Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff
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@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
Ok boys, advice needed. My brother’s going to fire up his new kamado around midday and asked me something I need an answer to. His kamado comes with a cast iron charcoal plate grate thing. It fits into the firebox but we don’t know if the charcoal sits on top of or underneath this thing. Or is it optional to have it at all?
Also, what’s the best thing to light the charcoal with?
The small grate is what you put the coal on. It allows the air to come through from below and help light it. You don't need petrol or meths. Stack a cone shaped pile of coal with 2 or 3 paraffin based firelighters placed inside. Light with the lower air vents wide open, allow it to catch fire for about 10 minutes, then you can place the cooking grate and close the lid with the air vents full open until you reach the required temperature. Have fun
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@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan Awesome!
The higher the temperature you want to cook at the longer you leave the lid open to allow more coal to light. Low and slow you don't want too much on fire at once or you won't be able to get it to cool down easily
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@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan so what sort of temp should we be looking at for a leg of lamb if low and slow?
Do you want it low and slow? I personally think lamb leg is too lean and is better suited to hotter and faster. I stuff mine with chunks of garlic and anchovies, salt and pepper on top, then cook at about 375F until required doneness is achieved. I don't use a drip pan often because I want the outside to be sizzling
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@canefan said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan so what sort of temp should we be looking at for a leg of lamb if low and slow?
Do you want it low and slow? I personally think lamb leg is too lean and is better suited to hotter and faster. I stuff mine with chunks of garlic and anchovies, salt and pepper on top, then cook at about 375F until required doneness is achieved. I don't use a drip pan often because I want the outside to be sizzling
That sounds awesome but not my lamb and not my bbq. Bro is desperate to try the low and slow thing.
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@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan so what sort of temp should we be looking at for a leg of lamb if low and slow?
Do you want it low and slow? I personally think lamb leg is too lean and is better suited to hotter and faster. I stuff mine with chunks of garlic and anchovies, salt and pepper on top, then cook at about 375F until required doneness is achieved. I don't use a drip pan often because I want the outside to be sizzling
That sounds awesome but not my lamb and not my bbq. Bro is desperate to try the low and slow thing.
Politely tell him this guy you have never met in person but apparently knows his shit told you to cook it like that for best result. If you want low and slow he should try shoulder 😉
If he wants to do it low and slow this guy is worth following. Meathead is one of the gods of american bbq
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@canefan said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@JC said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan so what sort of temp should we be looking at for a leg of lamb if low and slow?
Do you want it low and slow? I personally think lamb leg is too lean and is better suited to hotter and faster. I stuff mine with chunks of garlic and anchovies, salt and pepper on top, then cook at about 375F until required doneness is achieved. I don't use a drip pan often because I want the outside to be sizzling
That sounds awesome but not my lamb and not my bbq. Bro is desperate to try the low and slow thing.
Politely tell him this guy you have never met in person but apparently knows his shit told you to cook it like that for best result. If you want low and slow he should try shoulder 😉
Yeah that’ll convince him for sure!
If he wants to do it low and slow this guy is worth following. Meathead is one of the gods of american bbq
Why thank you. I’ll pass this on.
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Sorry a bit late to this conversation, like a week, but as I've posted before, I have a Kamado Joe and I've done many (20+) a leg of lamb low and slow on the K-Joe.
It cooks up just as well as any other piece of meat but yes I do agree, lamb shoulder overall a bit better. One thing to look for is a whole lamb rump with legs attached. Some butchers will do this for you, looks weird but is the best lamb I've had doing low and slow.
So like most things low and slow, the best temps to cook at are around 220-250 F.
@JC tell your brother, if he doesn't already have one, is to invest in a really good BBQ thermometer. One that allows you to monitor the internal temps of the meat (at least two probes but 3 is best) as well as the grill temperature (a 4th probe). Those inbuilt thermometers are notoriously inaccurate. I did my first few cooks using the inbuilt thermometer and they were very inconsistent in the results.
The other thing is to make sure you get the best quality charcoal you can find. The better the quality, the longer it lasts and the more evenly it burns. Also, try different types of wood for the smoke. This allows for some fun trial and error. Or you can just Google what type of wood smoke which works best with which type of meat.
As soon as I got my iGrill 2, I really improved and got better and better the more I cooked on the K-Joe.
And the best piece of advice I can give to you and your brother @JC ... Exercise more, much more, because you are going to be eating a heap of meat as you will want to keep doing cook after cook using different types of meat. Oh and yeah, your sandwiches for lunch will go to a new level using brisket, beef rib, etc.
Welcome to the world of low and slow BBQ'ing.
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@Tim That is QI. I have always liked Marco purely for this:
In Gordon's Ramsay autobiography Humble Pie, he portrays Marco as a tyrannical boss. Gordon once shed tears after Marco hurled some sauces at him, but Marco demurs: “He made himself cry — it was his choice. No one has the power to make a person cry.
He got to throw sauces at Gordon Ramsay. I would love to do that.
Oh, and make him cry, and then deny it was his doing. Great stuff.
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All my Chillies are nearly ripe and I have hundreds
Rocoto's up a storm
Hungarian yellows
Habeneros
Cayenne (but these didn't do so well for some reason)
JelapenoNeeding some recipes for preserving and general heat goodness recipes.
The first round of Rocotos were slow smoked over night and then made into a sauce but I can't keep doing that as I will have too much
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@Hooroo Lots of ways to preserve chillies. I have tried:
Freezing - the least successful but does work. The chillies lose texture and go a bit soggy but retain most of the heat, particularly seeds in. Good for stews, casseroles, con carne, etc.Pickling is good. Quick, easy and tasty.
Preserved in olive oil. From memory sat them in salt and vinegar for a day and then cleaned off and covered in oil. Kept for ages. Good option.
You can sun dry them if you get enough hot dry weather for a few days but you are in the Waikato so...I have a dehydrator and did hundreds in that last year. Probably the best option. Can keep them whole or turn into flakes just by crumbling them. Wear gloves if you do that and don't touch your eyes (or the Mrs in any sensitive spots, could be entertaining but probably not a good idea). Chillies will keep for ages when dried.
I just got methods for preserving chillies off that internet thing.
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@Snowy said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
Wear gloves if you do that and don't touch your eyes (or the Mrs in any sensitive spots, could be entertaining but probably not a good idea).
... or yourself. Beware needing to go and pee if you've been chopping chilis, even if you have washed your hands. I'm told alcohol gets the oil off. Soap and water only goes so far (as I found out to my detriment)...
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@Snowy said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@Hooroo Lots of ways to preserve chillies. I have tried:
Freezing - the least successful but does work. The chillies lose texture and go a bit soggy but retain most of the heat, particularly seeds in. Good for stews, casseroles, con carne, etc.Pickling is good. Quick, easy and tasty.
Preserved in olive oil. From memory sat them in salt and vinegar for a day and then cleaned off and covered in oil. Kept for ages. Good option.
You can sun dry them if you get enough hot dry weather for a few days but you are in the Waikato so...I have a dehydrator and did hundreds in that last year. Probably the best option. Can keep them whole or turn into flakes just by crumbling them. Wear gloves if you do that and don't touch your eyes (or the Mrs in any sensitive spots, could be entertaining but probably not a good idea). Chillies will keep for ages when dried.
I just got methods for preserving chillies off that internet thing.
Nice one mate! Thanks for that.
Are you part of the NZ Chilliheads Facebook group? Great group for getting seeds, Information etc but not so much for decent curry recipes etc.
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@Hooroo Will look at the Facebook group, thanks. Getting a few more seed varieties would be good. Was limited to birdseye for a while there. I made Thai sweet chilli sauce last year, that was easy and better than anything in the shops. Chilli, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, water, sugar, cornstarch for thickening was about it I think. Took about 10 mins to make kept for ages in sealed jar.
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@Snowy said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@Hooroo Will look at the Facebook group, thanks. Getting a few more seed varieties would be good. Was limited to birdseye for a while there. I made Thai sweet chilli sauce last year, that was easy and better than anything in the shops. Chilli, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, water, sugar, cornstarch for thickening was about it I think. Took about 10 mins to make kept for ages in sealed jar.
It's also good as it has a quasi-tradition that you video your first pick of each variety. One guy, Chilli Gaz, does a really good job of the videos and gets through some super-hots! Justin Rummel, NZ (and I think recent world) chilli eating champ is on the page. Good to follow his comps.