tony b

Hey Robert, check out MadMedik's seriously bad-ass outdoor kitchen picture in the "Tapatalk" post. Be inspired!!!

To paraphrase Dennis, smoke flavor comes from condensation on the meat surface, so you want the meat to be cooler than the smoke for it to stick. So, as noted, leave the meat in the fridge until just before ready to put on the KK. This will help maximize the smokiness. As Robert noted, by the time you've hit the stall point (around 160F) you're past the point at which smoke is absorbed into the meat (140F). Wrapping in the foil only softens the bark on the meat surface, it doesn't cause a loss of "smokiness." Unless it gets so wet that all the bark falls off! Hence, the reason that some folks unwrap the meat for the last 30 minutes or so, to tighten up the bark. My technique (learned from others on this Forum) for prolonged smoke generation on a long lo & slo cook is to use a smoke pot - a cast iron dutch oven with 3 small (3/32") holes in the bottom. Place your chunks/chips of smoking wood inside (do not wet/soak them, it's pointless), seal up the lid with a simple flour/water paste. Place pot on top of the lit coals. By restricting the airflow, you prolong the smoking; think of it as a "baby KK." The holes in the bottom force the smoke through the hot coals that help burn off some of the volatiles that make smoke bitter. And in the end, you end up with a few chunks of homemade charcoal - Bonus!

My trick to getting the pizza off the peel and onto the stone - parchment paper. Doesn't impact the bottom crust that much and if you want it more crispy, the paper comes off easily after just a few minutes on the stone. If you turn your pies mid-way through, it's an good time to remover the parchment.

Devil's in the details, Robert. Make sure your builder/designer has experience in outdoor kitchens, lots of unique considerations from an indoor one. For example, if your outdoor kitchen is 100% open air, i.e., no overhead covering, then things like standing water on the countertops becomes an issue. So, the design needs to consider those things - slope the countertops towards the sink, extra corner drains, material selection, etc. If your outdoor kitchen isn't close to the indoor plumbing for tie-ins, consider an on-demand gas hot water heater, since you are running gas for your burners anyway. You won't have lots of waiting for the hot water to arrive (wasting a lot of water) and by using an on-demand, you won't be wasting a lot of gas heating a big tank of water that sits 95% of the time on "stand-by." If your patio/kitchen isn't convenient to the indoor kitchen, would a dishwasher make sense? You could keep a separate outdoor set of dishes/silverware/glasses and not have to schlep all your indoor stuff back and forth. Depends on how frequently you plan to use the outdoor kitchen. Once a week, maybe not that big of a deal, but if you're going to be using it 3 or 4 times a week, then maybe it would be more convenient. Good luck! Remember, "How do you know when your contractor is lying to you? His lips are moving!"

Hey Doc, long time, no posts!! Glad to have you (and your sage advice) back on the Forum!

Tide will turn in July, Downunder Boy!! We'll be the ones sitting outside in shorts, drinking beers, and grilling big ole hunks of meat! In the meantime, go smoke your nuts - ha, ha, ha!!

Weather has broken for a couple of days (above freezing), so I had to fire up the KK while I had the chance. First up was cold smoked almonds. Second time doing this and will keep doing it as they come out yummy! CostCo has 3 lb bags of raw almonds that work perfectly for this. Almonds started out on cherry wood at about 100F for 30 minutes. They weren't toasting quite as well as I wanted, plus I started to get pushed for time to cook my chicken for dinner. So, I let the KK start to come up to the chicken cooking temperature (375F). Pulled the almonds off after another 20 minutes (KK @ 250F). Let the KK come on up to above 300F, then put on the spatchcocked chicken. Bird was injected with Butcher BBQ chicken marinade, then rubbed with Plowboy's Yardbird rub. KK reached 375F shortly after. Chicken was on for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Temps crept up near the end to 450F, but no worries, just helped out with crispy skin. Seriously juicy!!

Thanks, Kravnh for the translation. Never having owned a BGE, all that plate setter up/down "hokey-pokey" doesn't jibe with KK techniques.

chacun à son goût - French for YMMV! I've used alder wood planks and chunks for years, too. I like both alder and cedar equally for planking fish. Use the alder chunks for cold smoking.

Can someone who speaks "Green Egg" translate this into KK??

Nothing better on the KK than a whole roasted chicken. While big ole hunks of beef and pork are great, I still think that chicken is the best thing overall to come off the KK - perfection!!

Killer - all around - awesome grill (I have an dark autumn nebula, too!), prime rib, and that wicked Japanese knife, too! Looks like you're off to a great start. Enjoy the adventure!!

Cedar planks are pretty popular for cooking fish, especially salmon. I've used them for many years.

No, I've cold smoked salmon, almonds, and cheese at 140-150F with no problems generating smoke.

Killer looking burnt ends - best part of making brisket - IMHO. OK, so help us Yanks out - "arvo"?? Here's a tip for generating smoke on longer cooks. Consider getting a cheap cast iron dutch oven. You drill 3 small holes in the bottom (3/16" diam) - yes, the bottom, not the lid*. Toss in your wood chunks. Seal up the lid with a simple flour/water paste. Set it on top of your burning coals and off to the races! No more carefully placing the chunks around the basket hoping that they burn in the right order and not all at once. * Holes on the bottom pushes the smoke back into the fire, so the volatile chemicals (creosote) get burned off to get a cleaner smoke. Small holes limit the oxygen into the dutch oven, so the chunks burn real slow. And, at the end, you have made more charcoal - just toss it back into the basket for the next cook! Nice side benefit!

Welcome to my world! 7th Coldest Winter on record here in Iowa, going back 130 years! Coldest in the last 25 years, too! Snowing as we speak, predicting about 6" by morning. I've tried to sneak in some cooks now and then, whenever it gets above freezing - or at least when the wind chill gets into positive numbers above single digits!! On the bright side, this bad winter has given me time to learn alternative cooking methods - pressure cooking and sous vide. Although it's nice to be able to finish a sous vide steak off on the sear grill!! Planning on cooking my pot roast tomorrow in the pressure cooker. Here's a picture of my last beef rib cook. Back and short ribs. Both bone-in. The short ribs were good, but not a lot of meat on them - mostly bone and fat.

Nice pic of the pebble KK!! If you want crispier skin, you'll want to cook it at a higher temperature: 375F - 425F. I also put it on the upper grill to be closer to the dome walls. Also, for others, if you've run across posts talking about "spatchcocked" chicken, this is it - butterflied. You take a whole chicken and cut out the backbone with poultry/kitchen shears. Then pop the thigh joints so it lies flat. You can also crack the breastbone to get it even flatter (if you're doing Tuscan Brick Chicken), but I generally don't go that far.

Stock up now folks in the US. Beef prices will be going up even more this spring. Ranchers lost a lot of head due to the bitter winter that we've had here in the Midwest. So, when the current "glut" is bought up, supply will drop off and prices will jump up. My newspaper had an article today that this is the 7th coldest winter on record going back over 130 years of recordkeeping. Coldest in the last 25 years.

This was my first high temp cook on the KK after the break-in run. I posted elsewhere about over-ranging the dome thermometer - off scale - guessing about 1000F. As noted by Bruce, the porterhouse just has a bigger filet side than a regular T-bone. They are cut from the same primal section of the cow.

Here's a picture of a US porterhouse.

Larb is one of my all time favorite Thai foods! Looks excellent.

Welcome back!

Have to update my earlier post. Just scored a nice tri-tip (grass fed) at our farmers market. Now waiting for the weather to cooperate. Will try to remember to post pictures.

One question at a time. Yes, with a good fire in your basket, opening up the top vent all the way and pulling out the drawer on the bottom vent, you'll be amazed at how fast the temp screams up. We're talking a matter of a minute. You can actually watch the dial on the dome thermometer moving. One tip - take out the dome thermometer before it goes offscale high. You can affect the calibration if it ranges too far; and while easy to recalibrate, it's just better not to have to. On that steak cook above, I ran back into the house for just a moment (I'd forgotten the plate) only to come back out and see my dial reading 200F - but it wasn't 200F, but 1000F as it had over ranged that far!!! To Robert's point, it's a matter of control and trying not to over/under cook the steak. When it's down in that roaring flame, it's really hard to stick a meat thermometer in there and check the temps. Otherwise, you're just guessing cooking solely by time. With the reverse sear, you know where you are after the initial roast. And, as long as you are careful with the sear, you're going to be pretty close on your final meat temps. I'm using this technique almost exclusively now that I'm doing sous vide, but was already a convert before that. YMMV.

Looks like Grasshopper has snatched the pebble. Go forth and cook tasty food!!