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I can’t tell everyone how excited I am to be a part of this community. I’ve coveted one of these cookers for a long time and somehow convinced my off duty supervisor (wife) to purchase one yesterday evening. We bought a 32” Big Bad in olive & gold pebble tile. We purchased multiple accessories including the coal basket divider, dual bottom drip pan, teak side shelves, grate handles, and baking stone. I currently own a BGE XL and a Kamado Joe Classic 2. I will be selling the XL for sure and the jury is still out as to wether I’ll sell the KJ. I look forward to discussing KK with everyone here!

Grabbed the point offered at the local (choice) and cooked it up with s&P and a little additional things 3hrs in. Used the round SS pan that was drilled out and it performed very well for a comfortable 8 hours. Found it gave a equal balance distribution for the heat deflection. Wrapped at the stall in paper since it was a lean piece, but at the end it was all meat.

"Great choice, pebbles cook better than squares." 😃 My wife and I limed the look a little better. I was initially liking the cobalt blue, but my wife really wanted a more neutral color tone as we live in NM and everything is a shade of brown or tan in this area. I like the Olive/Gold quite a bit as well. I had better... I already ordered it. I'm excited for a number of reasons. I'm sick of adjusting BGE XL straps and having a small gap at the back of the hinge allowing smoke and moisture to escape. I'm sick of the plate setter gaps that scorch your food at the ends. I'm really looking forward to the fuel efficiency, steady temperatures, and moisture retention if the KK. The fact that it looks like a work of art doesn't hurt either.

Welcome! Just wait until you get your hands on the Big Bad 32. The difference in quality is hard to describe. Keep the KJ. Many here do 2 kamado cooks all the time. You can sell it when you buy your 2nd KK (don't ask me how I know 😁)

Congrats on the decision wingman. None took it lightly and none seem to have regretted it either. Great choice, pebbles cook better than squares. Be sure to post some photos of the new toy being unwrapped. It sounds like you are very familiar with kamado cooking. As such, post photos of your cook and ask any questions you like. Welcome. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

2 that's the port for the hot/cold smoke generator.. the polder probes are the ones above with the food-grade silicone plugs.. 3 for really low temps.. I always toss a big chunk of wood on the coals that will make thick nasty smoke.. I use this a a visual indication of airflow leaving the damper top.. if you can see any smoke leaving.. you have charcoal burning. Just leave it. You won't get any read on your thermometers until the body is heat soaked which at these temps might take a while. As long as air is escaping up top, regardless how little, you will keep charcoal burning. Low temps use hardly any airflow. BTW you never need to wait to grey over natural charcoal that does not have any added starter chemicals.. only the quick start junk for the beach.

Welcome to the Obsession, Wingman! You're going to be blown away once it arrives and you start to cook on it. HUGE improvement over the BGE. Can't wait to see those all important uncrating and first cook pictures! Don't be afraid to ask questions - that's why we're here - community support - from a safe distance!

Combustion is kind of a random process, so don't fret that you're not seeing an even burn across the basket. You're not doing anything wrong. Keep on rockin' in the free world!

Oh man. This thread gets me excited for the delivery of mine. I looked at my wife, pointed at the screen, and said, "Look... That's a pork butt, that's a Big Bad!"

Ahh Shucks, thanks VERY BIG for the kudos and thank you for your purchase and business, I really appreciate it. Have fun with your new toy!

My last name is Wingle. "Wingman" was coined my first year of Pop Warner football when I was 7 years old. The coach tried pronouncing my name two times, gave up, and yelled "Matt Wingman!" It stuck from that moment on. Ironically I joined the USAF in 1999 and spent 11 years as a Nuclear Weapons Team Chief. I work in NW to this day. I have also been known to help a fellow friend and take one for the team from time to time. I guess its all applicable to some extent. I'm going to take a ton of pictures of the setup and subsequent cooks. I have to get this 1000 pound behemoth from the front of my house to the back, over gravel, through two gates, while fighting a grade. I'm going to employ the plywood method and leap frog the wood along the way. I'm starting to think employing people to do it for me may be the best path forward. Ive also researched chartering a crane. I don't have long to decide as mine was in stock in California. Dennis said it'd be here by mid next week. Speaking of Dennis... He spent a half hour on the phone with me answering questions about the cooker, delivery, setup, our dogs, spice rubs, etc. What an amazing guy. It's clear to me he's really involved from purchase through ownership. I haven't experienced an owner who's so involved and accessible. I see evidence of this level of CS on this forum too. I've seen proposed design changes as a result of loyal customer suggestions. It makes one feel as if each customer is incredibly important and can positively affect future product development. Special stuff....

@Pequod - OR, maybe he just likes helping out a buddy make a hook-up in the bar?? 😄

Not only welcome, you appear to have unbelievably good taste! Is "Wingman" because you have a hankerin' for wings, or did you fly something in your past? If latter, which service, jet, etc.? If former, which sauce?

Additional cooks

Been late getting pictures and cooks uploaded. This thing has been amazing. After burn in, did a pork butt overnight to test, couldn't believe how well it maintained temperature. Did a pizza for second cook, first one (kids pizza) burnt on one side cooked for ten minutes, next one did for 9 and turned halfway through and came out excellent. Pictures of some of my other cooks.

BB32 great Choice. Welcome to the forum Wingman looking forward to delivery pics and first cook pics. Congratulations on your new purchase you’ll love your KK Not only are they great cookers But works of art also, two in one can’t beat that.

Just think the second steak is only going to cost half as much.

I use both techniques - prefer to forward sear on the thinner cuts (<1") and reverse sear on the thick ones. It's too easy to overcook a thin steak using the reverse sear - you'll end up with that gray band just below the surface by the time you get a crust. The solution to the problem is to just sous vide the steak first and just put it on the grill to char the surface quickly. But, it seems like extra work to fire up the grill for a 2 minute sear, let alone the waste of charcoal.

Finally arrived, UPS had the wrong pallet jack and couldn't unload it. Told me it would be next week before they could deliver again, and instead offered to uncrate it. He said afterwards he shouldn't have done that, was too hard for him to get it out of the crate due to it being in a corner and couldn't get the lag bolts off. Now it is sitting on patio and to start unboxing to prep for first cook and burn in.

Last weekend, I decided to use the extra time at home from sheltering-in-place to make pizza in the slow Napoletana style. I followed Tony G's method for his world championship pizza to make the dough. The dough was made from zero zero flour, yeast, sea salt, and water only. It took 3 days of total prep to make the starter and let the dough rise. It was the first time I've made a dough like that. After it was done, it was visible what Tony G is striving for. Long gluten strands and complex channels of air in the dough. I tossed the dough carefully, trying stretch the dough but not to compress it. My KK is a 19" Li'l Isla, and here is where I ran into some problems. I wanted to put my new pizza steel on the main grate and then put the pizza stone on the upper rack. Tony G recommends that setup to cook the pizza on steel and then toast the bottom of the dough on the upper stone for a moment - just enough to crisp the bottom enough for the dough to hold its own weight. As it winds up, the handle of the swinging charcoal opening on the main grate would have prevented me from being able to pick the pizza off of the steel on the main grate using my peel. To improvise, I stacked the heat deflector on the main grate withe the pizza stone on top. This lifted the surface high enough so that the pizza peel wouldn't be impeded. Then I used the steel on the upper rack. I baked the dough on the upper rack and then slipped it into the stone below to finish it. There was barely enough room to slide the pizza in. For KK buyers who are interested in making pizza, I recommend getting the 23" KK or larger - it would just give a bit more comfortable room to work with the pizza. I did also have problem still in getting the temperatures hot enough. I had initially warmed the KK to 550 degrees, but when I put the stone and steel in the KK, I couldn't raise the temperature above 450 - despite trying to give it ample time to heat soak the stones. I topped one pizza as a Margherita, and the other as a white pizza with mushrooms, Red Onions, salad greens, and a touch of olive oil. Despite some struggles, it all tasted great!

I recently received delivery of a new 23" Ultimate in Terracotta Blue. So far I've had no problems cooking at 300F+ and I think I've solved cooking at ~225F which ended up being lighting a single area of coals (I'm using Royal Oak/USA) with a cube, letting it get going a bit, hit it with my Looflighter and wait a bit for that area to be ashed over a bit. Then closing the lid with the top vent open 1/2 turn and the bottom set to the most restrictive hole. I also need to make sure the hole for the temp probes is closed off (I just use a wine bottle cork- not sure if there is something better?). That's fine for BBQ, but when I've had really bad luck trying to tune things for smoking at 180F. If after a few hours of 225 I try closing the top vent to 1/4" open that seems to be killing the fire temps and temps will drop over the next few hours below 100F. Was thinking of maybe opening the bottom vent a bit more to help encourage more air flow through the restricted top vent, but not sure what to do. I've used a Weber Bullet smoker for about a decade before this, but it's a totally different beast from the KK and quickly learning that I need to re-think how to do temperature management! Thanks!

A little grilled cabbage and some hot Italian sausages on the menu.

Maybe it’s a Southern Hemisphere thing, like water down a drain pipe- smoke up a chimney? [emoji100] [emoji3166] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I haven't received my KK yet, but I have experience with kamados. I agree with everyone who've offered advice to this point. The top vent is absolutely more critical with regards to temperature. I once read its a 70/30 split. 70 percent of temperature adjustment is achieved via the top vent. I don't know how accurate that specific percentage is, but this statistic made me rethink how I adjusted temps in the future and I became much better at both adjusting temp, and keeping it steady. as Dennis stated, never use starter chemicals in your kamado either. It can soak into the cooker and affect taste forever... At least that's the case with cookers like the BGE, KJ, etc. I imagine the same goes for the KK.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. So sounds like: I have one of the new model BBQ Guru's on order... gonna be another month or so before it shows up it sounds like. Probably make this easier, but it seems like cheating Sounds like I was using the wrong hold for the probes? I see two silicone plugs in the front just below the lid, but I was using the larger hole with a metal screw plug which is much lower- near the blower port. The 6 extra silicone plugs I received won't fit that larger hole. I'll try running the probes through those holes next time. Anyone know what the larger screw port is for? Sounds like I need to use the top vent more to control air flow than the bottom and need to open up the bottom a lot more. Thanks for the advice everyone!

My grill burns from right to left and I only use the left bottom vent. I’m kinda curious why it burns in that direction to.

Welcome to the Obsession. A couple of observations. Once you heat soak a KK, it's really hard to lower the temperature, as it retains heat very efficiently. So, if you're trying to get down to cold smoking temps, you're going to have to approach it from below, not above. Temps that low are very tricky in the KK, as you barely have to open the top vent. Hard to keep a fire going with that little of airflow. This is where a temperature controller, like a BBQ Guru, would come in handy. Second, don't fret the lower vent setting too much, as the top vent dominates the airflow. Just don't starve your fire by not opening the bottom vent enough - that smallest hole on the right dial is really small. Don't worry about it being more open. Lastly, not sure why you're having a problem with the rubber probe plug. Only thought, seeing as how it's new, is there's a sliver of white plastic in the slit in the plug. Did you remove that? It's just there to show you where the slit is for inserting the wires. OR, is the plug just missing? If so, look in your "spare parts" kit that came with the KK. You should have several "spare" plugs in there.

There should be a plug that came with your KK for you temp. probe holes. I'm not clear if you have the lid closed shortly after you light your fire but normally I start my fire and shortly thereafter close the lid because that is what creates a draft from you bottom vent to the upper vent. Hope this helps.

Well that looks pretty darn tasty LK! I bet your neighbor was a happy person. Nice cook thanks for sharing.

Welcome to the forum Wingman. Great choice on the KK. You will love it.

Looking good Tekebo, I'm thinking 78 days, how'd you you come up with that number. Patience is a virtue to wait so long.

You were living your life and it rolled past on your screen like yesterday's old news. 😜 Glad you like it. Yes @Basher et al, the steak was very tasty. The Husband says we don't have that shiraz but we had something else that was nice. You said that the steak would cost a lot round your neck of the woods. Well, it did here too. Buying the ager wasn't cheap so that steak must be one of the most expensive I've ever eaten! Maybe in a few years when I have aged more salami and eaten many more aged steaks I will be able to justify it on cost. At the moment I justify it based on the sheer pleasure I get from experimenting and eating the results without dying. In this case the steak smelled very fresh and clean when it was broken out. I scraped a little surface mould off in a couple of locations but it was remarkably perky for a piece of meat that had been sitting around for that long.

Is that the BBQ Forum equivalent of "check's in the mail?"

LK, what a great plate of perfectly cooked beef.

That’s a nice looking cut of beef LK and well cooked. Lately ive been leaning toward ckreef, Macs and I think tony does as well with the forward sear technique. From cold to seared up to the charring you like, then I rest it on the higher grill away from direct heat and let it come up to the desired internal temp. Reverse searing over fire has the meat sweating by the time you sear it and this juice dropping into the flame is not great for flavour and flare ups. However, reverse sear is easy to time your cook and can provide good theatre when your steak is engulfed with flames before you singe your arms removing it. [emoji23] Forward searing has you flip or remove the meat from direct flame before it start heavy dripping. Worth experimenting with, maybe not everyone’s preference. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agree 100% , will post pics next cook.

Exactly.

Here is the follow up to my post about coating two fore rib chops in cow fat and leaving them in the ager for a while. We ate one a couple of days ago after 78 days of aging. Delicious. Tasted of blue cheese.

I wanted a kamado for some time now, and refused to go with cheaper ones. Told the wife I didn't want to spend the money on a good kamado so will wait and save. Took a new job allowing her to quit her job. I honestly think she got tired of me saying how much I wanted a KK but didn't want to spend the $$$ said buy it and stop talking. I did get the basket splitter, forget to mention that. Plan on doing quite a few low n slows, so will get the BBQ Guru to make life easy. Look forward to tastier food than what I got on my weber kettle.