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Some cooks just work right and it all comes together as you pictured it at the start. This was one of those cooks. Pork loin strips grilled and dredged in Grilled Peach Reef Jam w/ fresh rosemary. Green beans in a Neapolitan Balsamic Vinegar. A new candied sweet potato recipe. This was the star of the show and with one more tweak I'll put the recipe in my personal cook book and post it. A totally awesome dinner that left a huge smile on my face. Can't do this cook on a single kamado - if you want it all finished at the same time anyway.

The 22" Standing Supreme in some measurements is larger than the 23" Ultimate and carrying them both is redundant, and unnecessary. The grill has morphed into a Hi-Cap Table Top on steroids which complements the KK line well because customers want to replace XL glazed kamados in their built-in kitchens and the 19" was just too small. The current inventory will be discounted $600 Standard Tiles were $4,100 now $3,500 Pebble and Bronze tiles were $4,280 now $3,680 http://komodokamado.com/collections/22-supreme This is the grill to replace the standing 22" I will go to the factory wednesday and take the final shots.. Yes it will have a lower tray with corner protection.

Tried my first reverse sear added some citrus salt and pepperI foiled the bottom grate to act as a deflector and lit the lump on the rightready to rest whilst bringing Ora up to 550f took the foil off and on they go for the searanother restand plated with some veggies Outback Kamado Bar and Grill[emoji621]

I did Rak's in a parking lot of Bass Pro Shop lol. I met up with him and brought my drill and 1/8 bit. He was sick to his stomach it looked like while I drilled through his brand new pot

When I bought my Kamado Joe I had a word with my insulated cabinet smoker and reassured it that it was still the champ. With my KK’s arrival, no such reassurances were made. This time, the title of "Champ" must be earned. The competitors. On the left is the reigning champ, my 270 Smokers Standard. Boxy but good. On the right, the challenger who needs no introduction. 270 started as a regional brand based in Lexington, VA that made inroads on the competition circuit and is now sold throughout the US and Canada. I was an early adopter, posted a review at BBQ Brethren, and still field IM’s, emails and even occasional phone calls from owners and prospective buyers. It's an insulated cabinet with a unique design known as heated draft. I'll spare you the details, but the bottom line is that it is a convection smoker whose design amps up the flow, promoting very even temps and smoke distribution. Water pans are optional but recommended. Couldn't be more different from a KK in terms of airflow and the means by which it manages temps and moisture. To sustain that air movement, the 270 burns a lot of briquettes. After running my KK for 10 hours at 275 the other day I only needed to add two coco char sticks to reload the basket for today’s cook. The 270 excels at cooking the big four proteins popular on the KCBS circuit, so this is stiff competition for a KK. I’ll be using each cooker with my best practices for each. Here's a view of the 270’s firebox loaded to the brim. I’ll burn a fair amount of that today. Lighting procedure is ½ chimney of lit coals laid on top, burning down Minion style. The ever familiar KK lighting procedure for low and slow. One spot lit. Fifteen minutes before the ribs go on I put the smoke wood in each. One chunk of hickory and one of cherry go in the 270. You can see significant fuel consumption already. We'll add more chunks as the cook goes on. Just how you roll with this thing. And the smoke pot with one chunk hickory, two chunks cherry, and the gaps filled with cherry chips. That's it for this cook. No refills. The ribs: four racks of Costco St. Louis cut spares. Four racks seasoned with Meat Church Honey Hog, with two of those seasoned with a second layer of Honey Hog Hot. One of each will go on each cooker. After two hours, both are looking good: Both cookers are struttin' their stuff, smoking their little hearts out: Maintained a steady 275 on both cookers throughout. For the KK this was effortless. For the 270, I had to actively manage the vent because as the coals burned down, the ash was starting to affect the burn of the remaining coals. Whenever I opened for spritzing, the KK recovered immediately to the same temp. The 270 required 5-10 minutes to recover. After 3-1/2 hours the ribs in both cookers were passing both the bend test and the toothpick test. Here's the fire box of the 270 at the end, full of ash and burned down quite a bit. The final product. The KK ribs are on the right. The 270 ribs are on the left. Don't tell my blind taste testers. The Test: I had four blind taste testers. Three are my wife and two daughters who have eaten plenty of 270 ribs. The fourth is Mr. Qua, my eldest daughter's friend, who helped me move my KK to the back yard and is now pleased as can be to be eating ribs. The Results: Wife and daughter the youngest decided both were equally good, although my wife did pick up on a "smokier" note in the 270 ribs. As we discussed it, we concluded that note was the flavor of the briquettes underlying the wood smoke. Not unpleasant, but distinct. The KK ribs cooked with CoCo Char lacked this note. Daughter the eldest and Mr. Qua both picked the KK ribs without hesitation. When asked why, they both stated immediately that they were more moist. I'm the fifth vote and noted that as we continued to eat ribs (Wife and daughter the youngest finished early, so didn't notice this), the KK ribs retained their moisture as they cooled, while the 270 ribs seemed to dry up a bit. The Verdict: With 3 votes for the KK ribs and 2 votes neutral, the new champ is my KK. The KK was both easier to use by far, and also produced more moist ribs. Look for my 270 on Craigslist soon.

I posted this here, since the dinner was not done on the KK. I was out of town and had to use a Weber kettle. I had planned to celebrate my 60th birthday in style. And did I ever! So, here goes. Champagne, but of course, this is my 60th after all. So, it had to be special. What goes best with champagne - well, caviar and fois gras, naturally. So, what's for dinner? Wagyu cowboy ribeye. Cooked sous vide @ 130F for 3 hours and finished off on the Weber. That's 2 3/4 pounds of luscious beef! Made a lovely potato galette in duck fat to go with the steak. Plated, with black truffle butter and more fois gras on the steak, because you can never have enough fois! So, what do you drink with this meal? I guess I'll have to make do with a "89 Opus One from my cellar that I've been saving for 25 years for this particular birthday. And for dessert? No, not cake, a nice "77 vintage port from the cellar! To say that this was epic is an understatement. My only concern is "How do I top this @ 65?"

It was just too nice this morning to cook in the kitchen so why pass up a chance to cook on the KK. Bacon, eggplant, boiled egg (just warming up) and keeping the toast warm. If you haven't tried bacon on the grill it is absolutely wonderful. Plated. Someone over boiled the egg yesterday hence the pretty green colour.:)

My first ever. I remember seeing posts from someone (can't remember who) saying they gave up briskets for chuck rolls. So i bought a 20 pounder and did a two meal cook. Half went into chili at an internal temp of 170-175. The other half for pulled beef sammies at 205ish. I cooked it real slow at 220, except overnight I slowed to 210 so I did not bust through the stall while asleep. At 170 (about 19 hours) I cut it in two and cubed the meat for the chili. The pulled beef half went into a Lodge dutch oven with red wine and sweet onions. Potatoes and peppers added later. The rub was pepper, onion, garlic, paprika and a beef base coating on top. Enjoy! We did....Really beefy flavor! And a little gratuitous carporn...

Nicely done, as usual, Charles!

Nicely seared!

Thanks to all ya'll. It was indeed epic. I wholeheartedly recommend you do it up in whatever style suits you when you reach milestone birthdays - as you're never guaranteed to reach the next one! @MacKenzie - there are several candidate bottles of wine for the 65th in the cellar. Not sure if the wallet can up the game much more on the bubbly though - LOL!

I don't see why not. I have read many posts on the BBQ Brethren with members using green wood exclusively in their smokers due to the moisture content and added flavours. I truly believe that the smoker pot purifies the bad, leaving just the good.

One of the side benefits of the log is that it can become a memory book - we not only have the notes about the paella we made for Eric (or brisket with the neighbors, or or or), we remember sitting around the table, Eric trying the sky chair, the good times of the evening.

Excellent cook i would say it all came together indeed

Excellent Dennis love those numbers word is getting around for sure

The crust on that steak looks fantastic.

Looks tasty. Pork and peach must be a fabulous combination.

Isn't that wonderful , Dennis.

We killed it on Sunday too.. Almost 10k unique IP visitors in two days! LOVE it.. Gotta be the Project Smoke marathon.. This is the website and the forum

Sure looks tasty, ck and I can't wait until I get my peach jam so I can try it.

Aussie, wow, that is a tasty looking steak dinner, great colour on those steaks.:)

Looks great aussie you sure are giving ora a workout

Great looking ribeyes.

It was some time ago when this came up so I thought to finally try it. 30 minutes ago I put a 15 pounder on the fire. The rub was Adams Steak au Poivre with a healthy dose of added cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. I'm not sure how I will cook it. Low and slow or maybe the brisket hot fast method. One thing I do know is that when it hits 165 it's going to get wrapped in paper. While I think it over, it's running at 250. I want it done this evening so will probably hybrid cook it. Slow for a while to get some smoke and bark on it and then kick it up to 350 after the paper wrap. Stay tuned...

Great job on those steaks! Looks like you are figuring out the KK nicely!

Looks great Aussie. Since I learned about the reverse sear, I haven't done it any other way.

Wow!! That looks so good. Those green beans mut have been delicious. I love green beans. And that yam recipe really looks good. I think I'm going to have to try a pork loin on my next cook. Looking forward to you posting the recipes. Thank you

Looking good! Ora's getting a workout.

Get the grill to temp. Right before putting food on place it onto the lit area. You will get smoke quickly. Load the DO up with wood. It will go all day

That was me trying to figure out which cooker to get!!!!! Logging in from 12 different devices

What a cook halfsmoke that looks killer i bet it was so delicious I have to get me a smoke pot as well never thought of putting one right on coals

Hi Rak, my pot is coming from Amazon this week. Guess you'll be trying yours before I get mine. Let us know how you managed.:)

Putting my money on Project Smoke viewers binge watching.

Maybe a new episode of project smoke? I saw a new Facebook post from Steven Raichlen this am that featured a gold 32" kk.

I've made this post once before but I can't seem to find it so I'll give it another go............... . When talking about md high heat (350*-550*) there are two basic ways to manage your coals. A) hot fire, large bed of coals. B)cooler fire, small bed of coals. Each method has it's pro's and con's. . . . A) hot fire, large bed of coals. Mainly useful for direct grilling and searing. (I like this method for rotisserie) . Pro's - coals covers a larger area of the grill so more protein sits directly above the coals. Faster to come to temperature. . Con's - uses more fuel. Can cause a hot zone especially if doing an indirect cook. . This requires a larger top vent opening. A lot of heat will be wasted going out the top vent which will in turn require a larger bottom vent opening. The end result is burning more lump and having a larger bed of coals. . . . cooler fire, smaller bed of coals. Especially useful for indirect cooking and baking. . Pro's - burns less lump to maintain a given temperature. More even heat distribution especially when doing an indirect cook. . Con's - takes longer to get to temperature. Smaller bed of coals not good if direct grilling a large amount of protein. . Once near target temperature the top vent can be set with a smaller opening. In turn the bottom vent can be set with a smaller opening. With a smaller top vent opening more heat is trapped inside the kamado so a smaller fire is needed to maintain a given temperature. This will take longer to stabilize at a given temperature. . . . Most of my cooks are md high heat. Both methods will obtain a stable temperature. Once I decide what I'm cooking I choose the best method for that particular cook. Unless direct grilling or rotisserie I usually use a smaller top vent opening as it conserves fuel and I go through a fair amount of lump on a weekly basis. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Stile, remember you have much more mass to heat up but once it's up to temp. I bet you'd use less lump to keep it at that temp.:)