Loquitur

Didn't realize I had a shot of the finished ribs from my cook last weekend.

Did a big cook this week end - beef ribs, bacon and sirloin roast beef. The temp got away from me a little bit even though I was using the Stoker because I was prepping my ribs and roast while the Stoker was bringing the grill to my initial setting of 175 deg and then it took a fair amount of time for me to load the meat and probes. The air rushing in pushed the temp up to 250 and it barely got back down to 215 after a couple of hours.But everything looks good. It took the same amount of time for the bacon to reach 150 and the roast beef to reach 115 and it rose to 122 while sitting on the counter. Will take out the slicer in a day or two to slice the roast beef for deli style sandwiches and slice 1 lb of the bacon for breakfast. Then I will use another pound for a couple of batches of pasta carbonara and the last pound for bacon jam. I smoked the bacon with the skin on because I love to make soup in the winter and wanted the smoky skin for the stock. Can't wait to try it!!

You were right - only took about 2 seconds per potato once I cut it to fit the feed tube. I overcooked them a couple of seconds but they still came out great!! Thanks for the inspiration!!

You'll get a nice char on your steak if you cook it on the low handles of the sear grate at 500 dome temp. I like 2 min per side for a "rare side of medium rare" steak.

Love that color in your setting - really beautiful with the stone!!

Your fries look soooo good!! I cut a russett into 12 wedges for fries out of no reason but pure laziness. Now that I'm seeing yours that's got to change. What kind of cutter are you using and what size fries are they? I have a french fry disc for my Cuisinart which would cut 6mm fries. Never tried it but it looks like they would be really small.

Tony: Hope you don't mind me quoting your phrase back at you - it's all PFM to me too!!! (pure f-ig magic)

Wilburpan: Check out this fryer. It has its limitations being an inexpensive home model but the oil management system is fantastic!! It stores the oil in a container under the unit. When you want to use it, you pull out the container, remove the cap and pour the oil in the top part of the fryer. When done and the oil has cooled, you turn a lever and the oil strains and drains back into the container underneath ready to be used for the next time. It works great!! http://www.amazon.com/Emeril-FR7015001-Advanced-Control-Filter/dp/B008JCIWJM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410439359&sr=8-1&keywords=emeril+fryer

Test making the picture smaller Yeah - it worked!!!! Thanks a million!! I used to do this with the other forum but thought we didn't have to do it anymore. I'm soooo happy now!!

I get to the point where I click the choose files next to the paper clip which brings me to my pictures library, I select the picture and click Open. There is a blue bar that starts to fill which I assume is this site uploading the picture. But as soon as the blue bar fills up my computer screen freezes. Then I can't move my mouse or negotiate the page in any fashion. Then a message box pops up on the screen telling me the page has become unresponsive and I can either wait for it to become responsive or kill it and I have a choice to click the wait box or the kill box. If I wait long enough, my mouse will come back but it won't work anything on the page. And at the very bottom left corner or my screen, my computer is saying waiting for komodokamado. then I have to close the site completely and come back in. On some occasions I've even had to reboot the computer. This same thing happens with all 5 computers in my house with both Chrome and IE and with the basic uploader ad advanced uploader. I use a Canon Power Shot point and shoot type digital camera that takes jpg pictures. My husband is cleaning out the attic and basement ad has sold some items on Ebay. I have had no problem with uploading any pictures to Ebay for those sales with the same camera and same computers. And I had no problem with posting pictures on the old Komodo Kamado site. I'm going to duplicate this post in the posting pictures topic in case Dennis or his tech people want to try to fix it. Maybe I'll try to see if my Flash 9 is OK since its says the uploader requires Flash 9 though its hard to imagine I would be having a Flash 9 issue on so many different computers. Update: I reinstalled the Flash player and no change.

Tony: Give it a try. I switched from IE because I was constantly getting blasted with ads on IE and Chrome has a setting where you can block third party cookies which dramatically cuts that down. But I still can't post pictures on this forum with either IE or Chrome though I have no trouble with Ebay or any other site I've tried to upload pictures to. And thanks for going through the trouble to manually post the link this thermometer. I feel your pain. I check in here every day to see what is going on but not being able to post pictures of my cooks takes a lot of the fun out of the forum.

Syzygies: Understanding that there are many variables that effect the outcome, roughly how long and at what temperature do you dry the tomatoes in the dehydrator to get the 4:1 reduction? Susan

I believe I recall some posts in the Stoker Guru debate stating one of the advantages of the Stoker is the ability to maintain low temps in the 100 deg range. Can't say I've tried it but maybe someone else has and can tell us about it.

I've been doing these slow roasted tomatoes in the oven for a long time. It never occurred to me to do them on the KK and I'm anxious to try as soon as my tomatoes start coming in. I store them in a mason jar with olive oil, herbs and garlic and usually then cut them up to use them. If you want to keep them whole, they won't fall apart inasmuch as the texture is more like a sun dried tomato than a fresh tomato. They are delicious!! I also make a batch of tomato paste in the oven and freeze it in small packages, which is likewise a slow roast. I think I'll try that on the KK as well for an extra burst of summer flavors during the freezing winter months. Thanks for the great ideas, Dan!!

What a beautiful KK!! You really did your homework and sound like a pro your first time out. Can't wait for more notes and pictures of your cooks. And if you have any questions fire away. Susan

Interesting post, Dan. Why did you cut the belly into pieces? I'm thinking maybe for better brine/smoke penetration? Susan

Did you put the burnt ends back on the KK? If so at what temp and for how long? It all looks wonderful!! Susan

The picnic shoulder cook went very well. I was able to juggle things around to light the KK at 7:30 and add the roasts at 8:00, Stoker 235 Tru Tel 240 with 1 apricot chunk and 2 peach chunks from Fruita. The first one was done at 11:00 and the second one at noon. I can't post pictures on this forum but Tony graciously and generously is going to try to post them for me. When both roasts were in the pan the juices were almost overflowing. It looked to me like it was almost all fat and was kind of offputting so I was surprised to find that actually it was only 1/4 fat. The defatted juices were excellent for mixing back in after pulling and even if someone didn't care to mix them back in, they would make a wonderful stock. I saved the fat as well. Sunday morning I was making sausage gravy for a British Open breakfast and I tossed a spoonful of the fat in a hot pan to saute some onions. It started to sizzle immediately and the aroma was heavenly!! Its hard to believe I've been throwing all that out - never again!! I did one roast skin side up and one skin side down. I preferred the skin side up one because the bark on the skin side down one was tough and dry in spots and I don't know if this is the texture bark should be or not. Next time I'll follow Pork chops instructions better and cut the flap of skin back so I can put the rub on the meat and then cover it with the fat and have the delicious rub flavor on the soft and juicy interior meat. I do think these roasts had a slightly less smoky flavor than other ones I've done on the grate which may have to do with cooking them in the pan. Thanks for all your help. It was a big hit at the party!! Susan

I'm a believer in foiling ribs but two hours is a long time unless you like them really soft. I like about 45 min - keeps them tender with still a little pull.

I went to pick up my 20 lb whole shoulder this afternoon and was told that the person at the farm who took the orders was on vacation and my order didn't come in so sorry about that. He also said he called me this AM to let me know but I checked all my phone lines and had no messages from them - so yeah, right. Anyway,rolling with the punches as best I could, I picked up 2 picnic roasts, skin on one side, one 9.8 lbs and the other 9.7 lbs. My problem is that I wanted a whole shoulder to get the KK going Friday AM between 10:00 and 11:00 figuring the whole shoulder would take 20 to 24 hours and be done Sat by mid morning, kept in a cooler and then pulled at approx 3:00 Sat. The latest I can deal with setting up and lighting the KK on Friday is about 2:30 PM which is too early for these roasts though I will have a few minutes later in the day to simply put something on the grill or take something off. So I'm thinking I have 2 3lb whole chicken breasts that I could put on the KK before the picnic roasts and then I could put the picnic roasts on a bout 7:00 PM. I will prep them tonight so all I will have to do at 7:00 tomorrow evening is remove the chicken breasts and put the roasts on the grill. I'm thinking of setting my Stoker at 215 which should result in a 225 to 235 Tel Tru. I can always bump up the Stoker temp from inside my house if the Stoker temp and Tru Tel equalize. I know there are no sure predictions on how long the picnic roasts might take but I am fine with bumping up the temps Sat morning or wrapping them in foil if I need to get them done. I'm not sure how long I might need to give those chicken breasts assuming I put them on at 3:00 PM Friday but 4 hours sounds like a LOT and if it isn't enough, I can finish them in the oven later. So whaddayathink???

Appreciate the pictures Porkchop. I was thinking about doing my shoulder this weekend in a pan since I saw someone on youtube do it for the juices to use them the way you do. I'm not a big sauce person and mixing in the juices back in is appealing to me. Do you mind me asking roughly what size they were, what temp you cooked at and how long it took? While I was looking at the youtube videos I came across one where the fellow was commenting on how great his grill was smoking. It was a POSK with smoke pouring out everywhere - top, sides, lower part - I even thought I saw smoke coming out of the legs!! Couldn't believe my eyes!! Susan

Love your house, BigLazy! Reminds me of mine which sits on a corner lot in a small village and has lots of fencing and not much land. Fortunately, the KK doesn't need it. Looking forward to seeing your cooks.

GoFrogs91 Let me preface this by saying it is a popular rub on our Board and others as well. But, truth be told, I tried it on beef ribs and did not care for it - either the flavor or the texture. I don't recall whether I used the oil or not but would guess I probably did, at least some of it. Susan

I'm going to do my first whole shoulder for a party this coming weekend for my nephew's graduation. I called the order in to the butcher department of my nice farmer's market not expecting to have any trouble with the order. I told him a I wanted a whole pork shoulder, about 20 lbs, with the butt and picnic still attached. He shouts out to the room "Lady wants a 20 lb picnic". YIKES!! I might have really pushed my luck asking him to trim the skin from the butt and leave it on the picnic. I think I got it straightened out but we'll see what I get.

C'mon Tony - don't quit now! Love your humor!!! Susan