Whizlog

Lunch from Celtic Wolf Again

2010-01-29T19:46:00.001-05:00

Just a quick blog update today to say that we had another lunch from Celtic Spirit BBQ. We had a Cuban sandwich made with smoke ham, pulled pork and home made cuban bread, all from Pete's Big Green Egg ceramic charcoal cookers. The sandwich size was generous and the sandwich was just plain superb. The sides were some very very tasty potato salad and some slaw. Dessert was some bread pudding to die for. All this for $7.95 and we were all stuffed and happy.

We're telling you, folks. If you live close enough to have Pete deliver lunch, you need to take advantage of this. It's time for our nap now....

- TNW

Big Green Egg Announces New Firebox Design

2010-01-21T07:59:00.003-05:00

Did we miss it, or has there really been nothing posted anywhere about a new firebox design? Our dealer just showed us an announcement from BGE about a new firebox design that is being phased in as old inventories are depleted. What we saw was a bad copy of the announcement, but from the picture on the announcement it looks like what they did was something like if you took an existing firebox and made a vertical saw cut down the back of the box. This would presumably allow expansion and contraction and prevent breakage.

There was no word of a similar change to the firering, but then we've always thought that firering breakage was pretty rare, based on the number of posts on the Big Green Egg forum.

So, it should be very interesting to see how the new firebox does in the field. We're sure we have all wondered about how bad the warantee expense must be to BGE to replace broken fireboxes. Here's to hoping that they have solved the problem.

- TNW

Update: Reports are that some dealers have already received shipments that include the new firebox.

Review of aFire Coconut Charcoal Posted

2010-01-20T20:49:00.002-05:00

Well, we finally posted the review of aFire Coconut Charcoal. We felt that a word of explanation was in order. It took forever because we thought of a few new things to test, because we wanted to verify or disprove the claims on the box, and because we have been waiting for a response from the owner of aFire regarding a very serious issue with the charcoal

The box we purchased was almost 2 pounds underweight. We asked a dealer to weigh a couple of boxes and both boxes they weighed were also significantly underweight. We waited 2 weeks for the owner to respond, but we finally gave up. If the owner does respond, depending on the nature of the response, we may change our final rating. But as expensive as this charcoal is, getting 11% less charcoal than is advertised is just not acceptable.

So you can read the review (it's one of our most in-depth reviews ever) and view the results. You should obviously base your buying decision on the price and the performance. But for now, we can't give an acceptable rating as things stand.

- TNW

Lunch in Central North Carolina Just Got A Whole Lot Better

2010-01-19T19:25:00.003-05:00

We try to keep this blog related to BBQ, ceramic charcoal cookers and charcoal, but we don't think we're getting too far adrift by blogging today about a fledgling lunch business that is starting up in central North Carolina. Yep, you know him as Celtic Wolf and his business/website is Celtic Spirit BBQ. You'll find it at www.celticspiritbbq.com, funny enough!

Celtic Spirit is delivering quality lunches, all cooked/baked/smoked on their stable of Big Green Egg ceramic cookers. Last week we hosted a trial run before the official opening with a smoked turkey sandwich on ciabatta bread with potato salad and cranberry sauce. The smoked turkey was spot on, moist and with a nice amount of smoke flavor from the charcoal fire.

But that was a dry run. Today we hosted the real deal with Celtic Spirit BBQ delivering 8 lunches to our official place of business. On the menu was an Italian chicken sandwhich with aioli, potato salad, and fennel slaw. Comments from the 8 customers ran from "Excellent!" to "...best slaw I've ever had!" to "Great value for money." This particular lunch was delivered to our door for $6.95. All eight customers are looking forward to our next lunch from Celtic Spirit BBQ.

The food really is a cut above most anything you would expect to get if you went out to lunch. The portions were good, the flavor was great and the cook is really putting something special out in the way of his selection of items. If you are looking for something different and better than your usual lunch, especially if you would like to serve something above the rest at a meeting you are hosting, you should give Celtic Spirit BBQ a try. Check out his weekly menu to see what's in store. You won't be sorry you did.

- TNW

Current Status of aFire Coconut Charcoal Review

2010-01-16T19:47:00.000-05:00

We have finished all the tests, we've finished typing the review, we've finished proofing it. But we are still waiting on a response from the company regarding an issue we are having. We'll give them several more days but then we go to press without their feedback

- TNW

What's Up at the Naked Whiz Publishing Empire this week!

2010-01-11T08:37:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been cold here in North Carolina, but that hasn't stopped us from resuming activities on the latest project: aFire Coconut Charcoal. We nearly froze to death (the temperature was actually BELOW the freezing point of water, where unbelievably, water actually turns into a solid!), but we did manage to conduct another test that allows us to compare this coconut charcoal to lump charcoal when grilling. We also did a simple hamburger taste test. (Someone has to do it.) Now all we have left to do one more taste test. Additionally, we are still waiting to hear back from the manufacturer about an issue we have with the charcoal. So, things are progressing and we hope to have the review on the web site soon.

We have other projects waiting in the wings, so keep your eye on the web site for all the latest!

- TNW

Happy New Year from The Naked Whiz Publishing Empire!

2010-01-07T07:21:00.007-05:00

Well, New Year's came in with a whimper here at The Naked Whiz Publishing Empire. We went down to Hilton Head for Christmas, and then spent a quiet week at the Empire for New Year's. It seems most of the children in our neighborhood have grown up and left since there were no fireworks going off at midnight on New Year's Eve. We thought about pulling out some of the original Kingsford lump, though...

So, what's up? Well, we suppose we need to address the continuing delay in publishing the review of aFire coconut charcoal. We decided we wanted to try a couple more things in order to try to completely address the claims made by aFire. We are finding out that things are little more complex than we had assumed. We also wanted to try cooking some chicken over it to see if there is any flavor contributed to the food by the charcoal. Needless to say, between the weather and the holidays, we have had trouble finding the time and conditions to complete our work. But, weather permitting, we may try to finish up the research this weekend or next.

We recently published a white paper on the safety of using a Rutland Grapho-Glas gasket on a ceramic charcoal cooker. We wanted to get the "facts" out there in light of the arguing that has gone on in the past on ceramic charcoal cooker discussion forums, particularly the BGE forum. We contacted Rutland to get their position on the matter, as well as to clear up this fiction that Rutland has told people that their product will harm unborn fetuses. We gathered data from various sources including Material Data Safety Sheets from the manufacturer and from other companies on fiberglass and graphite. We also included a report from The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the World Health Organization, on the cancer risks of crystalline silica, a minor ingredient in graphite. You can read to white paper to learn our conclusion on the matter, but you should read the information and make your decision about using this product.

We have several other projects in the works and we'll be letting you know more about them as they approach conclusion, so stay tuned!

We hope you all had a good holiday as we look forward to another year of exciting (?) projects here at The Naked Whiz Publishing Empire!

- TNW

It's Christmas! Time To Play "The Stupid Ford Remote Start Game"

2009-12-17T13:08:00.002-05:00

Yes, folks! It's that time of year again when you can play the hot new sensational game, "The Stupid Ford Remote Start Game"!! It's almost Christmas. The mall parking lots are full and that provides the necessary elements to play the game: Lot's of Fords! Here's how you play:

1) Go to the biggest and busiest mall you can find.
2) Start looking for Ford cars, trucks and SUV's.
3) Locate vehicles that have the number pad on the driver's door.
4) The pad has 5 buttons labeled 1|2 3|4 5|6 7|8 and 9|0
5) Make sure no one is looking and then simultaneously press the 7|8 and 9|0 buttons. You should hear the doors on the vehicle lock.
6) Now, press those two buttons simultaneously again, but this time press them twice in a row in quick succession.
7) IF THE VEHICLE HAS REMOTE START, THE FREAKING ENGINE WILL START!!!!
8) Don't worry, if the owner doesn't come within 10 minutes, the engine will automatically stop.
9) Run away and take up an observational position a safe distance away.
10) If the owner doesn't come before 10 minutes is up and the engine stops itself, YOU WIN 1 POINT!
11) If the owner comes before 10 minutes is up and they stop the engine, YOU WIN 2 POINTS!! (Take a photo of them if you can.)
12) If the owner sees you do it, YOU WIN 5 POINTS!!
13) Go find another vehicle.

(This is true. The engine will start if you lock the doors twice in quick succesion and you have remote start installed. It will also start if you press the lock button on your key fob twice in quick succession. Amazingly, if you are inside the car and press any lock button inside the car twice in quick succession, the engine will start. Wonderful little game for the kiddies to play, eh? What was Ford thinking?? It will even start if you press the fob button followed by the door button. Or the door button followed by the inside lock button. Or any combination.)

Merry Christmas!

- TNW

Disclaimers:
1) There is no such game in reality.
2) We do not condone anyone actually try to play this game which doesn't exist.
3) If you do play the game, which doesn't exist, you do not actually win any points.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-16T12:02:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope you have a safe and happy ceramic charcoal cooker type of holiday!

We are still working on our review of aFire coconut charcoal briquettes. It has turned out to be a bit more complex than we thought. We have made a couple of discoveries along the way that have motivated further testing. So we hope to have it done by New Years weekend.

If you live in the Raleigh, NC area, take a look at www.celticspiritbbq.com. Pete is going into the lunch catering business for a while. We've tasted is sauce for pulled pork and we're looking forward to tasting other little goodies for lunch!

So once again, Merry Christmas to everyone!

-TNW

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T12:49:00.007-05:00

Holy smokes! Has it really been since July 22? We apologize for our Rumplestiltskinsian behavior. First of all, of course we'd like to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and we hope you are ready for the big day tomorrow. Remember that if you are thinking of cooking your turkey on a ceramic charcoal cooker, there's no better guide than the mad max turkey method. If you haven't seen it then click here. We have the whole technique, daily tips, and new for this year: video from Fred's Music and BBQ!! We hope you have a great day and a successful meal.

A few other new items to note. We have added an Events Calendar for owners of ceramic charcoal cookers. This calendar contains Eggfests (or any other manufacturer's 'fests if they hold any), demonstrations, classes, you name it.

In order to fit the Events Calendar on our main page, we have combined Recipes and Cookbooks into one menu item. If you click on it, you will be taken to a page where you can choose between our recipes page, our cookbooks page, and a new page that lists all of the Living Cookbook recipe databases that we have available. Everything you used to find from our main menu is still there, just arranged a bit differently.

Don't miss our recently-posted review of the BBQ Guru NanoQ, their latest addition to their line of digital temperature controllers for charcoal cookers.

Our next addition to the web page will be a review of a new brand of coconut charcoal, so keep your eyes on our What's New section for that!

Again, we hope you have a happy holiday!

- TNW

What's Up At The Naked Whiz Plaza This Week

2009-07-22T21:06:00.002-04:00

We have too many things in the air at one time, wethinks! Ok, here goes.

We have paused working on top secret project number 1 until September. Sorry, you'll just have to wait. It's a massive undertaking and we just don't have the time and the weather is too hot.

We have paused working on top secret project number 2 for a week or two. The son is headed off to law school in 3 weeks and he has to sell his car so he can buy our car so we can buy a new car.

We are almost done with our review of Fred's Music and BBQ Supply restaurant charcoal. We should be posting it by this weekend.

We are almost done with our review of another charcoal that will remain anonymous until we publish it. This also has been a major undertaking as it required all sorts of extra tests and we ended up making a short video to complement the review. Plus it is quite lengthy and we've been trying to proofread it quite carefully both for spelling and grammar as well as for factual content and tone. We'll give this one until the following weekend.

So, we're trying to get stuff done and we hope you think it was worth the wait when you finally see it.

- TNW

Oh, and one other thing.....

2009-07-13T09:10:00.002-04:00

We have decided to enable comments on our Whizlog. All posts subsequent to this one will have comments enabled. Be nice! :-)

- TNW

Weekend Report

2009-07-13T08:58:00.006-04:00

Well, it was mixed results this weekend at Naked Whiz Plaza. First of all we had a successful Operation BBQ event in Raleigh, NC at the Naval Operational Support Center. This one was run by American Spirit BBQ. We just showed up to take pictures for this one, but we got some nice photos. You can view them by visiting our Operation BBQ web page.

Then we reported that we would be making a movie for our latest charcoal review. Ooops. We made a movie alright, but unfortunately at little bitty eensy weensy resolution, so it looked pretty bad. We'll have to recreate the effort and film it again next weekend. Of course, the nice thing about screwing it up and then viewing the results is that you have an opportunity to improve upon it. Which we will do. Oh well, such is the life of a Naked Whiz.

- TNW

What's Up At Naked Whiz Plaza This Weekend!

2009-07-10T15:54:00.002-04:00

Well, let's see. We will try to make a movie to include in our latest charcoal review. This will be a first! We will try to complete another charcoal review that was suspended when we ran into a small problem. We may also try to make some more progress on our current "Build It Yourself" project, which of course, is a secret. And finally, we will be attending the American Spirit BBQ event on Saturday morning for about 300 Naval reservists in Raleigh. So, we have plenty to keep us busy!

- TNW

July 2 Operation BBQ at Camp Lejeune

2009-07-06T09:35:00.002-04:00

The event was a big success! About 1000 Marines and their families dined on pulled pork, brisket, hot dogs, potato salad and beans. There were games for the kids and games for the Marines. The weather was hot, but clear. All in all it was a wonderful time. You can view all the photos at this link: Operation BBQ Photos.

Consider giving your time to this worthy endeavor. You can visit the BBQ For Our Troops website for more information. Another group with a big cookout coming up in August is American Spirit BBQ.

- TNW

Ok, Here's What We Learned About Being Green

2009-06-24T07:43:00.003-04:00

Inquiring minds and all that you know, but one afternoon we were idling away the time when it suddenly popped into our head. Does an LCD monitor use more electricity when it is displaying all white or when it is displaying all black? Yes, that is what popped into our heads and thus was born the mini-quest for knowledge.

You may think it is obvious that a monitor must use more electricity when it is all white, but you have to remember, these monitors aren't your grandfather's monitors. We aren't talking about cathode ray tubes which turn on the electron beam (use electricity) when painting a portion of the screen that isn't the background color and turns it off when painting a portion of the screen that IS the background color. LCD monitors have a backlight that is always on and then little gremlins, thousands and thousands of little gremlins who live inside your monitor, open and close little light faucets that allow the backlight to shine through or not. So, maybe these little gremlins need more electricity when the valves are open or closed or who knows what?

So, off we went to Google on a quest to answer this question. And as usual, we found answers that indicated anything you want to believe. So as a result, we chose the answer that we wanted: LCD Monitors use less electricity when displaying a black screen than they do when displaying a white screen. Ok, we have a little bit of reason to think this might actually be the correct answer. We came across a search engine called "Blackle" which is located at www.blackle.com and purports to have saved over a billion watt-hours of electricity by having a black background on their pages. In support of their claim, the provide a link to this study by researchers at the Energy Analysis Department, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley, California. And there on page 19, are the numbers. LCD monitors displaying a black screen use slightly less electricity than monitors displaying a white screen.

So, how does this make The Naked Whiz web site green? Dude! All of our screens have black backgrounds. Geez, we must have save a billion watt-hours ourselves! So. Be green! Visit our webpage. Be annoying. Write to web sites with white backgrounds and tell them to switch to black. We'll save this planet one pixel at a a time!

- TNW

What's Coming Up at The Naked Whiz Plaza...

2009-06-22T10:38:00.001-04:00

We are sort of working on a new secret project. This is a smaller secret project than the big secret project. The big secret project will probably resume in September. This small one should only take a day or two, so we hope to get it done soon.

We have a new charcoal on the way. This one will take some time and effort since we will be comparing it to past incarnations of this charcoal. There will be extra tests and photos and writing it up will be a challenge, but it should be worth it. It's been a long time in coming and we look forward to finding out how this "new" charcoal does.

- TNW

The KCBS Controversy, whew!

2009-06-16T09:24:00.007-04:00

People have asked where we stand on this recent explosion of controversy. Well frankly, we don't know but it is certainly something to behold. We don't compete on the BBQ circuit, just like when we flew a hot air balloon, we didn't compete in balloon rallies. We just don't like these sorts of competitions. 'nuff said. We have never joined the Kansas City Barbecue Society since we don't compete and we don't really see a reason to join otherwise. That said, we are certainly curious about what's going on in KCBS at the moment.

A member of the board of directors has resigned over the behavior of another board member. The member who resigned is Rod Gray. The member who has caused all the grief is, well, we don't know who it is because apparently everyone associated with KCBS knows who this is and have known for some time who this is, but no one is allowed to name this BOD member for fear of slander accusations, apparently. As we are not "in the know" regarding all things KCBS, we don't know who this member is and certainly can't have an opinion on what's going on.

We do find it curious that as a regular lurker on the KC BBQ Forum, we had never heard about the behavior of this board member until recent weeks. Now that Rod Gray, by resigning his seat on the BOD, has referred to the elephant in the room, everyone is now posting to The BBQ Forum about how this BOD member has tyrannized the board along with a long list of other objectionable behaviors. There are now calls for the removal of this BOD member and posts about Missouri law governing removal of BOD members from organizations. It truly is one of the most bizarre things we have ever seen.

So, like we say, we have no opinion nor do we have any information that would help us form an opinion. For what it's worth, here is a link to Rod Gray's blog in which he details the reasons for his resignation: Pellet Envy Blog. Also, here is a link to a broadcast tonight on LA Talk Radio (Channel 1) in which Rod will be interviewed: LA Talk Radio. All we can say is that it should be interesting. We'll be listening. How about you?

Whatever happens, here's to hoping we can all get back to arguing over foiling ribs...

- TNW

Leading the Green Revolution in BBQ?

2009-06-16T09:15:00.003-04:00

We have to write this one up, but it appears that The Naked Whiz web site has been leading the green revolution in barbecue and we didn't even know it! What do we have that the World Famous Kansas City Barbecue Forum doesn't have? (Or perhaps more accurately, what does the World Famous Kansas City Barbecue Forum have that we don't have?) We'll fill you in with details later, but for now, rest assured that every time you visit The Naked Whiz web site you are helping to save the planet! (Very big wink!)

- TNW

Another call for volunteers...

2009-06-01T09:26:00.002-04:00

There will be another Operation BBQ event at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina coming up in July. The event is July 2-3 and volunteers are welcome. You can email us using the link at the bottom of every one of our web pages and we'll forward your name to the organizer.

If you have never attended an Operation BBQ event before, the schedule goes something like this. We usually meet at the main gate at 11 am on July 2nd. We get situated at the site provided for the event and then we all sit around for a while wasting time and thinking about lunch. Around 5ish or so, the meat gets prepared and by 8 or so, the meat is in the cookers. The next morning, the pork is pulled, the brisket is sliced, the beans are heated and everything is made ready for the lunch at 11:30 or so.

It is a great event: you get to meet young Marines serving our country; you get to talk barbecue; you get to eat barbecue. Sometimes you even get a tour of some of the Marine Corps' neat toys! So, email us if you are interested and we'll get you hooked up. Hope to see you at Camp Lejeune!

- TNW

CyberQ II review is up!

2009-06-01T07:47:00.007-04:00

We have just posted (well, ok it was Friday) the review of the CyberQ II Temperature Controller from The BBQ Guru. (www.thebbqguru.com) The CyberQ II is the first offering from The BBQ Guru that has computer connection and dual cooker control.

This is possibly our most in-depth review ever, so enjoy it!

- TNW

Cyber Q II review status

2009-05-28T09:38:00.003-04:00

We have been working on this product review for quite some time and we are close to publishing it. We need to update a few images, proof read and possibly conduct one more test and then we can publish. We hope to have it done by this coming Monday, so keep an eye out for it!

- TNW

Kingsford Competition Briquettes

2009-05-01T10:43:00.000-04:00

We recently published our report on Kingsford's new "Competition Briquettes." You can find the report at The Lump Charcoal Database in the "Other Charcoal Testing" section. You can also find it by visiting our main page and looking in the "What's New" box.

There's a lot of interesting information in the report, but if you just want the bottom line, Kingsford Competition Briquettes are better than their original briquettes (what wouldn't be?), but they still fall short of the best all natural briquettes. We feel that if you can get them, Wicked Good Charcoal's Weekend Warrior Briquettes are still the best briquettes out there.

As a side note, we recently picked up a bag of Stubb's briquettes, an all natural briquette from Cowboy Charcoal. These are the same folks that bring you Cowboy Lump Charcoal. We should be publishing a mini-report on Stubb's sometime soon.

- TNW

Today's status....

2009-04-20T09:39:00.001-04:00

Well, not much to report. Or, a lot to report. I guess it depends on your point of view. The wife (yes, the wife who....) went to Vegas for a few days. So, while the cat's away.....

We have completed all our testing on the Kingsford Competition briquettes. We are almost done writing up the report for the web page. We just need to proof read, write the conclusions, and then remove all the snippy comments about Kingsford. We need to keep our objectivity intact, you know. But one does have to wonder why they claim that "high heat" is good for "slow cooking!" And one does have to wonder why they couldn't come up with a new name rather than use one that has been used before for a lump charcoal. Oh well. The new web page should be published in the next few days.

The latest excitement is that we just received our new CyberQ II from The BBQ Guru. We need to start making plans for a full review. We hope to do this around mid-May. Keep your eyes glued to our website!

- TNW

What's In Store

2009-04-14T16:28:00.003-04:00

Well, for one thing we have a bag of Kingsford Competition Briquettes sitting in the garage. Wonder if Kingsford has finally figured out how to make an acceptable briquette? So do we. We'll find out this weekend.

We are still waiting on some product in order to finish up our secret project. We're not sure why it hasn't shown up on store shelves yet, but unfortunately, it is holding us up. So, we plod on with other things.....

- TNW