Porkchop

I've posted a very basic means for developing your own dry rub on my website at: http://www.porkchopbbq.com/dryrub101.html If you don't have a dry rub of your own yet, and are a little perplexed as to where to start, please consider this humble offering in the spirit of sharing. which means if you make a great discovery, i call dibs!

Decided to do porkchops (yummy!) on the grill this eventide... gotta get a camera with a viewfinder taters were coated in EVOO and seasoned with kosher salt and cracked black pepper. corn was shucked and wrapped in foil. i don't wrap my taters as i really like the crispy skins. all baked in the mexi-K for a little over an hour at 450. then i prepped the chops. anyhow, i chose the above pic so you can see how nice and thick these chops are. brined them for an hour with a VERY basic brine (1 gal H2O, 3/4 c. kosher salt, 1 c. sugar), and seasoned with my own rub. i cut down on the salt in my brine a bit to make up for the salt in my rub. perfect balance, as it turned out. pulled off the taters and corn and ramped Kong up to 650. grilled chops, indirect, about 5 min/side. let them set like 5 min. oh, man, were they good! juicy as all get out. i love those bone-in loin chops. that little chunk of pork tenderloin on the other side of the bone waits til last... anyhow, good eatin'! if any of you are considering some pork or chicken for the grill this weekend (ESPECIALLY WINGS!!!), and you've never tried brining, do give it a shot. chicken parts and chops can brine for an hour. whole turkeys go all nite.

yeah, it would be cool if you could make "Kamado" look like a big ol' dragon with a tail. i wasn' t actually suggesting my "art" as a logo, but to give an idea of a more "photographic" sort of cameo of a komodo dragon's face, just "comin at ya!" i don't think it'd scare anybody. plus, come on, the concept begs comparison. scales/tiles, "fire breathing", big and heavy, durable. hungry... i've already named my KK-to-be "Q-zilla". they refuse to cook without a name or identity, you know why not go the next step and give them faces?

grrr. a little jealous here! but happy for you! look forward to seeing a photoplay of something I understand. automotive stuff is beyond me. you could use this as a temp guage for your new hot-rod! http://www.cdtrv.com/r607vwk.htm

I don't know about that; a stylized full-front of the face with those eyes bearing down on you as you reach for the dome handle... stamped in stainless steel... I think it'd be cool. I've actually got a picture of it in my head, just not the talent to render it. maybe something like this...

Dennis, living in Indonesia, i'm sure you already know how cool the Komodo Monitor is. Have you considered using a nice rendering of one as a logo? It would be nice to emboss some of your excellent stainless or a neat kind of "medallion" you could imbed or grout to the KK dome. like your cooker, they are beautiful and tough. and capable of "ingesting" an entire goat any artists out there? what about a logo contest, just for fun?

yummmmmm, fudruckers!

holy cow, that's so cool!!! The close ups really help. up to now, I thought the hinge was external. To see that it is actually imbedded so that the hinge cover is flush with the outside of the OTB. Dennis, per my previous email regarding appearances; this is just awesome. I have to have one. d**n you! why do you keep upping the ante? soon. very soon. you will be mine, volcanic OTB... Seriously. I can't wait to do a side-by-side just for sake of appearance! that hinge, the draft door... just sick, dude!

Sorry, it's been awhile since I had anything worthwhile to post here. Been pulling some extra hours and getting ready for my eldest's graduation and enrollment in college. Excuses, excuses! Anyhow, this is what I did today. For details, follow the link! http://www.porkchopbbq.com/bigburger1.html As an aside, I'm really getting excited. In about a month and a half, I'll be making my order for that volcanic OTB!!! Can't wait!

or, if you don't do gas, start up a chimney and get it going good, pour it into the empty basket, then put the rest of your 8-10# bag on top of that. with both drafts open, you should be very hot fairly quickly. hot fires should start with the hot coals at the bottom, low-n-slow should start with coals on top of a big load of lump. i don't do gas, so this is my approach. bottom line; airflow and fuel!

hey theo! are you keeping the dome down while you sear your steak? what temps are your temp guage reading? how much lump do you have in the KK when grilling? very high temps require lots of burning fuel as well as airflow. are you doing this direct, or using the pizza stone as a heat deflector? post details of your setup here, or email me! you should be able to get dangerously high temps on this thing no problem.

An open forum I think it's of great importance to have such an open forum, Dennis. it's great to be able to freely compare other ceramic cookers, and just buddy around with fellow enthusiasts. I hope this is limited to FACT based comparisons. I will be putting my money where my mouth is in June; stay tuned for the arrival pictorial! that being said, I'm glad I had the difficulties with mexi-K that I did. otherwise, I wouldn't have started looking for alternatives. or, for that matter, found a "superior alternative" both in product and service! I'm sure that, like me, there are other disenchanted mexi-K "lurkers" here checking things out. register here, under a different handle if you like. Mexi-K don't have to know Regardless, you're welcome. just like I wouldn't take my frustrations out on Kong (my mexi-K of 4 years), I sure wouldn't do that to fellow enthusiasts, regardless of what you cook on. Kong still gets the job done, even tho he's a little worse for wear after 4 years. sorry for the long post! hope you eggers made it to the end without pictures! (sorry TNW!)

Made the following meatloaf on my mexi-K: 1#ground pork 1#ground beef 1#ground turkey 1/2 lg red onion, finely diced 1 red bell pepper, finely diced 4 stalks celery, finely diced 1 c. freshly toasted breadcrumbs 1 t. garlic powder 2 eggs, beaten looks nice, but tasted a little bland. next time, additions like ketchup, rooster sauce, and oregano will kick things up. looks real nice, tho. adapted the recipe a little bit from one i picked up on the BGE forum... rolled it up in one of those fancy aluminum grill protectors from wally world. got that idea off the BGE forum too... badly lit pic of a lumpsaver full of burning lump. meatloaf was cooked indirect at 425 for an hour or so. the finished loaf! will be putting this on low-carb buns for sammiches, or just by itself, topped with low-carb homemade bbq sauce! give it a shot with your favorite meatloaf recipe! came out nice and smokey

yep. skin side down first, 30 min, then flip and let go til done. man, did it come out good. even cold, lots of flavor! got a big ol' 3# meatloaf on right now; will post with pics.

Chicken off the grill... thanks to leejp for helping with his photo suggestions; made a big improvement. nothing special to report. grilled indirect 450 deg. about 50 min. I don't spatchcock, but I do just cut up the whole chicken. I like the way the pieces come out better than a spatchcock. just my preference. coated with a homemade sugarfree rub. basically just a homemade seasoned salt really. very juicy and tasty. as you can see, a bit blurry, but better than last efforts. didn't have to edit at all... again, a bit blurry, but a nice picture of one of the breasts. did 2 chix total, cut up.

it's when your kids realize that you need them more than they need you that you're in REAL trouble! how could you refuse that face! very cute! enjoy it dennis; or do you already know how quickly they grow up? I always enjoyed those late night bottle-feedings with my daughter. so did my wife; I let her sleep!

don't tell me your new little girl didn't get one! never too young to appreciate good Q!! (you two did just recently have a little girl, right??) to islamic java from hindu bali?? were they pork or beef ribs?? or ostrich? looks like you got a whole SIDE of something there! looks great! better make sure you DO breathe next time tho; you need to stick around, at least until I get my KK ordered!

Been living "la vida porka" lately, so I think I'm gonna switch things up with some chickens. Haven't done it in awhile. Not a big fan of "smoked" chicken; I prefer grilled. My son, Cody (12), loves my wings, so I may do some of these as well. Hopefully the weather here in IL will lighten up enough for me to go kite flying in the backyard too! Will try to take some decent pics this time, paying careful attention to some recent good advice!

increase traffic to this site, too. I wasn't intending to purchase, just checking stuff out. then I decided maybe sept. now I'm thinking, I can handle some visa payments for awhile; june. just doing my part to keep prices down

Lee, I did a version of Elder Ward's recipe for a ketchup-base sauce from the BGE forum. it's ok, but the original is probably better. I'm doing a low-carb diet, so sugar was out... 1 c. low-carb ketchup 1 c. diet pepsi 1/4 c. cider vinegar 2 T rooster sauce 1 T tepatio/hot sauce 2 T prepared yellow mustard 4 T splenda 1 T onion powder 1 T chili powder 1.5 t garlic powder 1 t cayenne result was good. wanted something for all the pulled/chopped beef I made this weekend. I like vinegar sauce for my pulled pork, but I need a tomato-y sauce for my beef. has a nice vinegar kick tho. good luck. sauces have never been my strong suite!

so, what you're saying is, there's no hope... it's just that, i know how much more i gravitate to posts with pics. i just want to "give back" a little, you know...

big thanks lee! i don't know squat about photography. i thot, good pics, good camera, and vice versa. learn somthing new every day!

FWIW, here's pics here's 1/4 of the chuck roll, cut into steaks for chopping... see what i mean about "looking like ribeyes"? here's 1/4 of the roll chopped, and the other 1/4 before i cut it into the steaks you saw above... sorry, none of my other pics were even close to this good. but, if i have a choice between a good camera, or a KK, well... you can't eat the pictures!

Did the chuck roll... (sorry, no pics) well, my difficulties with my camera continue. but Kong, the cement wonder of the world, is cooking along nicely... bought a chuck roll at Sams for $36/18# cryovac'd roll. just as a side note, the first meat person i talked to didn't know what i was talking about. asked for a chuck roll, and she brought me out a 10# chub of ground chuck! heh. explained to her that it was the primal that they were cutting their chuck roasts out of, and she said, "oh, i'll check with *blank*, he knows about that kind of stuff." so, a few minutes later, big ol' slab o meat in hand, and i'm off. started with a 10# bag of royal oak lump, got about 4 left, after 20 hrs. not bad; did have temp spike up to 300 after i hit the sack, but what came out was beautiful. allow me to elaborate. after 20 hours, this hunk was tender, juicy, and just awesome. i've done plenty of brisket, and i much prefer this. after finish, i cut the whole affair in half, deciding to take 2 approaches; chopping and pulling. the first half i cut into 1.5" thick slabs and then chopped them. funny, but the general shape made them look a little like ribeyes. took pics, but they came out like crap. maybe i'll try to lighten them up a little and i'll post. anyhow, the chopping reminded me very much of chopping brisket points. very similar consistancy without as much vein-y stuff, or fat. there were a few clumps of what i call "nasty fat", but nothing like what you'd get off the bottom of a brisket point. made a sandwich mid-way, as i couldn't stand it anymore. wonderful! tender, juicy, and good! second half i pulled, and, i'll tell you, the way it chopped, i didn't have high hopes. as soft as the chopped came out, it fell very firm as i was chopping, making me anticipate a struggle while pulling. i was way off. the pull was MUCH easier than chopping, and was just beautiful. again, had to pick thru it for a few clumps of "NF" and veins, but overall it just came apart. i definitely prefered this to any brisket cook i've done. what i really loved was the uniformity of the chuck roll. with a whole COV packer trim brisket, you've got a thin end, and a thick end. the toe of that brisket always dries out, and the point is never done without throwing it back on for a couple more hours. NEXT time i do one of these (perfect for a big party!), i will try to slice some of the center a bit thinner and see what it's like as sliced beef. for them that like butt cooks, this is the perfect piece of beef to do. i STILL prefer my beloved swine, but this is a good alternative for them that don't indulge in the dirty beast! pics coming when i can! oh, as a side note, came away with about 10# servable beef (not counting the massive sammich i made myself!)

just cracking the lid slightly to allow some air into the dome.