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Smoked duck with orange juice & maple syrup glaze, served with baked potato

So it turned out SO good! Thanks @Tucker for the advice, really helped. True test is always kids reaction, they both had two helpings so no left overs. Mission accomplished! Like I said before, the KK makes me a better cook than I really am. This was a good one.

Long story...I was supposed to cook it Sunday abd my plan was to smoke it above my pork butts but my day got turned around Sunday and my brother couldn’t come over till Monday so I cooked it/served it while I was feeding my kids and giving them a bath.....plus I’ve tried duck a ton it’s good but it’s not really my thing. I like duck fat and I’ve liked duck with like a port wine sauce but I didn’t have time for that I’ll try the duck next time the point was to make something for my brother that he could rage home cause he doesn’t cook

Thanks I need to work on my knife skills with the duck, should’ve been plated better. My brother loves duck I made it for his birthday...I didn’t even eat any of it I just saved the duck fat 😀

I think it looks lovely as a TT @Paul and I was thinking 19TT. However, unless The Husband has a brain transplant, that colour won't be sitting in our garden any time soon. Hope to alight on one that sparks joy in both of us, soon.

Though I think a 32 would be great my 23 is perfect for Dee and I . But you never know .I'm just sitting back at the momment. Waiting to see how the world turns out .at the end of the year . Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Hi @Luke. Funnily enough I have a combination of a 23KK and a suckling pig at the moment. I didn't go for it whole. The piggy weighed about 10kg and the main loin piece in the middle is about 16"/40.5cm long. Main reason for not attempting it whole is because we cannot gather in the numbers required to eat it. Good luck. Hopefully someone who has attempted a whole one will come along with more detail. Here is how mine was butchered. We have had two legs so far and they have been delicious.

Smoked two 11lb bone in pork shoulders. Homemade Cole slaw I threw some thai chili sauce and siracha in the foil when I let it rest. Then I tossed it and hit it with more siracha and Thai chili sauce...dusted with brown sugar, spritzed with apple juice finished in the broiler to get some crispy carmelization at the end....delicious forgot to take photos of finished product and on grill but these babies took a long time to cook. Wanted them for lunch....turned into early dinner

Hey there @Basher, what a beautiful scene! I can cope with rain in such beautiful surroundings. Here, rain or no, I cooked dinner on the KKs last night. The friends who are going to buy the 21 came to dinner and I showed them how to work the KK. It was a joy to demonstrate how easy it is to make good food. The husband of the pair is going to be the cook and he, happily, claims to be OCD and will be joining the clean grate club. We roasted a suckling pig leg on the 21. Beautifully thin and crispy skin, like the top of a creme brulee. I warmed up the vegetarian stew that they brought on the 23 and followed that with some gooseberry clafoutis. Yum Glad to have drawn someone new into the KK circle.

Tony B, no problem with the hard, level surface. I did a big batch of babyback ribs yesterday, specifically to pay attention to the ramping up of the heat and keeping the heat low, around 225*. The ramping up went quite slow as I did not want to, again, overshoot the goal and then be unable to effectively bring the KK down to the desired temperature. So if anything, the ribs were relatively under-cooked for the first hour. I also decided to experiment with just straightforward cooking for four hours, instead of using the 2/1/1 method. So while the ribs finished around 225-240*, they were cooking at a lower heat initially. In the first photo, the ribs are covered with the rub and ready to go in the smoker. I forgot to take "after" pictures until they were already plated, but you can see the two angles that the ribs were nicely cooked. I do think that the 2/1/1 method produces slightly more moist and tender than a straight four-hour cook as you see on the plate. However, they were not dry and not tough- good "tooth" feel. One thing I did nearly by accident was a VERY good rub application: I was using my favorite Dizzy Pig rubs and I had about 1/4 of a bottle of of Jamaican Firewalk that needed to be used up- I mixed that 50/50 some Dizzy Dust. AS you can well imagine, the Firewalk has a significant presence of scotch bonnet (habanero) pepper. It really popped up the flavor of the ribs and married beautifully with the smoke and sweet pork. HIGHLY recommended. (We had some potato salad and coleslaw left over from the weekend...it was an easy and delicious meal.)

Most of the temperature control is by the top vent. The lower vents don't have much impact, as long as you don't starve the fire. What the lower vent does impact is the amount of charcoal that is burning. The KK is super efficient once heat soaked, so you can dial back the lower vent to conserve fuel.

I will accept any challenge you throw at me Tony!😀

You didn't taste it, the chef always gets the first bite.

Nice job on the duck Troble. Looks perfect.

Troble, looks like you nailed that duck.

Thanks. Very interesting, @Tucker. You had all the colours you wanted, I guess, and tile and pebble and you ended up with two in the same colour in pebble. Two the same is an elegant look. I was wanting the smaller KK to be in a brighter, jewel like colour. Will reflect on whether that is still the right way to go. Agreed Mac. In the garden there is a range of colours to tie in with so I think it will come down to the way we want the space to feel. Compromise. Now there is a word. The Husband and I had/have a rule that has not been tested much lately. If one of us disliked something, the other had to drop that option and we had to work at it until we found something that we both loved. Just liking or giving in was not allowed. So, if we are not to compromise on colour there is a bit more agonising to do. Olive gold is out in front but Tucker's input has put a couple more options that we might both love on the table. Thanks all!

Let's see if I can help you understand the how's and why's.. trust me it's really not all that complicated. First of all other rotisseries I know of have one shaft that goes directly to the motor. Most rotisseries are also over open coals or wood with no lid. The square roti spit sits on supports and goes directly into the motor that has a square socket. This is a ONE socket system. The play in the one socket system is 1/3rd that of the KK's three socket system. I wanted a way to run the roti with the lid latched and completely airtight. Rather then make up a wedge and run it with the lid cracked, I installed a drive shaft that runs thru the body. So on the right there is a socket inside the grill attached to the driveshaft in a sleeve with needle bearings and another socket on the outside of the KK in the middle of the side accessory plate. The motor of course it the third socket. This is a three socket system. The first version was all square sockets. Think of the second hand on a clock very little movement at the center creates much more movement at the outside/tip. Because of the tiny bit of play in each socket X 3, the cradle would come around and at some point would fall forward about an inch. Some roti motors also have some slack in the gears and added to this movement. I felt this was unacceptable and gave it a less than quality feel. My solution that reduced the movement by 2/3s was to change the two sockets in the drive train to hex. The hex socket having more faces for the shaft to make contact seemed to do the trick. The motor of course it still square, so the outside the grill shaft is square on the motor side and hex on the KK side. You may be limited by the 23" Ultimate's cradle being 8" but the 32" Big Bad's 10" cradle should hold any turkey you want to throw at it.

I kept it really low heat today, somehow. I think the trick is to start really low and keep it tamped down so it never gets over 250.

No I have a 23 .if you have all your vents open with your grates in it will get to 400f real quick .so your KK will not be heat soaked. I move quickly at this stage take out the grates add wood put lower grate in then heat deflector (alfoil) then top grate then ribs shut the lid tight .you will notice it dropping in temp after you let the initial heat out leave it till it gets to 300 f then close down your vents Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Oh wow that looks yummy.

@Christinelynn and I compromised on the color of our KKs. I’d have 2 cobalt blue cookers in the back yard. I really like the olive and gold pebble and I now question how the blue would look in our space. I don’t know if there’s a wrong color choice! 😊

I think it really depends upon the background colours of where they will be located.

setup half low grates, half high grates start on the low grates at hi temp then once seared, move to the high grate for a dwell to temp

I've had several different color combos, one constant is the 19.5" in autumn gold pebble. Loved so much I got rid of the others and got a 23" gold pebble. I would choose the first pair, gold flake, autumn nebula Good luck

Is this a 32" KK? I am interested that you say you can "dial it down real quick"....that is not my experience. My sense, at least so far, is that the KK is SO well constructed and insulated`that it is challenging to get it to drop temperature. However, I am doing a load of babyback ribs (9) today so I will pay attention to the method you've described. Babybacks take only 4 hours so with less fuel in the basket, maybe it will be a little easier to control. I am trying for as close to 225* (F) as I can get it.

Hey Aussie, if you ever do decide to sell your 23, let me know, I know a guy in Perth whose been looking at one for ages! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Those ribs look terrific I'm don't mind the odd ribs every now and then my self. The beauty with a KK is it takes a while to heat soak so you can ark it up and dial it down real quick . I'm starting to realize my KK has learnt my settings it's like it knows what I want lol. My tried and tested method is I load my basket open both vents fully. and get it going with the lid up for a bit , throw in my grates .shut the lid tight and spin the wheel and wait till it gets to 400f .then I open it up take the grates out and add my smoking wood put the lower rack in then some alfoil then the top grate.and then my ribs.shut the lid dial it down to a qtr shut the right side bottom vent off and set the left half moon to a qtr lands on 250 everytime Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Welcome to the cobalt blue pebble party! That company's description of measuring a suckling pig reminds me of when I wanted to measure our cats for some long forgotten reason. The Husband pointed out that they have variable geometry and wished me luck. I guess it will be easy to cut it up if it doesn't fit but at 13" long you shouldn't have any trouble at all. My little joint was actually cooked on my 21 and, as you can see, there was lots of room to spare.

Thanks@tekobo! I found one place in Florida that sells suckling pigs, 2-6 weeks old and less than 10lbs: https://meatnbone.com/products/cochinillo I inquired about these and they wrote: The package for the suckling pig measures 13” x 10” approximately. Once open... It's a bit hard to measure the exact length, but it usually fits the Big Green Egg (large size). I'm looking for a local source of suckling pig, but if I can't find one that small, I will probably go down the same path you did with a small pig. I have the exact same Cobalt blue pebble coming in a few weeks! Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

First cook on the new KK! I’ve done chicken before at 400° with great success. Usually cooks in 45 minutes. Ths time I put a double lined aluminum foil pan below with potatoes and the cook took an hour and 20 minutes. Skin was not as crispy as usual. I think the potatoes added extra moisture which prevented the chicken from getting crisp. Flavor was great. Very happy with the cooking experience.

39B9230F-3976-440E-8D99-D76F3F6BF815.MOV Second cook on the KK. Dry aged bone in ribeye .

Thanks

Your kind of up early on your day off, I understand...your a man on a mission. 5 a.m. for me is only for a fishing date other than that these eyes ain't opening. Really good work, a test I see that involved effort and planning and you have my congratulations. So without delay and dubious deserved merit I confer upon you EddieMac the highest honor ever bestowed upon another within the cooking world.....the visitation of any house within the KK Kingdom and to sit and break bread, meat and more...yes you can bring the wife. Your diploma is in the mail. Three thumbs brother

Here are my test results on right vent holes. I started with a clean Komodo and a full basket of Rockwood charcoal.At 5 am I lit the Komodo with my torch to a softball size pile.I then brought it up to 200 quickly just to make sure coals where going good. I then closed the top vent to a 1/4 turn that’s where the top stayed thru the whole test. Starting with the smallest to the largest hole ran the first whole for 4 hour 168 degrees after an hour it settled at 168 for three hours.Then second hole 1/2 hour to get to 198 degrees held solid for 2 1/2 hours.third hole 1/2 hour to get to 223 then held solid for2 1/2 hours. Forth hole 1/2 to get to 252 held solid for 2 1/2 hours. Fifth hole 1/2 hour to get to 277 and held solid for 2 1/2 hours. I used a Thermoworks smoke probe the I place on top of the thermometer probe and wrapped it with a piece of stainless steel wire. Hell of a long test but for low and slow right side vent seems to be the ticket left side for grilling and baking. This was done on a B.B. 32. I hope this helps you all.

First suggestion....................let your wife pick the color Second suggestion................matte black pebble (i'm color blind). Third suggestion..............if tiles............go with the terra cotta tiles. They give a little extra contrast to the color.