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Thought this would be the perfect cook to try out the new knives. Standard base: Sicilian pan dough, sauce, parmesan, and mozzarella cheese. 13 toppings: ground beef, ham, pepperoni, bacon, pizza seasoning, green pepper, onion, black olive, Jalapeño pepper, banana pepper, red tomato, green tomato and pineapple. Yea I got to play with the knives. I love me a good junk pie from time to time. Next time I'm going to par bake the dough then go for 20 toppings which would be a new personal record (currently at 15.) The knives were a real pleasure to use. Light and just glided through the cut. Barely had to use a slicing motion. They would just sink straight through to the cutting board. I told Mrs skreef "So that's how a knife is supposed to work!" - yes indeed very happy with this purchase.

A little heads up and something I need to mark.. The grate with the arrow is reversed. If flipped around it there will be proper spacing in the middle and on the right of it.. I need to make some kind of an indicator what goes where and the proper direction.

Garvin, I would go for a little larger one first, then later if you think you need another one for slides or so you can run two at the same time with different temperatures get the smaller one then. It is far far better to have too much space than too little. I bought the 21/22 high top first. It is more flexible than the 16. The grates are farther from the Flames and you can have the spit and the basket. I mainly wanted the 16 for winter time cooking when it is really cold. Quicker to heat up, far less mass, much easier to roll out, etc. Sometimes all the accessories are not listed on the Web. I do have the spit rod. Get what you really want even if you have to wait a little longer. You might find the larger one is all you need, I doubt you will find the smaller one is all you need. That my 2 cents at the moment.

I have done a lot of things in my life but welding steel is not one of them. When I built my rolling cart for the 19" TT KK, the only wheels Tractor Supply had were the swivel caster wheels. I ended up putting 4 of them on my cart. Normally a cart like that has 2 fixed wheels and 2 swivel wheels. Trying to move the cart with the 4 swivel wheels, all going in different directions, was like watching the Three Stooges or the Keystone Cops. I laughed at myself every time I tried to move it outside to cook. I tried to locate 2 fixed wheels to make it right but couldn't find a pair to match my swivel wheels. So I decided to have two of the swivel wheels welded in a fixed position. That would involve having to slide the KK off of the cart, onto a pallet, so I could bring the cart into work for the maintenance man to weld it up. It sounded simple but I was have a hard time finding a pallet(s) that matched the height of the cart. I was working by myself and didn't want to try and lift the KK. That's when I remembered..................30 years ago I tucked a small 120 volt welder in the back of the shed. Hey................Maybe I can do this myself with the KK in place????? Went to the shed and found the welder under a huge mouse nest. Cleaned it off as best as possible and plugged it in.....nothing! Gave the box a swift kick and it started humming. Bingo! Tim the Tool Man has nothing on me. Welding can't be that hard!!!! Borrowed a welding helmet from work, hooked everything up, got the grill & cart into position and proceeded to weld away. It took me about 10 tries but I finally managed to get a bead going. Only got the welding rod stuck on the wheel another 10 times. Went through 15 welding rods.......... but finally managed to get 2 good spot welds on each of the caster wheel frames. Here is the good laugh...........my finished results: It did the trick....the wheels no longer swivel and the cart is manageable now.....and the great thing is that you can't see the welds from a standing position . I do not plan to quit my day job!!!!!!! Too much fun.

Tired of crappy knives my entire life I finally got my first real knives. Also a Hinoki cutting board to go with them. I plan on purchasing a few more as money allows over the next few months. Definitely wicked sharp out of the box. Thinnest tomato slice I've ever done and I wasn't even holding the tomato. I'm going to have to improve my knife skills. A Bistro Junk Pie is on the menu tonight. Over 10 different toppings should give me plenty of play time. Dough has been refrigerator rising overnight.

We have been thinking about getting a kitten for our big puppy as a companion but it would have to be a feisty breed to take on a German Shepherd female (19mo old) 82 pounds. She loves to play and can totally wear us out.

Sounds like a Dennis or Bosco question good luck and can't wait to see what is or if it's needed for anything! Garvin

Oh man that looks good. Kudos on pushing the limits on toppings.

Three green tomatoes sitting at home waiting for tonight's dinner

I did a good bit of research between VG-10 and SG2. Both are considered really hard super steels. VG-10 coming in at a Rockwell 61-62 depending on the tempering method. SG2 coming in around a Rockwell 63. The difference lies in how brittle the edge is. SG2 is a powdered metal. That is mixed better resulting in micro grains that are more tight. The end result is a slightly harder steel that chips slightly less. Slightly being ever so slightly. Because it is slightly harder, SG2 is usually ground to a 12* bevel compared to VG-10 at a 15* bevel. SG2 being just slightly sharper. But either VG-10 or SG2 compared to a none Japanese knife at 22* - 26* bevel about twice as sharp if that's even possible. I don't think you could go wrong with either and I doubt you or me could ever tell the difference.

I was surprised to learn that 5 of the 10 best-selling BBQ books were authored by Steven. He has over 5 million books in print in 19 languages. I'd say he owns the category. Proud of KK's affiliation with Steven and Project Smoke.

I actually have fired her up; pretty much every night ; I've been playing around with the different grate configurations. I love the way they are cut up, so many awesome configurations; plus having that much real-estate has really changed the way I cook, NO MORE gloves cooking on the lower grate. I think I've got her dialed in, I plan on firing up a pig real soon; I'll be sure to post some pics!

Watch to the end and see the mother cat and dad interact!! Garvin

I did it the other way. I got a 23" in October and then an older (non high top) 16" during the Black Friday sale. It has worked out quite well as I put the 16 on our screened porch and I've been using it much more than the 23 since the weather turned cold, rainy, snowy and icy (perhaps not to MacKenzie's standards, but still...). For Christmas Eve dinner I had them both going, smoking a prime rib roast on the 23 and some Atlantic salmon for the salad course on the 16. Like many here, I think having two is great and offers terrific flexibility. Jon

I'm shocked the crust cooked under all those toppings, especially all the high moisture ones! Definitely think parbake going forward! Aren't nice sharp knives a pleasure to work with?? Makes the task not only easier, but fun, too!

For folks that have the Akorn Jr in red, it's now available in black! Lowes.com charcoal grills page towards the bottom of first page. Garvin

Excellent set of knives, Charles! Envious and I have more knives than I know what to do with - including 3 Shun - Utility, Santoku and Nakiri. The other is a single bevel 15* yanagiba that I picked up on Amazon for a decent price ($77) to check out how I like the style before thinking about plunking serious coin down on a better one. This one is great for slicing and I get to practice my manual whetstone skills to sharpen it, too. But, alas it's not available on Amazon right now. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I06P3Z8 Big fan of Japanese knives, but the really nice ones are serious coin - thousands of dollars. Probably never going to get that far into it, but they are handmade works of art, just like a KK. Seems only fitting, right?

Another 2 cents... Having the biggest one you can afford and the space for it means that you can throttle it down for small fires or visa versa. The Basket Splitter works very well to control the charcoal consumption. I have a fire on one side of the KK and can either sear or move the food over to a cooler part of the grill cook things slower. The 16TT has the advantage of being somewhat portable.

Nothing wrong with ending up being a 2 KK family!!!! I did the same thing you are asking about........bought a 19" while I save up for a larger unit. ckreef can give advice on the 16" vs. the 19". I know MacKenzie's newer, custom ordered 16" has features that the reef's unit does not. My want to check that out if ordering from stock. You can cook a lot of food on a 19" TT.............. You definitely have the fever brother!!!

What a lovely dog.:)

Wow! That pie looks really good can I have a bite? And I bet it taste better than it looks although it looks delicious. I'm glad the knives worked out so well for you.

CK, that pie looks tasty and colourful, great way to use up the leftovers.:)

Sicilian pizza is very underrated kind of pizza IMO and when I would order one and happen to be at pizza joint they always precooked the dough then added toppings then bake again. Good looking pie Charles! Garvin

I bet the food tastes better now. Just joking, love the knives.

Thanks, Garvin, I should send you some since you were the instagater of this tasty adventure. [emoji4]

My knife is a Kurosaki Megumi Damascus clad VG-10. I like it a lot. Honestly...and I just might be considered a heretic if I ever posted this on a knife forum...I think any high quality steel is more than sufficient for all but the most snobbish knife aficionados. I picked my knife because of how it felt in my hand. The balance was different and more favorable from other gyutos I held, and I held everything in the store. If you can't actually hold it, then you're down to selecting based on secondary factors. You'll still end up with a high quality knife that's better than my old Wusthof Classic either way.

Completely amazed - I'll leave the final review for my Bistro Junk Pie thread. Hopefully I won't screw this pizza cook up because I definitely have some sliced up ingredients - LOL

Wow took me a few minutes then Doh!

The chef's knife is going to get a good workout tonight. I'll post some feedback later tonight or tomorrow.

Made my sandwich, went to the store and bought more packaged meat than I have eaten in total over the last 20 years, all for one huge sandwich. The bread is cool and I sliced that 12 inch loaf in half for this sandwich. Toasted in my panini pan. Not a big fan of dill pickles so used some pickles of my own. Served with some Jalapeno chips. That sandwich was stuffed, now I'm stuffed.

Yes absolutely.. once in a while... Just don't make an Effing habit of it! LOL

There is no better, only different with each having their merits. My analogy is that the more dense a material is, the more readily it transfers heat to what you are baking/cooking. The baking steels are of course very dense and rapidly transfer lots of heat to your food. This is great with the thin cracker crust pizzas. But at the same temps a traditional pie will have the bottom burned before the top is cooked. The heat transfer formula for my baking stones is for medium to thick crust pizza or bread. Any material can in theory, be used you will just need to balance the crust cooking with the rest of the pie. I always think of the first pie as my guinea pig.. I throw a pie on it and see how it goes at whatever temp the grill is at.. If the crust is finished before the pizzas' toppings are cooked I raise the grill's temp. If the topping and top crust is burning before the crust is ready you need to reduce the grill's temp.. The heat transferred by the stone will stay relatively stable/consistent. Just with the damper top high temps can be adjusted in seconds once you have the grill heat soaked and a basket with only medium and larger pieces of charcoal that do not restrict the grill's airflow.

That cheese sauce looks terrific.

No such thing as running out of lump. I learned a couple of years ago that you buy lump 5, 10, 20 bags at a time. When it goes on sale you buy $100, $200, $300 worth. You'll only use it sooner or later anyway. When you get down to 5 or 10 bags start looking for another deal. Living in GA's high humidity I've never found it to be a problem with long term storage. Just don't let it get rained on.

A common mistake is people using a heat deflector below the baking stone, this is not necessary. Another problem is that charcoal creates heat/BTU's by weight, not volume. If you are not using dense hardwood charcoal although it looks like a lot of fuel in the basket, by the pound it's very little. You could also preheat the grill's lid some without the baking stone.. then put your drip pan on the main and slip the baking stone in the already hot grill on the upper.. the drip pan would shield the stone from too much sudden heat/ shocking the cold stone after 10 minutes pull the drip pan and you are direct and heat soaked. I'm guessing the issue is your charcoal is not very dense and at high temps you are burning thru it. Please feel free to call me to trouble shoot this further..

tiny The electric and stovetop pressure cookers have their pros and cons. The electric ones are programmable to go off at a pre set time. You can put non perishables in there and have the thing fire up say, six hours from now. This is good for beans, oatmeal, certain veggies and all sorts of other foods. Not poultry! If you are cooking in real time, once you set the cooking time, you push a button and go do something else. The thing will cook, stop cooking, depressurize, and kick itself in to "stay warm" food safe temperature mode. They are super convenient. They don't cook at the highest pressure a stovetop model can achieve, but it doesn't make any difference to your outcome. It just takes a few more minutes to cook. The electric ones also have a browning mode to brown meats, a slow cook mode to cook like a crock pot, and a few other modes. I have not perceived any limitations at all to my electric Secura 6 in 1.

See, if you think long enough, a solution is always readily apparent. But remember, solutions ALWAYS have a price. And that price just might be snuggling up to your KK!

HA! Good point. Plus, she really likes what I cook.

If your wife is anything like both of my Exes, her closet contains all kinds of shoes, handbags, etc. and I'm betting she never asked you if she could buy one of them. Taken together, their value outstrips the value of the coco char you want to buy. Let's get some perspective here, okay? Bear in mind that this advice is coming from a man who is 20+ years single and twice divorced! For me, a long term relationship is a 3 day weekend!