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My night blooming cereus decided to bloom tonight and I'm just too tired to stay to the end of the show.

Yum Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Thanks for the tips and warm welcome! i have only used Royal Oak lump and BGE lump so far. Both have had a lot of small pieces. Will look for a better lump. And try the coconut KK charcoal! Here are a few pics of the new KK

Burger time at this diner. I put all sorts of things in these burgers, a few leftover olives, black garlic, minced onion, white and black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, chili, powdered mustard, ketchup and salt. Pickled some sweet onions in cider vinegar, with maple syrup and salt. Melted some smoked cheese over the burger and loaded the bun with lettuce fresh from the garden, relish, bbq sauce, mayo, ketchup and mustard. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Looks delicious Tony! Pineapple salsa sounds really good. Beautiful, tasty looking dinner. Nice photos

P.S. just figured out my temperature problem! the Tel-Tru thermometer that came with KK was only 3” or 4” stem. It was too short to be fastened and for accurate temperature reading, per the instructions. I just got 5” Tel-Tru thermometer in the mail and installed. It is instantly reading much higher temperatures. Problem solved! I just hope that I didn’t accidentally damage the KK during burn in 🤭🤯

All y'all are killing me with these cooks! Almost embarrassed to post mine from last night, but here goes! Trader Joe's Cabernet Rosemary Pot Roast, indirect, 275F w/Guru, smoker pot with post oak, mesquite and coffee wood chunks. Corn and crusty bread from the local food Coop. Pulled the roast at 185F (target was 195F, but it was running way behind schedule for dinner.) Plated with sous vide mashed Yukons and mushroom gravy. Lovely Pinot Noir.

Here are the beef ribs cut up. Very tasty. 2 lamb cutlets left over Troble, not even 1 meal. 4 adults, 5 kids. Funny night. My 14yo daughters first boy friend- self discovered in a big city. Turns out his mother and my wife have been friends from school. So we all caught up for a feed and a few bevies. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

At last! My konro grill arrived on Friday. It took me by surprise as I'd been sent some tracking data for UPS that didn't work and, by the time I got around to checking it out with the seller, the DHL man was at my door with an enormous, heavy box. Why was it so big? Well that is @Syzygies's fault. He was the one who turned me on to binchotan charcoal. Long before my KK arrived I figured I couldn't afford the real deal and so I bought these binchotan briquettes for a fraction of the price. I never used them in the KK because they seemed like such a precious resource and I instead waited until I could buy a konro grill so I could use them in small amounts. When I came to order the grill from the US it turned out that both the grill and the binchotan were so much cheaper in the US that it was worth ordering both, even with the additional UK duty and tax. Hence my super heavy delivery yesterday. Here are the beauties. Binchotan is notoriously difficult to light. I didn't have a chimney so I lit a fire in my KK21 and put the binchotan in there to get hot. Here are are the hot coals in my pristine konro grill My prawn stuffed chicken wings started to sizzle pretty much immediately. Yum!! I stood out in the cold, turning and basting every couple of minutes. I have to do something about my ODK arrangements. Nothing like @MacKenzie's custom set up!! Best of all, the KK came in very handy at the end of the cook. I was able to put the left over binchotan in the KK23, shut the lid and preserve these pieces for my next cook. I think binchotan actually works out to be very economical given it doesn't burn away very fast, is super hot and can be re-used. All good. Slightly wonky plated shot but very tasty nonetheless.

Oh that was me. Just came, haven't tried it yet. Looks similar to KK extruded, but I'm expecting a different flavor profile, probably more pronounced. And I build a door-sized shelf into the back of my rear shed just to hold Dennis charcoal, including KK extruded. I have every generation including the first draft that pleased me more than Dennis, and various generations of Sacramento POSK extruded. I'm a hoarder. Cannabis dealers took great care of me in college, because they would come by during a drought. "Oh, you still have that!?" Well, not after they left. So I won't need to spend $$ on actual binchotan, as much as I miss Japan and admire the stuff.

MacKenzie, thanks! I am glad I got it figured out 😀 YES! There is so much room in the dome...it is great for bigger pieces of meat, bread, etc. So fun!!

Ok, I'm really getting into skewers. I probably want the best Konro I can find. A dear BBQ friend and I saw a great grill on a street corner cart in Queens Chinatown, a few years ago. The thing was cut and welded together from a few pieces of steel plate; if people take up pottery and woodworking (I have) I could learn metalworking, right? There's that chapter in Aaron Franklin's book where he describes how to turn a recycled 500 gallon propane tank (he uses 1000 gallon tanks at the restaurant, he's cutting us some slack) into a cooker. If one had "basic" metalworking skills. I laughed here, at the same time daydreaming. I have a nephew by marriage that could teach me... In any case, this skewer grill was an "L" laying on its back. The main section was a trough over which one grilled skewers. At one end was a chimney (all rectilinear) where one added charcoal into the top, raked charcoal embers out the bottom. This was a brilliant design. Of course, I don't cook all night like they did. I probably want the best Konro I can find. The KK of Konros. What is it?

I see you have the tall version, that will give you lots of room above the grate, I love that feature.

Perfect, problem solved and I seriously doubt you did any damage at all. Sit back and enjoy that awesome KK you have. I think You are going to have so much fun with your KK and a ton of good eating.

Nice, Tony and that is some smoke ring you have.

Congrats on your new grill.. Temperature is airflow.. My guess is that you poured the charcoal directly out of the bag. And even worse possibly poured the bottom of the bag into the charcoal basket. These smalls nestle between the larger pieces and cut off airflow. For higher temps always pour the lump into a container shake a few time to let the small crap fall to the bottom. The larger pieces should be used in the middle and the smalls can be used around the very outside against the refractory cement fire box. Please remember this mantra... Temperature is airflow..

Welcome K2. Can get high temp within an hour. 1. Fill your basket with charcoal. 2. Light 2 places. 3. Open bottom vents to about 1/4. Open top vent 2 full rotations. 5. Blow lit area 5- 10 mins after lighting. This will bring you up to temp within 1 hour. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome, looking forward to seeing your new KK and your cooks. They do sound delicious. For pizza type temps it does take a while to get the pizza stone stable at 550F or so. I think mine was about 2 hours yesterday. Let's see that awesome KK.

Her is the cook I’ve pulled the lamb off earlier. Here is the lamb. It smells soooooo good. Use a dry curry rub on one rack, cumin, chillie and paprika rub on the other rack. The beef back ribs have been marinating in soy sauce, molasses and a bbq rub- Lanes. Finished lamb Finished ribs Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dinner of grilled boneless chicken breasts, a nice slab of red onion, and a tasty hard roll. Direct, 325F, cherry wood. Plated with pineapple salsa and a nice tomato & cucumber salad with feta cheese. Pleasant Italian white table wine. Beautiful evening on the deck.

Ha, Aussie is right. 9c is about 50f. That’s midnight here in the east and about the same in the west- mid winter. Aussie that’s a cracking looking winter lamb stew. Making me warm on our coldest night this year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well don't know what happened Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

I built a concrete table for my Solo Bonfire.

I've been doing this a long time. What do I actually use, some or all of the time? A second charcoal basket, to save extruded coconut charcoal between low & slow cooks, while I use lump charcoal for high temp cooks. A terra cotta plant saucer for storing the spare basket, to contain ashes. (If one can afford to do so, one could simply use charcoal from KK for everything. We've thought about it, even 500 F chicken tastes better over charcoal from Dennis.) A basket splitter, to make more efficient use of good lump charcoal for small cooks. The splitter constrains the airflow to pass through the fire, even for a small fire. A cover. It rains here part of the year, and this keeps moisture out. Two long neck "weed burner" propane torches, with hose clamps added on the neck so that they balance on the rim of the KK, for lighting fires. A paint brush and a soft cloth dust mask for removing ash. A plastic painter's pan to set below the ash door, for collecting the ash as one brushes it out. This lives in the most recent empty charcoal bag converted to ash storage. Obviously, cold ashes only. Silicone heat resistant gloves. And other gloves, but these take the most heat. There are many options. A 3/8" wrench for scraping grill grates. Get one with the correct round to match the grate. (This is radically better than grill floss or countless other options. Anyone in a reasonable state of mental health will tell you that they're happy with the best solution they've found so far for a problem. Only trust comparisons, when someone has alternated between the two best candidates long enough to break their prejudices.) A metal water heater pan, some improvised way to plug the hole (figure this out at the store), and heavy duty scrubbies from the painting aisle (these blow away anything for the kitchen) for soaking and cleaning grills. (I'll sometimes trust a high heat cook instead, after a good wrench scraping.) I happen to have an electric pressure washer, for deck maintenance. After large low & slows (feeding 60 with pulled pork or brisket) it does a wonderful job of cleaning all grates (again, in the water heater pan). A paella pan, to use as heat deflector and drip pan. Line with foil for easy cleanup. (An official KK drip pan looks worth it to me; it will likely be my next purchase.) Two bath towels, and a cooler, for resting and transporting monumental meats. Heavy duty aluminum foil, for lining the plant saucer (easy disposal once the fat cools) and for wrapping monumental meats to rest in a cooler. Pink butcher paper, for following Austin Franklin barbecue technique. (The white is no better than aluminum foil; the pink breathes.) The official KK pizza stone, for bread or pizza. (I used to use a custom rectangular FibraMent-D baking stone, for two loaves of bread. Dennis got the pizza stone right, and I no longer use anything else.) A Baking Steel, for burgers or Japanese or Spanish griddle technique. The 15" by 1/4" round also fits an indoor oven and can be lifted by anyone. A 16" by 1/2" can be custom ordered, for more thermal punch. A Steam Pan, as described in KK as Steam Oven for Bread. A giant cast iron frying pan with the handle sawed off, filled with two spools of stainless steel chain, to go on the lower rack for bread cooks. (A KK single bottom drip pan would work here without rusting. Buy two, or keep moving the chain as needed.) Freeze 350g of ice in ziplock or vacuum seal bags, and slide the ice in to generate (after a delay making it possible to close the lid safely) enough steam to replicate a commercial bread oven. This is detailed in Keller's Bouchon Bakery but not original to them. This is superior to baking bread in a Dutch oven. Keller took much flack for this on other forums, from fools with zero understanding of physics who think that 10g of water from a plant spritzer suffices. A Smoke Pot, as described in A Dutch Oven Smoke Pot. Find a one or two quart cast iron Dutch oven, drill three 1/8" holes in the bottom, add smoking wood, and seal the lid on with flour paste. Nestle in with the charcoal, and heat it as much as possible while torch lighting the fuel directly under the pot. For low & slow cooks this controls smoke, avoiding nasty combustion byproducts; above 300 F even smoke from such a pot will taste as nasty as open wood. Try this at your own risk, you may be ordered to never use smoke any other way. I'm planning to test an all metal Kleen Kanteen as an easier alternative; I haven't yet. (One needs to work through an obsession with excessive smoke, if one has had one's heart broken too often on the BBQ trail from restaurants with inadequate smoke. There's a sweet spot where smoke is one more flavor in balance; find it.) A DigiQ DX2 BBQ Guru setup, for absolute control of longer cooks. This is indeed optional but very nice; I went years without after my previous unit died of old age. Then I committed to some major cooks for parties where I needed to be sure. A KK is remarkably stable, but if one goes eight hours without checking it can find a new equilibrium as the fire evolves. A Solo Stove Campfire, as described in Solo Stove. It provides a nimble way to make small fires away from the KK. For example, I now use mine to preheat my smoke pot. The applications are endless, and it's fun to use. What have I tried and discarded or given away? A rotisserie. Have you tried cleaning one of these!? I have found ways I actively prefer for cooking anything on the KK that one might use a rotisserie to cook. Chicken, direct at 500 F over a nearly spent fire, and tend it a few times. (If you do have an electric pressure washer handy, then cleaning a rotisserie would not be an ordeal. I don't miss mine. It was fussy.) As a rule, avoid all aspirational purchases in life. There's only so much one needs to do before baby comes home, one can figure out the rest as one goes. Try life without a rotisserie, for example, and see if a BBQ Guru is indicated.

Pretty average June for us.