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Nope. Just used my Lodge pan (KK shopping channel via @RokDok) and skewer. Cleaned up nice with a soak in Fairy liquid overnight. @tony b yes, lees are good for marinading. I too love shio koji and use it raw on food as well as a marinade. Lees give a stronger, funkier flavour. All good.

@Mark SurrattAs a recent purchaser, I will outline my story, my decision, and my results. As I use my 42 more and more, I get more perspective. I made my original order back last June. I ordered a 32BB in matte black pebble. As I waited and waited, 2 things happened. 1) I got impatient and wanted to see if I could get a cancellation on the boat ahead of me 2) I had FOMO on making sure I got the biggest grill. The biggest reason for ordering my KK is that I do big cooks of pulled pork. I was doing 2-3 cooks of 2 pork butts in each cook on my Big Green Egg for my brothers in law, which now I can do all at once. I can do 6 butts on the main grate (with room to spare and drip pans underneath) without making 2 layers with the upper grate, which is astounding and awesome. The pic I am providing is featuring 5 but I could easily do 6. I vac seal and freeze BBQ for my brothers-in-law for Christmas to take back home to new york. And I have some other family gatherings, etc where I bring frozen bags and warm them up in the sous vide and they taste almost like they are fresh off the smoker. And I am expanding the stuff I do this technique with. I ended up being successful in acquiring a cancellation in the boat ahead of me and received my KK in November. Here are some observations. A) the 42SBB is not too big. The basket splitter comes standard. You can grill with a small amount of charcoal. With half a basket or less you can run the grill for many hours. Full baskets are a lot of charcoal, but it doesn't burn near as much as you think it is going to. For grilling in particular, You have ample space for all sorts of versatility. The way that the upper and lower grates are split into 3 sections gives you several different ways to set the grill up, which is so handy and cool. B ) after living with the 42, I occasionally find myself wanting a smaller KK or wanting to use my BGE. I think it boils down to how you are going to use it. For me, I love my 42 because I do a lot of grilling and I absolutely adore the extra room that this grill gives me I do several very large smokes every year and it's great to do it all at once rather than in batches I could probably do these large cooks in a 32 very easily as well but I appreciate all the handy extra space. I don't have to fool with the upper grate unless I want to do - what - a dozen pork butts (which I may do one day and I will post pics!). If you are mostly doing one brisket or one pork shoulder and that type of thing and you are doing mostly smoking and not grilling, I would recommend sticking with the 32 or even looking at the 23 ultimate. The reason is that on this pork butt cook that you see in pictures below (yes, they are all perfect and awesome) but - the butts on the right side where there was more fire underneath were slightly hotter than the ones on the left. This is a HUGE nitpick because THIS IS A KK and the results are mind blowing no matter what, but - it is my impression that the temperature consistency is more and more uniform the smaller KK you have. If you are doing smaller amounts of food and you are aiming for absolute utter perfection, I think a smaller KK is the "best tool for the job". That said, do I have any hesitation about smoking small amounts of food in my 42? None whatsoever - and the results are - as I say - mindblowing - just like with any KK. Bottom line: If you grill a lot like I do and you want the absolute most versatile KK in the line, upgrade to the 42. It's so useful to have all the room and you won't regret it, except for the rare occasion where you wish you had a smaller one. At least, that's my take.

I managed to make it to Nigeria in October, before Omigodcron made itself known to the World. Here are some pictures from an authentic suya joint. It was good to eat the real thing again and to taste the different rubs used by different suya joints. All that said, my visit confirmed to me that my sacrilegious use of pork when I make suya in the UK does give great flavour that, sadly for them, the Muslims who generally cook suya in Lagos won't ever get to taste. And no, I do not know what big and small torso are!

Remember the pic of the snow on my deck on NYD? Well, I cleared it off yesterday enough to get to the KK to cook dinner, seeing as it was the warmest day we'll see this week (34F). A couple of notes: 1) Reminder if you live where it's cold like here, remember to take out your dome thermometer. I know better and forgot. Did a temperature check in boiling water and it was reading over 10F low. Not a biggie, but I'll adjust it before the next cook. 2) A very cold KK takes much longer to warm up than "normal." It's been in the single digits here most of the week during the day and below zero at night. I usually can get the KK up to temp (325F in this case) in about 30 minutes. Last night it took well over an hour. Threw off my whole cooking schedule. Which I took advantage of with an extra glass of wine while waiting! Trader Joe's chicken shawarma thighs on the menu. Plated with curried rice, side salad and homemade tzatziki sauce. Good thing there's leftovers, as we're back in the deep freeze again. Super windy, too. Windchills in the -15F range all day today. High tomorrow and Friday of 2F. Stay warm and safe, ya'll. Poor folks stranded on the VA highway overnight had it pretty rough!

Looks wonderful. You know that I'm now a junkie for suya - thanks to you! Beef, pork, chicken - it's all good.

@RokDok got me into making cider although I managed to dodge the massive spend on scratters and such like by simply using my home juicer to start the process off. We are visiting him next week and I may take a bottle with me so that he can judge whether I have ended up with cider or just a nice batch of cider vinegar. An interesting by product of the process were the cider lees - the sediment that falls to the bottom of your fermenting container as your apple juice turns to alchohol and clarifies (or at least, that is what I think was happening). I used the cider lees to marinade wings and they came out nice and deeply delicious, a real umami flavour. I also tried to use them to make a sourdough starter but that was not successful at all. No pix, sorry, but I do have pics of the output of my cook last night. I used this recipe https://www.quicksandfood.com/recipe/sake-lees-marinated-grilled-chicken-w-herb-salad-sesame-chilli-sauce/#ingredients and sake lees that friend bought me for a present. My excuse for not taking the pic of the food cooking on the KK? It was cold and dark out and I left my phone in the house! I give you sake lees chicken shawarma. Yum.

I just want to say I wish each and everyone of you the best in this new year!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR🎈

I had a thin venison rump steak the other day and cooking direct on the coals seemed to be a good way to get a good sear quickly without over cooking the steak. The soot that you see on the KK comes from blowing it off the embers before placing the steak on top. The steak was cooked rare, to my liking, but I did find it just a little bit gritty on the outside. I think it is a method worth pursuing and will try again soon.

Tony, thanks for the thermometer tip. Right after a weather bomb which is supposed to start tomorrow we are going into a double digit negative deep freeze. Brrrrrrrrrr

We should keep it to tiles vs pebbles. 🥴

It's 68 here right now at 5pm and will get up to 72 tomorrow. We did get some mornings in the 30s a couple of days ago. That food should keep you warm. Looks like a serious meal.

Or sauce, no sauce. Beans, bo beans. Soak wood, don't soak it. Fat up, fat down.

One of those rare days where I won't be firing up the KK. 8+ inches of snow yesterday and it's below zero outside. Hunkering down with Brunch of Eggs Benedict and Mimosas with the leftover bubbly from NYE! Stay safe out there!

It goes without saying that I'll pick up the tab on all of 'em. Don't forget to load up on accessories!