tony b

OK, so I did it! Despite trials and tribulations*, I did the Aaron Franklin brisket (sort of). Like he says, it's all about the meat. Since I was not cooking for the masses, I picked up a beautiful 100% grass fed brisket. My above post was a case of bad memory - it's only 1.5 lbs. The setup - Sucklebusters SPG, with extra S&P (fresh cracked, of course), and the pink butcher paper. All seasoned up and ready to go. Onto the KK, indirect, 250F w/Guru. Smoker pot with red oak and peach (see Trials & Tribulations below). A little after 8am this morning. After the stall (~172F internal, about 11:30 am) and ready to be wrapped. The stall was really short, only about 30 minutes (best guess). Back onto the KK. Finished @ 205F internal, about 3:30pm, look at the grease stain on the paper! Total time on the KK = ~ 7 1/2 hours. Wrapped in a towel and put into the cooler until suppertime @ 6pm. The grand reveal - ta, da!! Naked, no pink robe! Sliced open. Nice smoke ring. Great bark. Ate the end piece as the Cook's Choice. Crazy good pepper flavors. See where Aaron is going with this! Plated, with fresh, local sweet corn (seriously sweet!), house made fries (double fried, of course), salad with homegrown tomato (doesn't hold a candle to MacKenzie's garden produce!), sourdough rolls, and a nice Rose wine. Call it din-din! Money shot! How was it? AMAZING! The flavor and bark were killer. While not dry, I wouldn't have call it moist or juicy (until I hit a piece with some fat left - OMG!), but that was to be expected with such a small piece of meat. Will definitely only be doing brisket in the future in pink butcher paper and will likely wrap my chuck roasts, too!! I wonder how ribs would do in it?? * OK, for the Trials & Tribulations - First, despite getting up at the crack of dawn (6am) to get the KK up and going, it took 3 attempts to get the grill lit and running (Ken, starting to have serious doubts about this FOGO charcoal! This isn't the first time I've had it go out on me after seriously hitting it with the torch!) After losing an hour fighting the charcoal, I finally got the meat on a little after 8 am. My original target was 7am. Was a bit worried about getting it done by suppertime. Thought seriously about breaking out the Bourbon at this point! As it turns out, it finished a bit earlier than I planned. Wrapped in a towel and into the cooler until suppertime. Second T&T - because of the issues getting the charcoal lit and going, the smoker pot never got lit during the brisket cook. When I ramped up the KK to 350F to cook the corn after the brisket came off, the smoker pot kicked in like a Banshee and smoked the hell out of the corn! Seriously pissed for the second time today! Didn't seem to miss the extra smoke on the brisket and the corn was cooked in the shucks, so it didn't affect it either. But, I was not a happy camper, nonetheless! And yes, I started drinking at this point!!! All in all, not one of the worst cooks that I've suffered through, but not one of the easiest, either. But, in the end, all that matters is the results - which were F-ing Fantastic! So, I guess all the headaches were worth it!

They go straight into the water bath in the shell. The interesting part is cracking them open; the runny part of the white that usually swirls around in a conventional water bath, stays with the shell and you get a perfectly poached egg on your plate. The first time I did them, I was quite concerned about how to get them out of the shell without breaking the yolks. Turns out it's just as simple as breaking open an uncooked egg; it just falls out in one piece.

Nice. Glad to have you both back in the game!

Please do! Along with your color choice.

OK, this one was is a little bit better than the other one!

Please tell us you did the poach egg Sous Vide? They are just perfect - 142F for 50 minutes.

Nope, not a Cajun or a fly boy. Just one of those jokes that makes you groan more than chuckle, LOL!

Pooooochieee!

De Nada!

Since Bryan stated he wanted pics for Dennis to post on Facebook, you need to show some tiles and the logo on the front. I call those "Dennis' Money Shot". Here's an example.

Or worse, Guy Fieri!

Now just image how awesome it's gonna be when you get the "real thing" made with brown gravy!

Here's a test of copying pictures from another post. Hey, it worked! Bryan, all I did was put the mouse pointer on the picture, did a right clic and chose "Copy Image." Then I came over here and did another right clic and hit "Paste." Viola!

Ouch! That one hurt a little bit, Poochie!

Actually, it would be "Tony, that would be Canadian Bacon we're talking about, EH?"

Picked up a 2.5 lb piece of brisket today at the butcher. Grass-fed. Gotta try out the pink butcher paper! Will go on the KK tomorrow night for Saturday.

I'll take an egg MacKenzie with that homemade sausage of yours!

Welcome! Looking forward to pictures of the new grill in its new home and of those all important first cooks! As an ex-K7 owner myself, you will quickly discern the superiority of the KK to your old grill upon arrival. My old K7 is also at a friend's house now.

Gives me a great excuse to use the new pizza stone! But first, I have to bend out the handles on the upper grate so it will fit!

Nice! On my "to do" list, along with about 4 other cooks right now!

Thanks, but no Kroger's within probably 500 miles of me.

Pot pies are super yummy, too!

You must have a different crock pot than me. Mine only heats on the bottom, as the crock is removable for serving and cleaning, and the side walls are thin metal - structural only. So, it naturally has a temperature gradient from bottom to top. If your's heats the walls as well as the bottom, I can easily see how it works well for you. A buddy of mine has a similar crock pot to me and tried the PID controller. Didn't like the results and went out and got the Anova. Loves it. BTW - I've slow poached shrimp and sea bass in butter using the water displacement method in a large Ziploc bag with the Anova. Works great. Eager to hear how your fish comes out. I'm looking for an excuse to splurge on some lobster tails and try those!

Nice MacKenzie, but next time go old school Southern and make that Chicken and Dumplings! One of my childhood favs! Mom's was killer!