tony b

Very good advice for newbies. I will add one thing. If you want to add smoking wood at the beginning, so you don't have to wait to put in your deflector and grates - use a smoking pot. There are commercial ones available, but it's just as easy to make your own. It can be as simple as an aluminum foil pouch with 3 - 4 pinholes in it. I "upgraded" to a modified cast iron dutch oven. You drill 3 small holes (3/16") in the bottom (Yes, the bottom, not the lid). You seal the lid on (after putting your wood chunks in first of course!) with as simple flour and water paste - think Playdoh. Place the pot directly on the lit coals, then add your grates, heat defector, drip pans, etc. The pot will heat up along with the rest of your grill and will begin to produce smoke about the same time as the meat goes on. This way you don't burn up your wood before the meat goes on. Now, why are the holes in the bottom? It does 2 major things. First, the small holes limit the amount of oxygen inside, so your wood smolders, not burn. This prolongs the smoke generation. Second, by forcing the smoke downward, back toward the fire, you burn off any harsh volatiles that can make smoke bitter. A side benefit is that when you're done, you've actually converted the wood chunks inside to charcoal that you can then toss onto the coal pile for the next cook! You can always bury several chunks of wood in your coals, strategically place around the grill, so they burn at different times. However, that is haphazard, since you don't know how the coals are actually going to burn and you can end up not generating any smoke when you really want it or generating too much smoke if several chunks catch at the same time. Remember, meat stops absorbing smoke at about 140F - meat temperature, so you don't need to generate smoke for the entire cook. One last tidbit about smoking wood - don't bother soaking it in water first. It does nothing for you and is a complete waste of time. The water only barely penetrates the surface (unless you have the foresight to soak it for days in advance!) and it quickly evaporates/boils off. It doesn't prolong your smoke generation - it just delays it, since the wood can't smoke until it dries out again and you're back to exactly where you started to begin with. It's one of the classic "myths" out there about BBQ. Check out www.amazingribs.com for some of the other myths and why they are false. Like my new favorite T-shirt says -

But, Syz, you're always on the path less taken!

While I've never tried it, I would think that the Cornell chicken marinade/baste wouldn't be all that "yummy" on potatoes. I do believe that it would be an excellent idea with some different treatments. One that comes immediately to mind would be any lamb cut that has been marinated/basted with lots of garlic, oregano, mint, parsley, rosemary, etc.

CYM - cheap yellow mustard, is a standard in the BBQ tool box. It imparts almost no flavor to the final product, but is a great adhesive for your dry rubs.

For wood chunks, it was 2 large pieces of peach and a handful of small pieces of pecan. I use a smoking pot (converted dutch oven). Well, I did remember to break out the camera. Here's some pics of the Cornell chicken.

He's been back for a while now, FM. But, I could say the same about you! Where you been hiding out of late?

Gorgeous bird! Beautiful color! This thread got me inspired, so I whipped up a batch of Cornell chicken marinade yesterday. Will be cooking the bird tonight for dinner. If I can remember, I'll post pics. Forgot to mention. You'll need to use a drip pan for the Cornell chicken, as the marinade/baste has enough oil in it that it will cause flare ups otherwise. I like to put the pan on the lower grate and cook the chicken up high on the upper rack in the dome. Get better heat distribution that way. A good compromise over direct heat. It will take a bit longer to get crispy skin, but with the overnight marinade and basting, you don't worry about the meat drying out.

Peach, cherry, or apple are all good with chicken. Mix with some pecan or white oak. Love me some Dizzy Pig rubs, too. But of late, I've been using more of the Plowboys Yardbird rub for chicken, usually injected with Butcher BBQ Bird Booster Herb marinade. If you've never tried the "Cornell chicken" marinade, give it a try sometime, very similar to Big Bob Gibson's white sauce (which is also very good). Cornell Chicken 1 egg 1 cup vegetable oil 2 cups cider vinegar 3 TB kosher salt (Yes, this is correct. There's a lot of salt in this; but trust me, it's OK, it's a quasi-brine.) 1 TB black pepper (fresh ground coarse) 1 TB Poultry Seasoning (I like Penzey's) Place the egg in a blender/food processor (or you can hand whisk) with all the other ingredients, except the oil. Pulse to mix. Then with the blender running on medium speed, drizzle in the oil to make an emulsion. Think very thin mayonnaise. Set aside about a 1/2 cup of the marinade to baste the chicken with during cooking. Place the chicken in a non-reactive container (glass, plastic) or ziptop bag and pour the rest of the marinade over and let marinade at least 4 hours, overnight is best. Baste about every 20 minutes during cooking with the reserved marinade. Since there's a raw egg in it, you don't want to baste the chicken during the last 20 minutes. (There's so much vinegar in it that it shouldn't be a problem basting up to the end, but just to be on the safe side!)

De nada. It's what we do here.

Don't sweat small differences in target temperature. The worst thing you can do is "chase the temperature." The KK, when heated up, is like the proverbial "turning a battleship." All the temperature difference does is change the cooking times slightly, not the results. The other piece of advice that I offer is to cook to internal meat temperature, not to time (exception is high temperature searing). The excessive drawback on your ribs (picture before saucing) says that they were overcooked a bit. The best test for rib doneness is pick up the rack with tongs in the middle, bounce it a little, and see if the meat cracks near the bone. Check out www.amazingribs.com. It's a great resource!

Nice, especially the pooches! Just curious, did you get that color of tile to match the dogs??

So, Syz, when you gonna start making your own brews? Great hobby! Being doing it steadily for over 10 years now, but I brewed my first batch back in 1980, right after Jimmy Carter signed the bill making it legal again! It was a kit from an ad on the back page of the Parade magazine. I still have the plastic tub from that kit! In contrast, my contractor is coming over tomorrow with the plumber to give me a final estimate on building a dedicated brew room in my basement. Once that's built, I'll probably double my brewing output and will likely up my game from partial mash to full grain mash brewing.

If you mean the one that looks like a chain link on the second line of the menu, that's the one that locks up my browser every time I try to use it.

Now I get the "stabilize juices" part. Makes excellent sense. While I grind my coffee every morning (burr grinder), because there is a noticeable difference in flavor, not sure that I'm ready to go that far yet for flour. Partly because I have coffee every morning, but don't bake bread or make pasta every day - a few times a month, maybe. Is there really a taste difference between good commercial (King Arthur) and home ground? Plus, is sourcing the grain hard? I'm a homebrewer and can get lots of different grains, but they aren't what you'd make most flours out of, for example, barley.

SERIOUS sticker shock!

I cooked a whole one on Friday (sorry, no pics as I had house guests to entertain). Grass fed beef from local farmers' market. All day marinade in mustard/Santa Maria rub. Cooked on the main grill @ 350F dome until 130F internal temp (about 45 minutes) over red oak staves. Perfect medium. Great flavor. Would have liked a touch more bark, but again was still super tasty. Thanks again for the advice, Normstar!

I've cold smoked salmon and almonds, but not cheese. That's a real "cold" smoke in the 100F range. So, like dstr8, I'm looking for suggestions on how to get temps down that low and hold them.

I'm a little slow today. Not getting the "pressing in a bowl to stabilize juices" part?? Hey Syz, I'm not that hardcore, man. I'll make my own pasta, but grinding the flour, too? Serious! Have the technology (Vitamix dry blades), but have only made rice flour in it so far (for tempura). Think I'll stick to my King Arthur pasta flour for the time being.

Looking in the Seafood thread for tips on smoking salmon. "Cold" is a relative term. Here we generally mean in the 140-160F range on the grill. Good smoked salmon needs to be brined and then pulled out and set next to a fan to set the pellicle so the smoke adheres to the fish.

If you ever figure it, let me know. I've never gotten it to work either.

Hang on tight; you're in for a crazy wild ride! Congrats!

Only cooked with it once to make a terrine. Hard to find. Never used it in the KK.

Of the "jarred sauces," Bone Sucking Sauce is pretty damned good. One of the very few that I'll buy.

You know the rules - no pictures, it didn't happen!

I'll join that club! Variety is the thing that makes cooking fun for me.