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We've been flat out since mid-December when we bought a new house. Since then we've been preparing our current house for sale- which is epic amounts of work as I'm sure you all know. Little time for KK cooking- and then we also decided at the last minute to move out temporarily for the sales campaign (a very wise idea when you have young kids and pets!) So it's been awhile between posts for me. Our house sold at auction on Friday night- a sensational result; and so we've moved back in. The auctioneer even made a few KK references to ensure that the bidder knew that it wasn't included with the sale (just like the home brewery). What better way to celebrate than with a simple KK family grill- sausages of varied sorts, scotch fillet and eye fillet steaks, kofta, grilled asparagus and sweet potato with tomatoes from the garden. In three weeks we do the big move to our new place- where one of my big decisions is where to put the KK. We have secured excellent movers that are not easily intimidated by the KK, which is a big relief.

Reviving this a bit to help out @KiwiIndo and @remi - I received my 32" KK over the winter and did some pizza testing this month. Our pizza background: we've made pizza several to many times a month for years now from scratch. It's fast if you plan ahead, you can vary the toppings based on the season, and if you make an extra, you have a solid lunch for the next day. We have a secret sauce recipe and use the dough recipe from Roberta's (yes the 00 flour is important). There are a number of good ways to get the dough ready, including making it ahead of time and letting it rise in the fridge overnight. Anyway, here is the real KK content: commercial pizza ovens run 700-800F. Why? The dough needs to get to ~400F via conduction from your stone and your sauce and cheese will continuously vent water vapor (boil) at 212F from convection and radiant heat. Conduction is much more efficient than convection, which allows you to have the two sides of the pizza reach these respective states at the same time - this is THE most important thing to cooking good pizza and allows you to keep the pizza in the oven/KK for as little time as possible. Here is what happens when you cook pizza on a KK based on time and temperature: You bring your KK up to 550F and properly heat soak the pizza stone: This is the equivalent of cooking pizza at max temp on an indoor electric/gas oven. It's fine and even good, but it's not the same as a professionally-cooked, wood-fired, brick-oven pizza. You bring your KK up to 700F, but don't maintain the heat long enough to get the stone to temp: This will result in too much bubbling. Your pizza will dry out and your cheese will scorch. The heat will penetrate the dough too much by the time it's cooked, resulting in a more dense and less springy crust. You bring your KK up to 700F and properly soak the stone for at least 45 min: This produces legitimately restaurant-quality crust without burning or bubbling away your toppings. The crust will have that slight char and crispy exterior with the correct chewy and open crumb of a professionally-equipped pizzeria. At this temp, it takes me exactly 5 minutes to cook two side-by-side pizzas on a 32" KK at 700F after a heat soak. It might vary a touch if you make your dough thicker or assemble your pizza too early, such that the dough starts absorbing liquid from your sauce, but get your timing down so you never need to check on the pizza mid-cook. Start with a very full basket and clean out any ash as others have recommended. To get to 700 is fairly easy with enough fuel and enough air - however, you really don't want it to run away from you; at 700 dome temps, accidentally touching grates etc. can produce hospital-level burns. Make sure you have a long-handled pizza peel. My most successful run last week had both vents fully open, plus the ash dump grate pulled out for extra air initially. I used the top vent to slow my ascent as I crossed into the 600s, and then once I was around 675, I closed the ash dump grate. You can then fine-tune from there. Here is an after shot of one of my runs last week. Note that one side of my KK seemed a little hotter than the other, and the crust on the right-hand pizza is a little over. I probably needed another 5-10 minutes to soak is my guess.

Traveling a lot in Texas as we launch our solar shingle product spent a lot of time in Austin this week went to La Barbecue yesterday but was eating while on a co fete me call so only ordered brisket & beans wasn’t really paying attention or thinking when I ordered also went to the original Salt Lick in Driftwood tonight for dinner with a client and ordered a proper sample plate. Will be back here a ton over the next few months but will also check out and post some San Antonio BBQ in the coming weeks

Greetings all, Thought I'd share my Used (but like new) 32" Big Bad - Terra Blue I found this Beauty about 20 miles from my house, what are the chances of that!? I Found a unique trailer to rent that lowers to the ground for easy loading! I used leftover Maple Plywood from some shelving I did ( talk about lying down the red carpet lol). It was actually fairly easy to roll around and had my father guide It to the trailer as I pushed, It has some nice heavy duty casters thankfully. I love to tinker with things and I critique the build quality of everything and this Big Bad Is VERY well made. I'd say It would last decades haha I'd say she Is practically new with ~5 cooks! Going to fire her up soon. Honestly, she Is a little big for me and had been eyeing smaller sizes but I had to jump on the chance to snag this rarity; but I'm optimistic and will her use full potential (Unless someone has a smaller KK they want to trade haha).

Remember charcoal always burns at the maximum volume for the allowed airflow.. temperature is airflow.. if it's not hot enough, you don't have enough air. The usual culprit is small pieces that restrict/reduce the volume of air coming thru the grill. Different species of wood create charcoal that burns at different temps.. but all can easily get to pizza temps. Pouring your lump into a box and shake to sort.. but the largest pieces dead center and the smaller ones if you must use them around the outside near the cement.

Well @tekobowhen you take your trip to Mexico and stop by my house I’ll likely make you my brisket 😀

I recognised Salt Lick from your photo @Troble. Here is mine from 2015. I did not have a KK then and didn't have much to compare the food with. I enjoyed the meal, liked the BYOB aspect and it was easier to get into than Franklins. Maybe next time I am in the US I will have the patience to wait in line to try their brisket.

Made a cherry / maple entry table for a friend. He gave me a very twisted 6 quarter slab, salvaged enough for the top and shelf. Left a live edge on the shelf, facing front.

Welcome to the Obsession! WOW, what luck to score that practically unused KK so close by!!! You're going to have a lot of fun with it. Post pics of the early cooks! We love food porn here. 😁

I agree with @Poochie about the pavers. Please consider using the plywood method. It works very well. Best of luck.

I’ve been so busy at work I didn’t have time to get into details. Just sat on the tarmac for 4 hours and they cancelled my flight so getting to stay another night in Austin by the airport La barbecue brisket was good. Real tasty I’ve never been there before but my friends claimed the brisket was better than Franklins. I thought it was great but I was on a conference call while eating so I didn’t order well just ordered a 1/2 lb of brisket but it was tasty and the black beans were spicy and delicious. Gotta go back and order more to try other meat Ive been to salt lick round rock before maybe 5-6 years ago and thought it was ok. Last night I went to the original location in Driftwood. The setup was awesome live music, BYOB cool atmosphere but I definitely make better brisket at home in my KK than what I ate there. Sausage was good, bison rib was good but overall food was “ok” again maybe I’m conceited but I feel like I could do better also ate at liberty bbq today in round rock had brisket and pork ribs. Pork ribs were tender, heavy rub, really tasty, brisket was good, above salt lick but below la barbecue. I didn’t take any pictures today because I met an old friend for a late lunch and had to turn my phone off to “unplug” from work. Have every 30 minutes of my day scheduled from 6am-6pm, getting 100 emails and 50 phone calls a day, so just wanted to catch up with my buddy who I hadn’t seen in 5 years and have a beer . My friend who’s from here who took me to Liberty told me I need to go to “the black” in Longmont for the best brisket. Will do that for future visits. franklins is on the docket for next trip in two weeks I told my customer I’d buy lunch for his team and we agreed to get Franklins to go next trip so will judge later. I gotta come to Austin every other week for the next 8 weeks or so so I’ll post more. It’s been a good 5-6 years since I’ve come to Austin so there’s a lot more BBQ places now my San Antonio customer tells me the best brisket is in San Antonio so I’ll try his recommendation next trip and add to this thread. One good perk about work travel is eating good local food so I’ll try them all over the next two months but honestly im feeling good about my KK briskets that come from my backyard in San Diego

Okay, it's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I would share my latest progression on these two projects, for what it's worth: first, as to the pork shoulder: had a very nice cook yesterday, doing both the pork shoulder, which went on the smoker about 9AM, and the spare ribs, which went on at 12, in the 265-275 range. I used a light mustard slather on the shoulders, followed by a light dusting of Dizzy Pig Ghost Pepper rub (I wanted to add a little kick to the bark) and a heavier dusting of Dizzy Pig Red Eye Express. Next, for both the spare ribs and the shoulder, I have been trying to find a way to get a bit more smoke into the meat: one of the challenges, I think, for using the KK is that the smokers are so dang thermally efficient, that one has to greatly restrict the air flow in order to keep the temperature properly regulated: kind of the opposite of the large 1,000 gallon propane tank type smokers that are so popular in Austin- where the pitmasters talk about the airflow and "turbulence". For those type smokers, I think a lot more smoker passes over the surface of the meat. So what to do, if I am looking for a smokier result? I switched from my typical wood- apple or apple and other fruitwoods- and this time used 100% hickory, which has a stronger and more pronounced flavor. BINGO. We had some spare ribs for dinner last night and they were much improved, with a more pronounced smoky flavor. So, each to his own, (te gustibus!) , but I do like this hickory or using it in combination. I might give mesquite a try too- previously I have only used it for searing, but I have read that it is quite different when used for smoking only. Stay tuned. I generally use Dizzy Big Dizzy Dust (their original rub) for my ribs, and continued to do so. I have typically used a 2/1/1 (babyback) or 4/1/1 (spare ribs) approach. For both of these recipes, an hour cooked wrapped is followed by a final hour unwrapped. The last two time, I have left the riibs wrapped for the final hour-greatly improved moisture and tenderness for the ribs. I usually spritz heavily with a 50/50 apple juice/water combination. I have also, the last two or three times, tried a variation in technique, and placed the ribs MEAT SIDE DOWN in the foil when it is wrapped, and cooked them meat side down (meat side up for the first two or three hours in the smoker). I've found that this helps greatly for nice moist , "floppy" results for the ribs. Also, the last two times, I've put a light sprinkle of brown sugar in the foil for the wrap, which leaves the ribs with a nicely caramalized finish. Yesterday I also added a light sprinkle of Togarishi blend spice- a nice Japanese chili blend good for finishing. The results were, according toy wife and worst critic, excellent (I thought so, too). So here are photos of the pork shoulder with slather, then with the Dizzy Pig rubs, the completed shoulders (nice bark!), the completed ribs (yum!) and the spices used.

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Another dish fixed in a pan. I used my doubled half size steamer pan. Doesn't sound right, does it? I grilled the chicken thighs first, then put them in the other goodies. Put a lid on it and cooked it for 3 1/2 hours at 275-300. The last picture of the clean pan was showing that when you double the pans, nothing sticks. I rinsed it in hot water and rubbed it with my hand before it gets a serious wash. Anyway, the meal came out very flavorful. The extreme closeup of the served food was because my plate was so messy it was embarrassing.

An Afro-Mexi mash-up = Suya Pepper steak skewers meets Mexican Torta. Torta with sauteed poblano peppers, onions, and garlic in a crema with lime and cilantro, fresh tomatoes and pickled jalapenos. Airfryer tots on the side, with a nice cooling salad.