Where the Kids Come to Mouth Off

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by baltassoc
Forget the chipper. We're talking pecan here. A wood that people pay good money to burn. That goes right in the smoker/barbeque. Cut it, stack it, and throw it on the grill.

Barbeque Q.
If you are going to add hardwood to a grill don't you add chips? I'm not arguing I really want to know, because it sounds like a good thing.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Keith . . . seems utterly down to earth and happy in interviews.

I've seen a few of those interviews recently. Didn't he used to speak english?

[SlaveNoMore]

sebastian_dangerfield
They brought out a load of great old gems. But they need to lose the horns and extra musicians. Rock music like the Stones' rarely needs horn sections, extra precussionists, backup singers, etc... it really detracts from the raw sound that made the original cuts so good.

Yet, aren't "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile" your favorite Stones albums?

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Barbeque Q.
If you are going to add hardwood to a grill don't you add chips? I'm not arguing I really want to know, because it sounds like a good thing.

Yeah. Chips. Soaked in water, then spread over the hot coals. Great flavor addition to meat that benefits from a flavor addition. (ie., not to good steaks.)

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Barbeque Q.
If you are going to add hardwood to a grill don't you add chips? I'm not arguing I really want to know, because it sounds like a good thing.

You add chips if you are using primarily charcoal. It's a good idea to soak the chips if you use this method. If you have a smoker or a pit, then you can use whole wood. This is more of an indirect slow-cooking method. I've seen people put whole wood in their Weber kettle, but the results are iffy unless you really know what you're doing.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by taxwonk
You add chips if you are using primarily charcoal. It's a good idea to soak the chips if you use this method. If you have a smoker or a pit, then you can use whole wood. This is more of an indirect slow-cooking method. I've seen people put whole wood in their Weber kettle, but the results are iffy unless you really know what you're doing.

Some people prefer chunks to chips, as long as the wood is not used at the heat source, because if properly soaked they take longer to dry out and ignite when placed on the heat source. You can place soaked chunks directly over the lava rocks (or, in the case of Weber gas grills, the "Flavorizer Bars" (TM)). The other advantage of chunks over chips is that you can pre-soak them and freeze them, taking them out like individual ice cubes to place on the grill, rather than waiting for them to soak thoroughly and then making a foil pouch for the chips.

I would use chunks, but they're harder to find in supermarkets, and I'm not about to cut down the Meyer lemon in the backyard for firewood.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
lava rocks (or, in the case of Weber gas grills, the "Flavorizer Bars" (TM)).

The idea of adding chips to gas grilling is kind of like going to Commanders and telling them not to put spice on the food, then sprinkling a bit of pepper on and telling people you had some real spicy Nawleans cuisine. If you're going to barbeque, barbeque.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by taxwonk
You add chips if you are using primarily charcoal. It's a good idea to soak the chips if you use this method. If you have a smoker or a pit, then you can use whole wood. This is more of an indirect slow-cooking method. I've seen people put whole wood in their Weber kettle, but the results are iffy unless you really know what you're doing.

Here's the man I'd trust with my food. I note that gas is not even mentioned. (PS, while you're throwing the chips on, using a bit of bourbon instead of lighter fluid is also a good call).

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Mister_Ruysbroeck
They have no liability unless they had prior notice of some defect or disease relating to the tree. If the tree was hanging over your property line in the past, you should've asked them to trim it (it's a nuisance) or trimmed it back yourself, but you can't get them for any resulting damage due to the tree falling over.

My adivce? Go buy a cheap, small wood chipper and a hand saw. Free mulch and a good workout.

Holy shit, you've taken the TX bar and practiced here? You are fucking amazing. I bow down to you.

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Barbeque Q.
If you are going to add hardwood to a grill don't you add chips? I'm not arguing I really want to know, because it sounds like a good thing.

If you have a grill/smoker with a seperate firebox so you can slowcook with indirect heat, you can use hardwood directly. Otherwise, I agree the chunks are the way to go for slow cooking (they don't really matter for direct heat cooking - in fact they're probably downright bad in that they tend to flame more). Chips are just too small, and so burn up too quickly, so you have to keep putting more on, which means opening up the grill, which is bad.

There is a grill recipe for leg of lamb on the foodtv.com site that is great. It's an Alton Brown recipe.

If you, like me, don't have a large pecan tree branch in your front yard, you can find chunks at barbeque specialty stores (which may be rare for all I know, but there happens to be one about three blocks from my house), and sometimes at hardware stores.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
On Monday morning, I called a friend of mine and to invite her and her SO to come over for drinks on Wednesday night (i.e. last night). They'd fed me gin martinis a few weeks ago, and I wanted to return the favor. She wasn't there, so I left a message and left my work number. I called again later that evening and left my cell number.

As of yesterday morning, I hadn't heard back from her, so I assumed that she hadn't gotten the message, which was probably for the best, since the house was not put back together yet.

Over the weekend I took on an ambitious task to repaint a room in my house, which of course turned the playfully messy house that I usually live in into a full blown disaster area. The plan was to be finished by Tuesday, but some, er, other events prevented me from giving my full concentration on the paint job on Monday and Tuesday nights, and I really wasn't able to finish everything until early, early this morning. The room does look nice, though, thanks for asking.

Anyhow, because I was painting, the telephone with the caller-ID and message light was unplugged and sitting under a tarp for the last five or so days. When I got home last night, I picked up the other phone and heard the message from my friend (sent at 5:30 the previous evening) accepting my invitation and asking for details. When I finally got the message last night, there was no way in hell I would let another human being into the disaster that was my house. Hell, even the puppy was covered in paint. I started to clean up a bit, got caught up in the cleaning frenzy (as well as the final touches of the painting), and I never did call her back.

She's a pretty easy going person, but I feel bad that I invited someone over and they accepted and I flaked. Do I just explain the unplugged phone and beg for apologies? Do I up the ante to full blown dinner?

ETA: If that's too boring, does anyone have experience negotiating with neighbors when part of their tree falls on your yard? Aside from a crape myrlte and possibly a few roses, there are suprisingly few casualties, and the fence looks ok. There is no way that I can drag that thing away though. On the bright side, I won't have as many pecans falling into my yard this fall.

"Gin martinis" is redundant.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
F
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Not literally. She's room temperature at best.

I will miss her [sniff].

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by baltassoc
Forget the chipper. We're talking pecan here. A wood that people pay good money to burn. That goes right in the smoker/barbeque. Cut it, stack it, and throw it on the grill.

I was wondering what to do with all the pecan branches in the yard at the place in Austin, since I haven't made it through all the trash collection regs, which come in a pamphlet the size of the Houston phone book. Then I realized I could use them on the grill, which has a separate firebox, of course. While I prefer hickory, it's hard to beat the price of the pecan.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
I recommended Positively 5th Street. The WSOP/death of Ted Binion book. So should I read Positively 4th Street too? What's it about?

[I hate you, Scott Tenneman.]

So I decided to move on and picked up 5th Street at lunch. You could have warned me about the opening chapter. It did not go well with the lunchtime burrito.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
The idea of adding chips to gas grilling is kind of like going to Commanders and telling them not to put spice on the food, then sprinkling a bit of pepper on and telling people you had some real spicy Nawleans cuisine. If you're going to barbeque, barbeque.

I sympathize. When I got my first gas grill, my father refused to speak to me for a week. FWIW, I have both a gas grill and a Weber kettle. I can get the gas grill to 600 degrees in about six minutes, which is a good thing when you arrive home from work at 7:30 or 8:00. And briquettes don't flavor food, anyway --- grease and wood do, and those are equally available to both.