Loquitur

Hi Dennis! "Stuffing is evil" Alton Brown, Food Network Chef/Personality AB's theory is that stuffing adds mass to the turkey and that cooking a stuffed turkey results in either an overcooked turkey or a turkey which is unsafe to consume. He advocates cooking the "stuffing" in a separate dish in the oven, which he calls "dressing". I checked out the egghead forum for information about cooking a stuffed turkey on a ceramic grill and after seeing all the responses which consisted of lectures on why a turkey should not be stuffed, decided I should keep it to myself. Susan

Hi Sanny, Very interesting and helpful info - thanks!! Susan

Thanks Doc and Cook_Shack - this will really make my life easier at a busy time!!! Susan

Hi! I'm doing individual Beef Wellingtons for Christmas dinner at my mother's house. I don't have any reason to fire up the KK on Christmas Day except to sear the filets but I will be using the KK on Christmas Eve. Do you think its OK for me to sear the filets on Christmas Eve and then add the pate and duxelles and wrap them in pastry the next day? I would be cooling and refrigerating them after searing whether I do it the day before or not. Then I will be transporting them to my mother's house and baking them there. Susan

Thanks, Conodo. I was really pleased with it. I set the Stoker at 325 and it took just over 4 hours, which was pretty much the recommendation on the package for a stuffed turkey of this size. It was interesting watching the progress of the breast and thigh probes during the cook since I was following the MadMax threads on the egghead forum about icing the breast. The thigh of my turkey started out 10 degrees colder than the breast but it caught up after 2 hours and then started to pull ahead. I took it off the KK at 158 breast and 168 thigh. The pop up in the breast was already up. It was a fresh turkey I purchased at my local market - I didn't recognize the brand but I recall it had the word Omaha in it. I used Royal Oak charcoal without any extra smoke materials. I didn't notice a smoke flavor in the stuffing but the drippings were definitely smokey and it made an excellent gravy. I'm definitely not going to limit this cook to once a year anymore. Susan

Attached is a picture of my 17.5 lb Thanksgiving turkey done on the KK. I didn't post it at the time because I didn't want to get beat up for stuffing it and then I forgot I had the picture. But in case there are any other turkey stuffers in KKland, it came out great. I trussed the legs up high over the breast instead of in a traditional horizontal position and I think it contributed to a more even cooking of the breast and thigh. I air dried it in the frig for 24 hours - the skin was super crispy!!

The pump on my unit continues to run during the sealing process (at a slightly reduced rate). I can see how this would be good, but it has always bugged me. I have a Foodsaver V2860 and it does not engage the pump for a manual seal. It is silent in this mode. Susan

Do tell, Charles - what did you buy and how was it?? I am making plans to stay in Manhattan for a few days in February and already checked out their website thinking I would make a visit. Talk about sticker shock!!! :eek:

Thanks for your comments, gentlemen, they are greatly appreciated. A picture of a frozen steak is attached. I'm thinking maybe I ought to do a reverse sear on these steaks so that the fat has a chance to melt at a low temp. But I'd have to practice on some regular ribeyes first. I've never used this technique before and I would want to be sure I could still have a nice rare steak using the reverse sear. Susan

A client sent me a gift package today of Wagyu ribeye steaks. They were shipped from Allen Brothers, packed in dry ice, and are now in my freezer. They came with a cooking guide which covers all the kinds of meats sold by this company. Their basic recommendation for cooking steaks generally is to sear them first on top of the stove and then roast at 400 deg to desired internal temp. But for the Wagyu, they recommend a "light" sear and subsequent roast at 350 deg. Also, they recommend that the steaks be cooked "au natural" without any seasoning. Any idea why they would recommend cooking the Wagyu steaks at a lower temp than other kinds of steaks? Should I really consider not seasoning the steaks at all?? My inclination is to do these steaks the same way I always do a ribeye - rub with EVOO, S&P, get the KK to lava temps, sear 90 secs per side and rest. Susan

Yes, Jeff, I think it is the real thing. You can see the "Made In U.S.A." notation at the bottom left of the bag in the attached picture. Susan

Hi Cook Shack: I have a hard time getting any kind of lump charcoal locally in the NorthEast at this time of year but I recently found that doitbest.com will ship Royal Oak Natural Hardwood Charcoal free of charge to your local DoItBest affilliate, which in my case was a local lumberyard. You order and pay online, they call you when it arrives and then you pick it up. I just got 4 bags of roughly 18 lbs each for $14.50/bag. And, I like it better than the Cowboy and Wicked Good which are the only other ones I've tried. The only downside I found was that it took about ten days to arrive. Susan

Yikes - I drowned the power supply.... to my Stoker!!! Thank heavens the fix was a $10 part. We've had a lot of bad weather on the week-ends for a long time. I was running the Stoker trying to beat the rain but got caught. So I ran out and grabbed it not realizing that I pulled the power cord from the back of the Stoker instead of the extension cord and inadvertently left the power supply on the ground where it got soaked. Needless to say, on my next attempt, it wouldn't power up. So I ordered a new one from Rock's and now I'm back in business again!!! I'm really glad I learned how to control the temps manually while I was waiting for the Guru sized inducer tube but there's nothing like the convenience of the automated temperature controller!! Susan

Thanks, TraderRick. I've spent some time on the pizzamaking.com site and those Lehmann threads go on forever. I agree with the general sentiment that the main posters on that group are the Graduate School of pizza. Susan

Awesome looking pizzas, TraderRick!!! Care to share your crust recipe? The slow, cold rise is intriguing! Susan

Yes, I use the BGE style tool for the ashes. I do it frequently because its so easy to drag a small amount of ash out into a metal dust pan and it eases my mind about having good air flow for my fires. Susan

Wow - what a killer inaugural dinner!! Don't forget pics!!!

So, whaddaya planning for your first cook???

Congrats, Finney - your win is soooo impressive!! And you're looking very cool in your shades!!!

[quote="Curly"] Some things she only gives to special folks I'll talk to my cousin and see what he can do for ya. He's out now but has ta wear that big ugly ankle bracelet, which he claims has been a chick magnet [/size=9] Sorry, folks, I just can't help myself!!!

Thanks Doc and Firemonkey. Being new to charcoal cooking, I had no idea veggies woud be treated differently from meats and thought my problem was particular to eggplant, which I know acts like a sponge. I would never have guessed this to happen to asparagus! I'm very glad to know!! I guess I did about everything wrong. I had the fire at about 325 and put the eggplant on as soon as it came to temp. And I also had the lid closed alot of the time. I normally wouldn't be grilling veggies in advance but I had some extra time and wanted to take advantage of firing up the KK for steaks, so I thought I'd be efficient and do the eggplant first and put it away for later when I had time to do the whole dish. One of my favorite veggie dishes for the gas grill is sliced zucchini and small button mushrooms tossed in EVOO, S&P and grilled in a grill pan with holes in the bottom. I will try that next over high heat with the lid open, after the steaks are cooked and resting. Susan

I was given three large garden eggplants and decided to grill them as the base of a modified eggplant parmigiana. So I peeled them, purged them and grilled them on the KK direct, no smoke, until they had nice marks and were soft, and put them in the frig for a couple of days. Then I layered the grilled slices with seasoned ricotta, mozzarella, pecorino romano and fresh tomato sauce from my garden tomatoes and, due to inclement weather, baked it in my kitchen oven. Yuk!!! It tasted like I was biting straight into the Wicked Weekend Warrior lump. I'm incredibly surprised by this because I like burny, charry flavor on grilled meats and I'm on my 3rd bag of this charcoal. I'm wondering if I did something wrong or if this is just the propensity of an eggplant to absorb surrounding flavors. Or maybe my not using the grilled slices right away allowed the charcoal flavors to intensify to such a distasteful level? All was not lost. I turned it into an 8 quart pot of soup with lots of onions, garlic, italian sausage, roasted red peppers, cannillini beans, spinach and chicken stock. Despite all these distractions, the heavy charcoal taste is still there though diluted enough now to be edible. Other than baked potatoes, which I've done both direct and indirect and which have all come out terrific, this is the first veg I've done on the KK. Susan

Syz, with my Stoker, I close the damper until I start to feel the resistance of the damper against lid. Then I turn it back the other way just a little bit - maybe 1/4 inch. Susan

Love all these ideas but I think its a girl!!!! Susan

Awesome, tlemmen. Is there a picture of it on the site? I think I remember seeing one of that pattern at one time but I'm not seeing it now. I have the autumn nebula/matallic bronze, which is also a two tone version. You're going love the combination!!! Susan