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Nicely done Jeff. That fire looks easier to manage, quicker to get to cooking stage, and less wasted fuel. I am sooooo missing my bbq’s. This is my house at the moment. The KK and the Parilla are locked down in the back yard. The Parilla was mostly used when I exited, however, it was also the newer toy so it will be interesting to see which bbq I gravitate towards when I return. It’s been 2 months away and hence not many posts. Hope to be back by Xmas with a new garage and kitchen- not that I’ll use the kitchen much with the bbq’s needing some cooking attention. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A nice looking cook @jeffshoaf. Good for getting close to the food you are griling. Your work looks like it is coming along well @Basher. I think you will reach a good balance between your ODK and IDK, particularly since the latter will include your new dry ager! I find that I rarely use my Argentinian/Parilla grill. Mainly because I find the KKs so much easier to light. That said, I want to do a lot more experimenting with fire cooking a la Lennox Hastie and others. Winter will see me bundled up and outdoors I hope, trying out stuff on the KKs, Argie Barbie and Solo Stove. What fun.

I finally managed to build a fire that's not way too big for what i was grilling - a dry aged ribeye and a couple of thick pork chops. The steak was for dinner and the chops for later in the week. I'm really enjoying this grill; it's just a bit overkill for these small cooks.

Don't get discouraged this early in the game, johnnymnemonic, you're still in the learning stages. You'll soon forget about all this when you concentrate on cooking and not the tiny bit of time breaking it in. I live in Louisiana and I only did this procedure once with my 21". It's extremely humid here. I used a toothpick to apply the grout. You know the correct procedure now so you'll never have this problem again. My problem...when I had the Green Egg and the Kamado Joe was that I couldn't get smoky meat flavor. That problem vanished with the Komodo Kamado. I know you mentioned this once before. It's a learning process and I believe you'll have it licked before Christmas.

The volume of insulation/ wall thickness is the same in ALL models from 16-42". It will take a bit more BTU's to heat soak the walls, but from that point on they all burn very little charcoal to maintain low and slow temps.. To give you an idea.. A 23" with my dense coconut shell charcoal can go 85 hours at 235ºf on a single basket. The 42" with a much larger basket can go 215 hours at 235ºf on a single basket! The only time charcoal consumption is noticeable is when you are grilling at high temps and then the KK consumes charcoal at the same rate as every other grill.. but using the charcoal basket splitter helps to reduce consumption because you only need to light and use an appropriate volume for the meat you are cooking.. Crank it down and a 42" is suddenly cooking with the same volume as a 23" with splitter.. I've never heard of anybody commenting about charcoal consumption in a KK except when baking Napoleon pizzas at very high temps 800-900º.. these actually should be done with a baking steel at 450º will get the same leoparding on your crust.. much safer and less fuel..

If you need any tips on how to bundle up I'm here for you.

I'm not really all that discouraged. I was a little pissed yesterday, but I am better now. I'm glad I have a matte black grill. You can definitely tell the "splotches" where I had to scrub on it but my guess is this will fade as the grill ages. The cooking is the most important thing. I'll be cooking again soon hopefully before the week is out. It is a great piece of equipment.

"Turbo Butt". 😭 Definitely borrowing that!

Aaron Franklin certainly thinks so- and suggests avoiding them as they burn hot, fast, and without much smoke flavour.

I’m a huge fan of steam table pans for use in the KK (both stainless and foil). The ones in the picture are a bit shallower than typical steamer pans and a slightly different size. The half and the third sizes get used regularly - either for deflectors or drip pans or just sides. This is an older picture, but shows the third and half sizes in a 42.

MacKenzie will help you spend any extra cash you might have on hand. But that is a cool gizmo. I'm looking at it myself.

@jeffshoaf I have to say you're right about the KK. I didn't get the smoke flavor I was expecting this weekend. It was "good", just not what I'm used to. If I figure something out I will let you know. FYI one thing I thought would be better but actually wasn't is putting food on the upper rack to get it up in the dome a little more. I thought the food I put on the main grate was actually better. It was apples and oranges - ribs friday on main grate, briskets saturday on upper rack. Both AWESOME on the texture and definitely has me loving my KK but I want more smoke. I will try the cold smoker attachment next and see if I like what that does.

Made a quick batch of soup yesterday to go with todays steak from SRF

Well actually, when I make Canadian bacon it looks like this - so I guess this batch was technically Canadian breakfast bacon.

Some more pics from the weekend.