How the Kamado saved Christmas.
The Grand Dame at Christmas |
The Grand Dame's lonely single oven. |
Our approach was complicated this year by our desire to manage the needs of a non-beef-eater in the family. After considerable consideration and consternation, a brainstorm came upon me. Father's Day 2017 had dawned with a new Kamado style charcoal-fired grill/oven in the back yard.
The Akorn Kamado - repaired in the local style |
My plan to use the Kamado was encouraged by summertime successes in maintaining a steady temperature while smoking a brisket and roasting an upright beer canless chicken, but hadn't tried it in the cold yet. The high temperature forecast for Christmas Day was about 35°, so I thought I might need a bigger charcoal load to hold the oven temperature around 200°. I therefore used a full grill chimney of lump charcoal and got the party started. Once the charcoal was flaming away, dark orange and smokeless, I dumped it from the chimney and placed the ceramic diffuser disk and cast iron grates into the Kamado.
The butcher had prepared the roast, 5 bones long and just shy of 11 pounds, by cutting the meat from the bones and tying it back together for cooking. After a rub with canola oil and a heavy dusting of Chicago Style steak rub, the meat went over the fire, on a rack in a Pyrex roaster, with a disposable aluminum pizza pan serving as an additional diffuser to reduce the risk of hot spots on the grate that might crack the Pyrex.
Well, this Kamado is very well insulated, and after using the chimney-full of charcoal I had a hard time keeping the temperature inside the oven under 300° for the first few hours. I used a remote read thermometer to keep track of the internal temperature of the meat and actually had to pull the roast out a few times to vent some heat and slow down the cooking.
After about 4 hours, the thermometer alarmed at the pre-set temperature of 118° at the core of the roast. I pulled the meat from the heat to rest and and allow the residual heat tp carry through. As other preparations continued (see below), I opened up all the vents on the kamado. With no additional fuel added, the oven temperature rapidly rose to almost 600°.
I cut the butcher's string and removed the meat from the bones, which went into a nascent au jus. The rest of the meat went on that rocket-hot grill for about 10 minutes, forming a beautiful dark and crispy crust with just a hint of smokiness. The finished product looked great, after carving tasted even better. It's the best any of my roasts have ever turned out, and I think this won't be the last time we use the Kamado at Christmas.
The contraption, configured for Christmas roasting |
Well, this Kamado is very well insulated, and after using the chimney-full of charcoal I had a hard time keeping the temperature inside the oven under 300° for the first few hours. I used a remote read thermometer to keep track of the internal temperature of the meat and actually had to pull the roast out a few times to vent some heat and slow down the cooking.
A Goldilocks roast Dark, crispy and delicious crust and pink all the way through. "This one is just right!" |
I cut the butcher's string and removed the meat from the bones, which went into a nascent au jus. The rest of the meat went on that rocket-hot grill for about 10 minutes, forming a beautiful dark and crispy crust with just a hint of smokiness. The finished product looked great, after carving tasted even better. It's the best any of my roasts have ever turned out, and I think this won't be the last time we use the Kamado at Christmas.
Persian Pomegranate/Orange Chicken |
What about that non-beef eater? Her heritage is Persian and she likes chicken, especially dark meat. We brainstormed a bit, reviewed a lot of recipes and decided to create Persian-style pomegranate/orange roasted chicken thighs. After a sear to crisp the skin, the meat was glazed with a concoction built from pomegranate molasses, pomegranate juice, and orange juice. Topped with dried apricots and cherries, it roasted, open-topped but partially immersed in glazing liquid and aromatics in a 350° oven. Once cooked through, we dressed it with sliced orange rind, pomegranate arils, mint leaves, and pistachios. A fully seat-of-the-pants recipe by Mrs. Datguy, this came out as a beautiful and delicious dish. It couldn't have been done without that big red outdoor auxiliary oven.
And that, dearly beloved, is how the Kamado saved Christmas.
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*This pun, on both modeling and food, was completely unintended. It was the daughter-person who saw it as such and notified the author. Seeing puns that I didn't? I learned her good!
I feel like a few too many words were used to describe the daughter-grill-dropping-incident and not enough words were used to describe the delicious side dishes....
ReplyDeleteJesse Pryles (hardcore carnivore) is an advocate of the reverse sear. Sounds like a great meal. We need to hear more about how your daughter ruined your Akorn. :) Normally we do turkey for Christmas or a stuffed ham, but this year the modelwife did two five pound beef briskets. THey were good and we had leftovers for sliders.
ReplyDeleteSeveral of my work colleagues have been acquiring the big green eggs and clones. So far no one has been underwhelmed, and as they feel the need to share samples I quite agree. I suspect one is in my near future. I will note that you never see any for sale used, other than those trading to a larger model.
ReplyDeleteI do disagree with your local repair, anyone familiar with Appalachian Engineering knows duct tape rules supreme; twine is for Auburn graduates.
My parents have a cleared out spot in the forest where we cleared a spot, placed an old steel single door refrigerator on it for a smoker. Wood goes in the freezer portion, vittles in the remainder. An AE engineered rack inside, and ventilation carefully metered (whacked holes with ax) results in a similar end product, albeit needing more supervision. And feeds 2-25.
Good call on the duct tape, but feared that the heat would make the adhesive bond forever to the handle, thus rendering duct tape the only possible medium for all future repairs. That is how duct tape will take over the universe. Hence I had to opt for the college-boy solution. Re the old fridge: it sounds very promising I fear the good folks that monitor the contents of back yards in Homewood might not be so happy with it.
DeleteI agree Duct Tape wouldn't be ideal near a heat source, but AE studies are a bit impulsive and limited in considering more than 15 minutes into the future. :-)
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