Do You Yakatori?

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2.5 Qt is about 2.5 LITER, that is a lot of Tare for at home use IMHO
The container looks great for the purpose indeed!
 
Yeah the problem is you need a certain height to dip, and things have a certain width so as not to tip, and volume grows rather quickly.
 
I used an 0.5 L mason jar , which is not deep enough I found out. Now plan on glueing something suitable on a plate to keep it from tipping over
 
Cocktail shakers are a good choice. Or a stirring glass. I made the mistake of ordering a tare pot from Korin without checking the capacity and was met with a large ceramic pot that holds 120oz or 3.5L. Oops.
 
btbyrd said:
Cocktail shakers are a good choice. Or a stirring glass. I made the mistake of ordering a tare pot from Korin without checking the capacity and was met with a large ceramic pot that holds 120oz or 3.5L. Oops.
Click to expand...
having ordered that makes it a sort of mandatory to do loads of yakitoi ;-)

I could barely resist doing some last night, I think it's becoming a new addiction....

I heard back from the Saputo biscotto brick factory and they claim it should be good up to 1200 'C even though they say it's not tested. I'm inclined to tinker something together with Biscotto....east meets west and so on
 
After my futile attempts to adapt the BGE for yakitori, I have bowed to the inevitable. One Bincho Grill on the way, with stainless steel mesh grate and stainless steel bars, and some binchotan. I kept my pride, though, and didn't order the hand fan.

In the spirit of rebellion, I plan to make non-yakitori skewers on it first. Specifically, Thai skewers with curried peanut sauce.
 
You need the hand fan. It's an essential part of fire control when working with small grills and binchotan. And they're very useful when camping and or tending a fire pit. If you're in the US, Strata Portland seems to have the best selection. I have a classic one I got from Korin:

FC0CFCD7-1FC0-454C-90B8-060CFF3AA18B.JPG


And a fancy "dress" one from Strata.

DSC01784.JPG


But to really crank the charcoal up to forge temps, sometimes I turn to power tools.

 
from my tiny bit of experience a fan is indeed needed, I tested my Lung capacity, it worked but I can sure see a dual role for the fan of my coffee roaster doubling as forge bellows.
 
btbyrd said:
You need the hand fan. It's an essential part of fire control when working with small grills and binchotan. And they're very useful when camping and or tending a fire pit. If you're in the US, Strata Portland seems to have the best selection. I have a classic one I got from Korin:

View attachment 277588

And a fancy "dress" one from Strata.

View attachment 277589

But to really crank the charcoal up to forge temps, sometimes I turn to power tools.

Click to expand...

OK. I concede. I ordered a fan.

Forge temps? Do you mean that the poster who referred to achieving 900C was not making a typo, as I had assumed?
 
I was mostly just joking, but if you pump enough oxygen into a charcoal fire, it'll get much much hotter than you can achieve with a hand fan or by blowing or whatever. Forges have a bellows or electric fan system that serve the same basic function as a leaf blower. I wouldn't be surprised if it could hit 900C with strong enough wind. My fire wasn't that hot in the leaf blower video because the charcoal hadn't fully ignited yet and I was just trying to help speed things up.
 
It all turns to ash eventually. But because it is more dense, it accumulates ash more slowly. The extruded “binchotan” is ashier than the hardwood stuff. And the really high end hardwood is less ashy than the cheaper stuff.
 
I was very surprised by how little ash this generates even when blowing on it, and this was not the real deal but Thai 'bonchotan style' compressed charcoal
 
Bincho grill arrived. Looks promising! I especially like how the insert means you don't need much binchotan to get close to the skewers.

1698369484300.png


Tomorrow the fan and the charcoal chimney arrive, and then we'll see. I hope not to have to break out the little Milwaukee vacuum as a forge-heater. I don't have a leaf blower; deserts don't have very many leaves.
 
btbyrd said:
You need the hand fan. It's an essential part of fire control when working with small grills and binchotan. And they're very useful when camping and or tending a fire pit. If you're in the US, Strata Portland seems to have the best selection. I have a classic one I got from Korin:

View attachment 277588

And a fancy "dress" one from Strata.

View attachment 277589

But to really crank the charcoal up to forge temps, sometimes I turn to power tools.

Click to expand...

Love this technique. I use the leaf blower to get charcoal briquettes lit in the chimney in like 5 minutes if I'm in a rush, or to get the weber ripping before I throw a steak on. Makes a huge difference
 
Loaded up with proper equipment, I was ready for try #2 at making yakitori. Really, I was planning to make Thai skewers, and I did, but while the curried peanut satay sauce came out great, the rest was mostly an exercise in realizing that chicken breast and lean pork loin cannot stand the heat that a full load of binchotan puts out.

First I ignited my binchotan.
1699316134725.png

Note my improvised spark arrestor. I expected lots of popping, but got almost none. I also expected that this would take a long time, like 90 minutes. It took 20. Thought I'd do my prep during the long wait, but instead it was a race against time, hoping I could cook all my skewers before the charcoal gave out.

I was less ambitious with my yakitori cutting this time. Baby steps. Just a pound of boneless, skinless thighs, cut to the smaller pieces I now knew to be wise.

Having a real grill intended for this work was the right choice. No skewers caught fire. And the intense heat of the binchotan, brought close to the skewers by the design of the grill, did something entirely different from my last try.
1699316408301.png

1699316474997.png

The result was...well, it was yakitori for real this time. When I tasted it, I realized I had tasted this flavor before, in some "yakitori flavored ramen" package I'd once picked up at an asian market. Same tare, same chicken thighs, but with the genuine intense heat, the caramelization, and just a slight hint of delicate charcoal, there was something entirely different going on.

Now I have really tasted yakitori, and I have no choice but to keep going. Maybe you can't get genuinely good at it without being a professional, but this is plenty good enough to encourage me onward.

Next time I will take another crack at breaking down the chicken(s) properly. And I've added chicken hearts and gizzards to my H-mart shopping list.
 
Looking good. Did you ensure that the chicken was as dry as you could get it? Salt it just before grilling? They do look a little under-tared. How many times did you tare them while grilling?
 
Dan- said:
Looking good. Did you ensure that the chicken was as dry as you could get it? Salt it just before grilling? They do look a little under-tared. How many times did you tare them while grilling?
Click to expand...
I didn't take any special steps about dryness. Hadn't heard that one before.

I did salt just before grilling, and the effect was noticeable in the final result.

Tare was just once...twice in one or two cases. I realized while cooking that I had no idea what was right.
 
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I just thought the color was a little light based on my preferences, and so I asked a bunch of questions.

Dryness - generally wetness inhibits browning, and I wondered whether your pieces were a little damp since they might be otherwise more brown.

Re tare-ness, I looked this up after posting, and all my books disagree on how much you should dip, from 0-5 times actually. I think it depends on your chicken, personal preference, the cut, whether you are Yardbird, etc.

Ono says:
IMG_0418.jpeg


Yardbird (the closest I could get to just some thigh meat) says:
IMG_0419.jpeg


Yardbird also doesn’t use much tare generally, as far as I can tell, but then my chicken doesn't look like theirs either. Heck they say to cut the hearts in half and cook each part differently.

I also have that Japanese book, and generally the photos all show more deeply browned, slightly charred meat.
 
On the note of chicken hearts, I really like preparing them the yakitori-baka style way that Yakitoriguy shows. Something about it makes it more fun to eat and you get a little different texture where the hearts are touching.

If anyone is able to get liver down to a palatable texture and taste, please let me know. I never did find one that I thought lived up to the creamy, non-iron taste described by people who like it. I made some edible ones, but not any that made we want to eat more.
 
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