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I will respond as someone who recently received her 32. I have not cooked a pig on it yet but I went into a flat spin when I did this: Theoretically, this meant that I could only bake two loaves of bread on my new 32" KK! Should I have bought the 42? Aaaaargh! And then I realised that I was trying to use old tech to solve new problem. Super simple: using the single pizza stone and riser from my 23 KK I was easily able to fit three loaves into HALF of my 32 KK. So, if I buy the pizza stone for the 32 I should be able to fit at least six loaves on and, similarly, a good number of pizzas. Phew. In practice, the configuration below suits my needs because I use the pan on the right to generate steam by dropping ice onto it, as pioneered by @Syzygies on other threads. Entertaining for the masses should be a cinch with the 32. After baking bread and pizza last night I let the 32 cool down a little and then put this 17"/43cm pot in to cook overnight. Today's advice? Go for two 32's. V versatile.

@jonj, @tony bTony, I said to Mrs RD this morning that I was going to do the burn in today and cook the 35 day aged Hereford sirloin that is sitting in the fridge. "You're not going to get it dirty are you ?" It is chucking it down with rain today. " You're going to get soaked - do it on a dry day so it's a nice experience" Embarrassingly I ricked my back lifting a concrete slab to make the ramp to get the KK off the pallets. Trying to get out of bed to get the tea happens in slow motion as I'm stiff. " You are not going to do anything that involves bending or lifting today - have you taken anything for that ? " Mrs RD was an ITU nurse for 35 years. It was generally in folk's best interests to do as she said. So, it is (definitely) in my best interests to wait till we have a dry day and I can move and bend at something approximating normal speed. Mrs RD tends to be right 50% of the time so I better behave myself.

It's here! Now i gotta get some beef...

Simply amazing bit of kit. I thought I had understood what "the obsession" was all about. I didn't quite , but I do now. Absolutely perfect. Without a shadow of a doubt one of the best decisions we ( it was Mrs RD who found the site) have made. Many thanks to all for advice, egging on, joking and nurturing. RD

It's dark here now but there has been a break in the rain. The aim is simply to cook a couple of steaks tonight. So I'm using a quarter basket of local lump wood charcoal - I may need to change this to half but if I do that just means a little more adult beverage so no bad thing. First time I've ever used a Mapp torch - what a great bit of kit Followed by the blower Swivelled the KK around so I can keep an eye on the temperature, through the window.

You're right. It's chucking now but :

@tony bis this stuff the same do you think? If so, I shall have a good laugh with my best friend. She is Welsh and doesn't particularly like chillis but two weeks ago she sent me this photo and said, "Have you tried this stuff? Gosh its good." I thought a) it can't be better than the chilli oil with dried shrimp that I make from an A.Wong recipe and b) what do you know about chillis anyway? If it turns out that she was ahead of me on this one she will die laughing. Good thing is, she didn't die of COVID when she caught it and in fact just got better self-isolating at home. The side effect is that her temporary (?) loss of taste means that she is now up for eating more chilli!

OK, had been reading about this latest trend in foodie world - crispy hot sauce from China. It's loaded with fried garlic and onions, to add texture to what otherwise would just be a Mala sauce (chiles & Szechuan peppercorns in oil). I actually ended up trying this one, which is made in the US, as it was getting equally good reviews on Amazon to the "standard" Chinese version. The jar arrived yesterday, so of course I had to try it out on dinner! It went on sauteed green beans and mushrooms. Plated with a nice lemon pepper honey mustard pork chop. Pork chop on the main grate, direct, 350F. Lemon pepper rub to start and then sauced with the lemon pepper honey mustard sauce. OK, now I see what all the foodie buzz is about - this stuff is good! Glad that I only went 3 stars hot and not the 4 star version (which has ghost peppers in it!) Nice heat, love the crunchy texture it added. Will be experimenting more with it. I hear that it's great in scrambled eggs?

You said that like is some sort of problem?? Every homebrewer does the exact same thing! Here's a tip for monitoring the dome temps from afar - rotate the dial so that your target temperature is at 12 o'clock. Then you just have to look at the dial and see "what time is it?" relative to your target.

Nice job on your first cook, congrats! Steak looks great!!! I had thought about going with the 23 as well but I can tell you without a doubt I'm so glad I got the 32, you'll love it. With the weather being wet/cold/freezing be careful not to let it vent. You don't want water working it's way into the exterior "jacket" and freeze/thawing. I'd recommend keeping it at lower temps (below 400) for cooks until you can get a nice day to go through the venting process and then fix any holes in the grout it produces.

I don't normally post after I've had a couple of beers (stouts in this case) so please forgive the euphoria. To be honest, when it arrived I thought - ooooh that looks a bit bigger than I thought it would be - have I made the right decision -Should I have gone for the 23 ". What is Mrs RD going to say this time .... I've not got a good track record here.... One Sunday night I bought a top end Pearl Reference Series drum kit on EBay from Germany. I'd only got to grade four by then . Nothing wrong with that you may say ...except that I'd bought an identical one a couple of weeks before. What was going to be a simple brew kit - a couple of plastic containers rapidly turned into my making a mini brewery capable of brewing 280 litres in a day. A little clay oven .. full size Pompeii, we'll just put a couple of new doors on the kitchen units = full house rebuild taking 10 years and we have to live in our caravan on the lawn... So a little anxious at this point - you can understand.

Tee hee. I logged on to tell @RokDok just that. It is a tip that I learned from you Tony and it is great for monitoring without having to get up close and personal with your KK on a wet or cold day while you are waiting for it to heat up. Congratulations Dok! I am so happy that you and Mrs RD are happy. It is a mad and all consuming obsession but I am sure that you know that and are up for the journey.

Wow! That's awesome. I am really looking forward to seeing how you get on. I have found it to be such an interesting exploration of how time changes the nature of meat and fish.

Mmm That's looking at it through the window x 2 🙄 Within a very short time it was over 400 F and starting to vent a little , so I closed the top vent a bit. Mrs RD had finished her yoga by then. So - quarter of a basket - up to temp in no time . Put the steaks on - here's a picture of Mrs RD happy as a sandboy. Put the steaks on - not perfect but not bad I think for a first attempt - and the weather conditions were inclement - not far off what @tony bTony is experiencing at the moment.😉

I’m loving that Matte Black when wet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey, at least it's rain. We're having a blizzard today. Been snowing for hours - heavy at times and the wind has picked up significantly in the last hour, so it's almost white-out conditions. Very likely won't be using the KK tonight. Will hopefully sneak in a cook tomorrow before the Polar Vortex slams us over the weekend. Highs in the single digits (F) and lows below zero for the next week! And, that's before the windchill factor kicks in. This is usually my breaking point for grilling, when the windchill is in the negative teens. So, take some Aleve for the back and grill on!

Just curious - what's in the pot?

Old thread but I'm going through the same dilemma. I think the main reason I haven't bought a KK (besides not needing it) is deciding between a 32 and 42. Outside of covid we entertain probably 20 times a year with large groups if not more often. I must say I like the looks online of the 32 way more than the 42 but the cooking area of the 42. I'm attracted to the idea of doing a larger pig roast on the 42 vs going with a 32 and a second smaller grill. Currently my cooking situation is: Big Joe 2 with Extender Large Green Egg Joe Junior I love my Joe Jr. for small cooks (Burgers for 4, turkey breasts for 4, etc). Really though when I do a large cook I often want two temps indirect, one low and slow (225f - brisket, poppers, etc) and one a bit hotter (275f - pork butt, etc). For those that have made the plunge to 42", any regrets? Did you consolidate multiple cookers into 1? What size oinker are folks fitting on a 32?

Indeed!

Now rolled it along the back of the house into position on the flagstones. Most importantly getting some glasses and a bottle of the 10.2% Matt Black Stout to toast its arrival. Cheers !! Still loads to unwrap but that's enough for today - I need to do some other bits and pieces

Thanks @jonjJon, I am just tucking into an adult beverage at the moment ( I love Tony's term) and am just going outside with a torch to check it's still there. Sunrise is at 7.08 tomorrow.

Once you purchase the big one, a second, smaller one won't seem like much of an issue at all...

If you can afford it and want it, I would recommend going for the BB42. You don't want to regret not having tried it and, as @SSgt93 said, you can manage the configuration to save charcoal. Buying a KK is not about being sensible, follow your heart.

Hi, SBB42 owner here. I was an XL BGE user (as well as a few other BGE’s used with the XL) for a few decades. It was a nice setup but often times I needed and wanted more. I also began looking at the 32 for my family of 4 (now 3 as my daughter has moved out). I entertain from time to time and also wanted to be able to do a whole hog on occasion, so the 42 made sense to me, even though I’m normally cooking for 3. There is a lump reducing basket, and with the multi configurations of grated, I often cook smaller and use very little lump. Last week alone I just threw on a few porterhouse steaks for the wife and I while my son was at a friends. It cooks amazing small or big. I did. It want a bunch of other size grills around my pool and. The 42 looks gorgeous, cooks small when need be efficiently, and is a workhouse when you need it. I hope this helps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is my configuration - 23 and 32. Offers more flexibility than one large grill since I can do one temp/technique on one and something else on the other. For example, I can smoke a bunch o’ butts on the 23 at 250 while spatching a load o’ chooks on the 32 at 400. For day to day use, I recommend the 32 over the 23, but that’s just me.

Perth Hills bushfire emergency claims more homes as blaze continues to burn out of control http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-04/number-of-homes-lost-in-perth-hills-bushfire-revised-up-to-81/13117488 Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk