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As I type this it’s 55 degrees at 7:40pm, feels like I haven’t cooked on the KK in forever so today I fired it up and did some chicken breast that I’ll use for quesadillas and chicken lettuce wraps the next two days, but I’ve been hungry all week so felt like some good read meat fortunately I just got a bunch of new rubs and spices that the venerable @tony brecimmeded to me so tonight I grilled a tri-tip indirect over coco char rubbed with Oakwood Santa Maria rub, over mesquite wood chips, served with slow baked sweet potatoe and Greek yogurt (quickly becoming my go to baked potato), along with seasons first corn on the cob, which could’ve been cooked longer and probably grown longer. Served with my favorite Fred’s Horseradish sauce also @Tyrus decided to break my dry streak for 2021 and have a nice glass of red wine tonight which was lovely. Meat turned out great, enough medium +/well done pieces for the misses and medium/- for me. Top it off with my friends Umphrey’s McGee doing a livestream concert sitting outside, capped off in the hot tub. Lovely evening

Troble, I realize you are new on the forum but you are not that new that you can post fresh corn on the cob until Tony and I can do the same, which is not until late July or Aug.

Those steaks look good @RokDok I'd call that a very successful first cook. I'm not sure if you have a cover but watch the teak controls on the vents, they'll deteriorate left wet so might want to dry before covering. You've tried the grill, assume a slow cook is up next? I trust you are taking @tony b advice and grabbing adult beverages and getting to grips with the air control first? Good to see some pictures of Mrs RokDok proving she survived the experience of acting as anchor too!

As noted by @Braai-Q, 1st stock up on the adult beverages and settle in for a few hours. For temp control training, load up the basket with cheap lump (assuming that you aren't going to cook anything, so don't waste the good stuff!) and just start a small fire, and open the top vent just barely off the seat (just so smoke exits) and bump open the left dial to about 1/2 open (it doesn't control the temp, so it's not that sensitive to position when you first get going). Let the KK come up to its natural state (stops increasing) and make note of the dome temperature, enjoying that adult beverage in the process. Next, bump open the top vent about 1/8 of a turn and repeat. Have another adult beverage while waiting. Keep doing the 1/8 turn increments until you get to about 400F. That should cover most of your cooking range. These vent settings are very repeatable. If you want to keep going to do the burn in, start opening the top vent in 1/4 turn increments to speed up the process. You might want to top off the charcoal at this point, as this part will take a few more hours. You will also need to open the left dial/lower vent all the way. Keep going until you start to smell the solvent (typically around 550F dome.) Then stop the increase and just let it ride itself out until the smell is gone. Make note of any weeping white goop and/or lifting tiles. Have a rag handy to wipe off the goop (be careful as the outside of the KK will get very hot during this process). If you see any bulging spots, have a safety pin (or similar) handy to poke a small hole in the grout to let the solvent vent out. Keep tabs on the lifting tiles, (carefully inspect just about everywhere (except the legs) as you will want to remember where they are so you can press them back down into place as the KK cools off when you are finished with the venting, so they can re-set. Once cooled down, smear some grout around any tears that you see. It wipes off the tiles with a damp cloth. And, you're done - have another adult beverage to celebrate!

I’m over a year old now! Havent I earned my stripes?

Tee hee. I logged on to tell @RokDok just that. It is a tip that I learned from you Tony and it is great for monitoring without having to get up close and personal with your KK on a wet or cold day while you are waiting for it to heat up. Congratulations Dok! I am so happy that you and Mrs RD are happy. It is a mad and all consuming obsession but I am sure that you know that and are up for the journey.

It's dark here now but there has been a break in the rain. The aim is simply to cook a couple of steaks tonight. So I'm using a quarter basket of local lump wood charcoal - I may need to change this to half but if I do that just means a little more adult beverage so no bad thing. First time I've ever used a Mapp torch - what a great bit of kit Followed by the blower Swivelled the KK around so I can keep an eye on the temperature, through the window.

You're right. It's chucking now but :

Quick dinner last night. Suya pepper pork cutlets, direct, lower grate at 350F. Plated with some curry rice and roasted chickpeas & cherry tomatoes with a dollop of Bomba (Calabrian chiles, eggplant, green olives and artichokes.) Indian garlic naan on the side. Washed down with one of my favorite beers - Hopslam from Bells. Unfortunately, it only comes out once/year and sells quickly.

Rib eye with left over ribs Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Sunday night; shrimp taco night. Moderate conditions compared to Tony's who is just a few hours north. Nonetheless, we persisted. Shrimp on the KK In process: Chipotle aioli, cheese, sour cream, cabbage, pico de gallo, cilantro, and yes, shrimp. All dressed up and ready to go

Hopefully @HokieBen we'll get a non-rainy day next week and I can do the burn in and get to grips with the controls & temperature- nice and slowly. Thanks for the 12 O'clock tip @tony bTony that will come make things easier - I think you've also advised somewhere on her how to do the burn in and log the temperature control. @Braai-Q - I have got a cover for it - I remember you talking about the sunbrella fabric and matching outdoor furniture that you have. It's a very good design and cloaks the oven right down to the ground. I like the way it's shaped to fit over the top vent handle - I think I must sort something similar for my WFO. It's MrsRD's birthday next week and she wants duck breasts cooked on the oven a la @tekobo , once the burn in and temperature control is sorted I think it'll be a low and slow that'll be another first.

Hi Tony, it is a riff on a bengal gram and gourd curry. Vegetarian and very tasty. It was a labour of love, prepared over two days starting with soaking and cooking the little brown chickpeas that form the basis of the dish. It is an annual tradition to use up the big winter squashes that I grow at the allotment. I normally cook it with a friend and found it much harder work on my own this year. The Husband joined in and made it a little easier but I did miss my friend. She will be picking up her portion in a day or so.

You said that like is some sort of problem?? Every homebrewer does the exact same thing! Here's a tip for monitoring the dome temps from afar - rotate the dial so that your target temperature is at 12 o'clock. Then you just have to look at the dial and see "what time is it?" relative to your target.

Nice job on your first cook, congrats! Steak looks great!!! I had thought about going with the 23 as well but I can tell you without a doubt I'm so glad I got the 32, you'll love it. With the weather being wet/cold/freezing be careful not to let it vent. You don't want water working it's way into the exterior "jacket" and freeze/thawing. I'd recommend keeping it at lower temps (below 400) for cooks until you can get a nice day to go through the venting process and then fix any holes in the grout it produces.

Simply amazing bit of kit. I thought I had understood what "the obsession" was all about. I didn't quite , but I do now. Absolutely perfect. Without a shadow of a doubt one of the best decisions we ( it was Mrs RD who found the site) have made. Many thanks to all for advice, egging on, joking and nurturing. RD

Mmm That's looking at it through the window x 2 🙄 Within a very short time it was over 400 F and starting to vent a little , so I closed the top vent a bit. Mrs RD had finished her yoga by then. So - quarter of a basket - up to temp in no time . Put the steaks on - here's a picture of Mrs RD happy as a sandboy. Put the steaks on - not perfect but not bad I think for a first attempt - and the weather conditions were inclement - not far off what @tony bTony is experiencing at the moment.😉

I don't normally post after I've had a couple of beers (stouts in this case) so please forgive the euphoria. To be honest, when it arrived I thought - ooooh that looks a bit bigger than I thought it would be - have I made the right decision -Should I have gone for the 23 ". What is Mrs RD going to say this time .... I've not got a good track record here.... One Sunday night I bought a top end Pearl Reference Series drum kit on EBay from Germany. I'd only got to grade four by then . Nothing wrong with that you may say ...except that I'd bought an identical one a couple of weeks before. What was going to be a simple brew kit - a couple of plastic containers rapidly turned into my making a mini brewery capable of brewing 280 litres in a day. A little clay oven .. full size Pompeii, we'll just put a couple of new doors on the kitchen units = full house rebuild taking 10 years and we have to live in our caravan on the lawn... So a little anxious at this point - you can understand.

@tony bis this stuff the same do you think? If so, I shall have a good laugh with my best friend. She is Welsh and doesn't particularly like chillis but two weeks ago she sent me this photo and said, "Have you tried this stuff? Gosh its good." I thought a) it can't be better than the chilli oil with dried shrimp that I make from an A.Wong recipe and b) what do you know about chillis anyway? If it turns out that she was ahead of me on this one she will die laughing. Good thing is, she didn't die of COVID when she caught it and in fact just got better self-isolating at home. The side effect is that her temporary (?) loss of taste means that she is now up for eating more chilli!

I will respond as someone who recently received her 32. I have not cooked a pig on it yet but I went into a flat spin when I did this: Theoretically, this meant that I could only bake two loaves of bread on my new 32" KK! Should I have bought the 42? Aaaaargh! And then I realised that I was trying to use old tech to solve new problem. Super simple: using the single pizza stone and riser from my 23 KK I was easily able to fit three loaves into HALF of my 32 KK. So, if I buy the pizza stone for the 32 I should be able to fit at least six loaves on and, similarly, a good number of pizzas. Phew. In practice, the configuration below suits my needs because I use the pan on the right to generate steam by dropping ice onto it, as pioneered by @Syzygies on other threads. Entertaining for the masses should be a cinch with the 32. After baking bread and pizza last night I let the 32 cool down a little and then put this 17"/43cm pot in to cook overnight. Today's advice? Go for two 32's. V versatile.

@jonj, @tony bTony, I said to Mrs RD this morning that I was going to do the burn in today and cook the 35 day aged Hereford sirloin that is sitting in the fridge. "You're not going to get it dirty are you ?" It is chucking it down with rain today. " You're going to get soaked - do it on a dry day so it's a nice experience" Embarrassingly I ricked my back lifting a concrete slab to make the ramp to get the KK off the pallets. Trying to get out of bed to get the tea happens in slow motion as I'm stiff. " You are not going to do anything that involves bending or lifting today - have you taken anything for that ? " Mrs RD was an ITU nurse for 35 years. It was generally in folk's best interests to do as she said. So, it is (definitely) in my best interests to wait till we have a dry day and I can move and bend at something approximating normal speed. Mrs RD tends to be right 50% of the time so I better behave myself.

Nice turf and turf combo, Aussie!

NEVER let a little snow get in the way of grilling dinner! This is what I woke up to this morning - and it kept snowing during a better part of the day. BTW - this was the 2nd such snow storm in the last week! But, my reward for snowblowing/shoveling the driveway (3 times thanks to the city snow plows that kept damming up the end of my driveway!) was a lovely steak dinner. CostCo prime rib-eye cap on the lower grate, direct, with post oak and mesquite. Served up with Wegman's salt potatoes (wonder how those got from upstate NY to IA?) with garlic & parsley butter, sautéed oyster & button mushrooms and a nice side salad with yummy blue cheese crumbles. And, a very nice Napa cab to wash it all down with! If all the snowblowing/shoveling didn't give me a heart attack, this dinner might! Serious amounts of butter in the sides and a gorgeous fatty steak! Cheers!