Porkchop

your grampa will be read about in history books after we are all long gone. sorry for your loss, Dennis.

big fat t-bones tonight! gonna eat like fred flinstone!

instead of doors, how about a "roll top", like those old-fashioned roll-top desks? i've always really loved the look of the flooring you have that has like a "dimpled" surface.

puts my giant tree-stump table to shame...

you're missing something in your timeline, right before "KK Forum up and running March 2006"...

PORKCHOP JOINS KK FORUM FEB 24, 2006 heeeeeeeeeeeee

can't even remember how i found you dennis, but am very glad i DID!!! what i do remember is that i was pretty angry, and ready to start my own website.

the BEST revenge is living well...

SnapScouts http://snapscouts.org/

i know i'm getting old and retarded, but please PLEASE tell me this is some sort of viral ad, joke, or whatever...

Dennis, I just continue to be amazed by the beautiful cookers you turn out. I can tell you are really expressing yourself with your art, and that you really take your mission to create the very best to heart. A truth that continues to hold true, "you will know them by their fruit," certainly applies.

There are those that claim to offer the very best, and those that just get down to business and do it.

i have my textured black, and i love it. it suits me. but now, you've got glass tiles, variegated tiles, pebbles, maybe even metal-jacketed tiles ("what is your major malfunction?"). and a "super-sized" version in the works? beautiful teak side-tables that are elegant and useful. you just keep setting the bar higher and higher for yourself, leaving your competition in the dust looking slack-jawed and silly.

Sorry for the fan-boy-ism, but it needed saying. You've got the heart that the wannabees wish they had!

MAPP torch

i use one of those bernzomatic MAPP gas torch. the thing i really like about it is that you can light just one or two hunks of lump on the top of the pile for slow cooking. it is pinpoint accuracy, more or less.

i do want one of those weed burners, tho, but for weeds...

syz,

1) CAMBRO = WIN! you must have served some time behind the line! a cambro full of 1/2 pans full of pork or ribs, sitting around for a couple hours to "hotbox" til the catering job is on makes for some good eatin'... could never get the smell of old BBq out of 'em tho.

2) using a LOT of water by weight sounds like excellent advice for bringing the salinity of the meat in line with what you're wanting. i guess a good target would be your aforementioned 0.8% you use in your rubs. after brining a few days like that, just hit it with a salt-free dry rub and you'd be good to go, yeah?

i bet i'm complicating this a bit too much tho. from reading your prior post on salt content in rub, if our slab of ribs already contains an 8% solution pre-injected/tumbled/whatever'd, we can just skip right to the spices sans salt. so, if i want my spices to penetrate, maybe a light coat of sugar first to help with the whole process of transporting those spices into the meat, and let the whole mess do it's thing in the fridge for a few days.

i haven't tried drying my own garlic, and i would probably use my kk for that rather than a dehydrator (since i don't have a dehydrator). i HAVE smoke-dried jalapeno seeds (leftovers from abts) and then ground them up with really good results.

but, one of the reasons i do the "rubs 101" thing is that i want something quick and easy that tastes good. i RARELY write things down, but the technique is easy to remember, and is subject to change depending on my mood.

brining makes me nervous lately. all the pork products i see out there are already "enhanced" with saline maybe the reason myself888's ribs came out too salty. for me, adding sugar isn't the issue; it's the salt. since i can't really afford "premium" meats (grass fed, humane, NOT already brined/injected, etc) for a family of 5, i have to make due. so, if i were to back off of anything, it would be the salt. i figure, both sugar and salt are crystalline, and therefore would have similar effects on the meat, getting those spices INTO the meat. i don't KNOW that tho; not a biologist or chemist.

what i would like to know is, what happens when you brine "treated" meats? is it possible that, depending on the amount of sugar/salt/spice in your brine could actually REDUCE the salt already in the meat? usually, these meats tell you the concentration of the solution used, so could you use this to brew up a brine that would work with that?

myself888, were those ribs already "treated" before you got your mitts on them? and, ribs like that are NEVER inedible, you just have to think what you might use them for. cut up the meat for green beans, or baked beans, or collard greens, or soup or stew. you get the idea. just skip the salt and use the ribs instead. i would have just made a BIG ol' pot of pinto beans(or baby limas), and put a slab of those ribs in instead of hamhock. as long as you do the beans from dry (not canned), there's NO SALT.

myself888, that is truly a bummer. i have to say, tho, if you aren't making your own rub, you're sitting out half the game. i have my own approach to rubs that isn't as technical as syz's, but i may have to try his method out. i'm gonna guess that the reason for salting the ribs prior to the rub is to get the whole transport-thru-semi-permeable-membranes voodoo going. syz, do you think crystal SIZE makes any difference in this action? also, do you use sugar at all? since it is also crystalline in nature, would it also improve permeability if applied prior to spices?

anyway, if you want maybe a less weigh-everything approach to making a rub, i've got a pretty simple one for you...

Dry Rubs 101

scroll down; the original link to my long-dead webpage is, well, dead. but firemonkey was kind enough to copy over everything into the thread. it's not the end-all-be-all of rub-making, but i think it's a good jumping off point...

slick! i like the way the images "tilt" when you are going thru them on full screen.

i think you should call the food section something besides "food porn" tho. we all know that it IS food porn, but it seems indelicate and maybe a little unprofessional to refer to it as such... it is basically at odds with the rest of the site, which is very slick and professional looking, and all the textual content being very well written and courteous. it makes the term "food porn" stick out like a sore thumb.

the main site really was due an overhaul too. we spend so much time on the forum that we think of this as the "main site". i know i do, anyway. your real storefront is that main page, tho, and it looks veddy nize.

Never place lump on top of lit charcoal. The temps will spike and will be a bear to bring down.

this was the #1 contributing factor to your "wildfire" in the cooker. slow cooks; load it up all the way, light a few hunks of charcoal on the top, and let it burn down into the pile. hiding your smokewood in there is a very good idea, but, imho, i don't think throwing a little log of smokewood on top would have let your fire get away, IF you had set your fire as above.

you lucked out on that shoulder. next one will be crazy good, i predict. try this; cut the skin away from most of the shoulder, but leave a "hinge" attached to the roast. then, apply the rub to the exposed meat and cover it back up with the skin. i've had good results with this. with a good slow fire, the rub stays where it's supposed to and melts right into the fat and bastes all the muscle covered by that flap of skin. basically, if i'm paying for that skin, i want to find a way to use it to my advantage rather than just "throwing it away".

you don't need a guru if you BE the guru...

prime, i like the results from a shoulder better than just a butt, and think it's actually more forgiving, but as much waste as there is with a butt, even more with a shoulder, which is what always gives me pause. cheapskate that i am.

funny thing is, it's the stuff you throw away with the shoulder that makes it a better cook, imo. all the bone in the picnic adds flavor and "does something" in terms of the texture of the meat while it's cooking. and that big flap of skin up top, which i leave on while cooking. i do cut/pull it away from the meat, season underneath it, then cover it back up again.

it probably works out to the same price, now that i think of it, since whole shoulder is generally a little less expensive than a butt; i just don't like throwing stuff away i guess...

myself888, i presume your KK diet will be pork intensive??? low carbing maybe?

i'm also trying to get back into shape. cutting carbs and walking. i'm 5'9" and about 270-280. i'm pretty happy being fat, hairy, and lazy, but my dr and wife do not approve.

stay on the straight and narrow, and just enjoy cooking on your new toy. one of the benefits of cooking on such a beast is that you can LOAD IT UP, and bank the proceeds in your fridge for meals during the next couple days. leftover chicken makes great (and i mean GREAT) chicken salad. leftover brats or italian sausage on the way out the door for a quick breakfast...

and, of course... PORKCHOPS; bone-in loin chops for us "movers and shakers"! of course, when i walk, i don't shake as much as jiggle (THAT mental picture is for you DEEJ)

I would suggest we have a section titled "My First Butt", but the board might get confused with an entirely different forum

glad to see that some folks also use the proceeds from the drip pan. i think that melted fat has SO much flavor, it just seems a shame to waste it. i just pour about 1/2 of it straight into the meat after pulling.

and, while sauce is nice, it's so hard to beat a big pile of sweet chow and some vinegar on top of that pork sandwich!

"Dear Komodo Forum: I remember my first pork butt like it was yesterday..."

dude! just PM'd you! what a beauty! you have to man up tho, and get cookin... you don't have to be all elaborate about it, tho. do some burgers and brats and maybe some nice chicken.

you must feed the komodo, or it will be considered neglect, and the ASPCK will be by to find it a good home

don't wait to get your fancy thermometers and gurus and stuff. the pork wants to cook, your new KK wants to cook, and YOU want to cook. perfectionism and worry are NOT allowed; it makes the meat tough...

what's his/her name bubba?

of course you should get a KK...

1) for baking, it will kick your gas grill's shiny metal butt

2) pork butt and brisket and ribs, oh MY

3) + EVERYTHING firemonkey said

4) they look SO awesome! it doesn't make the food taste better, but...

i would say not to bother with the gas option on the KK, but that's me. especially if you've already got a steel gasser going on. as far as the complaint concerning the bother of using charcoal, you will change your tune if you just pick up a MAPP gas torch for lighting your charcoal. easy peasy, baby! you can just light a few lumps if you are doing a low slow cook, or a bunch of it if you want instant heat. if you need quicker than that, you need a drive-thru...

I'm not trying to point people away from Dennis at all' date=' just we don't have a solution such as this currently that I know of for an easy to transport ceramic style cooker from him or any other manufacturer for that matter, so it's not really a competitor for that function (picnic, tailgate, etc).[/quote']

this has always been a OPEN forum, so you don't have to worry about pointing people away; dennis has always maintained that this forum is for US, and that comparisons are always welcome.

as far as a "solution", there isn't one... yet. dennis has got a thing for innovation and, from what i've seen, has never been a man to back down from a challenge. if anyone can figure out how to do it, he's the guy...

now you know where the stones come from for "stone soup"

i used to own an old steelie offset number from lowes that came with cast iron grates. you gotta keep them up, or they rust on you in a hurry!

skinless has way less fat, so your drip issues would be minimal. are they those IQF boneless/skinless kinds? if not already boneless, i'd bone them out, cut em up in chunks, marinate them and do chicken tandoor style skewers. or whatever floats your boat (how bout FM's lime marinade).

i'd setup hot and direct for kebabs and get them off the grill quick. skinless chicken will tend to dry out. if you don't marinate, consider brining them.

my mom lives in naples, FM, so getting in that vicinity from IL is a distinct possibility. she's been trying to twist my arm to get me to take some vaca down there...

i've been saying/thinking for a long time that this crew needs to get together for a picnic/cookoff/whatever...

Re: Did you say BUTTER?

You mean like this? I'll usually do a Worcestershire compound butter but I was out. Need to whip-up a new batch:

Brussels sprouts huh? I'll have to give them a try.

you, sir, are a good man! brussels sprouts are my fave for an accompanyment, but roasted not boiled. if you like cabbage, you'll like brussels sprouts, altho they have a more intense flavor.

FM, i officially hate you. you may regain my friendship by sending me shrimp and roasted bell peppers forthwith!

my 2cents on beercan chix; if you can't eat the skin, you're wasting your time. i would stand in line for good chicken skin, as it is the bacon of the poultry world. brine your chicken and roast at higher temps (450 is what i do). spatchcock and start your cook skin down, then flip halfway thru. i generally count on my chix taking 40-50 min at that temp, so i flip around 20 min in. edit - i set up for indirect, fyi. if you want crazy good juicy chicken with crispy skin, brine it!

i know this will get boo'ed, but i NEVER cook chicken low and slow anymore, for a couple reasons. mainly, it's because i covet that crispy chicken skin so, but also i don't like the texture of the bbq chicken as much as the grilled chicken. also ALSO, i don't usually do my birds spatchcocked unless i'm too lazy to break it all down into pieces. it's been happening more lately, as it is so quick to just spatch the cock (heee), and looks great on the grill.

for me, a chicken is just a life support system for chicken skin...