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Seriously, take @scott123’s advice - just get a 12 or 16” gas fired ooni. Second hand if need be. If the desire for DIY brickwork is still there build a nice counter to seat it on. I’ve cooked with wood fired ovens a few times on holiday in Italy - unless you’re feeding a couple of dozen people regularly they just aren’t usable.

Very good points, @weinoo. I’d have no qualms about buying second hand versions - a quick look over and you know that they are fine. On le crueset you can buy new metal handles to replace the (??) Bakelite ones if they’ve become cracked, damaged or have gone missing; otherwise so long as the cooking surface inside looks solid you should be fine forever.

Exactly this. We’ve got three enamelled cast iron pans - two le crueset and one cheap knock off. The le crueset one’s I’ve had for twenty plus years and they are perfect, the cheap one chipped within a couple of years so now sits in a cupboard. Just take the hit on a decent brand and never buy again.

I love the commitment - having a fridge solely and specifically for drying things out… I dream of this.

Looks great, rotuts. I’ve got a set of grill grates for my indoor gas grill - love them Whats next on the menu?

In the end I ran out of time this week so had to cheat a little and use liquid smoke. I cooked it at 110°C in the oven after coating with the smoke. It actually turned out pretty well - the sous vide method has left really juicy tender meat, much better than previous salt beef attempts I’ve done using traditional methods. flavour was ok, a bit of the sweet side so I’d reduce the sugar content substantially next time. Not the most artful of pictures but you can see the colour was a nice deep red.

I guess it was always going to be the hardest part to do right - none of the predictive ones I’ve seen so far come close on this aspect. makes me wonder why though - when I look at the curves for meat I’m cooking they seem really smooth and predictable. What are the factors that stop a device from extrapolating well?

How are they doing @mgaretz? Any chance to cook with them yet?

My family are from south wales so this brings back great memories I loved my Nan’s cawl - toast spread thick with the saltiest Welsh butter and loads of brown sauce… yum. I might have to have a go at making this soon, the weather’s certainly bleak enough.

Thanks @Steve Irby, I noticed this the other day while on my laptop but now I’m back on my phone I can’t see it… does anyone know how to access it through the mobile version of the site? Can’t find it via Google either

Great, will look into this. How much regular salt do you add per kilo of meat?

Thanks @Duvel - I’m a bit of a fumbling amateur when it comes to nitrite curing so good to sense check it. I might well try a dry brine next time - do you have some proportions that you use for this technique?

here’s the recipe from chefsteps: so, ignoring all the flavourings, I make that brine to be: sugar 7.3% NaCl 4.2% (from the plain salt) + 0.625% (from the Prague powder) = 4.825% Sodium Nitrite 0.04% does that sound right?

Interesting and good to know… the stuff I’ve used is labelled as Prague powder 1, which I thought was interchangeable with insta cure 1. I was using the brine from chefsteps pastrami recipe which calls for 60g of insta cure 1 in 9000g of water. Are we saying we’d need like 10 or 15 times as much?

indeed - 0.6%. It’s kept the meat pink inside, though a blushing pink rather than a deep red. Ideally I’d like it a bit darker - not sure if that is controllable with the amount of pink salt?

Sous vide stage has come to an end, I chilled the Picanha off in an ice bath then opened it up to have a look. Smoking will have to happen another day as it’s dark and cold and this World Cup won’t watch itself. I snuck a little slice or two off the edge just to give it a try - nice flavour, not too salty (which I was worried about when I went back and worked out the %s on the brine recipe I used). Texture is quite firm and sliceable but it’s stone cold too… be interesting how it comes out of the smoker.

I certainly will - comes out around 6pm tomorrow so will show you it bagged up then another once it’s cold and out of it’s wrapping. Basically it’s a nice even triangular cut, single muscle with a perfect fat cap over the top.

We don’t often have sweet potatoes but I needed some for a curry base recently so had half a bag left over. Me and youngest kitchen porter decided to make some gnocchi with them which were delicious. Fried in some brown butter with a bit of sage and served with a tomato sauce to cut though the richness a bit. They had a great light texture, much nicer than “normal” potato ones I’ve made. They were nice and rustic thanks to KP’s cutting!

Looking good @rotuts are those chillies on the second pizza? Looks a nice healthy dose if they are!

I’ve got a couple - tiny baby one which cost me less than £50 and a giant Big Joe version which was substantially more. Last year I got a ThermoWorks signals/billows unit which is great for long slow cooks, it just keeps things ticking over beautifully. The weather has been grim here lately but I’ll be firing one of them up soon to smoke some sous vide pastrami (I’ve started a separate thread on that just now).

Pre-Christmas experiment here - I’m trying out using a Picanha to make pastrami. Not the classic choice but our butcher has started selling this cut recently and I was really impressed by its beefy flavour. Its shape is like a mini brisket with a nice fat cap so hopefully it will turn out well. The process is: 1. cure for a week in the brine 2. sous vide at 63°C for 30h then chill thoroughly 3. smoke at 225°F (forgive my mixing my units - I’m Celsius for everything but bbq!) for an hour or so I’m just at the sous vide stage at the moment so will report back when it’s in the smoker.

Excellent. I loved the Franklin masterclass, have tried a few things from there. Interestingly I’ve found the temps need dialing down a bit on my kamado - guess it’s a different kettle of fish to a pellet grill. Duck sounds an interesting prospect too - I bet the fat just drinks in the smoke. Yum. Keep the updates coming

Any pics rotuts?

Looking forward to this one… I’d love to convince the family to try a smoked turkey at Christmas. More chance of me getting a Lamborghini under the tree

Last night we had a lovely pumpkin dish from Yottam Ottolenghi - glazed a roast with a tahini sauce, “gremolata” and burrata. The pumpkin was roast in wedges for about 45 minutes with some red onions and spices. Glaze was made with a reduction of balsamic and pomegranate molasses.