&roid
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Posts posted by &roid
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I’ve done this a couple of times (though not for ages, thanks for the nudge). The one I remember was a dhal makhani with black lentils - the smoke flavour was really good, I think it used ghee as the oil, just a small amount in a metal bowl with the red hot charcoal piece dropped in.
its a great technique and not nearly as messy as it sounds.
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On 6/25/2025 at 4:32 PM, Shel_B said:
Free Tomatoes ... fun!
Amazon sent me the wrong tomatoes, so I didn't have to pay for them. I ordered whole, peeled tomatoes. These tomatoes were packed and shipped from Modesto, CA, and were mislabled as whole, peeled tomatoes. They were sent to Houston, TX from Modesto, and then to an Amazon warehouse in Mississippi, and from there they made their way back to California, just a few miles from where they were grown and packed.
I'll use some of these in a soon-to-be-made chile.
This serious eats recipe is one of my fave curries. It calls for fire roasted tomatoes so definitely worth trying if you have a can spare.
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17 hours ago, rotuts said:
and heat up until cured. cool down , and repeap
this takes quite a bit longer , heat , cool . heat
Very good point - this would definitely work too. Doing it with the grill on is hot work and my eyes were not thanking me after!-
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6 hours ago, IndyRob said:
I want to know how one cleans it.
It’s really quick to clean up. Just squirt on a bit of water while it’s still warm. Use a metal spatula to scrape any bits left on to the back and into the grease trap. A bit more water and wipe down with paper towel until it’s clean. You can use a bit of washing up liquid if needed but generally plain water will do. A good seasoning coat helps massively with clean up - it makes it like wiping out a non stick pan.-
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8 hours ago, YvetteMT said:
@&roid are you willing to share your seasoning method?
I pulled the trigger and my Blackstone will be here Friday and I'm dying to get the same gorgeous finish!
No problem at all:It’s pretty straightforward, just takes a bit of time (about an hour in total)
1. Wash the griddle with warm soapy water, dry it thoroughly
2. Heat on high until any leftover packing grease has burnt off and the colour changes in the spots over the burners, they tend to go brownish
3. Keep the burners on high. Use an old tea towel to really lightly rub in about 2 tbsp of flax seed oil (needs to be food grade with no additives). You want the thinnest coat possible, almost like there’s nothing there. Work quickly so you don’t get any thicker parts, just spread it out across the whole surface and then lightly polish it so there are no streaks. It’ll start smoking right away.
4. Let that burn in, after a few minutes it’ll stop smoking and the colour of the top will start to darken slightly.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as many times as you like. Work the oil into the corners and on the inside and outside of the upward facing edges of the grill. Once it’s all black and smooth looking you can let it cool down and it’s done.The main thing is keeping the coats as thin as humanly possible, you really don’t want to see any streaks or pools of oil. I’ve seen a load of videos on YouTube where they put tons on and you can just tell it’s going to be a mess. Much better to do 8-10 really thin coats than 3-4 thick ones as thicker seasoning won’t bond well to the grill and will just chip and flake off.
Once it’s done regular cooking should keep on top of it but you can always top up with a few coats of flax seed if needed. I’d avoid doing anything acidic on it for quite a while until it’s really set in well (so no tomatoes, vinegar, wine, etc). If you need to, washing up liquid is fine to use to clean it but in reality just plain water and a good scrape should do the trick if you clean it while it’s still hot after cooking.
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Beef fried rice with mushrooms tonight.
this thing is amazing! So quick and easy doing a big meal like this, super tasty and clean up was a doddle.
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Don’t know anything about the oven I’m afraid but Tom Kerridge is great. I’ve got several of his books and everything I’ve ever done from them turns out well - Ottolenghi and Vivien Howard are the only other two that come to mind for almost guaranteed success for me.
We got my mum and dad a lunch at the hand and flowers for a present last year and t hey absolutely loved it. Can’t believe I’ve not managed to get there myself.
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1 minute ago, TdeV said:
That looks delicious!
Pardon me, but how is a smash burger different from a hamburger?
Just a slightly different way of cooking - grab a ball of ground beef, place it on the griddle and smash it really thin with the flat of a spatula. Try and get as thin as possible, even a few little lacy holes appearing in the patty. It gives a great crust and is probably my favourite type of burger. I much prefer a stack of a couple of those over a single thicker number.
In the picture above, the two on the left had just been turned so you can see the crust, the others are just about to flip.
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Always a double! I consider a double a single.
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Wow! This thing is great fun! So glad I picked one up.
smash burgers with onions and mushrooms for our first cook:
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1 minute ago, Dr. Teeth said:
That seasoning finish is gorgeous
I’m sure I’ll make a mess of it soon!
I think I got the technique off here years ago, it’s been brilliant on my darto pans so fingers crossed the blackstone likes it as much.
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Got the beast setup and seasoned. I did ten coats of flax seed oil as I have with my carbon steel pans. Took my time with it, tiny thin layer each time, barely visible but it’s built up to a lovely smooth surface. Smash burgers here we come!
Before:
during:
and after:
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Over this side of the pond they have gone up in price a lot. Last few years I haven’t seen the 36” version for less than £700, they’re usually around £740-750.
At the weekend I saw someone post on Reddit that Costco had them at a decent price in store. I was going any way so told my friend I’d pick him one up. Long story short, I came away with two 😁 At £360 I just couldn’t pass the deal up, less than half the price I could normally get one for.
Not been able to unpack it yet but looking forward to giving it a go. We had a similar sized plancha at a holiday rental in France last summer and loved it.
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14 minutes ago, Shel_B said:
I thought I'd lay a few out from each box, alongside one another, photograph them with my high-quality camera and lenses, and compare the images.
We need to see this!
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Over here in the UK I’ve been seeking out and buying diamond crystal for years. My regular supplier was out of it when I restocked six months ago so I had to find a new one. Bought a case of nine boxes with the new branding shown above and it’s exactly the same salt as the old boxes, just with an easier to pour “spout”.
really hope they don’t start sending me the new and “improved” version.
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On 2/15/2025 at 9:18 PM, MaryIsobel said:
Using the self-clean feature blew up the "motherboard" in my oven. Independent tech who came to repair claims that self-clean should be outlawed. Apparently it is the main cause of most of his service calls.
Interesting point - the ovens get very hot inside when they run this cycle so unless they have really good heat shielding I can see it being an issue. As a maybe useful data point, we had a Miele oven in our last place with pyrolytic clean - used it 2-3 time a year for fifteen years without issue. I wouldn't get one without it now as I'm so messy it's a lifesaver - I'd be very annoyed if I bought an oven that it started breaking.
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I’ve had a combustion inc setup for a good while now and would definitely recommend them.
My views on ownership to date, bad news first as it is far outweighed by the good:
cons
I’ve had a probe die on me, two in fact. One was an issue with updating, the other caused by a baked potato forcing the prob out and exposing the more delicate internals at the tip to a 400F oven.
the app is still missing a couple of features I’d like - there’s no easy way to start a new cook in it, you have to put the probe back in a charger, wait a bit for it to shut down then force close the app. Also there’s no logbook feature for cooks, I’ve resorted to screenshotting the graphs and saving them in apple notes when I want to do this.
Pros
Way more good than bad.
the product itself is very, very good. Predictions work well
in most situations and the safe cook addition is hugely helpful. I can’t overstate how useful having a totally wireless solution is, it means I use the kit at least twice as often as I would do if I had to deal with a spaghetti of cabling every time.
the app might not yet be 100% perfect but it has improved rapidly and is constantly getting new features. It’s fast, responsive and looks better than competitors. It can easily switch between a simple basic interface and a super detailed geeky view.Customer support is about the best I’ve experienced. Any issues get dealt with very quickly and they’ve been superb sorting me out when my probe died. I’ve had direct answers from Chris Young here and on their really good Reddit channel.
they’ve just released gen 2 kit which adds WiFi connectivity and some other goodies.
@Shel_B, if the price is within reach I would definitely buy a CPT - true wireless, great features and backed up by great service. It does what you need and does it way better than things like meater.
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Utterly intrigued by the "dirty Santa" name...
We call it secret Santa over here, yours sounds much more interesting 😂
In case you're still looking for ideas, how about some really good Jamon iberico and a dry sherry?
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5 hours ago, AlaMoi said:
good to hear the real experience - I've been pondering on it for a while!
thanks for the input
Just get one - you’ll love it!-
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On 10/7/2024 at 9:37 PM, AlaMoi said:
I have long been attracted to the "egg" type ceramic grills/cookers/thingies . . .
my concern has always been the time it takes to 'heat saturate' the thermal mass of such devices.
I use 'real charcoal' i.e. not 'briquettes' - and I plan on starting the grilling doohickie at least one hour before the 'plunk to cook' time.
I'd like to head from real life users - using real charcoal.... how long is needed to get the Big Green Egg and similar up to saturation temperature?
back story . . . . attended a big ole' bash once upon a time - guy had multiple Green Eggs going for 'mass feeding' - and virtually nothing was done at the appointed time . . . apparently the Eggs were much slower to heat up than planned on . . .
An hour is plenty of time to get them up to heat. I’ve got a Big Joe which is the giant kamado Joe unit, depending on what temp I’m aiming for it’ll take between 30-45 mins to get the dome nice and hot on the outside.
Funnily enough, it’ll often take a bit longer to get heat soaked if I’m aiming for a low and slow cook than grilling temps. The reason for this is that you have to be careful about not overshooting your target too much - once it’s hot it takes an age to come back down. So if I’m aiming for 200-275F I’ll light a single really small fire and take my time. If I’m going for 375+ I can happily light two or three places and crack on.
but either way, an hour will be no problem.
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I did exactly this on my big Joe rotisserie a few weeks ago. It was great, probably the best chicken I’ve done on my kamado.
made the mistake of cutting my potatoes into chunks - lost a few of them through the gaps in the basket!
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7 hours ago, Kim Shook said:
I'm in the US and tried to look. I forgot the one thing I really dislike about Costco - their website only gives prices on delivery items. So the only apple cider prices available were supplement gummies. 🙄 I have a Sam's card/membership through my church because I shop for them and the Sam's website gives you the in store pricing and delivery pricing. For me, it's the only advantage Sam's has over Costco.
They definitely don’t seem to like making price comparisons easy - I’m sure they even block my cellular data in store so I can’t check if things are good value!-
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On 6/28/2024 at 11:53 PM, Shel_B said:
Host's note: this was originally a post titled "Have You Tried These Costco Products?"
If you have, what's your opinion on their quality, value, taste and flavor?
I haven’t tried the EVOO but the cider vinegar is available this side of the pond too. Over here it’s VERY good value - like £1-2 a bottle from memory. It’s decent stuff, especially at that price. We use a lot of it.
Out of interest, how much is it where you are?
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I'm sure you won't be disappointed! They're a great bit of kit and do the things you're after really well.
If you're on reddit, the team (including Chris Young) are really responsive and helpful on the dedicated sub: r/combustion_inc
Blackstone Griddle Thread
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
As with any new toy I’m completely obsessed with this thing!
Last night we used up some slow cooked lamb shoulder from our Sunday roast. Made a Korean-ish sauce with gochijang, sesame oil and vinegar, then did some stir fried veggies and pak choi served with soft tortillas.
I just love how easy it is to bring together food for the four of us really quickly. I’ve been preheating the whole cooktop then when I start cooking I turn one or both of the outer burners off to give me a space to keep things warm. Do the high heat cooking over the still lit burners and slide things off to the side as they get done.