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Pork belly burnt ends, St. Louis spare ribs, rib tips, Donabe cooked rice, steamed artichokes, and of course a nice Helles for the hot day. [emoji482] KK fans Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Where do I start with this post? Today I turned 50, raised the bat, and saluted the many friends I’ve made along the way. Yesterday, I received this gift from friends. And yesterday, the same friend who paid for my KK found this. A gift from the gods. We quickly made plans to call some mates together to celebrate this combination and share in the maiden Parilla voyage. And ate this. This is definitely the tastiest road kill I have ever eaten. Maybe because I don’t often eat road kill, nor do my friends- apart from some friends being tricked into eating road killed guinea fowls when we were kids while their parents ate prime steak. What can I say other than times were tough back then. Times may not be so tough now and I am certain there are some readers thinking ROAD KILL, that’s outrageous. So it must be said, that all consumers were made aware of what they were consuming and where it came from with full disclosure of providence. [emoji848] and, all agreed that the numerous risks were checked and passed scrutiny. We couldn’t waste the opportunity provided before our eyes. We grazed from 1pm until 10pm and kept tossing new fuel on the fire in between tasting plates with different rubs and spices. This was a wonderful occasion to be remembered for many reasons and certainly an experience I will cherish. This mate changed my nappies in PNG, purchased my KK and provided this delicious food on my 50th. That’s a lot of water under this bridge and an unbreakable friendship along the way. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

An aphorism I heard long ago (from David and Kim, old-timers here might remember them) was that a full cooker is a happy cooker. One doesn't use a water pan with a ceramic cooker, but there is a sweet spot for the ideal cooker humidity. A full cooker is said to naturally find this sweet spot. On the other hand, aphorisms aren't gospel. They're memory aids, and I don't remember if this one is true. My spreadsheet tells me that I cooked 38 lbs of pork butt once in my 23" KK. That's pushing it, but it came out great.

2nd cook on the new grill. Pork chops, stuffed apples, and chard/lettuce on the big grill over oak. Still learning how much wood is needed, but only lit one split too much. Very tasty and have leftovers for another meal. PXL_20210623_202659797.mp4

I agree I don't know why he didn't fill it up.

I'm beginning to think WE have a problem.

When I light extruded charcoal, I bring out the big gun!

@Basher I have been busy all day and didn't have time to comment earlier. I am beside myself with excitement. That looks like a beautiful piece of kit. What fun you and @jeffshoaf are going to have as you explore this type of cooking. Looking forward to seeing more on this thread. And, yes, yes, yes, I love those v grates.

While having lunch yesterday at a favorite place for the first time since pre-pandemic, I noticed steak caesar salad on the menu and decided to make it for dinner Tri Tip on the KK Rested Post-rest and sliced Dinner: Steak, caesar salad, baguette, with a 2011 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet.

When it comes to different methods for starting lump I’ve pretty much used them all… loof, electric, tumbleweeds, etc. The Grill Gun is by far my favorite way to start my fire. It is a BTU king and gets your fire started FAST! even when lighting extruded charcoal. It is relatively small, portable, and it may scare your neighbors away, but they’ll come back for the smells! It is a bit expensive but worth it imho. Anyways, cheers [emoji482] KK fans! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here is some pictures of my 21” Supreme setup. As you can see the 21 is no joke, you can cook a lot of food on this KK. Hopefully this gives you a better idea of it’s size/capacity. I just threw on: -Double Bottom Drip Pan lowest grate -10lbs of cubed pork belly on main grate -2 whole spare ribs trimmed on top grate Running smoke with the small 475 ml MSR smoke Pot, but as you can see you can fit a pretty good amount of wood sufficient for most cooks in this little guy. With this smoke pot you never run the risk of it snuffing out the fire because of its small size. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What a party! Happy Birthday!

@Basher what a great occasion and friends to help you celebrate! Happy birthday to you and cheers to your friends who made it so memorable! All the best.

Forrest that last photo looks like you have room for a couple more pounds of pork bits[emoji39] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I quite like the Grill Gun. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lions fan, just as bad!

Now you've created a dilemma for me @jonj. We are off to visit @RokDok this weekend and I was going to take a small tri tip that I have sitting in my dry ager as an offering to his 32 KK. You know, a little snack for all to enjoy while we wait for whatever he has planned for us to eat. Now I am thinking that I might just have to keep that tri-tip for myself to eat when The Husband goes out for movie night on Thursday. No one will ever know....

Picked up a pallet jack and three sheets of dura pad on Friday knowing my two boys would be here this weekend for Father's Day. Saturday, I had my wife, both my sons, my cousin and his wife and daughter, who is getting ready to graduate as a physical therapist, something that might come in handy after this move. We had one handling the pallet jack, 2-3 on the crate, and 3 leapfrogging the pads. We took our time, and everything went really smoothly, lots of stop and go on the hill, but no hiccups at all. We did get it under the deck before I realized I needed to take the crate off, but was able to slide it back out, remove the crate and then back under the deck. I've seen questions about removing the wood holding the wheels, we used a drill to take out the four screws in each block which left the grill sitting on the center piece of wood. I slid the ramp to the front, we tilted the grill off the wood block and rolled her onto the patio below the deck. Probably took 30 minutes total and that was being very cautious the entire time. Way easier than I anticipated. The first cook was a trial by fire, my father in law had requested pork loin for Father's Day dinner (later I found out he wanted pork tenderloin, but it got lost somewhere in translation), so I slapped the charcoal basket in there, fired up the grill, skewered the whole pork loin on the spit and let her rip. I played with vents and got it settled in around 350, wanted it higher but didn't want the temp to run away from me before I do the venting. The pork loin was good, I had left some fat on hoping to get some crackle, but that never happened, and I never got the color that I've seen on other rotisserie cooks. Also, the charcoal seemed to burn from the center to the left, so one side of the pork loin had nice color and the other, not so much, but that may have been from the rushed lighting job I did on the charcoal. I'm also thinking that since I'm a lot further from the fire than on my Kamado Joe, I need a little more heat. I also had the spit come out of the left side a couple times and start crawling across the inside wall of the KK, funny thing is that it just kept spinning. I would have spent more time setting it up or making adjustments, but it was already getting late and the in-laws were getting hangry. Sunday I made the adjustment to the rotisserie spit so it sits firmly in the seat, and also attached the two side tables. Going to do some quick dinner cooks this week, and then going for the brisket on Saturday, and hopefully the burn in on Sunday. I will take pics of my next cooks.

Great looking ham !!!!!!

And today this was delivered. Excellent detail with simple and easy use design. Closed in storage below to keep timber dry. Detail like the brass rolling handle Refractive cement bricks and wool in the door cavity to keep the front cool for the cook. And the removable milled steel fire tray to elevate the initial fire for air circulation. Also designed to lower the grill into the pit for caveman Sears. And removable grates and drip trays at dishwasher sizes. And the removable spit for up to 40kg- that’s about 90lb!!!! This can also have a grill rack placed for other food while rotating. Now I just have to practice cooking on this Parilla. Oh, and the cover with slits to allow access to the storage area without completely unpacking. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nicely done Boom boom. No fuss, no muss. Rather than silence of the lambs, I was thinking that first photo reminded me more of the rabbit boiler in fatal attraction! And Bill, straight into caveman cooking. Well done. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First pig for us. 41lbs ( no idea what that is in kilos) for a group of 20 people. Wasn’t sure if it was going to fit on my 32BB but Patsy Swine (that’s what we named her)fit very comfortably. She first got a nice bath. She was playing coy and not showing her girlie bits, then on to the smoker for a nice warm smoky sauna. Some of those gathered couldn’t look Patsy in the eye so we had to cover her eyes with her own skin. Please don’t think Silence of The Lambs of me though. Overall she was a success although she might have needed to go about 10 or 15 degrees more but it was getting late and the hordes were getting hungry. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Today I reverse seared a nice cowboy ribeye. The temp control is so easy of the KK. Nice and steady at 250 until I got my internal temp of 114, it carried over to 117 while I was getting the KK up to 500 for searing. Thrilled with the results 😁

Well- had my first attempt at proper bbq today; and it was not exactly straightforward! Decided a brisket would be the way to go to properly christen my new 32" BB. Picked one up yesterday- on the small side at 2.7kg (6lb), and more point than flat. The wife convinced me not to go straight to an overnight session the first time before I knew what I was doing (wise woman), and given the smaller cut I planned on a hot/fast brisket instead at around 150c (300F). Very cold here this morning, and my first attempt at lighting a small piece of charcoal resulted in me coming to find the fire out completely 20min later- and I had only 40min until I needed to leave for work for a few hours... Got a bit more aggressive with the weed burner, still only lighting a small tennis ball size piece. Got the racks in, foil pouch with mesquite pellets, had covered the brisket with Meat Church Holy Cow. Set my top to where I had thought 300F roughly was based on my burn it- and left the wife in charge for a couple of hours. She checked on it diligently and sent photos of the dome temps, but within 30min it was clear that it needed to be throttled back majorly- as a result it was quite a hot/fast brisket; although it was at 300F to start with, much of the rest of time was spent at 350-400F. The smoke in the first hour was EPIC; lucky no neighbours called the fire department. I had only opened up 1/4 turn after just touching the gasket; but as mentioned previously I still have a full 1/4 turn of feeling gasket before I get to properly closed- so in reality I was probably 1/2 open or perhaps even a touch more. Live and learn. Total cooking time was 6.5hrs, wrapped at 170F/ 75C at around the 3.5hr mark. Rested 3hrs in cooler before slicing. Given the pace I had resigned myself to a tough overdone brisket. Couldn't have been more wrong- it was sooooo good. Tender, melt in the mouth, super smoky. Best bbq I've ever done that's for sure, and that in the context of largely stuffing it up! Served Project Smoke taco style for tonight given that I had the ingredients at home already. Perhaps brioche burgers tomorrow with burnt ends and a nice bbq sauce. Thanks for all the tips and advice. It's a great forum.

Added a little more peach wood this time and first 10 minutes without a drip pan. Then added the drip pan with veggies in it. I had some issues getting the rotisserie motor aligned this time, but I will do some more test fitting next week, I’m sure it is user error. But I am real happy with the results 😁

A little sausage cook with roasted veggies. The sausages were only 3/4 cooked as I wanted to finish them off with the veggies. Roasted red and orange peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and shallots. Plated with roasted potatoes.