tony b

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?

As another Anova owner, I'll chime in, too. I use mine a lot. Makes the best shrimp - perfect. There's a whole section in this Forum dedicated to SV cooking. Check it out if you haven't already. And if you're still in the market, there's a Black Friday special on Anova's right now - Precision Cooker Bluetooth for $99. Best price I've ever seen it for. Here's the code for it - anova2-4bttb393.

Haven't tried Dominator yet. Have a brisket point on the KK as I type this. It was rubbed with Black Ops.

LIke the saying goes, Scars are better than tattoos because they come with more interesting stories!

Me, too!

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_soaking_wood.html

Winter has arrived here on a speeding freight train called Argos. Steady 25 -30 mph winds, with gust upwards of 45 mph. Temperature is supposed to drop over 20 degrees by morning. Out first hard freeze of the season. Low tonight of 29F. High tomorrow won't break 40F. The only good news is that the snow is staying north of us.

It happened almost 30 years ago, but I still remember it well. And Yes, I don't want to experience that every again!

Cute pooch!

I've been on a deck that experience a structural problem. Fortunately only the center anchor bolt failed and the deck only dropped about 4" in the middle and didn't collapse completely. Good thing, as it was about 12 ft off the ground. It did scare the living crap out of all of us (about 30 people) on the deck at the time though. Didn't stop the drinking either!

Last we heard, Ken (aka Ceramic Chef) has been trying to startup a new business venture, which has kept him away from posting. Hopefully both Ken and Wilbur will be back to posting soon.

Glad to hear that he's doing OK. Hey, Wilbur, post some food porn, dammit!

Like the man said, and I am always reminding myself - Gravity never loses! When I had my deck built (back when I had the POSK), I had that corner of the deck specifically reinforced for the load and I used ironwood for that corner of the decking (it's one of only 2 woods that won't float and it doesn't support combustion - it will smolder but not flame.)

The red is "permanent," and much more difficult to remove, so if you think that you'll want to shift the rotation points from top to center (or vice versa) at some point, you'll want blue Loctite.