Speaking of 3athlete...

I have been very lazy with 3athlete lately. There are a few sites that need to be added, a few that need to be tammed, and others that are not properly updating. I have had no motivation to make any updates lately. Sorry.

I am not supposed to do this but.....

I get a lot of random email from people since I run 3athlete. Everyone and their brother thinks that sending me a link to a crappy website or some lame training article will get a mention on 3athlete. As a I clearly state on the contact page:

3athlete is not a news wire service, so please do not send press releases about your new product/service/thing. If you have not noticed yet, 3athlete is a digest of other triathlon websites. Sending press releases to 3athlete will not get them posted to the home page. In fact, we are probably more likely to add a filter to 3athlete so your product/service/thing will NEVER appear on the home page. (Yes, spite can be fun.) If you have a press release, we suggest you talk to the folks at trifuel, transition times, or runnersweb.

With that being said, if you are the owner of a content driven triathlon, cycling, swimming or running website, and you would like your content syndicated on 3athlete, by all means please contact us and we will consider your site for inclusion.

I used to have an example of someone in here who broke the rules, but he has recently apologized so I have removed him from the blog-o-shame.

Oops! Smoker Thermometer Hole

I thought I was being all slick drilling a hole in the lid for the thermometer. Well, as it turns out, I did not choose the smartest location for it. For even heat and smoke dissipation, the middle of the smoker is the best location for things. Well, it is hard to put "tall" meat in the middle when there is a thermometer sticking through the center. Oops! I should have put this closer to the rim.

I discovered this while smoking a beer-can chicken. (You stick a beer can up the chicken's ass and stand it up.)

Update:
The chicken was good. I brined it before cooking for about 5 hours and gave it a rub with pepper, cayenne, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. It cooked much faster than expected. My recipe stated it would take up to 3.5 hours to cook the bird at 250. I probably could have taken it out after 2-2.5 hours, but I cycled the heat down and kept it on for almost three hours to let the other food could catch up.

The breast was a tad bit dry, but everything else was smoky-sweet. As expected, the skin on the top was rubbery since high heat was not being used. Next time, I think I will lower the heat to 200, and finish the bird under the broiler or in the grill to crisp up the skin.

Two-level Smoker

Being weary of running out of "meat" room in my smoker, I was searching the web for various replacement grill rake sizes. I found a webber charcoal replacement rake that was 17 inches and just small enough to fit inside the base of my smoker. (My base pot is 17.5 inches around.) So, now I can have two levels of food smoking at the same time. There is not a lot of head room above the top rack, about 7-8 inches, but it should be plenty of room for a brisket, ribs and/or chicken pieces.

Political Test

Seems pretty acurate....

You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (56% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Smoking Pot -- A cheap terracotta flower pot smoker ala Alton Brown

Being a fan of Alton Brown, I have always wanted to make his Terracotta Flower Pot Smoker featured on the "Q" episode. The required items include:

• One large terracotta pot approx 17 inches in diameter at the top. This is the base of the smoker.
  
• One circular terracotta pot that fits on top of the base pot
  
• Grill grate that will fit into the large pot and hold the food
  
• Grill thermometer
  
• Feet for the large terracotta pot so it stands off the ground. (pair of 2x4's, bricks, decorative pot stands, etc)
  
• Hot plate for the heat source
  
• Heavy duty metal tin for wood chips/chunks
  

The end result, will look similar to this:


Note: My top is not a circular terracotta pot, but rather a terracotta plate. See issue #1:


Overall, it worked out pretty well. I am able to hold a temperature up to 250 degree F, or lower if I turn down the hot plate a bit. My "test case" was a rack of ribs with a traditional Bobby Flay spicy rub with a sweet sauce. I smoked them for about 3.5 hours, which was a little too long I think. They were a bit on the dry side, but they still tasted good and the novelty made it all worth while



Next up is a whole chicken or maybe a Boston Butt. The Boston Butt is a ~10 hour investment, so that will have to wait for a lazy football weekend which is at least two-weeks out.

While the smoker build-out was pretty smooth and successful, I did run into a few issues that I will have to workout eventually.

Issue #1
After a trip to home depot, I found everything but the round pot to serve as the top, and the hot plate. After a trip to OSH and a nursery, I found a hot plate, but no round pots; all the round pots were too small or had a glaze that would probably end up killing me. Others have reported using the same size pot for the pot and the base, but many hot plates cannot heat this large an area. As a workaround, I picked up a large terracotta plate that would fit on top of the pot.

The issue with the plate is that there is no hole for the thermometer. Yet another trip to home depot solved this. I picked up some masonry drill bits for ~$10 and drilled enough holes for the thermometer to fit in.

PS: Save yourself some time and only go to OSH. They should have everything you need.

Issue #2
The grill grate is difficult to pull out. This is a must when you need to replace the wood chips. I need to find one with handles, or invent some handles on my grate. Either way, I recommend taking off the food before taking out the grate. My ribs almost ended up on the ground.

Issue #3
I could use a little more space for the meat. Getting more than 2 racks of ribs might be difficult unless I stand them on their side. (The picture above is one rack cut in half.) If I find a grate with an extra inch or two in diameter, I might be able to have a dual grate smoker.

Issue #4
I turned down the extended warranty on the hot plate. I doubt it was designed to run 10 hours at a time, so it will be interesting to see how it fares during my future Boston Butt smoking experiment. Considering the hot plate was $10, the warranty probably would have been $1-$2!!!

Issue #5
The lid can get very hot to the touch. Since I was able to drill holes in the plate for the thermometer, I should be able to drill some holes for a handle.

Red States Really Like God!!!

I saw God this weekend. He lives about 15 minutes outside of Dayton, OH on I-75. See for yourself...

One Less Friar: RIP Kurt Yates

Kurt Yates passed away today. After 3 1/2 years of fighting cancer, his battle came to an end today.

It is frightening to think that I first met the guy over a decade ago. In 1995 I was a frightened little frosh from California entering Providence College on a swimming scholarship. He was a sophomore breastroker from Ohio. One of Kurt's famous quotes was "I hate people". He could be a rather tough guy to get to know, but once you befriended him, his character was that of loyalty and generosity. I think one of the reasons he liked me is that I was not from New England and I came from a "real swimming state". He hated the Mickey mouse swimming that was all too prevalent in New England.

Over the four years we spent together at college (he opted for the five year plan) and sporadic meetings post-graduation, we had many good times together. Thousands of memories are flying through my head right now: New Hampshire road trips, vitamin R, Columbus weekend on campus, riots on Eaton street (actaully, more like riot--there was only one. And no, Kurt did not start it), Big Red Cannondale, cycling, gravity, Wes' Rib House, Mexico, POS Celica.

You will be missed Yates.

PS: I hate people too!

PPS:
It appears a few people have stumbled upon this posting. If you would like to make a donation in Kurt's name, you can send it to:
Blood and Marrow Transplant Program
Jewish Hospital
4777 E. Galbraith Rd.
5th FLOOR, Cincinnati, OH 45236

Also, the obituary is here.