall handles. If you don't mind me asking, did you cook it there the whole time? Do you find an advantage to roasting at that level as opposed to the main grill level? Susan

Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video In this case I compute a target salinity of 2.5% (a rather light ham) based on a water content of the meat itself of 70% (a guess, but better than using 0% by ignoring the effect). For example, using an 11.76 lb bone-in loin in 9 liters of brine water, for a target salinity of 2.5% I compute 0.025 * (9000 + 0.7*454*11.76) = 318 g salt What is the 454 in the formula? Do you also use the ratio of 70% water to meat for poultry? Susan

Re: 2012 Turkey Susan, Nice job on the turkey. What kind of brine did you use ? I like details. I see you use your Stoker a lot. Is it like set it and forget it ? Happy Thanksgiving. My brine solution was: 8 qts water 1 c sugar 1 c kosher salt 6 bay leaves 2T coriander seeds 2T black peppercorns 1T fennel seeds 1t mustard seeds 2 onions sliced 6 cloves garlic smashed 1 bunch fresh thyme This brine caught my eye because its easy and because of the fennel seeds since I use Italian sausage in my stuffing. I can't say that it gave the turkey any identifiable flavor but it was very juicy and tender. I will definitely use it again as a basic brine though I want to pick up a turkey breast over the winter and do the maple syrup brine. I use the Stoker for big cooks, long cooks, low temp cooks such as smoking fish and cold weather cooks because my KK is not conveniently located to my kitchen and I get annoyed having to run through my whole house plus go outside to check on it when I'm busy with other inside cooking or whatever else. With the Stoker it takes me about 15 min to light the grill and set everything up and then I monitor it from a small notebook computer that I sit on my kitchen counter or carry around with me which tells me at a glance, over the internet, what the pit temp is and the temp of my three food temp probes or however many I am using for the cook. As long as I don't see any problems, such as the pit temp starting to fall, which means an adjustment to the charcoal is needed, I don't go back outside to the KK at all until the food has reached its final temp. I wouldn't use my KK nearly as much as I do if I didn't have the Stoker due to the convenience factor. Susan

Re: 2012 Turkey Beautiful bird there, tonyb!! Here is a shot of mine cooked on yesterday - 18 lbs, brined 12 hrs and air dried in frig 12 hrs, stuffed, cooked over Royal Oak lump with no added smoke wood, 325 Stoker with a blast of heat at the end to 155 breast 170 thigh - about 4 hours. Stuffing was removed after the bird reached temp and placed in the oven to finish. Wish I had more time for brining and air drying but I am traveling Thanksgiving week and can't get my turkey until Friday AM. There is no way tonyb and I are the only people on this board who did a turkey this week on their KK. C'mon - let's see 'em!!! Susan

Re: New here Anyone here make the KK their first ceramic grill? My KK was not only my first ceramic grill but also my first charcoal grill. I've had it for three years and love it. I obviously had a big learning curve to face but it went very well. Now I can't imagine being without it. In a couple of minutes I'm going to fire up my Stoker and load my 18 lb stuffed turkey on the KK for my "at home" Thanksgiving - how cool is that??? Susan

Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg MadMedik: I've never cooked a big pork butt though I have done several cooks of multiple small pork butts about 4 lbs each. This cut of meat is new to me so I did a lot of research online on the BBQ forums about approximately how long I should cook them to get them to a temp where I could pull them. The main conclusion I found from this online research is that the small pork butts are just plain unpredictable when it comes to timing, more so than the large ones which can roughly follow a rule of x min/lb for an approximate time of when they might be finished, give or take an hour or two. Each of my four small pork butt cooks went way longer than I expected and I had to not only increase the temp of the KK at the end but also wrap them in foil to finish them, per advice from our own pork butt expert - Doc. Just something to consider in addition to the other issues you raised. Susan

Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video Great video, Larry - loved it!!!

Re: Set up help Eggary: I find if the smoke from the dome smells OK, I am ready to go without having to worry about acrid taste. But then again, I often don't use any smoking wood in my cooks - just Ozark Oak or Royal Oak lump - which on its own gives me a smoky flavor. And if I am adding additional smoke wood, it is a chunk or two of apple or cherry. So maybe this is the reason I don't get overbearing smoke issues after the lump/smoke wood is lit for 15 min or so like others experience. I did do an Eggplant Parmesan Casserole once on the KK the first year I had it and I had to dump the whole thing in the garbage because it was so bitter, acrid and unpleasant from bad smoke. But it hasn't happened since. People are different as to what tastes good to them and the most important thing is to cook for your family and friends - however they like it.

Re: Set up help I'm with Doc on this one. I don't have the time, not to mention the patience, to do all that waiting before I start cooking. My technique is to light the lump with my weedburner, pull open the lower vent door a few inches, open the wheel all the way and spin open the top vent. When the Tel Tru gets to 200 deg, which is pretty quick with all that air flowing through it, I load my food as long as the smoke coming from the top vent is smelling good, which has been the case 99% of the time. This way I can work without gloves loading my food and whatever temp probes I may be using. I have enough experience with my KK that I can shut it down to my desired cooking temp from there, without heat soaking first, even for a low and slow cook. But I think heatsoaking for an hour at the desired temp before adding any food to the grill is good advice for a new owner since they don't know how to control the temps yet. I just don't want potential buyers to be scared away from the KK thinking all this time needs to elapse before you can cook. I surely would never have bought it if that was my impression.

Re: Unpacking video of Komodo Kamado Very professional video, talisker63. Great job!! You have the option when doing an indirect cook not to insert the sear grill at all. The heat deflector can sit right on the handles of the lump basket. Susan

Re: Set up help One other thing I would recommend to you as a new owner - move quickly when you put the lamb on because opening the lid for an extended period may fuel your fire and it will be difficult for you, without any experience, to get the temp back down.

Re: Set up help To add to what Tucker said, if you want to add food to the cook as you go along, you can sit the sear grill, which is the smallest one, on its tall handles on the main grill, which will give you a second cooking level above the lamb.

Re: Kelly's Cleaner (second edition) I don't have granite counters so I don't know how it works with them. I use it as an all purpose cleaner all around my house and love it.

Re: Crispy Skin I couldn't get crispy skin on a chicken in the KK until I started putting it in the frig, uncovered, the night before cooking and then cooking it direct, high in the dome, at a temp over 400 deg. Then I don't open the lid until I'm ready to take it off and it comes out perfect for me this way. I don't think a couple of hours in the frig is enough to help much. If you do it overnight, you will definitely see a difference in the texture of the skin while its still raw. It looks weird but it comes out great. I have also heard of people putting a very light dusting of cornstarch on the skin before cooking but I have not tried that.

Re: Problem Accessing Forum I bypassed the home page and got directly into the forum through Google and once I was in, I deleted my history and made a new link to the index page. Making a new link to the home page didn't help me because even with that new link, I still got the error as soon as I clicked on the home page forum tab. Just didn't know if the hackers were back or if other people were having the same issue with the KK homepage considering this problem came on suddenly. This is working fine for me now- appreciate for the suggestions.