tony b

The link in your post took me right to it? Gremlins???

Susan, have you ever had pork rillettes? Think duck confit, only pork.

While my local HyVee supermarket carries the prosciutto, I usually buy mine at CostCo - bigger packages and cheaper, too! But, the prosciutto is all I can get there, none of the other yummy pork products that La Quercia makes. Need to find a local source that carries more. The online links to Murray's and Zingermann's are a bit pricey, especially when you add on the shipping. Dan, de nada, always glad to turn other Foodies on to something tasty!

Trust me, Susan, it will be every bit as good as the Iberico! These pigs are fed a diet of hydroponically raised barley and milk. Look for the Andrew Zimmern show when he came to Iowa. He went down to visit Carl at Rustic Rooster Farms and see the pigs (and eat them too!) Plus, you get to learn about our other little secret, La Quercia, where they make the yummy Prosciutto Americano here in Norwalk, IA. Here's a link to a snippet of the show - http://shar.es/BMfk5.

Susan, Let me know how you like them. I recommend that you try them the first time with just a little salt and pepper to really appreciate the flavor of the pork without embellishments of other rubs/sauces. My second set of chops and the ribs were both dry rubbed - chops with Dizzy Dust and the ribs with Billy Bones' Competition Rub.

Looks like all they have in the on-line store is the short ribs and chops. I got my rack of baby backs at the local farmers' market. I've had the pork chops - they are just as killer as the ribs!

While there's a lot of downsides to living in Iowa (winters from Hell!), but when you live in a state where the pigs out number the people by like 10 to 1, it's a good thing! Recently been able to procure some pork from Black Swabian hogs. It's a German heritage pig being raised here in Iowa (www.swabianhall.com) and besides being super yummy, they are pretty cute as pigs go (see picture). So, I've now cooked both the pork chops and baby back ribs from these pigs and I can honestly say it's the best pork that I've ever eaten. The fat is actually tastier than the meat!!! So go online, right now!!!! and order you some of this yummy pork. Here's some pics of tonight's baby backs. 4 Hours on the KK @ 225F, indirect w/guru, smoker pot with peach and hickory chunks.

Move to Iowa, Susan (Ha, ha, ha)!

Well, the dinner went very well. Guests liked the duck, but I wasn't super happy with the skin. I did 2 ducks (prepped exactly the same), but one didn't have very crispy skin and the other one was almost too crispy (see pictures). I had attempted the inflating technique to separate the skin from the body before prepping, but wasn't terribly successful. Only got a few small pockets to inflate. I used a metal turkey baster, with an injection needle. I didn't have a bicycle tire pump. Couldn't really generate enough pressure to force the skin to separate with the turkey baster. Ducks were showered with the hot bath of boiling water, rice vinegar and honey, and the cavities smeared with a paste of light and dark soy sauce, sake, Chinese 5 spice powder, ground star anise, ground cinnamon, ground Szechuan peppercorns and white pepper, then air dried on vertical roasters for 24 hrs (+/-) in the fridge. Next, the outsides were painted with a mix of light & dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and honey and left to air dry in the fridge overnight. Then smoked on the KK @ 375F for 90 minutes with a mix of cherry and pecan wood chunks in the smoker pot. Here's some photos.

Yummy!!

Done. Just ordered a second basket. While I was at it, threw in one of the newer heat shield/ash deflectors, hoping to solve the problem of ash and other bits getting around the door and preventing a good tight seal for shutdowns after high heat sears with the door pulled open.

Looks great to me. Love me some thai beef salad! (also. larb is another fav!)

Sounds like a "no brianer." I have several Rubbermaid tubs on my deck for holding gear, charcoal, smoking woods, etc., so I have home for the second basket.

I know you've recommended it in the past, Susan, but hearing you bring it up again, I'm seriously thinking about that second basket for the added convenience. I usually just dump out the coals into the lid of my charcoal tub and put the splitter configuration in that I'm using and dump the coals back in; but while it's not a major hassle, it's still extra work and messy.

"And, I'm not missing out on my adult beverages cooking fast either!!" - you go, girl! Thanks for the propers!

Depending on the thickness of the steak, I use either the sear grate, long handles up, on the charcoal basket for thicker cuts, and use the lower grill for the thinner ones (<1" thick). Never tried sear grate with the long handles down (humm??? - always good to have another tool in the box!) I always crank the KK as high as I can get it to do a sear (usually a reverse sear unless it's a thin steak on the lower). Chunks of either/both red oak and/or mesquite. For a basted steak like yours with lots of fresh herbs and garlic, I'd worry about burning it and making it bitter with a super high temp sear. I'd opt for just tossing in the sauce after the sear.

That's funny, Dennis, as almost all of our supermarket lamb comes from Down Under and we have no problems getting "regular cut" lamb loin chops (think baby T-bones), as well as whole racks of lamb, which can be cut into lollipops. Just scored some loin chops at CostCo, as they had stocked up on lamb for Easter.

I was wonder about that, too, Susan? Their website only talks about BGEs and Kamado Joes, which are round, not the KK, which has a unique shape.

Your are correct - the heat deflector and the pizza stone are completely different items. It was an "add-on" to my KK order (sorry, if I wasn't clear on that point.) I normally don't make pizzas bigger than 12" diameter (usually more like 6 - 8"), so I'm not sure what the small incremental area would get you by making the pizza stone conform to the sear grill profile? And for making bread, I generally do more roundish/oblong loaves, not long skinny baguettes, but I could see where the extra length in the back might be helpful for that.

The pizza stone for the regular sized (23") KK has been available for quite a while. It's in the "store" on the main web page. I ordered mine when I ordered my KK.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DVDRQ6O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You can get perforated baking sheets. Here's an example -

Awesome, Susan! While it's warm again today, not likely to do any grilling, as it's raining (early jump on those April showers, I suppose!) But, everything this weekend came out great, especially the beef ribs. Melt in your mouth tender after 2 days in the sous vide, with a quick sear on the lower grill. Pastrami (this was trial #2) came out good, too. 12 hours on the KK with apple, peach, and hickory, @ 225F, cooked to internal temp of 192F, wrapped in foil and into the fridge to cool. Only critique is that I might have gone too light on the pepper/coriander rub. I backed off from trial #1, as I thought that one was too heavy and overpowered the flavor of the brisket. Love experimenting!

My big bone-in short ribs came from a local butcher at our Farmers' Market. But, I can get regular boneless both at my supermarket and at CostCo. The ones I've got in the sous vide right now came from CostCo. FWIW - Back ribs and short ribs come from different cuts on the cow. Short ribs and the "country style" (boneless) come from the chuck cut, while the back ribs come from the rib cut. Both are on the top half of the cow, the chuck is right behind the neck, then the rib section comes right after that, just before you get to the loin section.

Same here, pizza - yes, calzones - not yet; but will definitely plan to do some soon! Those look very tasty. Will have to try a version that I used to love at a little Mom & Pop italian joint when I lived in San Jose (Di Maggio's) - stromboli (calzone with salami, italian sausage, ham, cheese, mushrooms, mustard, with their house marinara on the outside.)

I, too, just started smoking almonds (did my first batch for Xmas presents). Get 3lb bags of raw almonds @ CostCo for like $15. Here's what I've learned along the way, so far. But don't construe this as me being an expert at it, as I'm still learning. I smoke at much lower temps - 150F for a couple of hours - indirect. I used hickory and apple woods. My first batch got plenty of smoke, (I kept tasting along the way, not having done it before), but my seasoning fell off when they cooled. I had sprayed the almonds with PAM and then tossed them in a bowl with my seasonings. 3#s takes 2 baking sheets (single layer), so I need both the main and upper grills. Swapped positions of the baking sheets after about an hour and stirred them about every 30 minutes. See pic below. Just did my second batch about a month ago (3# of nuts last a long time!) I read online that to get the seasoning to stick better, you do an egg white/water bath. Beat 2 egg whites with about a TB of water to a light foam. Tossed in nuts, then transferred to another bowl to season. The seasoning stuck better this time, but still not as well as I had hoped for. I might have gone too light on the amount of seasoning. After the initial smoking session, again at around 140-150F, the nuts were still a bit raw and needed to go back on the grill, but I had let the KK start ramping up temps for a dinner cook (around 225F at that point ), but I toss them back on anyway. Got better doneness and a touch more smoke. Actually almost burnt some, as I was distracted preping dinner. Still more to learn, especially the seasoning part, but like I said, 3#s of almonds take a while to eat, so it will probably be another month or so before I try again.