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A little late night snack, pulled chuck roast, a little au jus from the roast, KK smoked cheese and pull apart bread made in the Vermicular

Simple porkchop cook last night. Cajun seasoning. Direct. Main Grate. 325F. Peach wood chunks. Side dish of pasta, cuke/tomato salad, crusty bread and a nice fruity Rose.

The pizza stone surface should be the smoother of the two. They are actually made out of different materials. The deflector is the same material as the KK walls. The pizza stone is a different formulation that Dennis came up with just for the pizza stones.

Seriously yummy looking cooks all. And no, I am not buying one of these. A KK with a goat is a higher priority and even that is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Oh gosh, I see another purchase coming...

Dennis has supported me and been extremely patient and thorough while working through my PERCEIVED issues. I've read about KK amazing customer service many, many times. That instills confidence before and during the purchase. Its extremely comforting if you need to exercise/experience it AFTER the purchase. Very thankful to Dennis and the supportive community here on this forum. Ive searched the forums for answers to maintenance questions, cooking ideas, etc. This is a great community and excellent resource too.

Yum Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Looking good ready for a rest Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

I made Japanese Curry Chicken today, actually had to start it yesterday. Made the Garam Marsala and the Curry Roux yesterday. Today it was just a case of cutting up some veggie, diced onions, sliced onion, celery, carrot, tomatoes, a bay leaf and chicken thighs. Layer them all in the Musui and cook for 60 mins. Nothing else added, no water no liquid of any sort. When the hour was up add the Curry Roux and let things sit for 10 mins with the lid no but no heat added. Plated with white rice. It was delicious, fortunately I had only made 65g of the curry roux, (ran out of ingredients) the recipe called for 100g but this was plenty hot enough for me with the 65g.

Mac that bread looks amazing! We may have to try that. Yup...we'll be turning this one into a stew or chili I believe, as we did with the last one! Results were better than last time, plenty of room for improvement. Not bad by any stretch -- fed the family, no complaints from the kids, and we'll turn it into a few more meals. I imagine it's mostly about experience, possibly grass fed. I have another grass fed coming to work on, and then after that I'll try a grain finished, see if that makes a difference.

Here is a phone shot with the bread in the Musui, it has been flipped over and the other side in now browning.

brisket & meater update. Brisket: Took a bit more time than expected to get to 203, thankfully nobody was relying on this for dinner. I put it in a Yeti overnight, but the temps got down to <140, so, into the fridge it went. I'll reheat for dinner tonight...haven't looked into recommendations on bringing it back up to temp, but I imagine I'll just put it back at 250 or so and check it periodically after 140 degrees. If anyone has reheated brisket, I'd love suggestions! Meater: Pretty happy with the first day (happy to answer any questions folks have, I'll be using it a lot in the coming 2 weeks to make sure I want to keep it). Re the Meater graphs below: green is ambient, purple is in the meat. Side note: I love having ambient and meat readings in the same place. The dip in ambient temp at ~6 hours was when I pulled & wrapped it. I left the probes in, thus the dip in temps. At 10h40m into the cook I opened the grill to feel the meat for a few seconds...temps in the dome didn't go up that much after, but they did inside the meat -- must have been that I increased airflow to the Meater probes inside the wrap. Or something. Shrug.

Great cooks everyone. Gave some pork ribs a sprinkle of purple crack and salt on the bottom then hit the top with some blazing pepper steak rub with a dash of gunpowder.cant wait. On it goes ..... Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Rotisserie chicken two ways. On the left butter, olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper and rosemary, tarragon, thyme and fresh oregano on the right it’s Peruvian spiced chicken with pink Peruvian salt, garlic, black pepper, aji amarillo, aji panca & cumin teboko & Tonyb inspired crispy air fryed potatoes completed the meal and I can’t believe I’ve lived me entire life without air fryer potatoes holy smokes!

Ok, I am embarrassed to ask this, but when I got my komodo 23, I also got the pizza stone. Of course in my excitement I opened both boxes without looking at the labels. I believe the smaller one is the heat deflector that sits on top of the two bars of the firebox and the larger is the pizza stone that sits on the extended rack? Anyone mind confirming? - the wife really wants pizza tonight.

Thanks.. got it.. I will send pics when done

I'd rather have what's inside it! 😄

Famous last words.

Oakland others may share there preferred method to re heat your brisket. Alternatively, I have made this before and it was superb. https://www.vindulge.com/smoked-beef-brisket-chili/ I’ll make this again when I have too much smoked meat in the cold room. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, my heat deflector that I just bought from the KK store is OTB, or grill shaped, not round. After years of using creative alternate heat deflectors, I am back to using it. The fact it is huge and thick seems a good thing to me. It has a large thermal mass, and radiates heat evenly. A lump fire is always going to have hotter and cooler spots. My guess is that translates straight through a few thousandths of an inch of foil. I want even radiation coming up from below for my roasting and low and slow cooks. Once that big mass comes up to thermal equilibrium, it should provide precisely that. I don't buy the theory that it burns up excessive charcoal coming up to temp. Maybe a little. The proof is in the cook. With that huge paving stone in my KK acting as a radiator/heat deflector, I have PLENTY of charcoal left at the end of a long low and slow. And the cooks don't seem any longer than using any other heat deflector. I have used pizza stones, pizza pans, cast iron griddles, baskets of lava rocks, a stainless round pan, and foil as heat deflectors. Now I have come full circle back to the huge thick grill shaped deflector, it gives me the result I want, and I'm sticking with it. No one but me. And I'm buying a spare.

NYTimes - Biryanis With Something Extra

Pizza night. Sourdough crust with 10% fresh milled hard red wheat. DOP San Marzano tomatoes. Fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and artichoke hearts. Baked on the KK 23 with a baking steel for leopard spotted crust. There were no survivors.

All these gorgeous pizza cooks, I'm inspired to going for it tonight. Last night was repeat of a recent favorite: Peri-Peri chicken thighs. Direct, 325F initially, bumped up to 375F to crisp up the skin, peach wood chunks. Plated with roasted garlic couscous, carrot salad, and a nice peanut sauce. My fav summertime wine - Vinho Verde (Broadbent).

Welcome back, Bruce! 1. Every grill is a bit different, so there's no "universal" damper settings. Looks like you're going to have to set up the cooler of adult beverages and spend an afternoon re-learning your grill! But, your initial guess at 225F is pretty off - at least on mine (23"). It's like a 1/8 turn (just barely off the seat) on the top. Bottom vent opening isn't critical, as long as it's open enough for the airflow needed to support the temperature you're shooting for. One and Half turns on mine would get me somewhere around 550F or higher. 2. The Maguire polish is only for esthetics, not for any required maintenance on your KK. Patching the grout is the only thing you need to do. 3. I open my top vent a couple of turns during initial startup to make sure the coals are going OK. Once dome temperature gets within 50F of my target, I close it back down to where I think it should be. Normally, I only light one spot of charcoal for a low & slow cook, but if you want to speed things up a little, and don't mind burning up a bit more charcoal, you can always light a couple of spots. Have fun re-learning your grill. Post pics of those amazing cooks that are coming!

A rack of lamb and some drumsticks. Tonight Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now there's a use for leftover sourdough starter.

Thanks. Only "for some reason" my next posts won't include the Vermicular Kamado base.

Put a blade roast on the KK to smoke for a few hours. When the IT reached 150F I took it off the KK. Put the roast on a bed of onions. Earlier did some carrots, just washed, cut and put them in the Vermicular to cook. It's nearly at pull stage but I need dinner so took a piece of the side and let the rest continue to cook. Plated dinner. The meat had the most wonderful flavour. I could have eaten a lot more. Tomorrow I should be able to do something nice with all that juice in the Musui.

I just moved into the 3 kamado group. This just arrived yesterday, the sand coloured Vermicular Musui Kamado. Not available in Canada so I had to import it from the USA. Yesterday I did a trial run with some very old cabbage from the fridge. Put a little oil, the bottom of the Musui and put the cabbage in, set it on med for 30 mins. some of the cabbage pieces were thick. I was just playing but the cabbage turned out just fine, guess it will now get eaten. You might just see it on a dinner plate later today. Here's a quick phone shot of the cabbage.

I can’t believe SYZies got away with drilling holes in the bottom of a pot! This may be the biggest hurdle to do this - if my wife asks, Asian termite like cast iron

I went for it. Am I really the first, here? Can't be. After all, like orangutans these be Kamado cousins to us. Vermicular We're pretty thrilled. Much easier to use by playing with the control panel than by trying to understand the directions. Though the imposing hardbound recipe book gives some idea of potential range and technique. Our first try was Lion's Head Meatballs. We get awesome ground pork from a local farmers market. Local cabbage, our house chicken stock, good fino sherry, hand-stirred Zhongba soy sauce (now back back in stock) from Mala Market. A gentle dish that shows its flavors. Rejiggering the recipe for the Vermicular, I first cooked the cabbage on low for an hour, with just a pinch of salt and some lard. Stir a couple of times, otherwise away from the kitchen, I love how unattended this is. One could of course use a low oven, but this is more predicable and in my face when I want it to be. The cabbage browned and melted, with little risk of burning, exploiting the special tight lid design. I then set aside the cabbage to simmer the meatballs in broth. Here I first tried an hour at 180 F. Did you know meatballs could be too tender? We've made this recipe before, conventionally, and perhaps it is tuned for more aggressive heat. Though the flavors were unworldly. I turned it up to 200 F while flipping the meatballs and adding the braised cabbage on top. A lot to learn, the best of sous vide and meddling as one cooks, with the opportunity to brown first in the same pot. I'm thinking Moroccan tagines will shine here.