Tyrus

Sea Bass, caught one off of Martha's Vineyard a ways back....nice fish, mild tasting.

And when your done with your fish you can play checkers. What kinda fish, something says trout to me

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.

I took another dive into the walnut and found that those smoking with black walnut alone experienced a harsh bitter or sooty taste to their meat. The recommendation was to trim the percentage to 80/20 and use a blend of woods less forceful as to say, (lighter). The information or thought should be interpreted as wood used in a stick burner as in post oak for briskets. The lighter colored english/persian walnut is considered better for smoking having a milder profile. I believe and I could be wrong but in kamados generally speaking, two pieces of wood whatever vareity you choose provide more of an accent to food flavoring amongst all the natural charcoal out of the bag. It's good to mention that Paul, all warnings are there for a reason...make your own choice. A California thing, doesn't surprise me.

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

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.

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.

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?

Your ahead of the curve, it looks like a sit down summer time sandwich. Yum

NapDogg, to add to that I forgot to mention this particular woodworker made slab tables, cutting boards, chess boards and many side craftable items so I knew his sourced wood was good. I hope I didn't step on your toes, it wasn't my intention. With that under the bridge let me step on 5698k's toes. Generally most people prefer naturally seasoned wood for a more intense smoke flavor, KD wood is an effective, readily available choice that prevents bitter, heavy smoke. It's safer to use without running the risk of over smoking, it's clean burning and tends to be lighter...that's a good thing. Moisture content tends to less than 10% while air dried depending if it,s covered and the duration of time should come in around 15-20% as good seasoned characteristics. So what you said is correct on all accounts NapDogg, I would wonder if some soaking to add moisture back could be useful, anyway it will definitely smoke. How'd you come up with the tag NapDogg? I only ask because we're picking up a new dog tomorrow.......we lost ours recently and as C6Bill recently experienced the void was hard to bear. Yah, it should be good. Sorry 5698K

Hey NapDogg, kiln dried wood only uses heat during the process, no chemicals. Maybe you were thinking of pressure treated wood, however as I remember the old arsenic/chromium/copper (CCA) process employed soaking the wood in a bath for predetermined time under pressure. That's maybe why if you remember picking wet boards out of a stack as the reason they were so heavy. Anyhow I digress, all cutting boards, cabinets, furniture etc are made with KD lumber, natural wood dried slowly by heat. Woods like black locust, cedar, teak and redwood have oils or natural chemicals preventing/slowing rot and bug damage. Using these woods for smoking because of the natural oils imparts a nasty flavor to food. I'd say it's safe to use even KD wood although I'd prefer natural from the tree too because it's what were accustomed to and the appearence presents the idea it's safer, nonetheless there isn't much difference.

Found in a butcher shop in Mattapoisett Massachusetts where once a Japanese restaurant use to be. In the display case it was labeled as "Good Fellas" because of the Italian provenance and the ingredients consisting of Capicola Ham, spinich and provolone. It was a large roast but the butcher cut it in half to my liking. Notice the cut and how the stuffing was placed, I hadn't seen this before and thought I'd pass it along if you hadn't. Excellent with Tuscan herbs applied. Plated with steamed Bok Choy drizzled with oyster sauce, & Butternut squash from the KK

Looking at your machine on line and mine I truly can't find a difference. I believe at one point Craftsman had MTD make the blowers for them. The same electric start, gas tank positioning, plate covers, spark plug etc all match up. I have chains on my tires, brutal grab and it has a 26 width bite 8HP. So if your akin to mine I can understand your devotion.

Mexican pizza, have you done this or heard of it? The idea came to me for using Rotel tomatoes and green chiles with some black negro beans. Empty the can, add a dollip of tomatoe paste ( overful table spoon ) and blend by machine. Add this to your dough, then the beans and taco hamburg that you just cooked. Cover with cheese of your liking grated and cook. Now I didn't cook this on the KK because of time constraints so I used the Ooni with the new gas attachment. Brought into the house and covered with sour cream, lettuce and tomato. The pizza was spot on, top and bottom with beautiful leoparding all around...however the middle was a bit gummy. I attribute this to shopping at another store other than my go to for dough and I noticed the dough also didn't have a good rise. Although the pizza was very good besides this gummy it could of used a twist of Taco Sauce as olive oil is applied to a Margarita pizza, preferably after the cook. First time for this, has potential. I will go to confession for not cooking on the KK

Well gcb, it's kinda like this...I asked my wife to wake me up while I was sleeping downstair in a recliner ever "poised to" at a moments notice attack this storm. So at 3am my first glance wasn't as impressive as expected, by 6am the tide had changed immensely and I was out for a series of 3x during the day front and back doing the snow blower/shovel thing. Snow like we experienced as I last remember from 1978 is a rare phenomenon, still thankful it couldn't kick our spirit. That old Craftsman snowblower resides in the garage, I'd put him up against any of todays models,,,it's a beast.