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Some may have a fist full of dollars but I have something even better and it's right out of my garden. Swiss chard and so tender. I think I've hit all the big food groups with this dinner.

Smoked pork belly burnt ends used for bahn mi sandwiches! First time doing the bahn mi at home, really excited about how they came out. Did some quick pickling of daikon radishes/carrots/red onion, mixed up some spicy Mayo, added a tad bit of shredded cabbage, cilantro, and jalapeño. Pork bellies rubbed with onion powder/garlic powder/paprika/brown sugar/salt/pepper/cayenne/chili powder and smoked at 225-250ish for 2.5 hours, then glazed with honey, butter, fish sauce, soy sauce and wrapped in foil for another 90 mins. Took foil off for another 15 mins then made the sandwiches

Wagyu Ribeye w/Peruvian pink salt & black pepper Roasted baby potatoes with lemon thyme & rosemary from the garden, garlic powder, black pepper & truffle salt asparagus wrapped in prosciutto drizzled with balsamic glaze to finished cooked with mesquite wood & served with Grgich cab

It's less about the amount of smoke as it is the type of smoke - acrid white smoke vs, "clean" blue smoke. If you're happy with the smoke flavor you're getting now, you can use the same technique with your pending KK and get similar results, only with better moisture retention and less fuel consumption - but if you try the smoke pot, you'll probably not go back to your old method. Your food will have a good smoke flavor without a harsh flavor tone you get from the white smoke. Of course, some folks like that harsh "bite". Dennis has provided a good test method - if you get the smoked in your eyes and your eyes burn, that's the harsh white smoke. If your eyes don't burn, that's the clean blue smoke. Traditional smoking (for flavor instead of preservation) has you letting the wood burn down to embers before adding the food so that the harsh smoke and the steam has burnt off. The amount of wood used is limited to keep the temps down so for long cooks; this initial burn is often done in a separate area or burn barrel and the embers shoveled under the food. Of course, this is a lot of work and requires constant vigilance to maintain the desired cooking temperature. Offset smokers were developed to make this a bit easier; by separating the fuel from the food and throttling the amount of heat that transfers across, the wood can be burnt at a higher temperature so that all the nasty stuff gets burnt out of the smoke before the smoke touched the food. While requiring less work than burning the wood down to embers before moving to the cook, this method does require more fuel and vigilance to keep the fire fueled. Kamados are a different creature - fuel efficient and and to maintain low temps without on-going vigilance, but the fire isn't big or hot enough to burn off the nasty stuff from the resulting smoke. I believe that they're traditionally fueled with just charcoal in the far East where they were originally developed but we're trying to get the smoked flavor we love so much. The smoke pot allows us to get that clean smoke with small fires by burning the wood and forcing the resulting smoke down into the hotter fire to burn off the nasty stuff. I've been more wordy in this post than i usually am but I've been thinking a lot about this recently. I have a new Santa Maria grill and have been cooking with wood instead of charcoal and have tried cooking over the wood before it's burned down to embers and after it's burned down; while this open cooking produces less of a smoke flavor than i get with the closed kk environment, the difference is so pretty obvious.

Well done Mac, Troble, snake. Gotta love the home grown Mac. The same way you gotta love beetroot on a steak sandwich. And hot english mustard with pear! The steak was pretty good too. Sliced thin. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Unless you're a catering business, or the Old Lady in the shoe with a lot of family to feed, the 42" is way overkill. You're going to be able to do everything that you want on the 32".

@Snake Plissken - rocking that bahn mi sandwich! Looks sensational. @Basher - ruining that beautiful steak sandwich with beets - eww! 😝

I was one of those very lucky folks who found a gently used KK, as soon as it was posted, I jumped and was the lucky new owner. The great thing for me was it had everything I wanted, was the size, had pebbles (yes they cook better than tiles :)) and the color I wanted. It only took ~8 years for the one I wanted to "pop up". So I got incredibly lucky, saved a little money, but if you want a specific size/color/pebble/tile combo, the chances of that exact KK coming along is pretty slim, you would be better off just ordering what you wanted. If you do find one close at hand, here is how I moved mine: Moving a KK Regards. Bruce.

Perfect explanation, thank you @jeffshoaf for the time and detail.

I think I'll stick with 32 b/c I do a lot of low and slow and I don't need that huge of a space. It's plenty big enough for my family of 5 and any parties I cook for - and it's got plenty of grill space. I'm good. But I started to get FOMO. haha. I cannot wait. It's going to be a long time before it gets here. Got to start thinking about a name, etc.

I’ve done the BGE to Primo to KK thing too. There is no comparison. With the egg I was constantly re centering the lid. With the Primo I was on my third firebox. With the KK I just cook. I’ve only had my KK for a month now but I love it, the others are fine cookers but this is in a different league altogether.

I double down on everything everyone has said. Robert said they hold their value really well….I agree. I’m speaking for myself, but I would be concerned about trying to safely transport a heavy, $5k + grill without damaging it. It’s been done, but not something I would personally want to navigate. There are years of experience shipping them and they are crated incredibly well. And Dennis offers so many great choices of tile colors including some super nice looking new ones that he just recently introduced. Like others here, I’ve also have no regrets. There’s also the incredible excitement of tracking your order while it’s on the boat and the anticipation of delivery day. There’s sort of a high a person experiences on delivery day. It’s the whole experience that makes the KKs so incredible. There’s a lot to be said about expensing it out over many years as well. A lot of information to process. Good luck with your decision! Haha, disclaimer, my statements are NOT a paid commercial. Just a super satisfied customer of the best Kamado style cooker on the market. 😊

That’s an awesome looking meal. Got to love a Wagyu anything, but a ribeye….can’t beat it! Sure it was as great as it all looks.

Looks tasty Mac, that swiss chard seems to knock on the memory library. As a kid we we had that on the table quite a bit, your right, it is tender and good. Good with bacon bits too

You first.

I'm very excited about receiving my KK later this year. It took me an extra 2 years to pull the trigger - but - it's pulled now. 32" BB in matte black pebble coming my way. Hopefully in late October / early November.

First and foremost, as to all your questions about are kks that good..yes they are, and then some. There’s not much of a used market, buyers simply don’t get rid of them. Secondly, the warranty doesn’t transfer, but it’s actually fairly rare that that’s an issue. The other issue is that when used ones do appear, the value holds up really well, so it’s unlikely you’ll find a “deal” on a used one. Kks don’t lose tiles, if you’ve seen pics of large patches missing, it’s either a damaged grill, a grill that got moisture under the grout and freezing occurred, typically from not being covered, and most commonly, it’s not even a kk, but likely a Richard Johnson Kamado, which is a story in itself. I highly recommend biting the bullet and ordering a new one from Dennis, because all new grills come with him, almost literally. He’ll help you with a used one, but it’s not the same. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It sure is.

@johnnymnemonic Get ready to be seriously impressed with the quality of food coming off your KK over the Egg. Game changing!

@BlueRidgeBBQGuy I recently ordered my KK after 12 years of green egging and here's why: - I wanted the best (and I have been reading about and watching videos about KKs for years) - after a while you inevitably have to change the felt gasket on your green egg. I've done mine 3 times and my father-in-laws a couple of times. It is not fun to have to take apart your cooker and do maintenance on it. If you have the 2009 to IDK 2016 spring assisted hinge, it is almost impossible to get the stupid top and bottom of the green egg lined up. You usually end up with an "underbite" on your egg. It's very frustrating to spend a thousand bucks on something that won't line up perfectly. The new hinges are better, and if you save the spacers when you buy either the egg itself or a new hinge assembly, you can learn to line up the hinges properly and avoid the "underbite" or "overbite" alignment issues on your egg. One of my father in law's grills had the old spring assisted hinge and I was able to line his up perfectly using the spacers after changing the gasket. - but BGEs are such a pain in the behind on this point. The egg is a great cooker, but it's got some annoyances. Don't get me wrong, I love my egg. BGE stands by its merchandise and they have replaced parts for me for free (like a cracked fire ring). I'd recommend BGE over other Kamados in its class because of how well the company stands by their merchandise (and I live in Atlanta close to headquarters). However -- I'm really looking forward to having something that is going to run for many years without much intervention. Maybe some hinge spring tightening on the KK. Maybe some wiping down and vacuuming on occasion. But no gasket replacement (at least not for a massively long time). I'm looking forward to a ceramic cooker that loses even less moisture than the egg and that keeps temperatures better than any grill in the known universe. I'm looking forward to a grill that (to cite the "rum and cook" guy on youtube) cooks a pork butt that beats a pork butt smoked on a Yoder professional grade pellet grill (and does it all in a mostly maintenance free manner). I think his video is a little weird b/c I'd probably use a full basket of coals with wood chunks in it and rely on the vents rather than using the cold smoker attachment for extra smoke with only 1/4 basket of charcoal but... meh - whatever. Still pretty good endorsement. I'd rather have less maintenance on the KK for years and years than have to maintain a pellet grill. And if you watch other videos - Stephen Raichlen cooks on everything and knows it all - calls KK the best ceramic cooker without compare. You can take any number of people's word for it. I don't have my KK yet and I don't know anyone who has one, so I haven't tasted the food yet - but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get my KK and say "that was worth it". If you cook a lot and consider it your hobby, why not have the best? Cheers! @DennisLinkletter you've never been disparaging of the competition but if you wanted to know some of the reasons why I finally ordered my KK (you probably have had other people talk about their eggs so this may not be new to you but - just in case). Anyway I'm brimming with excitement and will be for the next 4 months until I get my KK Big Bad 32.

Great cooks everyone! Happy 4th of July!! So, being the classic BBQ holiday here in the US, it was baby back ribs, potato salad and corn. BUT, the ribs were a new experiment - 2 different experiments actually. I cut the baby back rack in half. Dry rubbed both with mustard and Dizzy Pig. After 90 minutes, I sprayed both pieces every 30 minutes with a brew of apple juice, apple cider vinegar, bourbon, sage, marjoram, thyme, cumin and S&P. I used the cheapo coffee maker that I bought on Amazon Prime Day, like I'd seen in YouTube BBQ videos. The herbs and spices go in the basket with a paper filter and the liquids go in the tank and you brew it just like coffee. Once it cools, then it goes into a spray bottle. With an hour left, I smeared some of the smoked lard on the pink butcher paper and wrapped the one half rack. Didn't do anything more to it until the end. The unwrapped rack got spritzed every 30 minutes until the end. Both came out really good. Hard to say which technique worked better - each has its own benefit and I will be using both techniques in the future. And Yes, there are pictures to prove that it did, indeed, happen! First, yesterday I cold smoked some of the Wagyu beef tallow and the pork leaf lard using the cold smoker with apple and cherry wood pellets. Smoked for 4 hours. Beef on the left, pork on the right. You can see the smoke around the outside. The pork just barely melted (it's in the 90s here). Both came out AMAZING! Can't wait to use the Wagyu on some steaks and chuck roasts! Ribs on the grill. Indirect, 250F with the Guru. smoker pot with hickory and apple wood chunks. Plated with some of my brew (English Pale Ale). The wrapped ribs were falling off the bone with a nice mouthfeel from the extra fat. The unwrapped/extra spray ribs had a nice crust and were moist. Just about to fall off the bone tender. Flip a coin - it was a toss up as to my favorite!

Nothing says Happy Birthday America like chicken shawarma! 😀48 hour marinated chicken things cooked on the vertical spit with sweet onions on top. Sliced and let sit in pan juices to further cook for 15 minutes… really tasty served with Mediterranean salad (red onions, bell peppers, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, mint, feta & homemade balsamic vinaigrette) Pearled garlic & olive oil cous cous homemade Tadziki

If my Massachusetts neighbor C6Bill wasn’t afraid of thunderstorms a few days ago, then I figured I shouldn’t be afraid of a little rain (actually not so little as it turned out) yesterday. We had about 6 pounds of pork belly strips that needed cooking - salt, pepper, smoked paprika - and several hours at about 225-235°F. I’d forgotten how filling this is. Lots of leftovers. My wife will use some to make a big batch of pasta sauce.

Best Happy Father's Day cake ever!