Firemonkey

Re: Tips on cooking a beef tenderloin Best advice for a newbie... Almost any oven recipe adapts well to a KK. Just remember that KK temps generally go up faster than they come down, and to heat the grill for 45 mins or so at whatever roasting temp you choose. Personally, I like a nice crust, a slight smoke flavor, and about medium as the temp. I have a cast iron griddle that i sometimes use to get the crust, and then just put the meat on the upper grill to roast until finish temp. Its just easier for me then dealing with changing temps for a reverse, or even traditional sear. I can do it all at like 375 deg dome temp like that. I usually toss a piece or two of grape vine in the fire when I start the searing so it will be just the right smoke during the roast when the dome is closed. I leave the skillet where it is when I roast, too. I'm too lazy to shuffle hot grates or skillets around. You can shut off the bottom airflow almost completely, and just leave the top hat cracked to vent smoke during the roasting period, too.

Re: lighting the grill You are lucky it didn't krumble to pieces on the spot

Re: lighting the grill Holy sh!t, Doc. You get the prize for the thickest crust inside the grill!

Re: Los Angeles Port Closure - Union greed does it again... This is a perfect example of why I have no respect for labor unions of any sort. They protect the inept and incompetent - this is America, where you have every opportunity as the next guy to go out and make it on your own. Your only limiting factor is yourself and your ambition to succeed. Or you can join a union and bribe them with a dues deduction from your paycheck, and in return, hope they provide you with job security, benefits, and inflated wages, and protect you from being held accountable for your own performance. If anyone has any question about how well unions work, they only need to look as far as Flint, Michigan (or anywhere near Detroit). As the auto industry collapsed, the entire region became swamped by unemployed workers, the vast majority of whom have no marketable skills or education. Thanks to the UAW these unemployed workers were used to making $40 an hour, and are now faced with the grim situation of working for $8, if at all! Gee, thanks UAW!

Re: kk tool accessories It sounds like new orders should come with a few ounces less metal, and a pair of Indonesia's finest leather welding gloves

Re: kk tool accessories They are for removing a hot rotis basket.

Re: Cook_Shack's Wonder Cleaner Now that looks much more respectable Is that light colored grout or is the camera playing tricks?

Re: Thanksgiving 2011 This turkey wasn't brined... Perhaps "enhanced" by the packer, but all i did was take it from the package, rinse and air dry it overnight in the fridge. Mixed my seasoning with about 1/4 cup evoo in the magic bullet, and put it under the skin, then filled the cavity with sage, Rosemary, and half an onion. Cooked it about 3-4 hours at 350. It was a pretty low-key cook, and came out much better than some of the more involved ones - like the apple cider brine for example. Once you try one yourself you will be amazed.

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details Meatloaf on the upper rack, and some golden potatoes and green beans in the foil:

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details It's been a while since I posted some pictures. Some recent KK everyday meals... Some grill mahi fish tacos: A rib roast that I dry aged..sorry only one "after" pic...vultures attacked

Re: Thanksgiving 2011 As is customary nowadays, I am days late - but this was my Komodo-licious turkey. Cooked over KKEC (original batch) and a mix of apple and peach smoke, from a smoke pot. It was outstanding. On the grill: Just as I started carving I forgot a "done" picture:

Re: KK CoCo Char Review is posted.... It will snuff, and it will save, but it becomes fragile. You will lose some to disintegration the more you handle the leftover pieces. Its a characteristic of the extruded...just the nature of the beast. A few people have a second charcoal basket so they can swap out the baskets when going from lump to extruded, and minimize the handling of the leftovers.

Re: KK CoCo Char Review is posted.... I didn't say you had one...I'm saying you should spend your holiday weekend MAKING one Extruded is a new technology for many people, and it definitely behaves differently than standard lump. I just thought it would be a good reference to get people over the learning curve and using it for more than just low/slow cooks. Extruded doesn't store as well when you try to snuff and save the leftovers after a cook, so some kind of reference to gauge how much to use might cut down on loss, and put extruded in the same cost/BTU ballpark as lump? Just an idea - I know I would be curious to have the data, and maybe a comparison of the same measurements against a common lump like RO, and even Kingsford briquettes?

Re: KK CoCo Char Review is posted.... Nice review. And nice charcoal, Dennis! So Whiz, how about that chart? One that shows burn time per pound at various temps - measured in your KK of course

Re: Waxed for the Winter You'd save a bunch of time...not much going on there

Re: Waxed for the Winter Rain constitutes the better portion of my routine cleaning regimen for my KK

Re: Freebie It's coffee wood - I have some and cant wait to try it out. This stuff is extra dry, by weight, the shipping slip said 11#, but its a good sized box. Sorry for the lighting - LED bulbs in the lights and an iPhone camera. Im going to give it a try tomorrow - any suggestions?

Re: Waxed for the Winter Barkeepers friend works wonders on stainless. That should take it off easily. Otherwise, maybe some wheel polish from the same place you got your wax?

Re: First Burn of KK Extruded Coconut Charcoal Thanks for the posts! I have been waiting for TNW to measure and report all about the new KKEC. We all know that the extruded lasts forever in a low and slow cook, but I am really interested in its holding power, and pound-for-pound comparison against lump for high temp cooks. By holding power, I mean its ability to hold together for re-use after a roasting temp cook. With the previous extruded, I have found that it can become fragile after use. Almost like the binder burns away before the carbon. It looks like you might have had the same thing happen after shaking your basket? Was there a bunch of unburnt carbon in the bottom of the grill after shaking? I usually remove the KKEC from the basket to switch back to lump, and store the unburnt portions for later. After minimal handling and bumping, its not unusual to find 25% of what went into the bag reduced to powder! For now, i have been pouring a little of it on top of a regular load of charcoal and hoping it doesn't just strain through. It is enough fuel (by weight) that I have been thinking about how i could better utilize it? Like maybe putting it in the cast iron smoke pot without the lid and adding a few lit pieces of lump? The discussion of the utensil holder was also intriguing. Maybe I can explore some sort of contraption to solve a few things at once; Making use of extruded fines A smaller firebox to conserve fuel for shorter cooks And maybe even protecting the lower door from being so damn hot. ...and now I have an idea. Something like a soup strainer: Just have to figure out a way to let ash escape and still be able to use it for the powdered extruded? Hey whiz...how about getting that testing done? It would be cool to see a graph of temps vs consumption, so we could see if it was linear, or how quickly the burn time per pound tailed off as temp increases.

Re: Waxed for the Winter Hey...you missed a spot on the stainless under the tophat Tell me about that wax, is it all synthetic, so no white crust, or did you have to polish a bunch of crust off the grout?

Re: Which is the best oil on the grills I wipe the grates just before putting the food on, rather than when I light the fire. If I did it when I lit the fire, especially if I am doing a higher temp cook, the oil will mostly burn off by the time I am ready to cook. Also, the few times that I used a paper towel and tossed it in the fire, it came back to haunt me in the form of fine, floaty, ash. So now I just keep a half a dishtowel folded and rolled into a shape that resembles a giant scallop. I tie it with butcher twine after rolling it up, and keep it in a small rubbermaid container in the fridge, with a half inch of oil in the bottom. I use this rag to wipe the grates, and then store it back in the fridge for next time. As far as which oil? I use whatever happens to be closest in reach when the container needs filled. Usually it's light olive oil, but I don't think it matters, since the grates are going to be either dry when I am done cooking (all oil burned off) or covered in drippings from the cook. Either way, what I wiped it with is long gone.

Re: SS Rack for cold smoking Yeah, that would be about the right size. My only concern with a basket (of any sort) is controlling the spread of the fire. With rods, you can absolutely control how many ecc pieces are lit at any given time. In a basket, the fire can spread any direction it wants. I think if I were going to do a big batch of jerky, I would go get some threaded stainless rod, a few big washers/nuts and wingnuts. I'd make it so i could just use wingnuts to attach the rods to the bottom of the basket when I needed them. Sort of like you might attach a perch in a bird cage.

Re: SS Rack for cold smoking I have one of the original insert rings, and they are way to big for this application. I think a simple solution can be made for about a dollar, using one of the expanded aluminum screens from walmart. They make the disposae expanded metal screens in round shape or pizza, but also in a rectangle shape too. I think if you rolled a rectangular one into a cylinder, it would be about the perfect size. And since it's for lower temps, you don't have to worry about melting or vaporiIng the aluminum.

Re: BJ on a KK (Beef Jerky) On this side of the world, we can get the whole cut for about $2/lb. It makes a great roast after you trim down what you want for jerky or stew meat: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3277&p=30309

Re: Brands of jerky cures? You do need more airflow to dry jerky, and low temps too. The trick is a tiny fire. You can see how I do jerky on the KK here (complete with pics): viewtopic.php?t=2929