Weber Summit Kamado with SnS and Vortex.. Broil King Baron, Primo Oval Junior. Primo XL. Love grilling steaks, ribs, and chicken. Need to master smoked salmon. Absolutely love anything to do with baking bread. Favorite cool weather beer: Sam Adams Octoberfest Favorite warm weather beer: Yuengling Traditional Lager. All-time favorite drink: Single Malt Scotch
I have been watching a lot of ChefSteps videos lately, and they have some great ideas. But some things are way beyond the average kitchen. I mean who has all that space, and all those gadgets? Do YOU have a fridge that you can hang a chicken in to brine for three days? I sure as hell don't! I also don't have an oven that goes to 560 degrees that I can hang a chicken in. And I am sick of hearing about Joule. I don't get having a device that you can ONLY set using wifi.
Okay, rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled BBQ. 😜
While I am considering a SV and Joule is one of my options... I completely understand and agree with what you are saying. I would venture to say that the vast majority of everyday folks who like to cook at home don't have access to a number of toys, ingredients, and equipment that these folks do. Heck I would love to try and even attempt to make some of the Modernist Cuisine stuff but the folks that do that have kitchens that look more like science labs.
@jgjeske , agreed!!
I do, however, have considerable more fridge space in th' winter, where t'morrow's smoker meat is presently waitin', or thawin', variously...
@ShaneRakow Thanks neighbor! I use mostly Guinness t' regulate th' amount of blood in my Alcohol System, although bourbon is oft' applied when my BAC plummets dangerously!!! ;-)
Shane Rakow
We'll all be fine. Ain't nuthin' new under th' Sun. Winter is not a recent invention!!! Modern times winters is at least 5X milder than in my youth.
I figger I got:
Lotsa great food.
A way t' cook it all with no electricity.
Plenty of water, coffee, fruit juices, milk, teas, etc.
Beer, Bourbon.
Plenty of blankets an' comforters.
Plenty of warm clothing.
An incredibly reliable 34+ yr old truck that can go through most anything.
Determination, and experience.
Nuthin' in th' fridge gonna spoil, it'll jus' end up in th' garage...
Yeah, I have a huge problem with this as well. It's not the fact that they use these sophisticated techniques and specialized tools. It's that they apparently don't realize that they're using them. It's one thing to be a professional chef and do a cooking show. But when you specifically say your audience is people cooking in their homes, that's when I get angry.
ChefSteps is for people who love to cook. Get recipes, tips, and videos that show the whys behind the hows for sous vide, grilling, baking, and more.
At ChefSteps, we don't tell you how to cook, we show you—with recipes designed to inspire and educate, tested techniques for successful results at home.
One of the reasons I love Meathead's site so much is that he does precisely this: doesn't assume you're working in a fully stocked professional kitchen. I remember not long ago going to the Kenji site for a recipe and bam, the first step is to pull out some specialized tool that nobody has, called a mandolin or something. He didn't even bother to wait to the middle of the recipe, it's the first thing he tells you. He then tells you to use a salad spinner. Sure, everyone has one of those lying around! Sheesh.
It's just the total lack of self-awareness that gets to me. I suppose a lot of their audience are well-off people with enormous kitchens who don't mind buying a tool just to use on a single recipe. It's worse for me, because I can't just run out to the chef supply store or amazon.com to order things, so I suppose I'm hyper-sensitive to it.
I just found out today when trying to cook some cornbread at 425 that my oven totally lies about how hot it gets. The numbers printed on the dial have no relation to the actual temperatures inside. With it cranked all the way up, 250°C, it maxes out at 419°F. More limitations, as if I needed any more.
Just use a sharp knife instead of the mandolin and dry your salad leaves using paper towel or a clean teatowel. Improvising - that's what cooking is all about my friend. If your oven doesn't reach the high temperature required just cook it longer - you will still get great results. That's what I do.
Aw man, I don't know. There are a hundred thousand websites that will tell you how to make a grilled cheese sandwich with Velveeta, but Chef Steps will tell you how to make Velveeta.
Its not for everyone, including me a lot of the time. But these people are fighting the good fight, and in the right way, with enthusiasm. I could make processed cheese at home, all I need is sodium hexametaphosphate and the energy to go find it somewhere.
I totally agree Mosca! I love their nerdy enthusiasm and find their videos hilarious. I don't worry about the recipes I can't make but I still enjoy watching them or reading about them.
Started Low-N-Slow BBQ in 2012. Obviously, it's taken hold (in chronological order:
1.) A pair of Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5's
2.) #LilTex, a 22" Expensive Offset Smoker (looks like a Yoder Witicha)
3.) #WhoDat1, a HUGE Gravity Fed Insulated Cabinet Smoker (cooking chamber 3'x2'x6')
4.) A Full Size Commercial Dryer/converted to Vertical Smoker.
5.) Jambo Backyard stickburner (my FAVORITE Pit so far)
6.) GrillMeister, a huge 24"x48" Adjustable, Charcoal Grill from Pitmaker.com
7.) 22" Weber Kettle with Slow-N-Sear
8.) Vault insulated reverse-flow cabinet smoker from Pitmaker
9.) BarbecueFiretruck...under development
10.) 26 foot BBQ Vending Trailer equipped with HUGE Myron Mixon 72xc smoker is HERE, Oct 2016!
11.) Opened www.PaulsRibShackBarbecue.com Food Trailer officially in March 2017
12.) Austin Smoke Works 500 Gallon Propane Tank Offset Smoker, named "Lucille" as travel pit for PaulsRibShack, Oct 2018.
12.) Opening Brick & Mortar location at 4800 Nelson Rd, Spring 2019. Had a pair of 1,000 Gallon Austin Smoke Works pits, both in RibShackRed for our new place!
Fabulous Backlit Thermapens, several Maverick Remote Thermometers (don't use any remotes anymore), Thermoworks Smoke, Other Thermoworks toys, Vacuum sealer, lots and lots of equipment...
I'm loving using BBQ to make friends and build connections.
I have #theRibList where I keep a list of new and old friends and whenever I'm cooking, I make 1 to 20 extra and share the joy.
I have watched only one Chefsteps video, so I don't have a frame of reference for your comment.
I will say that I LOVE the equipment section in Kenji's book, The Food Lab, much like we love the Awesome equipment reviews section here at AmazingRibs. He rates equipment, gives you advise on which gadets are really needed and which ones are less so.
I'm a better kitchen cook from The Food Lab and my kitchen equipment list is better, and I haven't spent that much.
Lastly, I'm still a holdout on the SV thing. I'm sure it's great, but call me still in love with Reverse Sear!
My toys:
Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center (WSCGC) aka Mr. Fancypants
Pit Barrel Cooker (which rocks), named Pretty Baby
Weber Summit S650 Gas Grill, named Hot 'n Fast (used mostly for searing and griddling)
Weber Kettle Premium 22" named Kettle Kid, eager to horn in with more cooks in the future
Camp Chef Somerset IV 4-burner outdoor gas range named AfterBurner due to its 30kBTU burners
Adrenaline BBQ Company Gear:
SnS Low Profile, DnG, and Large Charcoal Basket, for WSCGC
SnS Deluxe for 22" Kettle
Elevated SS Rack for WSCGC
SS Rack for DnG
Cast Iron Griddle
Grill Grate for SnS
Grill Grates: five 17.375 sections (retired to storage)
Grill Grates: six 19.25 panels for exact fit for Summit S650
gasser
Grill Grates for 22" Kettle
2 Grill Grate Griddles
Steelmade Griddle for Summit gas grill
Fireboard Gear:
Extreme BBQ Thermometer Package
Additional control unit
Additional probes: Competition Probes 1" (3) and 4" (1), 3 additional Ambient Probes. 1 additional Food Probe
2 Driver Cables
Pit Viper Fan (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Pit Viper Fan new design (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Thermoworks Gear:
Thermapen MK4 (pink)
Thermapen Classic (pink too)
Thermoworks MK4 orange
Temp Test 2 Smart Thermometer
Extra Big and Loud Timer
Timestick Trio
Maverick ET 73 a little workhorse with limited range
Maverick ET 733
Maverick (Ivation) ET 732
Grill Pinz
Vortex (two of them)
18" drip pan for WSCGC
Ceramic Spacers for WSCGC in Kamado Mode: 2 sets each 1/2", 1", 2". The 2" spacers work best with the 18" drip pan. The 1+1/2 inch spacers work best with the 14 inch cake pan.
Two Joule Sous Vide devices
3 Lipavi Sous Vide Tubs with Lids: 12, 18 and 26 quarts
Avid Armor Ultra Pro V32 Chamber Sealer
Instant Pot 6 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Instant Pot 10 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Charcoal Companion TurboQue
A-Maze-N tube 12 inch tube smoker accessory for use with pellets
BBQ Dragon and Dragon Chimney
Shun Classic Series:
8" Chef Knife
6" Chef's Knife
Gokujo Boning and Fillet Knife
3 1/2 inch Paring Knife
I think if all food websites were geared to the lowest common denominator with respect to kitchen (or BBQ) gadgetry, it would be more difficult for the average home cook to aim for the stars. Besides, what would I spend my money at Amazon on?
Lost in China , I can see where you're coming from, but I think that sites like ChefSteps and Kenji's Serious Eats provide such good information that it's worth using a little ingenuity to sleuth out that a mandolin is just a food slicer, as is a more precisely-wielded knife, or that salad spinners are great for getting the water out of salads or herbs so that the dressings can have a bigger voice. I may not have every tool that these guys use, but I do know how to translate then innovate. If a salad spinner is used, then I know that perhaps doing something else to make sure the surface water is minimized in the ingredient will work well too. For me, the translate/innovate aspect is part of the fun of cooking.
Now, Thunder77 's "rant" is a little more fundamental--who has a fridge big enough to hang a chicken? I do, if I take half the stuff out of one of mine. That's not happening. In that instance, I know that I'll still get nice crispy bird skin if I let it sit on a rack over a jelly roll pan, or cookie sheet with sides.
I still have a lot of fun watching old Alton Brown Good Eats episodes, where he jury-rigs stuff all the time. I love to see what he does, but 90% of the time I won't be going down that particular road to get to his good eats. I'll figure out another (more mundane) way and get there just the same.
Thunder77 , I totally get where you're coming from too. There's no way I could do many things as shown on Chef Steps. Perhaps they should suggest alternatives now and again for us mere mortals.
As I say in many of the comments/complaints on ChefSteps Facebook posts, ChefSteps is a site about largely modernist techniques and approaches. It you want something cooked traditionally, there are sites from Tasty to Martha Stewart to Joy of Cooking and beyond. If you like the sciencey approach, there's SeriousEats, AR and ChefSteps.
ChefSteps is largely intended as a structured course site. So you learn a technique, like Sous vide, with a dozen dishes that use it in different ways. Or Sous-BCue. Or Coffee making. Or Whipping Siphon use.
I'm never making a Peking Duck. For a lot of reasons. But I will revisit this recipe once a year, and it requires nothing more weird tools than a microplane and nothing harder to find than jarred red peppers.
ChefSteps is here to make cooking more fun. Get recipes, tips, and videos that show the whys behind the hows for sous vide, grilling, baking, and more.
(oh, and I replaced the pistachios with macadamias and it was insanely good. And the microplane is essential. Wife messed up a batch with the fine grater).
as long as you recognize what the site is about, you're fine.
Last, because they are very precise recipes, they can be fussy recipes. JKLA's recipes can be a bit more forgiving.
Real last: they and Kenji SV things at hotter and shorter temps than I recommend.
Retired high school teacher and principal
Dr ROK - Rider of Kawasaki &/or rock and roll fan
Yoder 640 on Husker themed comp cart
Cookshack Smokette smoker
Antique refrigerator smoker
Weber 22 1/2" kettle w/ GrillGrates AND Slow and Sear
Rec Tec Mini Portable Tailgater w/ GrillGrates
Plenty of GrillGrates
Uuni wood pellet oven, first generation
Roccbox Pizza Oven
Meater Block
"Go Big Red" Thermopen instant read thermometer
Ultrafast instant read thermometer
CDN quick read thermometer
Maverick ET-732 thermometer
Maverick ET-735 thermometer
Tru-Temp wireless thermometer
Infrared thermometer (Mainly use for pizza on the Uuni and Roccbox)
Beverages - Is there really anything other than Guinness? Oh yeah, I forgot about tequila!
The thing I like about both chef steps and serious eats is that they challenge me to take my skills to another level. They introduce new techniques, tools, and ideas. They are both like AR in the sense that they use science to allow you to replicate success. Being an old science teacher, I guess it just appeals to that side of me.
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
What I like bout Being a poor man cook is to look at the equipment that I can't afford and make something like it
for instance..the salad spinner
instead of that why not get some panty hose, tie some fishing string after loading it up ,tie it off,and spin it around in a circle.(but I would recommend doing it outside, then ya can water the grass at the same time)
cost of salad spinner? I dunno 10 bucks?
cost of panty hose? Dunno. Depends how well you can sweet talk a woman outta em?..priceless
cost of fishin string? Dunno...I just walk around some trees by the lake....ill find some hung in the branches.
Total price? A good conversation with a gal and a nice walk....another win win
The visual image of you slinging pantyhose filled your salad around over your head cracks me up, Nuke em . As for the rest of the story, you're obviously an incurable romantic. Good for you!
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