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American Wagyu brisket from Costco, coffee wood smoke, coffee cardamom rub. This was a good one. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Not deterred by the pending snow, fired up the KK to do some jerk chicken on pimento wood, of course! And because it was the Ides of March, plated with a Caesar salad to go with the pineapple salsa. Glad that I got this cook in, because this is what I woke up to this morning.

Sunday nights are non-stop activity around here, as with two school aged kids who are busy with many activities during the week it’s sometimes the only night to get any cooking done… So the KK was busy managing a chicken, chorizo, Roma tomato and green bean paella- while inside a bolognaise sauce was made, as well as choc chip cookies and brownies for the lunch boxes (and banana bread which didn’t make it into the final photo as it was still in the oven!)

There's an Irish Pub in New Orleans called the Erin Rose where we got this a few years back. It was too good not to try to replicate. Smoked pork belly with a Dark Rum and Ginger glaze, mustard/garlic aioli, and slaw on home baked baguette.

@5698k The bread was great and did its job. Light and airy enough to soak up the juices without turning the crust to a messy mush. I'm not an advanced baker. I just follow Ken Forkish, (Flour Water Salt Yeast). Tiny bit of yeast and give it lot's of time to make flavor. It's not complicated, but you do have to plan a day ahead. Once you get the dough started, you're on its schedule. Pretzel buns baked in the KK:

if you want to grill fish but not have to flip with a spatula and damage the skin, you can make a grate sandwich with two small grates and wire everything shut. my kk is small and won't fit any fish shaped grill grates with a handle..

First I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter !! I hope and pray all is well . Enjoy the day with your loved ones. Also today was my first cook using the KK cradle. I prepared 2 chickens both were about 4.5 lbs. I seasoned one with Kosmos spg and added oregano the other with shake that which is S&P& Butter from the flat top king and added oregano. Placed 1 Meater pro probe in each breast and set temp to 158. Filled basket with leftover Fogo Black,Rockwood and Jealous devil XL lump. Lit the lump set Bottom vent left side 1/2 open and set right side with large whole open and damper open 1 1/2 turns. It took 15 minutes to reach 325 so I shut left side vent completely and set right side vent to 2nd large whole and closed top damper to 1/2 turn. Put cradle in!! Was sunny and 66 degrees when I started. About 1 hour in temp dropped to 50 degrees wind kicked up and the rain came. No rain was in the forecast nice surprise. Cooking temp was 350 degrees and held rock steady. The bird on the left finished 15 minutes before the one on the right as the left side was red hot and the right side was lagging behind. Total cook time was 1hr 20 minutes. But using the cradle and its unique design made it so easy to stop the motor loosen the arms pull the chicken and slide the other to the left Side!! If I was using a spit I would have had to shut it down remove the entire spit and then put it back. I need to learn how to get an even burn across the entire basket any tips would be much appreciated. The main reason why I used the cradle today was I am Greek and we celebrate Easter next Sunday on the 12th. So I intend to do a Lamb and wanted to get some idea as to how this works. The birds were juicy, tender and crispy skin. I did open the bottom vent all the way on the left and right to see how the KK would respond when calling for a higher temps with 6 minutes left on the one bird to see if Could get an even more crispy skin and before I knew it the temp was 450. Unbelievable!! Here are some pictures!! I forgot to mention I used the 6'' cradle!! George

Today I grilled a tri tip from a local grass fed farm. I dusted it with a beef rub and marinated it for a couple of hours in W Sauce, then reverse seared it to 115°. I let it rest for 15 minutes until I got the grill up to 600 and seared it for a couple of minutes on each side to pure perfection. [emoji2962] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Dinner tonight-Cooked up a delicious duck on the KK and served it with a port orange reduction sauce. Accompanied the duck with grilled artichokes with charred lemon aioli, hasselback potatoes and asparagus. Happy Easter everyone! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Did fennel grilled branzino flambéed with Pernod tonight on the KK and it turned out awesome! Tried to post a video of the flambé , but it won’t let me. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

What I love is everyone seems to have slightly different failures (in other words, not a design flaw but a random assembly error) and everyone says "Dennis sent me a replacement part" - the worst I've had on my KK was a wooden knob that fell off during a move and after a runaway fire and I also got a replacement. Compare that to the MexiK sites where all the tiles fall off and people need to fix it themselves because the manufacturer is useless and you see the real reason a KK is a great investment.

Finally got around to using a few slices off of piece of KD walnut. I was impressed at the amount of smoke and how long it provided a smoke for. It wasn't white smoke or a creosote laden smoke but an abundant amount yet light on the nose. I feel it worked well, however due to the issue with my latch falling off in my hand I lost track of this experiment by trying to save my cook from failure. But yah, it appears a go with some minor tweaking. Good candidate for the SS smoke pot, that I will try when my new latch is installed.

Finally, a use for exercise equipment other than as a clothes rack!

For the Super Bowl I went pork vs beef in my chili. It was the first time I made a pork based chili and I will absolutely make it again.

Pimento wood...musta been a special occasion, no secret how you value it's importance and scarcity. The snow, better you than me, I've seen enough....looking forward to spring. Nice plate by the way.

As I stood by my KK talking with Dennis and I looked for those spot welds, there were none. Apparently it came down to the year of manufacture, that's all, other than that removal with a Dremel cutting wheel would make easy work of any tack weld as you stated. Looking at your break, I'd call that an oddity. For moi, it's pretty straight forward to install, remove the two cap nuts and replace. Weird how it happened though, I opened to take a temp on the meat and the latch stayed in my hand. I said, "this ain't good." So I posted this for those unaware to be mindful of the possibilities, reassure them it's only a speedbump. That's all Folks

Well at least the pork came out great !!!!!! Great job improvising.

I can see my KK now !!!! It took a few good days of melting but I am getting close lol

Wow, Remi. You certainly cooked up a storm and everything looks delicious.👍👍🤩

You have great looking buns !!!!!! 😳

Opposite Day on Taco Tuesday? I've smoked a lot of beef brisket and pork belly, but never the other way around. I put the pork brisket on the dome rack and got a just-right bacon flavor accent on the beef belly under it. Try ordering that at a restaurant! Dry aged beef belly smoked to probe tender (195f) and rested overnight @150f in a sous vide bath. Sides were pickled onions w/Tasmanian Pepper berries, baked beans w/peppers, onions and dark chocolate, slaw and cornbread --you definitely need to balance the insanely rich belly. If I were to change anything I'd back off the smoke a touch. It was great but more summer afternoon loud crowd/loud music vs. quiet winter thaw celebration... but the pork over beef is staying in the rotation. Has anyone else found other amazing KK meat stack combinations?

Happy Bunny, everyone! 🐰

Yummy!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Did fennel grilled branzino flambéed with Pernod tonight on the KK and it turned out awesome! Tried to post a video of the flambé , but it won’t let me. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It may indeed be a California thing. Juglans californica, the California black walnut, is a distinct species from the black walnut found in the eastern U.S. The nuts are small and difficult to crack, and the meats are small, bitter, and generally not worth the trouble of extraction. I tried making nocino from unripe California black walnuts, and it was terrible. It wouldn't surprise me that the wood produces a noxious smoke when burned.

Probably just a California thing, but when I buy black walnut from the lumber yard I get sent Material Data Safety Sheets (MSDS) warning of inhaling the smoke.

Just the other day I was finishing up on a country ribs cook and my KK latch ended up coming off in my hand. To say the least I was surprised and my pork was still a ways out from finishing. Obviously without a latch the lid springs back up, so I had to come up with something nearby to hold the cover down in order to finish my cook. This was it and a day later an improved model was developed in the lab, needless to say I called Dennis and another is in the mail. Just keep in mind all our latches aren't created equal, Dennis stated they increase in size the larger the KK. So as to why it broke. Well, if you ever closed your KK and didn't have the latch pulled out from the bottom catch you might on an isolated occasion suddenly find your lid stops abruptly slamming the latch against the catch. There is a preventative measure Dennis built in though, a roller bearing on a small shaft, but even so on occasion it will hit just right and fail. It happens very seldom, but on occasion that disturbance would occur and the resulting accumulation of these incidents add up to popping the weld on the attached plate. Now I'm not a math major but the applied science here dictates that when a moving object suddenly stops against another object, it's kinetic energy is instantly converted into other forms, as potential deformatiom being one or damage more precisely. It's cumulative effect causes the failure way down the road...it may never happen to you, but if it does all is not lost. So keep in mind these innovative alternatives if and when it does to finish your cook.

No warning on mine either, just "plink" and I was holding the handle in my hand. You're correct, Dennis told me that mine had the cosmetic welds after looking at the picture I sent him. He was surprised by this failure; had never seen one do this before. Later years didn't have those welds. Once removed, the cap nuts came right off, and it was an easy repair.

I actually had the upper latch handle break on my KK. I could still latch the lid using pliers. Dennis sent a replacement and instructions on how to replace the whole upper latch assembly. There are some "cosmetic" welds that need to be ground out to remove the old one. The Dremel came in very handy for that task. All is well now.

Maybe I'll try my next paella with linguica instead! Reckon the kids may well like some cacoila as well... good suggestions!

I like it, just like camping. You have enough there for a few meals. Do they make a linguica to go with that chorizo? Have you tried cacoila, a marinated pork, great for sandwiches and cooks well in the KK?

@Tyrus No worries at all. Agreed, with a KK where air flow is controlled, the combustion is slow, and you want a lighter smoke profile --KD seems like a smart choice. For an offset smoker it might make a bigger difference vs. air dried wood. I used to run a home built water smoker and tried soaking wood chunks overnight to prevent flare ups. It didn't seem to make a difference. I cut a chunk open to see what it looked like and the water barely penetrated the surface. Sorry to hear about your dog. Losing a pet is tough. We just lost 2 cats in the last year. One cat was named Napoleon and had a lot of dog-like behaviors, so that's where that came from. When I created the account I thought Sarah & I might share it so picked a name for both of us. You can call me Eric. Cheers

First glance i thought that crab was an open faced rare roast beef sandwich lol Great, now I have to go get some roast beef !!!

Gumbo!

If you hadn't told me what it was, I'd have guessed gumbo.