tony b

Tried the sear before sous vide for the first time tonight. A Denver steak. Seared on very high heat on the sear grill (splitter basket) - 2 minutes on the first side and one minute on the other. Sealed up in the Foodsaver bag. Tossed into a 130F sous vide bath for about 3 hours. Came out perfectly rare. Notice that there is no gray zone - just seared outer layer and beautiful red interior. Used the jus out of the sous vide bag in the sauce for the mushrooms. Twice baked potato, salad, sour dough bread, and a nice Merlot - call it din-din!

Thanks, Susan!

Boo-hoo! My cable provider doesn't carry the Cooking Channel, just the Food Network. Hello???

From the bottom up - steaks, chops, on the sear grate to start, then move up to main to finish (or off to the side if using the basket splitter). Use the lower grate to roast and reverse sear larger/thicker cuts of steak, but mainly for the heat deflector/drip pan. If I want to do cajun blackened anything, the cast iron skillet goes on the lower grate. Main grate for all "low and slow" cooks, sausages, burgers, fish, veggies (squash, zucchini, corn on the cob, etc.), vertical roasting whole chickens, roasting turkeys. Upper grate for spatchcocked chicken or chicken pieces, pizza, bread. If I'm cooking for a crowd, I will use both the main and upper grills simultaneously. Try to take advantage of juices dripping from upper to main grill, if possible. Example, pan of roasting potatoes underneath the chicken to catch all the yummy drippings onto the spuds! I'm sure that I'm leaving a lot out, as there are so many combinations of grates and indirect/direct cooking. One of the reasons we all love the KK so much!

Probably nice to live near it, too!

Love lox with capers (and red onions & chopped boiled egg), but never thought about putting it on a pizza - Hmmmm!

I'm more in danger of ending up looking like Orson Welles! And, I will drink wine before its time - often!

Gave me an inspiration - heat deflector on lower grill, with the KK drip pan inverted on top, then place my roasting pan on top of that (right side up), with the bird in the roasting rack on the main grill. Kills two birds with one stone (pun intended). Insulates the roasting pan so the drippings don't burn, and allows airflow around the bird to promote even cooking.

Susan, a trick that I've used in the past to get open a frozen top hat is to load up the chimney starter, place it on the lower grill, fire it up, opening the louvers on the lower vent and close the lid down on the first latch. Should thaw it out about the time the coals are going good to start up your cook. Also, a good reason to have a cover for your KK - to keep the ice from building up on it and freezing the top hat shut. That is, assuming that you're using your KK in winter, like a diehard!

Yeah, need to school the newbies, as most other grills (e.g., kettles) won't do this, so folks don't have any experience and can get burned if not careful. It's because the KK is so airtight when fully closed up.

Thanks, Doc! I will definitely try this in the future. Something else to experiment with. I was thinking that apple juice instead of water in the pressure cooker. BTW - I assume that you had the pressure cooker on High setting? I agree - a thousand good rubs out there (about half of them are in my pantry right now - ha, ha!!)

Thanks. First I have to confirm that I get Cooking Channel in my cable package!

Actually I'm hoping to get one of Dennis' new model drip pans with the double bottom, so the drippings don't burn.

Wilburnpan, be careful doing that - shutting down the grill from fairly high temperature and then opening it back up. You can get nasty backdrafts and can singe off some arm hair (or worse)! I can speak from firsthand knowledge about this. I was cooking steaks at high temp on a friend's BGE, closed down the vents to let the steaks roast to finish, opened up the lid too fast and WHOOOSH! I jumped back in time to not get singed, but I was lucky! Here's some info from the Naked Whiz website, including a video. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/flash.htm

Heph, what's in the drip pan?

That's a shit-ton of meat, son! Pork necks?? I've never seen that cut before. Cook it like a butt - intriguing!

What channel is this one, Susan? I've never heard of it?

Nice job, man! To quote one of my favorite songs - "Keep on rocking in the free world!" When's the "hunk-o-meat" cook?

Sounds like you're on the right track to me, especially stuffing the cavity with onions and apples. My Mom did that and I've found no reason to not continue myself! I've upped my game by tossing in a nice big sprig of fresh rosemary and some fresh thyme in the cavity, rub a little oil on the outside, salt and pepper liberally and off to the races!

Yeah, what he said! Love my splitter basket. Gonna use it again tonight to cook a single chicken breast.

Did another frozen steak tonight - prime rib eye (about 1.5" thick). This time I took pictures, so you know that it actually happened! Straight out of the freezer. Quick baste of oil and seasoning (combo of Dizzy Pig Raising the Steaks and Sucklebuster's Hoochie Mama & Steak Rub) and onto the grill. At the peak, the KK was cranked (700F dome), which according to Dennis' test, put the lower grate @ 1000F!! Probably one of the best crusted steaks that I've done. But, was a crazy cook. After I got the initial sear done (3 minutes per side, then 2 minutes per side), the interior was still seriously cold (54F). So, I closed down the vents and dropped the temperature in the dome to about 450F and just kept flipping it over about every 2-3 minutes and checking the temperature until I got around 120F internal. Ta, da! Sorry, the last one is a bit blurry, but I was using the camera phone. Trust me, it was a perfect rare!

A couple of pics of tonight's steak cook. First, at the peak, dome was at 700F, which according to Dennis' test, put the lower grate @ 1000F. From this pic of the cook, it seriously looks like 1000F!!!

Tasty looking cluck, Susan!

I recall when I was shopping around, Lodge is never cheap, anywhere! Hence, the reason I went with the Texsport model. Looks like you can order them directly from Texsport. However, this is the model with legs, which shouldn't interfere with using it as a smoking pot at all. Seems like the "without legs" model is back ordered everywhere! http://www.texsport.net/cast-iron-cookware-and-accessories/seasoned-quart-dutch-oven-p-3661.html

Folks, load up on CoCo when you order your grill. If I remember correctly, Dennis can pack like 15 boxes in the crate with an OTB-23" and it doesn't affect shipping price. Can only image how many boxes will fit in the crate of the Bad Boy 32"!!