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Good to hear @Basher you know I’m joking, I always get a lot of inspiration from your cooks and I’ve been missing yours today we had my daughters friends family over who’s from Japan so I tried to show off a bit of our local seafood made the Peruvian ceviche again, nailed it today use aji amarillo for the spice kick along with some local halibut and local rockfish Bluefin Tuna sashimi in soy sauce with a drip of siracha Japanese yellowtail hiramasa served with a soy/lemon juice ponzu sauce, jalapeño and cilantro garnish grilled CA King Salmon served with quinoa w/carrots, celery & sweet onions (no plated pics as I was hosting) ran the bluefin tuna and yellowtail dish back for dinner with the wife

In a total of 2 and a half hours the KK made it from my garage to the back yard and into place with a fire working it's way up to 500 for the venting process. I can't believe how easy the whole process is. Dennis sure makes it simple !!!! I did it by myself but my nephew did stop in for a minute to help me roll it off the skid. I started with a BGE about 8 or 9 years ago and within a couple years graduated to a Primo XL. But were excellent cookers but they just don't compare to the KK. I moved the Primo into the pictures just for comparison's sake in case someone is curious. The Tuscan Chef Pizza oven will stay but the Primo leaves tomorrow, my nephew will put it to good use The supervisor approved of my work, then went back in to sleep on the couch, way too hot out there for her lol

The brisket burger turned out great. After seven hours cooking I finally gave in and wrapped it. Came out looking mighty fine. No smoke ring but I only used a handful of pellets in the smoke pot. Remind me NOT to try to be fancy by laying my brisket in two different directions. Of course it was difficult to eat. The home made kimchi seemed a fitting accompaniment to the Wagyu. Today we will be eating the left overs with Nigerian jollof rice and fried plantains. Just the right size of brisket for two.

There's competing effects going on here when you open the lid - one is that you are letting out a bunch of hot air, which will drop the dome thermometer reading a lot - just the reading, not the actual temperature of the KK. Next there's the inrush of a lot of ambient air (oxygen) to make up for the lost hot air (remember hot air rises!) This should only cause a short spike in the combustion process with that brief (assuming it's brief) opening of the lid. If the KK is heat soaked, the effect of this spike in the long run should not be noticeable (or barely so) and the temperature should settle back down to where the top vent says it should be. If you leave the lid open too long, or open it frequently with short intervals in between, you will introduce enough oxygen to cause the combustion to increase - you are short-circuiting the top vent setting at that point, and the dome temperature will go up to match the new combustion air flow. Eventually it should come back down to where the top vent setting is, but that could take a while and if the KK wasn't heat soaked, it might not come back down much at all and stay at its new equilibrium.

@tekobo here is the ceviche recipe that I use. This is real Peruvian de iced however I use aji amarillo as my pepper of choice. I can only get them in jars, but I’m trying to grow fresh aji Marino in the garden. You could use some of that aji amarillo paste I sent you and it would work just fine. Note you can use any fresh fish, they had local trout there I use local halibut at home wgen my wife and I went to Manchu Pichu we stayed at this really nice hotel in the town below Machu Pichu, Agua Calientes. The hotel had a restaurant called Sumac and they offered a complimentary 30 minutes arrival gift/class to show you how to make a proper Pisco Sour and Peruvian ceviche. This little pamphlet/flyer was the leave behind that I still keep to this day 7 years later note later that night we are at their restaurant and I had the best Lomo Saltado (my favorite Peruvian dish) that I’ve ever had in my life. I was asking the waiter so many questions about how the chef made the sauce that the chef invited me and my wife back into the kitchen (had us put hairnets and everything) and he showed me how he made it and I took two videos of his entire process (board isn’t letting me upload) needless to say that stay at that hotel really shaped my culinary life

@tony b great looking meal despite the phallic appearance of your kebabs

Got to play with my new toy tonight - Easy Kabob. Just ran across it on YouTube and thought WTF, let's see if it actually works as well as in the videos. Cut to the chase - It Does! The tricks are a bit obvious - keep the meat cold and don't make it too wet/sloppy. Mixed up a 50/50 batch of ground beef (90/10) and ground lamb, with some basic seasonings. Stuffed it into the gadget and ran the skewer through it. Works as advertised. Ignore the blobs at the ends of the skewers, that was just me slapping on the leftover meat onto the ends. The nice even part was made by the Easy Kabob. On the main grate at 325F, direct. No smoking woods. Short cook. Plated with rice pilaf and served on Trader Joe's Naan with homemade tzadiki sauce. Side Greek salad. My favorite hot weather (it's in the upper 80s here - insane for this early!) wine - Vinho Verde.

That’s right, it slides right in to the KK and provides a nice snug fit.

In my experience all temp controllers with the exception of the SmoBot work on the same fan on off principal. The issue with the Billows is the volume of air: 46CFM, that’s a lot vs other controllers which could be 1/4 of the volume. Add that to the fact the Kk does not require much airflow and it presents a challenge. Add the $3 damper accessory and voila, problem solved. I know some have returned these, when all they needed was a $3 accessory to make it work perfectly.

@Tekobo, I love the look of that burger.

All fantastic looking cooks on this page. The winner for me is...the octopus! And the no-cook winner is the ceviche. Yum!

Memorial Day was cold and rainy but the sun is here now... time to start things up

Yep- tomorrow's the day. Then just need to confirm with my builder when he's free to come around (he's going to have a quick look at the deck area, and come armed with a couple of apprentices, some plywood and a pallet jack to get it up the 2 steps onto the deck). Hopefully it won't spend too many days blocking the garage in the interim! Meanwhile- I've ordered everything I need to be up and running by this weekend- lump charcoal, smoking wood chunks, smoking pellets for the hot/cold smoker, heat proof gloves, gas torch for lighting charcoal, pizza peel, some Lodge cast iron, pink butcher paper, and some rubs and sauces. That way- it is game on straight away!

When you open the lid you get a huge rush of oxygen to the coals which stokes the fire. Two things that you can do to minimize the effect you explain is first completely close off the bottom vent before opening the lid (remember to open it again once closing the lid). Second try to open the lid for as short of a period as possible.

Still lighting the KK up at least twice a week Troble. Mostly boring cooks. I’m trying to keep my posts spectacular. [emoji23] Kids sports are taking up much of my weekend time running between soccer, rugby, water polo, netball, cricket and soon to be rowing and athletics. Club and school crossover some of this doubles up. I have a lamb shoulder and leg saved in the freezer for a low n slow and another spin. Patiently excited about setting up the dry age fridge and the Parilla grill arrives next week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great looking beef ribs Snake, I only discovered how good these are with a KK. I spun a couple of birds for Sunday dinner I had a hotter temp this time, about 220c, direct for first half of the cook, then indirect once the juice started dripping. Dry curry rub on one, home made BBQ rub on the other. Par boiled sweet potato and spuds around the edge of the grilling grate. Pretty tasty Sunday dinner with creamed mushroom onion sauce. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had my parents over for the first time in almost a year, celebrated with some beef short ribs from butcher (first time cooking) and threw in a Chuck roast for smoking to use in some nachos as an experiment. Super happy with how it came out!

Amazing!! Congrats! I got mine into its home today too.. been a BUSY busy day!

Sounds good to me! I'll probably order one just to have the option. I like to have options even if I rarely use them.. haha. You get the 'universal' adapter for it too right?

Another great recipe, @Troble! Thanks

I'm glad you put this video together. This little dampener accessory was one of the decision points when I bought my Billows. Well done.

I've heard that the Billows is more of an 'on/off' cycling fan so it isn't running continuously which caused other issues for a Kamado style vs just the HUGE amount of air it could push through... do you find that makes a difference now that you have the damper or does it really work as intended now?

You can always count on me to bring the level of conversation down a notch around here

Congrats! Very nice looking KK.

And I would bet my bottom dollar that you wouldn't say that. 🤪

Will definitely keep that option open. With the lockdown from last year over, I have a lot of trips to make up for now!

@tony bwell maybe you should just come out for a beer tour and Mexican escape

@tony b I have very fond memories of eating fresh caught octopus in Greek islands over a fire with lemon juice and that’s what I’ve been striving for. I did it once last summer and this attempt was even better as I used the lower grate abs got a great char on it and I used a ton of lemon thyme from my garden when I boiled it the night before and then marinated it overnight with lots of lemon thyme. When I see you at a San Diego beer convention I’ll grill octopus for you at my pad. Bet on it

Nice cooks everyone! @Troble - you're killin' me with that grilled octopus! Brought back a good flashback to Greece. I put that grilled octopus dinner there in my top 5 all time best meals! Epic!

Don't forget those all important adult beverages while learning your vent settings!

Thanks, I am really enjoying the KK. I hope the rest of you get your’s delivered soon !!!! The uncrating was really easy, one thing to keep in mind is to have a razor knife handy and use it to cut the included crowbar loose from inside the crate. Not that it is really needed but you’ll want to save the slats with the company logo on them. Then start up top by removing the screws to take the ramp off the top and then I used an impact driver with a socket to remove the bolts that secure the crate to the skid. Two people can easily lift the crate off at that point, or remove one side and one person can remove it. Then just untie the blue ropes and cut the yellow straps and remove the wood chalks that keep it in place and roll that bad boy right off 😁

The local rental place stopped at my house before sending it out on another rental. They showed up exactly when they said they would and moved it for me, I love dealing with small local businesses and while trying to vent it again today I made me a little lunch !!!!!😋

I agree with Robert that a large part of the issue is too much top vent. A 1/4 turn on my 23KK would be 275 or more. Try 1/8 turn or even less and see if it helps.

I believe it would smell regardless of there being any cracks or holes but I’m guessing Dennis is the only one who could answer that for sure. But I’ll do it again anyways , and if a dozen sausages or a couple chickens fall inside while I’m doing it tomorrow it will be a good day 😁

Another beauty has landed. 🥂

Well today was the day I decided to make the move.. it took removing a section of fence and 5 people but it got done! The 42" in its new home, then nice and cleaned up with tables. Won't be burning it in for a couple of days.. need a bit of a rest.. haha.

Peruvian ceviche Grilled octopus marinated with lemon thyme & oregano from the garden, garlic, olive oil. Grilled with mesquite wood and finished with fresh squeezed lemon juice roasted garlic & olive oil cous cous

Filet Mignon with “musket powder” rub I picked up in San Antonio this week. Hints of coffee in the rub. sweet corn on the cob with “elote” rub from my friend @Tyrusthat my wife and I both really enjoyed grilled asparagus brushed with olive oil, butter, garlic, black pepper and topped with truffle salt. easy cook. Great results

Here we go, by the end of the cook every bug in the country was in my ODK. I nearly got carried away.

Well I decided I'd start the process today of uncrating. Had to do a little modification to the process to get the crate off (Not enough vertical clearance to remove it straight up) but it worked great. While still dusty/dirty.. it is beautiful!

I've had a Cascade hop plant for over 13 years now - still going strong, even after getting heavily damaged in last summer's derecho. I usually get a couple of pounds of dried cones in a good year. I rarely use them up and end up tossing a bunch every harvest (2 year old ones) to make room for the new crop.

I bought a package of 4 cordierite pizza stones. They are 7.5 inches square and 3/8 inch thick. Thought they might come in hand as heat shields or whatever. Late the other night I started pizza and needed a quick setup so here is my first 7 inch pizza on the stone. Loaded and ready to go on the KK at 530F. Baked.

Meanwhile- I've got a 20min APA on, 100% homegrown cascade....

Looks yummy Aussie, nice cook

Thought that I had told you - they cancelled it as a live event. 😢 It's only virtual again this year. Disappointed is putting it mildly - 2 years in a row now! Fingers crossed that next year in Pittsburg will actually happen!

You feel free to have those for me Tony, I gave those up a long time ago 🤣