Loquitur

Re: Newbie 101 Hey Smokincyclist! I never cooked with charcoal either until I got my KK and I just love it. There's a learning curve ahead for you for sure but its not that bad - you will be serving your family wonderful meals and having fun doing it in no time. The first hurdle is to get comfortable with building the fire and maintaining your heat levels and there is tons of help on this board about that. A big, thick burger on the KK is my family's favorite meal but I can't recommend that you follow my example which is to cook them just like a steak - on the sear grill over a hot fire a couple of minutes a side and take them off at 120. They come out crispy on the outside and rare on the inside which is just the way we like them. I don't think you could cook them to the USDA recommended temp of 160 this way or they would be burned. But someone on this board will chime in with a technique to cook them to higher temps. Be careful with veggies if you will have the lid closed since they can absorb a lot of smoke to the point that they are inedible. Baked potatoes are great with the lid closed but I had a bad experience with eggplant and Doc had a bad experience with asparagus. These incidents could have been avoided with a hotter fire and keeping the lid open while grilling them. Cooking chicken on the KK is way more complicated than cooking a pork shoulder so if those breasts were succulent, you did a good job. Getting the skin crispy is an art and it will come in time. Lastly, we are here for you so don't be afraid to ask questions. I'm certainly no expert but it wasn't long ago that I was brand new to cooking with charcoal so I know where you are coming from. Susan

Took down another one!!! http://www.memphisinmay.org/2011wcbccresults

Re: New Member/Owner in the Nation's Capital Great to have you on the forum, Brian. I'd love to see som pictures of your KK!!

Re: Foodsaver Marinating container?

Re: KK on Best in Smoke

Re: Multiple Small Boneless Boston Butts Because I was loading KK with cold meat, I set my Stoker at 250 for the 275 cook with the intention of raising it to 275 once the grill was heat soaked. But the meat temps seemed to be rising nicely so I only increased it to 260. The two smaller butts were at 195 deg in 7 hours. The larger one was more stubborn, even though it was cooking on the upper grill where the temps, presumably, were higher. It was still 188 after 8 hours and I needed to get it done so, following Doc's advice from last year, I wrapped it in foil and raised the temp to 325 deg and it finished in short order. I only have one pic early on in the cook since my husband went fishing and took the camera with him. I don't think his fishing went well - only found one new pic on the camera. I was going to open a new bag of charcoal for this cook but decided to use the balance of my current bag rather than wait for my husband to pull a new one out of the basement for me. Consequently, the basket was loaded with a lot of small pieces and dust. I was actually worried I wouldn't have enough air flow to light it but I got it going without any problem. But, at the very end of the cook, I noticed my temps were inexplicably dropping and sure enough, I was out of fuel. That's a first for me. The bone didn't seem to be much of a factor in terms of how much meat I had to serve from the roasts compared to the boneless roasts I made last year. I tied the boneless roasts so they had a more uniform shape than the ones with the bone, which were much thicker at one end than the other. I was concerned about the small ends of the roasts being dried out but they were fine. I used the formula for making a rub from Porkchop's topic on our forum Dry Rubs 101 and was extremely happy with the result. In all respects, the cook was a huge success!! Susan

Re: Multiple Small Boneless Boston Butts Hey Doc!! The crack of dawn won out over midnight and they're on at 275 deg. lInteresting info about the skin. The ones I purchased are already trimmed but next time, I definitely want to try one of the bigger ones with the skin on. I was afraid I would have to trim it off and that looked like a pain. If anybody knows, how much, roughly, of a 5 lb butt is bone? In looking at these roasts, it seems like my 4 lb boneless butts from last year would have yielded quite a bit more meat than theses 4.5 and 5.5 lb bone in roasts. I was hoping I could keep one of these for myself but I think I will have to take all 3 over to my brother's house. Susan

Re: Multiple Small Boston Butts I'm doing my second pork butt cook tomorrow for a family gathering and this time have three small pork butts with the bone in - 2 are 4.5 lbs and one is 5.5 lbs. These were labeled Boston Butt Bone In but they also had larger cuts, 7 lbs and up, which were labeled Pork Shoulder BI and these had a thick skin on them. If I were to buy one of those larger cuts, would I cook it with the skin on? Would I have to score it or anything like that? Am I correct to assume the BI label means the picnic part is included? As far as using the bones to tell when the butts are done, should I try to take them out while the roasts are still on the KK or should I wait until the roasts have rested and I'm ready to pull them? I'm planning on doing these at a higher temp this time, closer to 300 deg Stoker so I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn. I'll post some pix as the cook goes. Susan

Re: Kamado Smoked Chili Brett - those videos are SPECTACULAR Susan

Re: Greetings and Thanks! I have the autumn nebula too, mixed with bronze metallic. She's gonna love it!!

Re: Greetings and Thanks! Welcome Pup!!! So what color did you get? Got any pix of it? Susan

Re: Questions for the stoker people Rick: I generally light three tight areas of lump spread evenly around the basket and about three inches from the side. I hold the mapp gas torch in one spot for about 30 seconds then move on to the next. As I move on I hit the previous one with the hair dryer on high (no heat). As I move on to the third spot I move the hair dryer over to the second. All this is done from the top with the torch in one hand and the hair dryer in the other. I have the BernzOmatic TS8000 with locking ability. The lock allows me to hold the mapp gas tank by the end to keep my hand and arm hairs from singeing. I generally point then rest the hair dryer on the KK lip to stabilize it. This allows me to focus on where the torch is pointing. My goal is a two to four inch high flame at each spot when I move the hair dryer away. I know when I see those little flames I've got good ignition. It is a little tricky to angle the flow of air toward the already lit lump while keeping it away from the new area being lit. While all this is going on the Stoker is also adding its 10cfm flow from down below. This combination has worked well. While everything comes up to temperature pretty quickly I generally still wait about 30 minutes for the KK to heat soak before loading meat. Thanks, Rick, for sharing your technique. I'm definitly going to try it next time I do a low and slow Stoker cook. I don't have any experience cooking with charcoal prior to my KK and I thought I had to light a very small area in the middle of the charcoal for a low and slow cook or else the temps wouldn't stay down so I kept to this method even with the Stoker. Consequently, it took a long time to get the temp up even to 250. It's very impressive that the Stoker can settle the fire at a low temp after all that ignition. And, it's very good news!!!

Re: Questions for the stoker people Rick: ....I get the Stoker setup and running then follow Dennis' recommended torch/hair dryer ignition. There is a quick climb then wham everything settles to within a degree or two of the desired temperature and essentially stays there, +/- 2 degrees. I have not had any overshoot problems when using the Stoker to get the KK up to temperature. The climb generally takes less than five minutes, longer when the outside temperature is cold. Last weekend it took about 15 minutes go climb from ~50 degrees to 225. Wow - that's pretty quick!!! Do you just point the hair dryer down on the lit coals from the top or do you remove the draft door and point it in from there? I'd love to be able to get up to temp that quickly. My Stoker takes a long time to get up to temp if I close everything down and just use the Stoker fan but I only have the 5 CFM model. Once its to temp, its very accurate in maintaining the desired temperature. And I'v never overshot my target temp either. Be careful to plug the polder hole. Twice now I've forgot and melted the insulation off the probe wires, exposing bare wire...... In December, Rock's BBQ honored a $15/probe repair cost. The price may be up to $20 now. Good to know Rock's will repair the probes. I've fried three probes by dropping them through the grates while I'm fiddling around with setting up the food on the hot grill. I have no dexterity with my welding gloves on and am hoping the new Ove gloves I got for X-mas will help with this. Is the Guru adapter a little larger in diameter? The Guru sized port is slightly smaller than the KK port so the Guru adapter is smaller as well. I don't know the number of my KK but it shipped in June of 2009 and was one of the early models with the factory installed Guru sized port.

Re: Can I sear steak the day before for Beef Wellington? The puff pastry on my Christmas Beef Wellingtons came out fabulous this year!! I followed the thawing directions on the package exactly and just rolled it out a little bit. Then I kept all the pastry in the frig except the one steak and one piece of pastry I was working with at the time and then each wrapped filet went staight back in the frig as I finished it. The KK seared filets and duxelles were done the day before and kept in the frig with the pate until I was using them. This focus on keeping everything cold per Duk's instructions made a huge difference in the appearance and texture of the final product. If I knew it would come out that great, I wouldn't have forgotten to take a camera to my mother's house where I baked them. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Re: Huge Christmas 2010 Cook! Beautiful job, Paswesley. That cook will be one for the ages in your family. Can you tell us about the side dishes? They look wonderful!!

Re: Do I buy a Guru or Stoker? And why... Please vote/comm

Re: Do I buy a Guru or Stoker? And why... Please vote/comm

Re: Do I buy a Guru or Stoker? And why... Please vote/comm Yes. There are no adjustments required to the Stoker to increase the pit temp. I use same top damper settings and fan whether I'm doing a 225 cook or a 400 deg cook. I believe the Guru works differently in that the Guru fan has manual settings which control the air flow through the fan so someone would need to be there to adjust the fan damper to raise the temperature any significant amount. I start at least 25 deg less than my target temp because the Stoker senses the cold food temp and thinks the pit temp is cooler than it actually is, unnecessarily flaming the fire. It's simple to remotely raise the pit temp from your computer when the KK gets heat soaked and the food temp heats up. C'mon Doc - you have both the Stoker and Guru. Whaddayathink he should get Susan

Re: Do I buy a Guru or Stoker? And why... Please vote/comm I love my Stoker because it allows me to monitor my cook from the Internet whether I'm in my house or out and about. I usually leave three or four computer screens on in different areas of my house when I'm doing a Stoker cook and I glance at them every time I walk by just to see that everything is as I expect. It's too cool!!! Susan

Re: Dear Santa Cookie: If you don't have one already, a Thermapen is a handy gizmo. Susan

Re: Elevation and Ambient Temperature - Factors? Cookie wrote: My drip pan was one of those huge oval-shaped aluminum pans you can buy for $2.00 at any supermarket. I'd estimate it is about 3 inches deep. I used a new gravy recipe this year, and prior to adding the gravy/pan to the KK, I had boiled the contents on the range in the kitchen. I then poured the boiling contents into the foil pan and placed directly under the Turkey on the rack that sits between the heat deflector and "main" cooking surface. It was 3 quarts of just boiled liquid. Perhaps that added heat just under the bird had something to do with it as well. Interesting you should mention liquid in the drip pan as a possible contributing factor to the fast cook. Shortly after I loaded my turkey in the KK I decided to pour some stock in the drip pan, which is not something I have done before on the KK. I would guess I added about a quart since my pan is quite large. As soon as I poured it in, it started to spit and steam like crazy which surprised me since I didn't think the pan was in there long enough to get that hot. My turkey was done an hour before I expected and the thigh was up there in temp at 188 deg while the breast was only at 158. I wondered if the steam from the stock contributed to this.

Re: Thanksgiving 2010 Here are pix of my 16.5 lb stuffed turkey KK'd yesterday. This cook was quite different from last year's 17.5 lb stuffed turkey timewise. Last year I did 325 stoker with a pit probe, stuffing packed tightly and it took 4 hrs 15 min more or less to get to 158 breast with a 168 thigh. This year I had a slightly smaller turkey, stuffed more lightly, ( I made less stuffing because the bird was lighter but I could have easily used the same amount as last year), and it took 3 hours 15 min to get to 158 breast with a 188 thigh - confirmed with a Thermapen. This was at 300 stoker with a food probe, which sat higher in the cooker than the smaller pit probe would. The tru tel read 340 thru the cook but it seemed to me that everything was hotter than that in there though I wasn't seeing hotter temps on the thermos. The bird did, in fact, cook faster than I expected. It was delicious!!

Re: Thanksgiving 2010 Thenardier I cooked a turducken this year......stuffed the turkey with duck breast and chicken thighs rather than a whole chicken and duck. I also added a mild ground sausage between each layer..... The family has requested it again for next year... I think you'll be on the hook for this incredibly impressive cook for years to come. Do you have any pix of it after slicing? It sounds wonderful! Susan

Re: Thanksgiving 2010 Sanny: None of us are getting any younger. You and your Mom have each other and that's alot to be thankful for. Whatever you decide to do, do it in a BIG way - just to celebrate the two of you!! Susan

Re: Thanksgiving Turkey on KK My 17.5 lb stuffed turkey last Thanksgiving on the KK took 4 hours 10 min at 325 Stoker. When I removed it, the breast was 158 and the thigh was 168. There is a picture of it somewhere on this forum but I don't know how to post it. It came out fantastic!! I'll be doing a similar bird on Saturday. T Rex is also a turkey stuffer so I'm sure he'll chime in with the cooking times of his turkey. Susan