myself888

Thank you all for this conversation! We have always used our deflector, but my husband was just questioning its necessity tonight as he was preparing our KK for an overnight low and slow. I found this info just in time.

I bought the Smartfire for my husband's birthday gift a couple weeks ago. Everything works great! Instead of punching out the ceramic plug in the front, he drilled a 1" keyhole in the rear vent plate. Not sure if everyone has a rear vent. When we bought our KK, we purchased it with the gas burner (never used), so it has a rear vent. Below is a link to the piece of piping he used. He added a cap for when he is not using the Smartfire. He and my son ran a test cook (no meat, just a basket of coals) and it performed well, so the next day we went on a hike all day while cooking pork shoulder. It was nice to be able to check the app throughout the day to see that things were stable and the meat was making steady progress. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MXXYMSW/?coliid=I2B0B3Z6GW3PB1&colid=W2YAI4BADZ8B&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

I've only ever made dry yeast bread and have wanted to learn the whole sourdough style, so I just purchased the Tartine Bread book and made my first sourdough starter and bread. I followed the recommendation to use a dutch oven (more steam) in my regular oven. This worked well and produced beautiful boules (see photo). I'd like to try baking inside my KK and wondered if anyone has pictures of successful KK loaves. Does the KK hold enough steam inside (similar to the dutch oven technique) to produce the crackly crust?

I'd like to try cooking with the coconut charcoal. Anyone in the nearby area willing to sell a box? Once I'm convinced, I would then like to see about sharing a shipment. Let me know. Annie

I've been reviewing some recipes for pork rillettes (potted pork). All the fat rendering and such made me think that the process of making a pork butt/shoulder on the Komodo should pretty much give the same results. I always have a drip pan full of rendered fat and my shoulders have great flavor. Am I over simplifying this by thinking that I should be able to chop up my pulled pork, add back a small amount of the rendered fat and voila! Rillettes?

The Bag Solution This is so NOT a "green" solution, but it's super easy and works for us until we can find a better more planet friendly option - I'm not quite ready to start making my own soap. Just tape the bag in place and brush the ash out the hole from the inside. Be sure to brush the bottom side well so you don't drop all your ash when you remove the lower strip of tape. Then just tie the bag closed and drop it in the trash. Yes, that is our rib rack doing double duty as a grill grate stand.

My husband often cooks, then vacuums large batched of ribs. He comes home for lunch, so he'll just drop a vac bag into a pot of boiling water and make a quick salad or slice some tomatoes. We've had no problems so far. Of course, they're never in the freezer for more than a couple weeks max. I don't know about long term storage. He does this with beef too - TriTip, Flank steak, etc.

I'm very interested. Let me know if you end up liking it.

I'll take one please...

I just read a cool idea. For my quick cooks - like grilled chicken breasts - I am now using the side burner of my useless gas grill to light my charcoal chimney. It took like two seconds and I just dumped the coals into the basket, tossed on another handful and the grill is just about ready to go.

We just received our gas burner for the KK and hooked it up to our natural gas line that previously supplied our stainless gas grill. We've already had the grill up to 400* in test mode (took about 45mins). I plan to place the heat deflector in the middle area of the grill and cook a honey whole wheat sandwich bread. I'm using a standard loaf pan on the main grate. Anyone out there cooking in a KK with natural gas? Any advice you can provide regarding connection, air flow, max temperature ranges, etc. will be appreciated. My concerns are sufficient air to the flame and avoiding soot and gas flavors. How far should the bottom damper be open? How high should the top hat be open? I want to ensure air flow but don't want to lose all my heat.

Rib Bummer! Instead of making our own rib rub, we bought one. I don't know if we did something wrong or if we just can't handle as much salt as the manufacturer assumes people must like. The entire 3 pack is inedible - even after rinsing them twice and sticking them back on the KK for another hour. What a disaster. Here is what we did: We rubbed the racks and put them in a cooler overnight, then followed the standard low and slow procedure - full basket, heat deflector, main grate. After temp stabilized at around 235*, we placed the three racks on the main grate and left the ribs to cook. After about 3 hours we cut a rib to taste and discovered that we had a little ribs with our grilled salt.

Oh wow, that's beautiful. You can poke me in the eye with that cactus anytime!

Re: First KK Turkey - DAMN!

Love them butts Good recommendation. We put the butts (plus some brisket and beef shortribs) on this morning and cooked all day. Guests arrived and we pulled the meat off right in front of them. Lots of oohs and aahs. LOL, talk about drool! No pictures - wild animals snarling and drooling scared me too much. Thought I'd lose my hand and the camera! I forgot about the injection, but the food was so tasty - and the best part is that the low and slow imparts so much good flavor that we really don't use very much rub or salt. I served the pulled pork with Portuguese sweet rolls and BBQ sauce. And here's the fun part, I made homemade chocolate pudding - haven't had that since I was about 5 years old. Finally, the ever present wine: Vallado Douro d.o.c. 2007 Vinho Tinto [Portuguese Red Wine] St Francis 2005 Sonoma County Syrah The Works 2004 Howell Mountain Zinfandel St Francis Sonoma County Old Vine Zinfandel 2004 Tres Viejos Paradise Ridge The Convict Zinfandel Rockpile 2006 Esmeralda Valley 2002 Syrah Calaveras County Chatom Vineyards