tony b

Serious ribs!!

Hurray for you folks! More people need to know more about where their food comes from and they'd probably stop eating the crap that they do. Wish I could say that I exclusively buy my meats from my local sources, but the lure of cheaper meat sometimes wins (example, $0.39/lb chicken leg quarters at the Supermarket and $2.79/lb Prime grade briskets @ CostCo.)

Sadly, Charles, we share the same trait - cooks seldom measure up to our own expectations. But, when they do - Bliss!!

Simple dinner, my ass! That's about as good as it gets! Here's a true cowboy cut.

Seems like all the heritage animals - chickens, cows, pigs, ducks, etc. all have interesting names; tomatoes, too!

Tyler actually uses heavy cream instead of Half-n-Half and he's doing it like AB in a regular pot on the stove (not SV). The SV part is a riff off of the French Laundry. I just don't want to go their extra 5 miles with mashing through the double screens and the pound of butter. I'm a junkie for the Boursin cheese. When CostCo has it on sale, like this month, I load up the freezer (it freezes well). Great in lots of things, but my favs are mashed potatoes and omelets.

Seriously, you can't go wrong.

That's my girl! Living in the land of tasty hogs has me spoiled and I can't preach enough about dumping that "other white meat," crap in the mainstream markets!!! Once you've had tasty pig fat, you can't go back! Berkshire is getting to be standard around here. Been branching out to Mulefoot and Red Waddle.

Sounds tasty. Consider wrapping the cheese and breasts in the prosciutto, then tossing on the KK to crisp up.

SLV - dah-ham! Nice bottle. I'm a HUGE (make that YUGE!) fan of Stag's Leap Fay. Can't seem to find it anymore. I can get Artemis at CostCo, but no Fay.

Thanks, MacKenzie. It did turn out pretty good. btw - breakfast this morning was some leftover brisket with the pressure cooker eggs on top. Was pretty good!

Thanks, MacKenzie. I'm planning to try an "in the shell" cook for brunch tomorrow.

OK, so I finally got around to trying this. 2 minutes on high (the baby cooker only has the one pressure setting), with quick release. First try didn't come out so well - my bad, I forgot to put the AL foil over the tops of the ramekins and the yolks came out solid - creamy, but not runny at all. So, trial number 2 this morning, again 2 minutes/quick release, (remembered the foil this time!) came out much better. Yolks were about 1/2 set, so still some runniness to them. For trial number 3, I think that I'll leave them in the shell and see how they come out. Liking it so far. If I can get it dialed in, will likely become my go-to method for poaching eggs, as it's much quicker than doing them SV and a whole lot less complicated.

Used the Black Ops yesterday on a brisket point. Last week did a tri-tip roast with a blend of Carne Crosta and Santa Maria. Both came out excellent. Oh, almost forgot, the app last week before the tri-tip was a batch of wings - overnight marinade in Uncle Dougies, then dusted with Oakridge Habanero Death Dust. Just be careful with the Death Dust, as it does live up to its name!

Just used mine last night to do mashed potatoes - red bliss spuds (medium dice), half-n-half, butter, fresh thyme, parsley, roasted garlic, S&P. 183F for an hour. Drain, but save the liquids, riced the potatoes, then mashed with just enough of the cooking liquid to get the right consistency, then finished off with a big dollop of Boursin cheese (Garlic & Herbs). This is a riff off of Tyler Florence's method for making mashed potatoes. The key is to cook them in the dairy, not boil them in water.

@FastGlass - thanks! Might have to whip up a batch of this for a white pizza.

Bad to the bone, Dennis. I'll buy one for my 23" for sure!! How timely, as I just discovered my back door had snuck open a crack and caused a load of charcoal to burn completely up when I thought it was out. Was just about to break down and get some silicone gasket material, but the temps here have turned too cold for it to set up. So, this is perfect timing!!

Second Charles on the no more than med-rare. My go-to for lamb chops/racks is my house mix of 2 parts Penzey's Greek, 1 part Penzey's Turkish, and 1 part Penzey's Berbere. If you don't like spicy, you can drop the Berbere (or cut back). The Greek is more oregano forward, while the Turkish is more cumin forward, so this blend hits a nice balance for me. YMMV. Plan B is a nice slurry of olive oil with lots of minced garlic, rosemary, parsley, oregano, a touch of mint and S&P.

Just to prove it did happen. Here's a photo of last night's brisket point, injected overnight with Butcher's BBQ Brisket, rubbed with Black Ops. On the KK initially @ 250F w/guru and smoker pot of pecan, post oak & mesquite, but ramped it up to 275F about 3.5 hours in to help push through the stall (I was a bit behind schedule for dinner). Pulled at 170F IT and wrapped in pink butcher paper, back on and finished out at 203F IT. Wrapped in foil, beach towel and into the cooler for an hour's rest, while I made the sides.

Wicked. So, what's in the glass? You seem to be following my philosophy - I cook with wine, sometimes some actually ends up in the food!

Oh, I forgot to mention another favorite thing to use the SV for - fried chicken. Yes, FRIED chicken. You cook the pieces in the SV bath first so that they are completely done. Then, you just do your breading after taking them out of the SV bath and put them into the fry pan just until the breading gets nice and crispy. No worries about overcooking the breading to make sure that the chicken is thoroughly cooked inside. And, you can go a bit hotter on the oil temp to ensure a good crust - less greasy, too.

It is exasperating until you finally get it to stop. Fingers crossed, I haven't had a problem with my last 2 rotisserie cooks.

@Gnomatic - by George, I think he's got it. Use the single square motor shaft and avoid the Loctite fix needed on the adjustable one. I did some playing around with my cradle and shafts. There's definitely a preferred orientation - swap ends of the basket and see if you can avoid using Loctite on the basket shafts. I was able to, but I really had to tighten down on the right side one connecting to the rotating bushing. The left end shaft that goes into the spring plate has enough circumferential play in it that it doesn't unscrew as easily as the right end does. Best advice - practice on it cold, using a 5# bag of potatoes/onions, until you're comfortable that you've got it nailed - spin it at least 15 minutes. Nothing worse than thinking you've got it fixed, only to have your next cook go south again, because it just took longer to unscrew. Not a lot of fun trying to get everything out of the KK and put back together after everything is hot!! (My 2nd attempt at a rotisserie chicken - the right hand shaft had unscrewed and driven itself so hard into the rotating bushing that I almost couldn't get the entire assembly out of the grill!)

Scored some nice pork belly at Costco this week. Will be trying my hand at bacon after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Excellent choice of beer, too! What's in the anchovy spread?