David Chang

second try, another fail. this time i split the charcoal on the right. placed the loaf on the left. i got to my baking temp but still dropped 50 degrees after putting on ice and dough. so in a 40 min bake i discovered the same strange elephant foot type of rise and the charcoal side of the bread was completely scorched. the bottom was cooked ok. took an internal temp reading and it was around 210. i usually pull at 190. so even though i thought i was undercooking it, it was overcooking and burning. i didn't want to turn it thinking my temp would drop even more. this was over an hour of managing the fire. kind of it's exhausting and disappointing because its so easy on a normal oven.

grilling some dinner after a week of non stop rain..

@tekobo thanks for showing me your original dry ageing thread. what is the logic behind coating the meat in fat during ageing? is it to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria? added flavour? keeps it from over-drying? thanks.

@jeffshoafyeah i was planning to use my wine fridge but it did not get cold enough and i don't know how to hack it to make it colder.

oh i thought i did a search about this subject before starting a new post. i would have just contributed to your thread. thank you!

Few weeks ago, i tried this with umai bags on a boneless ribeye roll. it was 3 weeks in and looking good, so i got more ambitious and added a picanha and pork rack. I had grates under each piece to allow air to circulate. Placed a usb fan inside to expedite air circulation and a water pan to add humidity. All the sudden, the fridge went out on me and I lost everything. The fridge compressor did not fail, but it did shut down because I think the fan was messing with the fridge thermometer. The compressor was constantly running, so I think it just decided to shut down before it broke itself. Had a tech look at it and it was working again, nothing was wrong. I think I want to try this again, but without the fan and water pan..and with one piece only. I've read that 30 days is not enough for a noticeable difference in taste, that you need to age 60-90 days for stronger flavours to develop. But you also end up with even more moisture loss and less yield. So a large bone-in piece would be ideal. Does anyone here dry age meat at home? Either with a dedicated cabinet or in your fridge with dry bags?

it's been raining here all week. if i used the kk on this bread, it would be 375-400 grate temp. 25-30 min. no steam pan. https://www.chopstickchronicles.com/wprm_print/7360

@C6Bill the weber go anywhere was my gateway drug to the world of bbq. nice looking steak. kinda what i wanted for dinner but my wife said no.. anyway baked another shokupan loaf in the normal oven. this really is gourmet wonder bread 😂

how do non-US customers order charcoal from kk? i tried to order some with my grill and couldn't because it was a hazard to ship. i think i need to be a distributor of kk charcoal and get an import license or something..

wood fired pork chops, some sides and a shokupan loaf

@C6Bill yea i pulled mine around 202. but i have made better ones in the past that were hot and fast on a little weber go anywhere..

for redundancy on longer cooks, i use a usb c power bank to power the unit. can't say i've ever ran it on battery alone with fan for 18 hours+. the manufacture says 30 hours but too many variables to consider, outside temp, fan speed, backlight on, etc. fb will default at 20% max fan speed off internal battery. to achieve higher fan speeds up to 100%, you need to plug in to a power source.

i emailed fireboard cs about a thermocouple probe with a loose connection. they tell me probes have a 6 month warranty but they will replace it as a courtesy. last time they also send me a replacement magnetic base, albeit it was the same crap base. this is all expedited dhl service from america to asia. that's pretty good support..

yeah i run a fb 2 pro and guru fan. but looking back, i don't think i've ever had a successful brisket or pork smoke that i was happy with eating. they are cuts i rarely buy because it's expensive in hk and we need a ton of people to consume it. but i really need to master low and slow before hot and fast..

@Poochiewas testing the setup but i have a bad habit of making dry anything that takes time. shoulder, brisket, etc.

first pork butt/shoulder on the 19 kk hot and fast with a horizontal charcoal split. had to refill the small basket section once during the cook. 1.6kg took around 5 hours at 300. i didn't wrap, but maybe i should have because the pork was dry. or use a water pan next time? do people do that with kk? paired with some homemade masa harina tortillas and nachos.

it's not a perfect fit due to the cover plate touching the fire ring. i would need to make a new cover plate to make it nice and neat. but i doubt i'll make one..

well, i spoke too soon. it looked good in the office. but when i took it home, i didn’t consider that the fire ring gives me no clearance for the cover plate. part of the edge is too long to rest on the basket evenly. its not a total fail, i think it still works. but in the horizontal position, i would need to fashion a new cover plate or make a foil drip tray as shown… in the 30/70 position, the cover plate needs to be grinded slightly to sit properly. in the 50/50 position, it sits ok. unfortunately i cant bring the grill to the machinist to test out. i’m going to run a small pork butt tomorrow, see how it goes in the 30/70 position. curious to know if that little charcoal will last a hot and fast cook with no refill.

this is a 19 TT charcoal splitter mod for vertical and horizontal splits. this is simply welding 304 ss hooks on the top of the splitter plate and grinding out grooves for the cover plate to sit in the horizontal position. the vertical split is not compromised. the hooks are placed in a 30/70 position but 40/60 or 50/50 splits can be achieved, but only held by one hook. so the same equipment is now modded to place rotisserie charcoal parallel but away from the meat as well as low n slow in the vertical position.

i'm not familiar with the 42 but it looks like you set it up with very little trouble. what did you cook on this setup?

reminds me to take some out of the freezer. bone in chops are so much better than boneless.

so i ordered the moulin salt and pepper grinders from weber workshops when i ordered my coffee grinder. it took ages and these arrived first. apparently, all their stuff is in high demand and wait time is in the months. in full ww fashion, these are probably the most premium s+p grinders i've had the pleasure of using. a simple 1/8 turn yields a lot of ground. so much that you need to really need to unlearn all the muscle memory from previous grinders that required lots and lots of rotations. one of the reasons i got these is the internals are all stainless and wont rust out if i leave it outside from a night of cooking. the salt burrs are ceramic as opposed to metal for corrosion resistance. i used the sample salt it came with but in larger grind settings, some of the salt just came out by shaking, so i would probably put in bigger rocks. they are expensive, but hopefully the last pair of s+p grinders i will need to buy for a long time.. these are made in taiwan by the way. i am completely blown away by the quality..

does anyone here use a flambadou? do you have any tips on what types of fats to use and ones to avoid? i have duck, beef, and pork tallow on hand as well as butter. will it also work if using hard fats from pork or beef trimmings? i recently got one in the mail from the uk but haven't had time to use it.

some recent pizza oven cooks while i wait for my kk charcoal basket to be modded..

@tekobo too late. already took it to the shop for work. but the mod is not destructive. i just hope the guy understood what i wanted because i don't really speak cantonese and he doesn't really speak english. 😄