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Well, this chapter of the journey has closed. It started with an innocent question about charcoal and ended up with the purchase of a 32KK. 😁 I'm kidding but you lot are a terrible influence! 👨‍💻 The 32KK arrived just before 4pm. Having checked in with the clearing agent after 8am, I knew to expect it late afternoon. I called to confirm and the vehicle tracker said they were 15 minutes away. I called Keith (local farmer) who said he would be over in 20 mins with the (telehandler/teleporter/lull). Perfect. The vehicle arrived and the driver (who was Russian) discovered that my Russian was as fluent as his English. So through a combination of interpretative dance and 'da, da, da, nyet, nyet, nyet' we got the truck parked where it wouldn't block the road as he could not make the turn. Some more 'da, da, da' and the doors were open and the tail lift engaged. Those familiar with the UK will be surprised to see blue sky. Typically, the arrival of complicated deliveries involving expensive items demands that the heavens open and that you have to deal with a deluge of mud and water. Tail lift down, we talked strategy (more interpretative dance this time with pointing) and a da or two later, we had the KK on the pallet truck and wheeling down the road. I'm afraid there aren't any comedy images of the two of us pushing 675KG of crated Komodo down the road. I was alerted to the presence of two cars behind us with a flurry of 'nyet, nyet, nyet' from the truck driver just as Keith arrived in the opposite direction driving the telehandler. We were stuck in the middle between a telehandler and a Range Rover. The Range Rover decided that reversing was a good idea and as Keith had to turn, he charged up the road in the same direction as the Range Rover in what looked like some surreal joust. Keith drove the telehandler in a way that suggested a love of rallying and that it wasn't his first rodeo. We got the KK off the blue pallet first which would have seriously complicated life (special thanks to @PVPAUL who helped me avoid a problem and a lot of wasted time) and placed it on the patio. I have to say that as a piece of equipment, the telehandler was pretty impressive to watch. The horizontal hydraulic arms just extended out and eased the crate down effortlessly. It has all wheel steer so is remarkably manoeuvrable. As it was now after 4pm, the siren call of the pub saw Keith dematerialise and the Russian driver had already departed in a flurry of 'da, da, sign here, spasibo' leaving me to free the KK from its confines of the last two months. I looked at my watch. 17 minutes from arrival to being ready to unpack. Might have to setup a league table on the forum although 90% of that is thanks to the telehandler. 💨 I had my socket set, screwdrivers, mallet and a small crow bar ready and tackled the crate. Eight bolts came out pretty quickly and my wife was enlisted to assist lifting the cover off. A challenge as she travels closer to the ground than I do so we were not well matched to lift evenly. The dog decided that now was the perfect time to get underfoot so had to be shepherded out the way. It went smoothly and off came the top. At this point I remembered that I should probably document the grand reveal. The patio is being ripped up and hard landscaping due to start shortly so I have blue linemarker all over the place for the contractors so they don't go through pipes or other services. And there it is. I've not quite finished unpacking it all as it was my wife's birthday and we were going out for dinner. While I would have liked to have opened it all up and set everything in place, I just didn't have the time so it's a job to finish tomorrow morning. One thing that I wasn't sure of was the hanging assembly for the side tables to fold them down. It was approaching midnight that I looked at them with a head torch. Anyway, I'll finish this post with an obligatory shot of the dog (Welsh Terrier) contained in the BBQ to show scale and to keep him out of trouble after he picked up some of the packaging and sailed down the garden with it. Staged next to the 19" tabletop (same finish), the 19" looks positively pocket sized. Until you try and move it. Thanks to everyone for the advice and support along the way. Now I just need to remind myself of burn in procedures and strategies for making the grill easier to clean.

We tried the two variants of cotechino last weekend. Both were good but neither was as good as the version that we bought in Italy. The Husband said that was not surprising given the Italians have been making it for hundreds of years and this was our first attempt. I am still interested in improving on our version but am also looking forward to buying the real thing when we return to Padova in December. In the meantime, here is a plate of very tasty sausage masquerading as cotechino.

You're supposed to buy extra - LOL Well, I did buy extra: However, the peaches were a bit hard and cold when they arrived so I left them for about a week to ripen. Turns out that was a bit too long and I had to cut and throw away a fair few that had started to rot. I missed @ckreef's instruction to grill hot and fast. Instead grilled hot and slow and ended up with a quite smoky but delicious outcome No photo of syrup. It's in jars in the kitchen and I am sitting in the garden. I would say it is a little darker than the photos of Charles' and probably a little smokier. All the better to glaze pork ribs with. Yesterday's lunch, with chopped chilli on top. Yum.

After the last few posts in the Bruce thread I got wondering - really, how often do I cook outside? Only one way to know for sure - let's keep track of it. No pictures for this thread, just - Day, Date - what I cooked - what grill I used. I'll update this first post every couple of days. I'll keep this going for maybe a month or so or until I get tired of doing it - LOL - check back often. P. S. If Mrs skreef cooks outside instead of me I'm going to count that - she cooks every once in a while. Fri, 9/20 - salmon - 19" KK, direct using Grill Grates Sat, 9/21 - chicken halves - Nuke Delta Sun, 9/22 - meatloaf Wellington - 19" KK - Mrs skreef, Guru meatloaf challenge Mon, 9/23 - Bisquick Chicken Pot Pie - 19" KK - used leftover grilled chicken from the Nuke Delta grill. Tue, 9/24 - Wed, 9/25 - grilled thighs - 16" KK w/ Grill Grates - corn risotto - outdoor side burner Thu, 9/26 - pork tenderloin medallions and a cabbage steak - Blackstone griddle Fri, 9/27 - Sat, 9/28 - swordfish steaks and crab cakes - 19" KK Sun, 9/29 - grilled pineapple - 16" KK w/ grill grates - mushroom risotto - outdoor side burner Mon, 9/30 - boneless skinless turkey breasts - 19" KK semi indirect on KK grates Tue, 10/01 - hamburgers - 16" KK w/ grill grates Wed, 10/02 - Thu, 10/03 - Bronx Bombers and bread sticks - 19" KK indirect on upper grate. Fri, 10/04 - Cobia and crab stuffed U5 Shrimp - 19" KK Sat, 10/05 - Sun, 10/06 - Pan Pizza and Ranier Cherry Crumble - Wood Fired Oven Mon, 10/07 - meatloaf and green bean Caserole - 19" KK indirect, upper grate @ 400* Tue, 10/08 - 1/2 chicken - 19" KK Wed, 10/09 - Hamburgers - 16" KK w/ Grill Grates Thu, 10/10 - marinated pork tenderloin scraps - Blackstone Griddle Fri, 10/13 - Sat, 10/12 - Supreme Pan Pizza - WFO - lamb loin chops and crab cakes - 19" KK Sun, 10/13 - Brunswick Stew - 19" KK Mon, 10/14 - Mac & Cheese and chicken legs - 19" KK Tue, 10/14 - Brunswick Pot Pie - 19" KK Wed, 10/15 - Thu, 10/16 - Fri, 10/17 - smash burgers - Blackstone Griddle Sat, 10/18 - Sun, 10/19 - Flat Iron Steak - Nuke Delta Mon, 10/20 - Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese - 19" KK

Wife’s belated b day dinner! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@ckreef You're correct on both counts. I ordered this back in May. Each is made to order; opted for upgraded stainless steel grates, grills and flat-top. Has a canvas cover also. Can do charcoal or wood. link to the sellers site with their photos : http://www.azbbqgrills.com/page-3/photos-2/

Whoa! I’ve heard the 42 comes with a goat. Is a terrier part of the 32 standard kit now?

OK, I was finally able to dig through my photos and found some that will give you a pretty good idea of the setup. I'll post them in a series here. First, here are some photos of version 1.0 of the electric grill. It worked on 110v / 15A. I think I used a heating element in the 1200W range to make sure I kept a cushion on the maximum rating. It worked and was great for smoking. It could get in the 200-250 degree range in about 30-60 minutes if I remember correctly. These photos show: 1) The first firing of what I believe to be the first ever electric KK. Dennis may know better. 2) Proof of the first time it hit 400 degrees. It took a long time to get there. Maybe 4 hours or more? A 110v / 1200W heating element just doesn't have enough power to heat up all of that thermal mass. 3) The electric KK in action, cooking a Wagyu Culotte Cap with a smoking box 4) The finished steak. It was delicious. You can see that it cooked very evenly and had almost no grey ring. It was like cooking sous vide. I believe I needed to get the sear in a pan or the broiler.

I came across an interesting duck giblet sausage recipe the other day and, somehow, went from a small bag of goose giblets in the freezer to half a pig and two days of sausage making. Here we go... First soak your skins. The sheep's skins are thinnest but were actually the easiest to work with. Duck giblet sausage from the Pitt Cue Co book. I am guessing it is an Italian recipe given the fact that your "sausage" ends up being wrapped in the neck skin. My necks came skinless so I opted for chipolata style sausages. Colourful rub ingredients, including orange zest. Goose necks, giblets and chicken wings ready to go. Onto the KK in dairy cow fat. Smoked at 100C for three hours and then added hearts for two more hours and then livers for a further 20 minutes. I am a little squeamish about hearts so this was a good recipe for processing all the interesting bits of poultry. I know the idea of poultry necks will be daunting for some but just look how familiar the picked meat looks - you wouldn't know that that wasn't a (small) pile of pulled port, would you? It was very hard work to get the very stiff mix into chipolata skins but here are the resulting sausages, waiting for their debut. Think very skinny liver sausages with the added benefit of chopped pickled cherries. Here is the head of the lovely pig that gave up his/her life for the rest of the sausages. At the end of day 1 we had all the meat cut up, seasoned and waiting in the fridge for mincing on Day 2. First we made cotechino sausages. I totally loved these winter sausages when we bought them from Italy last year. Imagine my surprise when I find that they are made of half and half skin and meat. I guess that is what gives the sausages their unctuous flavour. I found two different recipes. One had parmesan in and the other red wine. I made both. Here is the batch with red wine, I think. @Braai-Q recommended Luganega sausages in a previous post so when I saw the recipe in my sausage making book I thought I would give them a try. Here they are, looking luscious. We made a couple of batches of bog standard pork sausages. One coarse cut Italian hot sausage and one fine cut old favourite, pork and sage. And finally the Cornish Hogs Pudding or White Pudding. Made with a mix of pork and "lights" (lungs and hearts) and groats. They are a "white" equivalent of black/blood pudding. You have to poach them for about 50 minutes. In the past we have had them break at this stage, filling the pot with your precious sausage meat. This time we paid attention to the definition of "poach", didn't boil and didn't have any breakages. The cotechini need to hang for up to six weeks and the rest of the sausages will go in the freezer. Will taste over the coming weeks. I imagine some of you will be uncomfortable about the "nasty bits" that go into sausages. Don't be. Sausage skins encase and make all meats wonderful. Here are my left over skins, salted and waiting for their chance at greatness.

My kind of meal - looks great.

Flexing after steak dinner Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Waffle, bacon, butter [emoji91] [emoji91]

Absolutely, due to the scale of the 32, you need someone to help you finish the quantity of food that you're going to produce. Best and most practical accessory. Also has a secondary dishwashing function.

Where is it located? I'm not interested but that information might help someone else make a decision.

Mackenzie, if you have two wires and a KK, you are clearly of fine taste and great discernment. I would love to see some pictures. A group shot of KK and dogs would be 😍

That would have been a sight to behold! Looking forward to the big reveal.

Final note: As much as I wanted to deliver to Dennis a working electrical product to share with the community, I just ran out of time to take this to the next level. I had a very busy job and kids to raise. Over the course of this project, I had to consult with electricians, electrical distributors, ceramic specialists, heating element technical sales, industrial designers, and even a master welder. Some of it was overkill, but I wanted to do this safely. As I started to understand the complexity of getting a heating element to heat up that much thermal mass, I wasn't sure if this would be a practical thing to build. Dennis would certainly have the fabrication capability to make a product that could be packaged with the PID controller. I just don't know if enough people would be able to use it. It would only be practical for low and slow cooks at household current. It could do a very good job at that, though. The electrical element could also be used as a charcoal starter for the non-condo crowd. Thanks very much to Dennis for his extra efforts to make this experiment possible. Dennis, if you want to take this further, I'd be happy to share information. I hope this was helpful!

Here is the grill in operation. So, after all is said and done, would I recommend this? First of all, I would wait until someone builds a fully tested commercial product. This was incredibly difficult to build as a hobbyist. I lacked the machine tools to fabricate it the way I would have liked to. I made some beautiful steaks, pork shoulders, and chickens with this. It was easy to start (flipping a switch) and gave me perfect cooking control. It was slow to heat, however, and it was hard to do a reverse sear as the time to get above 500 degrees was a long wait. Most homes in the US would not have convenient access to the amount of power I had available. You would need an electrician to provide a dryer (or even higher amp) circuit. Finally, if you are going electric to fit with condo rules, keep in mind that the weight of a standard KK is more than most decks would be designed for. I was able to make it work because I was using a smaller KK without a firebox - and my deck is fully supported by steel beam structures - it is not an overhanging balcony. Now that I have moved elsewhere, I am back to charcoal like everyone else. Maybe I'll break out the electrical gear again sometime for some easy low and slow cooks. I doubt I'll try to use it at high current again - I could probably do a hybrid charcoal/electrical cook to accomplish higher heat cooks. I hope this helps!

** Note ** I do not recommend that anyone try this. These designs worked for me, but your results could be very different. It involved using high electrical current which would be very dangerous if not handled safely. Please do not attempt this unless you are very secure in your knowledge of all of the electrical elements and materials involved. I do not want or accept any legal or moral liability. If anyone has any concerns about this information being shared, I'd be happy for these materials to be removed. I'm posting this in the hopes someone with the right skills could create a safe, legal, and UL approved product. Everyone else should not attempt this. Using non-UL approved products may void your home insurance and also may simply be dangerous. ------------------------- Here are a few photos to show you the design of the electric heating element. I created this design to allow a single length of heating element to distribute the heat as evenly as possible. There are limits to the bend radius of Incolloy heating elements, so it made it hard to have a simple back and forth design. This design worked pretty well. The paper drawing was my basic design template , and I have a tape measure to show scale. This was designed to be able to fit at the bottom of a 19" KK. This design was for a 3500W heating element which was on a 220v / 30A circuit. Again, I was being very conservative to keep a cushion to max current. By running both elements together, I was able to get about 5000W of power. The elements ran from power from different electrical panels to avoid overloading. I actually once got the KK up to 1000 degrees, although it took a very long time to get there. The 2nd photo shows my effort to create a ceramic cast part to hold the heating element steady within the KK from the Guru port. Using Ceramic casting proved to be difficult using my limited home tools. Therefore I eventually used stainless steel plumbing parts which I potted with high resistance, high capacitance, and high thermal resistance ceramic. This did a good job of protecting the electrical wiring from heat and held the elements in place. The final picture shows version 1.0 of the heating element attached to the top port and version 2.0 attached to the bottom port. This setup allowed me to have a heating element right under the main grill for direct high heat, and one underneath the fire basket (I didn't actually use the firebox or fire basket) for indirect low-and-slow cooks. If I were to build a version 3.0 heating element, I would have tried to use a longer heating element and a higher wattage. Note that in order to use this, I used ceramic electric blocks rated for very high temperatures and very high amperages - far beyond my actual usage. I also used electrical connectors and electrical wire rated similarly. For example, I think the wire was 10AWG wire rated for 1000 degrees celsius. I sourced these on Amazon, Ebay, and AliExpress. I also used some Aremco ceramic potting and casting materials. I don't remember for sure, but I think I tried Zirconium Oxide ceramic and later Silicon Dioxide. I think the Zirconium Oxide was preferred b/c it was stronger and had great thermal and electrical properties. I believe it is the same ceramic that is used for teeth fillings and crowns. I used 10 AWG outdoor rated wiring, and connected it with an Auber Instruments thermocouple based PID controller, which was rated for up to 900 degrees. It worked beautifully and I could control the smoker temperature to within 1 degree. The only problem I experienced with it was that it didn't handle opening the lid well. It would get confused and turn off the power to be safe. The PID controller flickers the heating element to bring the heat up gradually to the target temperature on a sine curve - which helps to avoid overshooting the temperature.

Right after dinner I went on a round trip of 52km to get homemade ice cream worthy of some Grilled Peach Reef Syrup. Winner winner.

In the US, "domestic" butter (believe or not there is such a thing) has less butterfat than European butter and is typically uncultured (just like many Americans...but I digress...). European butters have higher butterfat, are often cultured, and loads o' flavour. This is what I try to buy. Wegman's also sells a 2 lb. brick of something labeled "Amish butter", suggesting it is made by the Amish. I have no idea what the difference is with this butter, but it seems to be a bit more flavourful than commercial American butter. And there's my butter lecture for the day. I relinquish the balance of my time to the gentleman from Georgia...

Finally getting around to posting my Labor Day cook. Did a 3-2-1 with 3 slabs of St. Louis style pork ribs. Full smoke pot for part 1 with a mix of Coffee splits and hickory. 1/2 load of charcoal in the 32", smoking on the "cool" side. 225F for 3 hrs After the 3 hrs of smoke. Ready to wrap. Liberal amounts of Irish butter, more rub and brown sugar. Wrap in plastic and foil, back on for 2 hrs at 275F Final step, unwrap, crank up the heat and sear them off. At least I got one of the 3 to try.... the first two slabs disappeared before I even got to pull a bone.....