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The Guardian have just released a companion app for their Feast supplement (weekly magazine that comes with the Saturday paper). https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2024/apr/17/introducing-the-feast-app I've only had a brief look at it but it seems really nicely designed and has a few handy features like the ability to save notes for recipes and a cook along feature that keeps the screen live with easy step by step instructions. It also has in-app conversions for US measurements/temperatures if you're so inclined. The main draw for me is the recipe quality is really good, I love sitting down with my Saturday morning coffee and picking out a dish or two for our weekly menu. It's subscription based but at £29 a year it feels a decent deal. Six month free trial too. Example recipe which we had for dinner tonight was the chipotle chicken and black-eyed bean salsa from here

I had a wolf five burner cooktop for some years then upgraded to the 4+grill rangetop in 2018. the rangetop is a big step up in terms of cooking power and feels a lot more robust. The knobs on my cooktop broke after a few years and with the way they’re designed would need replacing quite often. Having said that, the knobs on the rangetop aren’t perfect either - the one for the burner I use most has started to develop a bit of drift which is annoying. Overall I’d get one again as they cook really well and look great. the range of power available on the burners is phenomenal - can go from directly melting chocolate (no double boiler) to a nuclear sear on the same ring. I don’t think I’d bother with the grill though - I was so excited to have one of these, thought I’d cook on it all the time but the truth is I use it less and less. It’s probably been a year since it was last lit. The issues with it are that its heat is really uneven, it cremates some parts while others are barely touched and it’s really messy and unpleasant once you’ve used it. I even bought grill grates for it a bit ago. I want to love it but the truth is it’s nowhere near an outdoor gas grill. Given my time over I’d try the plancha instead. if you want any pics or have any specific questions I’d be happy to help.

I was going to post exactly this. I’ve been amazed with the results of this technique - makes a massive difference to the smoke production.

They do look good though! I reckon you could trim the prep down and have an even better dish by skipping the peeling stage and simply microwaving them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. This is probably my favourite way of dealing with asparagus as it gives beautiful bright green spears, with none of the flavour leached out into the boiling water. It’s easy to get doneness just right too.

I love shrimp tacos - dust the shrimp in seasoned flour then fry to crisp up and just cook. Top with avocado, lettuce, pickled red onions and maybe a lime/sriracha mayo.

Beef cheeks are one of my favourite cuts and would make a great peposo. They make for a nice neat presentation too with a lot less waste than short ribs (when properly trimmed). The main thing to bear in mind with them is that they need a lot of cooking to make sure you render out all the collagen. You want them to be fully probe tender before serving. Once you get to that point, reducing some of the cooking liquid and glazing them up is great.

This sounds like a fun trip Lasagne is a go to of ours for feeding groups, super easy to make the ragu ahead of time, even assemble the whole thing. then you’re only half an hour away from eating. Curry would be another - maybe a meat dish and a chickpea one with a salad. Very easy to scale up. Last suggestion would be a slow roast lamb shoulder or two. 5-6 hours of unattended cooking will make the backbone of a great meal.

We’ll be staying in soho but will be in most places south of the park during our stay. I love Neapolitan and New York style pizzas so if there are any truly great options there I’d be delighted. Also any great Detroit style options we should look at for a bit of variety?

I’m coming back to NYC in a few weeks, for the first time since pre-covid. Any can’t miss pizza places fellow gulleters would recommend?

I enjoyed the latest episode of the Empire podcast. Some great background on Indian food, I was particularly taken by how close the food of Tudor England and India were at the time. Also how late potatoes and chillies came into the food of the subcontinent. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/empire/id1639561921?i=1000647120993

I know what you mean but I’m sure there were plenty of horsemen and coach drivers who said similar about internal combustion engines, “pah! These new fangled cars will never take off. Who would even fix them!” it feels almost inevitable that we’ll all have cheap, scalable power storage in our homes. Whether these guys and this idea works out, who knows. But a current lack of repairmen isn’t the issue.

You can but catering packs like this, they don’t work out much cheaper (if at all) than regular supermarket 280g packs but less waste https://www.marcoalimentari.com/online-store/PHILADELPHIA-CREAM-CHEESE-1-65kg-p131478726?gclid=CjwKCAiA75itBhA6EiwAkho9eyd58RLmnVtgs5nsGZVq5CqZiKGSjDSPcGf-gM5f5x2biNmm1s3eZxoCsfIQAvD_BwE Costco might well sell larger amounts, will have a look next time I’m in there

Farro is great. Makes a brilliant filling for a nice squash like a delicata. Cook the grains first with some stock and aromatic veg then stuff the squash and roast - I like it topped with cheese such as talleggio or a soft blue.

“Change my life”? In that I’ll have start eating bad eggs? I’m ok thanks

this one ⬆️ that @lindag posted above is great. I just bag the cubes up when the hopper gets full and store them in my freezer to use when they’re properly cold and dry.

Interesting @scott123, I’ve often done the confit method so would like to give this dry process a go. I’ve got a combustion inc thermometer, am thinking if I can find a reliable enough way of inserting it into a wing I can recreate this process. Might be stretching it a bit with the size of a chicken wing but will give it a go next time. For those unfamiliar with the CPT, it gives a really accurate of view of internal, surface and ambient temps using eight different sensors in a single probe.

So many variables at play here. will try and give some thoughts on my experience so far. I’ve had a kamado joe big joe for years now. They are truly great bits of kit. Versatile, very well made and can turn out brilliant food. Buy a fan controller like a ThermoWorks billows or a fireboard and you can keep smoking temperatures for 12+ hours with ease. I’ve recently joined @rotuts pellet grill club, bought a Yoder 640s on eBay a month or so ago. They are amazing cookers and have a few big pluses over charcoal options - the ease of use, consistency and capacity are impossible to match with a kamado. I recently did a summer party for forty people and it was a doddle - two whole pork butts, a packer brisket and a plate of beef ribs, all at the same time with no drama. The Yoder has the ability to do direct heat cooking but don’t let anyone tell you it’s as good as charcoal. If this type of cooking is more important to you, and you only have space for one device I’d have to go with a kamado. But if you’re more about smoking and want to turn out bigger quantities a pellet grill would be perfect. Either way, buy the biggest and best you can possibly get - a Yoder is more expensive than a traeger but is 100% worth the difference. I’d happily get a used 640 over a brand new traeger, you’ll never be replacing it. As to your question about adding pellets to a charcoal cooker, you can, but I’m not sure you would. Chunks of actual wood are the way to go here, you want different flavour, you add different wood. Ultimately, there isn’t a single right answer to this question- Tell us a bit more about what you want to use it for and I’m sure we can help you spend some money!

Looking forward to seeing these! Was the wrapped vs unwrapped an experiment? Genuinely shocked at how cheap you can get meat over that side of the pond!

What a great day - everyone loves the Yoder! By far the best food I’ve turned out at this event. The pork butts were really good - made me realise how little difference the rub actually makes though, they were practically identical despite having very different ribs pre-cooking. Brisket was okay - great flavour but had dried up a little on the bottom. I’d done it on the bottom rack so I think it was a little close to the deflector plate. Not sure how to deal with this in future if doing a fully loaded cook? The absolute star of the show though were the beef ribs. They were also done on the bottom rack but the bones protected the meat perfectly. These were a bit of a last minute addition and had the simplest of rubs (just salt and pepper), but they were astonishingly good. Juicy, subtly smoky and so so tasty. The Yoder was the real star though, being able to cook this much food with such ease is amazing. I’m so glad it’s previous owner decided he needed space for that pizza oven!

Got a decent sleep and all looking good this morning. pulled the ribs at around 530-6 as they were fully done. Wrapped in butcher paper and relaxing in a 140 oven while everything else finishes up. pork butt 1 and brisket also finished now after a couple of hours wrapped so they’re resting too Just the final butt to do now, he’s still unwrapped as the bark needs a bit more work. Probably another hour or two I think. What’s really interesting to me is how much difference there is between 200 and 225. I kind of knew there wasn’t a linear relationship of time to temp but the difference is stark - my brisket cooks at 200 have taken 20+ hours (including ramping the temp towards the end), this one was done in just over 12. Pork butt 1: beef ribs:

so we have two whole butts, a plate of beef ribs (top middle of first pic) and a whole brisket (top left, first pic). Second pic is the brisket and third is the ribs. The Yoder is set to 225, started at 7pm with a plan to wrap each piece when it gets to 175. So far (four hours in) the ribs seem to be flying so they might end up not being wrapped (ie I don’t want to get up at 3am!). When each gets to final done point (200-205) they’ll be pulled off and snuggled in a blanket to rest. Once the last piece is done I’ll drop the Yoder to 150 and they can all rest in there till we’re ready to eat. Big gamble here as I’ve never tried it exactly like this before but we’ll see. Only two issues I foresee: 1 - something is fully done while I’m asleep and 2 - something takes forever and I keep people waiting. Will report back what happens! The beef will be wrapped in butcher paper, the pork will go into a foil tray with a bit of liquid. Christmas Eve has nothing on this! 😂

The “raw” meat pics were last night, everything got a dry rub and overnight uncovered in the fridge. scale is a little difficult on pictures but this is a LOT of meat! Let’s see how it goes 😊

Here we go then! just loaded up the Yoder, weather forecast is getting worse - this is going to be fun!

So… big weekend coming up. We’ve got about 35 people coming for our annual “summer” bbq. Quotation marks as the weather forecast is pretty abysmal - rain, maybe some lightning, plenty of wind… never mind, we’ll have fun. The house might suffer a bit more than normal but it’s all cleanable! On the menu we have, two whole pork butts (11lb each), a plate of beef ribs (about 7lb) and a whole grain-fed brisket (11-12lb). The Yoder is going to earn its keep here! They’re all going on overnight and will get wrapped as each hits the right point then pulled to rest once they get done. When they’re all done the Yoder will go down to 150 and they’ll rest until we’re ready to eat - hopefully just before I’ve had one too many cocktails. Wish me luck!

This looks gorgeous!