tony b

Nice, indeed! Might have to think about that Maple syrup & cherry rub combo. Sounds yummy. Made another CostCo run yesterday and scored more pork belly. This time I made sure that I was buying a whole piece and not the thinner ones that I got before. I will make lardon out of the second pack of those and bacon out of the new whole piece. Been happy with Batch #1, despite the odd slices.

Don't fret it, Aussie, he does that to everybody!

Nice! But, better get to that first cook, less Dennis' bot kicks in and your beautiful KK morphs back into a Webber kettle!

Yes, but you could do it with melted ghee/clarified butter, but use the water immersion method to seal the ziptop bag.

Nailed it!

I'd eat that!

I've made this several times, but slight variation on this one. My version is more Israeli/Lebanese, which has sliced potatoes in it.

Update: Got the 9/32" wrench and it worked like a charm. The whole process took less than 15 minutes. Followed Robert's advice - took the old rods off one at a time -replaced with the new one before doing the second one. A dab of blue LocTite on the threads and spin on the wing nuts. Easy, peasy! This puppy ain't going nowhere anytime soon!

That's what I thought at first, but I know Ken's taste in food is much better than Schwans! Click on the link in his post, it's a local meat company in OKC. Ken, I'd probably be all over their stuff, but a good friend of mine here opened his own sausage shop a couple of years ago. His stuff is top notch, too. If you like spicy, he makes a Moroccan lamb sausage called Merguez made with a spice blend called Berbere. It will "get your attention."

Much simpler version is to put the butter & steak in a ziptop bag and do it regular SV water bath. Uses a lot less butter to achieve the same results. I've done that many times. I don't use clarified, but just regular unsalted butter - 1/2 stick (4 Tbl) per steak with a big pinch of the rub that I'm going to put on it before I sear it off.

It will protect the meat from the direct infrared cooking, but it doesn't have the heat insulating properties of the ceramic HD. I just use the drip pan that came with the KK as my deflector or aluminum foil on the lower grate for some low & slows that don't drip much fat.

Thanks, all! Yeah, MacKenzie, that's what I thought, too, when I saw it in the meat section at CostCo. Unfortunately, when i got home and broke it down for putting it in the freezer, I found out that instead of 6 nice thick hunks of belly, it was 12! I only did one pack this time and have another pack of 6 pieces still in the fridge for later. Those I might not slice, but just cube up into lardon.

That duck looks amazing! I remember that episode on Project Smoke and thought at the time that it would be something to try! Now I'm sold for sure.

What he said! NO BEER - Heresy! We just got a new spot here, it's "upscale" street Mex. They are making their own masa from scratch in house. I've been twice now. Crazy good and their list of top shelf Mezcal and Tequila is one of the best that I've seen. They have a beer drink called the Dirty Ashtray - Tecate Light can covered in the house seasoning with a chipotle dusted lime on the top. Crazy, but actually tasty!

My local butcher also raises sheep, so he just about always has lamb in the freezer, especially this time of year. When he's out, my Plans B & C are CostCo and Trader Joe's - the latter are usually pre-marinated racks or boneless legs - I like them a lot.

Wicked, MacKenzie!

Me, too. I gave it all kinds of praise in my review on Kickstarter. Rub #2 has come out - Hawaiian. It's OK. I've tried it a couple of times now - pork chop and salmon. Need to give it a try on some shrimp before I write my review. I probably won't be re-ordering that one. Shuley, if you've got the budget, they can be had from Snake River Farms. I scored one for my 60th birthday dinner.

@MacKenzie - just sounded like a good use for the cold smoker. The meat is cured and you're going to cook it before eating anyway, so no harm to cold smoke it. It took longer to chill up for slicing than I had planned, so I just left it in the freezer overnight. Got it out this morning and sliced it up. The belly pieces from CostCo were very lean, but were not very thick (about 1 1/2"), so it was a PITA to slice even frozen, soI didn't get very even slices. But, here a pic anyway! While it doesn't look all that nice, it did fry up pretty tasty!

Got the joke, Doc. One of our local breweries makes a Russian Imperial Stout called Gazprom and the logo on the accompanying t-shirt is a shirtless Putin riding on the back of a bear. I have one. It's hilarious. It's an annual beer, so there's always a release party for it and the kitchen makes up special "Putin" for it.

Holy Sh!t, I'm making that!!! But, the damned recipe is in German! I haven't practiced my German in many years. While I could make out many of the words, (crazy, but I still remembered kartoffeln is potato!) I still had Microsoft Word do the translation - it's pretty funny, but you get the basic idea. Potato Bacon Tart in a Crispy Crust For this you need: · 45 slices Bacon · 5 medium potatoes · 400 g grated cheddar · Salt and pepper So it goes: 1 The slices of bacon in a small skillet put fanned out to a circle. The end of the discs it overlaps the edge of the pan. Its inner surface is entirely covered. 2 Wash and cut the potatoes into thin slices. The bottom of the pan with a layer of potatoes, put out salt and pepper them. Arranged the slices thick with cheese. Repeat the steps twice more. While you're with each layer less potato slices in the pan. 3 To the closing of the artwork you open turn the bacon slices across the middle. Then you bake it at 170 ° C for 2 1/2 hours. The yawning emptiness has turned safely in the middle of your abdomen after eating this rich feast in the exact opposite. Chances are, you fall into a food coma now, and are a while not able to stand up. After a long digestive nap, there is then the next decent portion.

I normally just go with Walkerswood or Jamaican Country Style (JCS) Boston in a jar. I usually mix a couple of heaping tablespoons (they are both pastes) with dark rum and toss the chicken pieces (or porkchops) into a zip bag overnight. If I really want to amp it up, I dust them with some JCS Boston dry jerk seasoning before putting on the grill - YA MON, Will Light You Up!! Better have some frosty Red Stripes on hand!