tony b

You ladies rock!!! Also recently did another "cult" big hoppy IPA clone - Heddy Topper out of VT. Only had the original once, but it rivals Pliny, IMHO. Another cult fav, which I can actually get here in the Midwest, is Bells' HopSlam. Comes out once a year and is sold by lottery draw in local beer stores that can get it. Gone within hours. What makes it unique is their use of honey in the brew, in addition to a sh!t-ton of hops! Since Surly has expanded their brewery, Furious is now commonplace on local beer shop shelves and on tap in all the local good bars! Beer scene in IA has improved immensely in the last 2 - 3 years!

I'm a big fan of NC style vinegar based sauce for pulled pork, but I've never tried it as an injection or marinade, hmmm? Here's my go-to recipe for the NC sauce. 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup cider vinegar 1T sugar 1T cayenne 1T tabasco 1T kosher salt 1T cracked black pepper Whisk together and there it is.

Couple of thoughts here. Grill floss is da shizzle! (That's a good thing!) No metal wires. MacKenzie, I have the chain mail scrubber for my cast iron and carbon steel pans in the kitchen. It's excellent. I've never thought to use it on the grill grates, hmmmm?? Might have to experiment., too. If you want maintain pristine looking grates (I'm far too lazy to care), use this product that I use in my brewing room - Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW). It was developed by Coors Brewing to clean their brewing equipment. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064O7XBA/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001D6IVZG&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0VBKZ4ZPTWSB1YAN25BS It works great! I use it to clean my cooktop when it starts to get gunky. You might have to soak your grates in it overnight, but it will cut through proteins (and other sundry junk) like crazy! Think OxyClean on steroids! It's food safe, but needs to be rinsed off well.

I'm in, just give me the date and the location!! Neighbor gave me some peaches the other day. Been grilling them with Dizzy Pig Pineapple Head rub. Simply amazing!

Whew! Never too safe!! More corn for dinner tonight! I asked the roadside stand vendor how much longer we'd expect to get fresh corn. She was optimistic that it would last til the end of the month!! Woo, Hoo!!!

Poochie, that's just soooo ironic, that same rub arrived on my doorstep today (ordered it on Amazon a couple of days ago!) The Habanero version is in transit. Congrats on the new grandbaby! You have an excellent opportunity to introduce that 5 yr old niece to the wonders of BBQ cooking. So, why wait until Tuesday to cook???

Just kegged a Pliny the Elder clone for a wedding next week. Bride's choice. Groom gets the Apricot Wheat.

I often inject with Butcher's BBQ marinades. They add a nice flavor to larger cuts of meat.

Thanks, Ken! Couldn't have said it better myself!

Glad my two pooches are too short to reach the counter! But, I have to be careful with food on the dinner table if it's too close to the edge - Kipper has a long tongue for a small pooch!

Yummy! Love pesto. Unfortunately my basil plants aren't doing so hot this year, so my harvest won't produce a lot to make pesto with.

Just be a bit careful with those wire scrubbies; some nasty horror stories out there about folks inadvertently eating the wires that come off those and ending up in the hospital. Not just an urban myth either. I got rid of mine years ago and went with the grill floss.

Mine are HUGE this year, biggest that I've ever seen. Most of the cones are at least 3 - 4 inches long!!

Glad to see that your corn has finally come in, MacKenzie. I had fresh corn for dinner tonight, too. We're on the down slope of our season. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to get the local stuff? I prefer to leave mine in the husks and just toss them straight onto the grill. If you like the carmelization, it just takes a little longer to cook in the husks than when it's exposed. It's all good in the end!

Sorry, but I'm gonna have to disagree on this one, mk1. Although the writeup suffered a bit, if you look at the various case studies and their resulting data, the results were pretty clear. While there was a precipitous drop in air temperature, the meat temperature was hardly affected at all, as long as you didn't keep the lid open for extended periods or open too frequently (the exaggerated case). The thermal mass of the meat was insensitive to short drops in ambient temperature, i.e., the cooking didn't stop. Especially in cases where there was an adequate supply of fuel to facilitate a prompt recovery in air temperature. The point of the article was meant to say you didn't have to keep the lid closed the entire time and not open it until the meat was done - it's OK to look.

Thanks kjs. The removal of the bacon is a very unconventional technique on this Forum and most of us would not have guessed that it should be removed.

Killer, Syz! It's tempting to reach for that credit card, but gonna hold off and give the wallet a rest!

Hardy, har, har, Poochie!

Awesome! I'm planning to harvest mine (Cascade) this weekend. I've brewed off & on for over 35 years (since Prez Carter made it legal back in '79), and steadily for the last 8 years. It's a fun hobby and almost, I said almost, as capital intensive as KK cooking, i.e., books, latest gadgets, etc. LOL!

Yah might wanna read this! http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_lookin_aint_cookin.html

Trust me, Syz, it's a winner - based upon my own experience doing it! I got the pink butcher paper because it's not coated. Standard white butcher paper is coated so blood doesn't leak through. You don't want to use any paper with a coating; otherwise, it's like using foil, which most of us dislike.

Will be looking forward to hearing about that!

I feel your pain! Wish I could ship you some of the "good stuff," but by the time it got there, it would be the same a supermarket corn! I never buy more than enough for a couple of days at a time, as that's about how long you want to hold it. Even then, I'll soak 2nd day corn in salt water for a couple of hours before tossing them on the KK. Will go out and buy some today for dinner tonight, just because I can - bwah, ha, ha!

Kudos to Backyard Bistro for another wonderful cook! Ken, what's wrong with smoked chicken enchiladas?? They're pretty damned tasty in my book (see my pizza entry!)

So, you take the bacon off the chicken to finish! That's helpful to know. Otherwise, I would have gone in the opposite direction and used some Transglutaminase (meat glue) and stuck the bacon onto the chicken. If you've never used TG before, it's amazing stuff. No more toothpicks to hold things together!