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When I was trying to decide what size KK to buy, all those years ago, @ckreef's advice was to buy two. He was adamant you needed more than one to make sure you got all the components of your dinner ready at the same time. Well, I took his advice and here is Christmas dinner, cooked on my 23 (high heat throughout) and 32 (very low and slow for most of the time and hot at the end to cook up the pigs in blankets). Happy Holidays everyone! I never normally have turkey but here is a boned turkey leg which I seasoned and then my husband added lardo and rolled it up for roasting. Rolled turkey leg and standing rib roast in the 32 after first having been browned in the 23. Potatoes were roasted in the 23. And the pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon) were cooked on the 32 when the other meat was taken off to rest. I finished off the skin on the beef roast with the MAPP torch before resting. The cook was edge to edge perfect, with the very low and slow time it had in the 32. It was an outstanding Christmas meal, with just the Brussel sprouts and sauce cooked indoors. Deeeelicious!

3 bone prime rib, bones on the bottom protecting the spinalis. The pan is 16” wide, the 38” just swallows it up. Mixed in the butter is thyme, rosemary, garlic, and black pepper. I dry brined it overnight. Merry Christmas everyone! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk On at 7:00AM central. Dry brine over nite, SPG, not gonna wrap.

Just had my annual ‘boys night’ for some friends, and cracked out a brisket and some ribs with roast potatoes, coleslaw, espresso bbq sauce, smoky salsa, horseradish cream and pickles. Given it was dinner, I got things on early in the day and cooked at 285F. The brisket was interesting as it was a bit smaller at 4.2kg, and it powered through without much of a stall in 7hrs, so had a long rest before serving. Slightly sore head this morning, but an excellent night.

Haven't done a pork roll since I don't know when. This is a 5lb pork loin stuffed with Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing with cranberry, golden raisin, honey crisp apple, green onion and zucchini. Wrapped with 1lb of bacon and dusted with a sweet pork rub. I had a bottle of pork gravy which went well but the BBQ sauce BRDSLR recently posted was very good with it also. Actually my niece enjoyed it so much she asked to take some home, no problem. Comfort food in New England in the winter.Forgot the asparagus.

Maybe soon enough people will know what a KK is, and they’ll quit asking “is that like a green egg?” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cooked up an early NYE dinner today. I followed Myron Mixon’s porterhouse recipe and grilled it on the lowest grate in my KK and paired it with lobster tails that we did in the oven. Mind blown! There’s a reason Myron is a barbecue champion! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Picanha on the roti to celebrate an unusually warm 70 degree December day in St Louis.

I wouldn't buy anything in that store, period.

I heard on the local internet a craftsman that works with wood was selling off his accumulated shorts and pieces of various wood he wasn't using. $1.00 for pieces around a foot and $2.00 for a bit longer. While there I asked if he had any longer pieces available, he took me into the back shop and there standing in separated sections and bins were woods originating from all over the planet. There amongst the pile he had a number of live edge pieces and of those were olive boards in various widths. He pointed one out to me and offered it for $100, it was approx 6 foot x 12/13 inches wide. I asked if he had any short pieces of olive I could purchase for smoking, unfortunately he did not but as we spoke a bit more the conversation turned to BBQ. It was around this time he said, "I'll save the end pieces on a few of my upcoming projects and call you for an exchange in ribs or whatever you have to offer." Now I found the trade interesting and agreed to the terms, however the amount here pictured in end cuts and shorts of walnut and maple I gathered for some short projects could be used for smoking. The sheer volume of wood I bought was greater than the amount you could buy in smoking chunks and much more cheaper. So the moral of the story you could say is, you don't have to fly to Greece afterall you may find it in your backyard.

When that day comes i'll be ready and you are more than welcome to stop by lol

Looks great Remi! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If I had a dollar for everytime someone said that to me I'd buy a second KK lol

Here's an incense burner that'll make you look twice. I enjoy the odor/scent incense imparts to a room, so over the years I've collected a few incense holders of unique design to pleasantly aid the eye with a sense of calmness smoke offers. My niece seeing my collection thought I needed a piece to match the smoking elements in house and yard, but with a twist. The piece incorporates a downdraft design allowing the smoke to escape from different areas mimicing a realistic interpretation. Although I found it unusually distant as compared to my traditional Japanese holders, I do believe it has a place. However, with as much enjoyment incense smoke contributes to your well being, still nothing beats the smell of a brisket slow cooking in the back yard.

We usually have something fancy for New Years, and this year I purchased some lovely scotch fillet from a legendary Melbourne butcher who is about to retire- had him slice them nice and thick for a reverse sear. It was also a chance to debut the RFX probes I received for Christmas, and to make a first stab at a Bernaise sauce. All in all a great success. Happy New Year!

Wow, what great cooks those were, Tekobo, mouth watering dinner. 👍👍A special mention to the potatoes, the colour- perfection.😍

This experiment was a big FAIL initially. The doughs were way too wet to put through an extruder. I remembered @Syzygies once lamenting the fact that some bread recipe writers do not take account of the amount of liquid introduced by the levain. Well, without counting the liquid added by the levain, the hydration of this Chad Robertson recipe was at 45%! Waay too high. My neighbours kindly and friends kindly ate what I produced but it was substandard. I finally ended up with a very stiff dough, somewhere between 28% and 32% hydration depending on how you count the water added by wetting my hands while kneading. It was really hard work turning the lever to push the dough through the bigolaro but the result was worth it. Bigolaro action: Really simple but delicious pasta recipe called bigoli in salsa, made with just onions and chopped up anchovies. The dough was fermented for 18 hours. I think the pasta tasted better than any I had made before but I will do a side by side test without levain to see if that is just my imagination. And the KK action came in the form of roasted short ribs (should have been low and slow but I fell asleep and they cooked hot and fast instead!)

Happy holidays everyone !!!!!! Turkey done earlier and the prime rib is in now, I’ll update later

It all looks great !!!! I'd eat all of those potatoes and be looking for more lol

Then I won’t mention the duck breasts that may have been cooked yesterday lol

Should be in about 8-9 weeks at our current rate! My head is spinning to think 200k viewers watched the full 25 minutes! I can't imagine this will not drive crazy sales in the spring..

C6Bill, you know better than that, you ate before taking the pix. Next year you are getting a lump of coal in your stalking if you keep this up!

You will have to take my word for this but there were ribs in there lol

Well i'm thinking i need to go find a steak now lol

Hi Tekobo! Let me send you a custom handle! With some reworking, your torchio can take on any powered machine. I'm gearing up to make bespoke handles from Jatoba hardwood and laser cut stainless steel. Or if you like to do your own woodworking I can send you the DXF file for fabricating the boss plate. The handle shown above is a prototype using an oak dowel. Here is my response to being asked about my bigolaro on the Rancho Gordo Bean Club Facebook group: This is a "Torchio Model B" bigolaro by Bottene. They also make the powered Lillo Due for home and restaurant use. The Model B accepts the same bronze dies, opening up a vast catalog of shapes. https://bottene.net/en/products/bigolaro/ https://pastabiz.com/torchio-hand-press.html https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchio_da_pasta This design is one that has been in use for centuries in the Veneto region, primarly to make "bigoli" noodles. These are fat round noodles sauced with an anchovy, sardine, liver, or duck sauce. The noodle recipe is tuned for ease of extrusion through its namesake bigolaro, requiring less pressure than a powered extruder. Bigoli noodles are an obscure corner of the pasta universe. As we prefer homeground flour, we have long dismissed dried noodles, even from whole wheat, in favor of Atlas or similar (Otello is an upgrade) laminated egg noodles, or hand-formed shapes such as busiate. Shapes are nevertheless a major part of the Italian pasta experience. Pairing shapes with sauces for Italians is a profoundly deep enterprise. One cannot fully dry extruded pasta at home with the same care as an artisan factory: Varying climates is why there was an early trade in dried pasta. If someone tells you they're happy drying extruded pasta, they're telling you two things: They're happy, and they're drying extruded pasta. An Italian would not be happy; they'd find someone who can do this right. Pasta dried for part of a day is neverless a wonderful third category, that opens up the entire experience of pairing shapes with sauces. This is what most restaurants with extruders do. Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food https://www.amazon.com/Pasta-Story-Universal-Silvano-Serventi/dp/0231124422 I am thankful beyond words that Bottene chose to modify the design to accept Lillo Due dies, but we are left without guidance for how to best use dies designed for greater pressure. With a maniacal attention to detail, the "a serious bunburyist" blogger has managed to make good use of a variety of bronze dies, but even he has moved on to a powered machine. The basic problem is that a dough wet enough to extrude will come apart (gravity unwinds fusilli) and stick together. https://ibunbury.blogspot.com/2010/06/confirmed-and-secret-bunburyist.html Am I an insane mathematician, for figuring out what to do? (My hands played one, once.) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/03/11/a-beautiful-hand People go to more trouble than I went through when a drug is involved; pasta is also worth it. People roll their eyes that we grind our own flour, but they grind their own coffee? Same thing. What I'm about to describe is not hard. I don't want to clean, or store, or lug around a heavy powered machine. I love hand tools, such the better-than-vintage woodworking tools that Lie-Nielsen makes. https://www.lie-nielsen.com I've had my bigolaro for fourteen years, but only recently has it become our daily driver, the routine way we make pasta. That was a long road. A few years ago I destroyed the boss socket in the stock handle through misguided experiments with too-stiff dough. After some hilarious failed improvisations, I learned to respect the forces involved. I fabricated replacement boss plates from 1/2" thick stainless steel using the custom parts service SendCutSend, and mounted these plates to longer wood handles with better leverage. https://sendcutsend.com What broke next? Further misguided experiments lead to howling noises that I labored through; I wanted dinner. It turns out that all grease is not the same; who knew?! If a grease doesn't publish a Tinken Load and Four-Ball Wear Test, it will simply skip town under duress, leading to a howling metal-on-metal contact that grease is supposed to prevent. I replaced my worn threaded shaft assembly, and applied a grease a factory might choose, for a radical upgrade in performance. If one makes a single modification to a stock torchio, this is it: Disassemble the threaded shaft assembly, take it outdoors to strip any incompatible grease, and lubricate it with the best grease one can source. Apply a bit more for every use. If operation isn't dead silent under extreme loads, you're doing this wrong. https://www.grainger.com/product/CRC-Extreme-Duty-Food-Grade-Grease-12G591 I also upgraded how I mount the bigolaro to the same overhang I use for clamping other kitchen tools. I slightly enlarged the holes to accept 5/16" bolts and oversized nuts, washers. Now the bigolaro is effectively fixed to the foundation of my house. Believe it or not, there was some play using a 1/4" bolt, nut, washer combination. Now, one has a device that accepts Lillo Due dies, and with 20 pounds of force at the ends of a 26" handle can extrude with more power than a Lillo Due. One cannot now simply use a Lillo Due dough recipe, because the mechanics of extrusion are different. A powered extruder uses a twist screw, while a bigolaro is a piston that compresses the dough waiting in line. Nevertheless, one is now free to work out a more flexible range of dough recipes, less likely to fall apart or stick together after extrusion. In our case we use freshly ground flour (primarily durum and Kamut) and a sourdough process that improves flavor and glycemic index. I've settled on adding 4% psyllium (the same hack factories use to make gluten-free pasta) and extruding my dough cold after an overnight fridge rest. These steps both enable and require a higher hydration; for my specific dough I like 43%. My pasta doesn't fall apart or stick together. Now that I've figured this all out, I need to write up a web site with handle plans that even an apartment dweller can assemble (e.g. order 1 1/4" square staircase balusters online). I should also offer to make handles for people. Ideally, I can convince someone who already sells pasta woodworking to make handles. Probably this constellation of ideas is overkill; after one appreciates the issues in play, one only needs to address a subset. Start with the grease, then the handle, then tweak your own dough recipe. A torchio should be in as widespread use as an Atlas crank machine, rather than in a cupboard like a twice-used rowing machine. These challenges are easily surmounted, and the results are worth the trouble. What can we do to make this practical for other people?

Beautiful looking cook! I have to agree that two cookers is a big advantage. It took me a while to get a cooker larger than the 23”, now it’s like where has this been all my life. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What a wonderful way to start the year. The Komodo Kamado Basics video just hit One Million Views! 210K of them watched the full 25 minutes.. I'm thrilled..

I'm a boy too, and after seeing all those fantastic favorites I like..... a very lonely one too. Good job, lucky guests

You did it up right! Oh, and the food looks great, too! 😄

I got a response from Combustion support today: "We've seen this issue on a few grill models where the stock probe length isn't ideal. The good news is we're actively producing longer and shorter probe options to fit different configurations. We expect to have those options available to share soon. [...] In the meantime, your workaround of removing the metal backing plate and insulation should work. The probe should still read correctly with limited penetration since the sensor is at the tip. Just be careful with the stability since you can't clamp it inside." Chris also posted some pics over on Reddit showing the 3D-printed stainless steel prototypes. I'm very happy they're working on a longer probe!

i wonder if this works for $7 USD..😅 the probes are wired and connect to the display. still a short stem thermometer.

That's crazy. Being a young tech enthusiast I bought all of the gizmos and gadgets for my KK when I first started. Meater, Firebird 2 Pro, Thermapen, K-Type Dome probe, etc. In the ned, they just added more stress than they were worth. I HATE cords and the most reliable tech I used were the wired probes. In the end, I sold all of it and am back to the basics of my KK. Fill the basket full of lump, light a chimney of lump, pout it on, set the vents, and away it goes. I sleep 100X better and my cooking is 0% stress. Prior, I was checking the data, adjusting the probes, removing probes to wrap or mess with the meats, and it all just became such a pain int he ass. Furthermore, I live in Wisconsin so it gets cold as hell and most of these gadgets are all China junk and don't hold a charge or become so brittle when I cook at it's below 0F. In full transparency, I do use two RFX probes and those are handy at times. I had my growing pains with those as I had a few bad probes that needed to be replaced. The ones I have now work great but I try my best not to use them. Thermapen One for the win. It's the only BBQ gadget I can't live without after all of that.

Giant Grill Gauge: https://combustion.inc/pages/giant-grill-gauge

That would be great !!!!

SteveL, lovely steak dinner, mouthwatering.👍👍

Thx Tyrus. It is my cute grillfriend in any weather! And I agree on the restaurant comment too. I’m working harder now on presentation. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m not familiar with GGG. As I’ve said previously, I rarely use the RFX ambient probe as it’s been months. I rely on the Tel-Tru that Dennis includes with the unit. I’ve noticed some drop off in temp accuracy with that too, but have started taking it out every 3 months or so, cleaning the carbon off of the probe with SOS pads, and recalibrating it in boiling water. The accuracy of the dome temperature is close enough for everything I cook. I monitor the actual meat with an RFX wireless probe and have had perfect results every time. As Dennis has said on here as well as his videos, once you get the airflow down, you don’t need the gadgets and that makes sense to me. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wow. Great halloween decoration

Twisted? Hmm, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Would you prefer I drop a steak over it and use it as a smoker?

AI (our new family dog) says its a beef clod heart.

🤣

You know Syzygies deja vous, I recently popped a roast out of the freezer unlabeled and was wondering the same. My curious eye seems to think that it's a Chuck roast, has the cut & shape, grain and color, similar and in the same neighborhood. You can eliminate the flat, it has the markings and some orentation of being the point in the raw, but I'm leaning towards a tender chuck roast having seen something similar recently at the market and just purchased. Well, if your disappointed in the texture hold your head up high on appearance and a fabulous bark. I'm thinking a packaging mishandle, label or the new butcher on the block, happens to us all, don't despair and be thankful it wasn't bear. It might yet remain a mystery, however we can definitely rule out rib eye and tenderloin. When in doubt, ask the family dog...they gotta nose for these things.

Definitely a great marble going on there and a nice finish. Finding a new butcher...too bad, someone that's done you right so many times. There's always mail order, but that can get expensive, best of luck Remi and a safe and Happy New Year to all.

That’s where Dennis really thinks things through. I bought a 32 last year, and loved it. I did notice, that as i get older, lifting the grates on a 32, particularly when hot, is noticeable. Then i bought a 38. It has three piece grates, as does the 42. Between the split grates and the fire splitter, it’s super easy to manipulate everything. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree! The bit of advice I did not take at the beginning was to buy as large as I could afford/had space for. I therefore started with a 21 and 23 but a few years later I saw the light, sold them and went for a 32,23 and 16 combo. That 32 is a multi tool and if I only ever had one KK it would be the 32. I no longer hanker after the 42 (plus free goat). I can lift and wash the grates in my 32. I dread to think of the sheer effort required with a 42.

I have to say those were all nice creative festive cooks, although I have to give the nod to Tekebo for pitchin the change up. In the states though we like things straight down the middle......a nice piece of beef of rare quality sets up a Christmas dinner as traditional. I did one myself, but by the time I put it down and reached for my camera it was gone....c'est la vie.

Chris Young seems to have confirmed that they are working on a longer probe: https://www.reddit.com/r/combustion_inc/comments/1pvmkxb/stumps_smoker/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Happy Holidays, everyone! 👍👍

@tekobo i don't know if asahi offers a sponge sanding block, but hasegawa has one to smooth out the board after heavy use. but i've never been able to smooth out the surface other than raising up even more plastic "fur" on top. but again, microplastics don't bother me. i'm asian and immune to it from years of eating hot foods out of plastic bags. and because i'm unable to smooth the board out, i am leaning towards wood (endgrain) for my next board. and if it dulls my knives a little faster, so be it. i rather enjoy sharpening anyway.. if i have to buy another synthetic, it would be the the black asahi for plebs, not the pro kind..

My sister asked for a teak wine rack, and I love the results. It's one of my favorite projects in 35 years of building furniture professionally. These are my hand-hewn teak floors. https://handhewnfloors.com