Journal 17

Hello! Today was Labor Day so I grilled.

I read the manual this time for the Delux model SnS brand grill basket. There were two loads of chicken thighs to grill, so I tried to understand the intructions very well for a roast cook. However, the instructions were not good-- I had an encounter with what I call “male-ology.” (That’s the censored version, there is an original crude version.) My partner’s mother had a good one: one way to understand male-ology is to dumb your brain down, then you will be able to comprehend what they are trying to say.

So after heating the coals in the chimney starter, pouring them over unlit coals in the basket, then letting those get a white frosting too, I cooked the first batch. There was still my usual problem though: the grill gets too hot at the beginning, then cools down dramatically, and adjusting the vents doesn’t have a strong regulatory effect. It definitely helps, especially in the middle of the cook, but I would like to control it better.

Here is a picture of the finished platter!!! Unfortunately, I didn’t get quite enough heat in the end.

In addition, there was a funny moment when the thermometer was set to Celsius, and I didn’t know how to change it back. I couldn’t remember what 165 F was in Celsius. In the end, the chicken was undercooked by a few degrees. That’s okay. I always remember chef Ina Garten cooking a whole chicken to 155 F in one of her cooking episodes, so I lean on that in these situations haha.

Thank you for reading about my day and I hope you have a good week ahead!

Asya