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Steve, I find to speed up the start process that it is necessary to open the vents a fair bit to get the fire going and the whole grill up to the temp you desire but once the heat sink is done it takes very little vent openings to maintain that temp.

I think heat sinking over night is generally a waste of charcoal but you will have a more stable cook (in the beginning) if you heat sink for an hour or two. . With that said some people will fire up the KK the night before and just let it ride until morning. When they wake up they can immediately put the meat on since the KK is already at temperature and ready to go. . With a full load of lump you won't have to worry about running out even after it ran all night. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Chicken thighs for dinner tonight. Ready to come off the grill. Plated with a salad from the salad bar. Nice and moist as usual from the KK.

I decided to use the lower grate for chicken and corn. I like the results better on the main grate but I thought this would save me a few minutes as we had spent all day at a museum and driving to said museum. Plated with homemade Chipotle sauc e， smoked salsa and homemade herb butter on the corn. My son says I need to work on my plating. Hahaha. He knows what's up.

If we're talking md high heat (350* - 550*) there are two basic ways to run your vents. . If you want a large bed of coals for direct grilling (hamburgers etc...) - open the top vent more. (2-3 turns) This allows a bunch of heat to escape so you have to set the bottom vent more open to maintain a given temp. This makes a larger bed of coals good for direct grilling. . If you you are doing indirect cooking (baking, casseroles etc...) then a large bed of coals is not needed only temperature. In this case set your top vent in the .5-1.5 turns. That traps more heat in the KK and you can run with a smaller bottom vent setting. . A good real world example is rotisserie chicken. I like doing it at 400* basically direct. . If I set my top vent at 1 turn and the bottom vent to a setting for 400* there is a fairly small bed of coals but it does get the job done. . What I've found is if I set the top vent to 2-3 turns (lots of heat escaping). It makes me have a more open bottom vent and a larger bed of coals to maintain 400*. Doing my vents this way just makes better rotisserie chicken. Better skin color that is crisper. Internally the chicken is basically the same since both methods are at 400* . For me it's all about what I'm cooking at what temp to determine the top vent setting then run the bottom vent at whatever setting it takes to maintain my temp. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

That is a very nice looking dinner, CC. Now that's how fish should be served. Beautiful colour on the salmon and the veggies looks delicious too.

Thank you very much.

I want to add a couple of things, first people who know their final settings and don't need to rush the KK heat up can just do their settings and go do prep or whatever. However if one uses setting for a faster start up and have the vents open for that then one should not walk away for very long at all. If that happens you could have a run-a-way fire or at the very least over shoot your target temperature.

Aussie, you can count on that.:)

Thanks, CC, you are too kind, but don't stop.

I'm going to another level here now being able to leave it to get fully soaked and still be able to do a low n slow.I am seriously going to have fun learning how to make Ora shine Outback Kamado Bar and Grill♨

I generally heat soak for an hour once my temp gets dialed in. For pizza I'll do about an hour and a half. For cooks that need to go on the grate very early in the morning, I'll fire up the KK, set an alarm and go to sleep, get up and put the cook on the grate, and go back to bed. That means the KK can heat soak for 5 or 6 hours. No big deal.

We had a party the other night that ended up being 37 adults. On the KK 32: 1 x 14.7# WAGYU Brisket, 9 X Racks of BB Ribs, 24 X Boneless / Skinless Chicken Thighs At 9 pm Monday after pre-loading the basket with almost an entire box of Coffee Lump Charcoal (it's all that would fit) and lit the fire. Brought it up to 225. At Midnight I put the brisket on. At 9:30 the next morning I put the 9 racks of ribs. At 4 pm I removed the brisket. The ribs were done so I left them on but closed all vents. At 5:30 pm I removed the ribs and I put the chicken on and opened all the vents. (Indirect in center..full throttle on the side). At 6:pm the chicken was done so I removed it and shut all the vents to extinguish the fire. Here is what is left from not quite an entire box. I don't know how long it took to extinguish but the fire was actively in use for 21 hours...low and slow for 20 and WOT for an hour. If I was to remove all the ash I would estimate I still had 1/3 box left. Add in the unused from the box and easily 1/2 box. AMAZING!!!

There are two new types of insulation added since the early days.. The Cabot aerogel (the thermal conductivity of the particles is 12 mW/mK) in the vermiculite insulation and the acrylic insulation that is both the adhesive and grout has nano ceramic spheres. The two of them held 50-70º more heat in. Amazing materials.

Sourdough bread from homeground flour.

I want to know where all the pictures of the Burning container ships are? . You all are going easy on xraydoc Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Next time, after you slice the eggplant, liberally (I mean liberally!!) salt the eggplant and let it rest for at least an hour. Then rinse off the extra salt before cooking. Should help with the bitterness.