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I have both and use both. Each has its own advantages depending on the cook. Whole birds do better in the basket. Individual pieces do better on the spit with forks. Plus, I fabricated a cage for the basket to roast chile peppers in - works great. YMMV

@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 bought my 23 before the 32 was available..and subsequently I came this close to getting a 32. I now have a 19 in addition to the 23, and I’ll still get a bigger grill in the future when my situation warrants, and I’m not sure whether it will be a 32 or 42. Regardless it will be tiles. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve mentioned before that I work in Solar and for the last two years I’ve been working for the largest roofing manufacturer. We launched our solar product this week at CES and got good feedback. We’ve been working on this for two years. Pretty cool https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/will-gaf-energy-beat-tesla-on-integrated-solar-roofs https://www.gaf.energy/press-kit-ts/

So I'm told that we have 5pcs for the 23" and 7 pcs for the 32". Will get costing soon and put up on the site..

I like mine. It is not a super pain. Setting up the KK compared to other grills is a bit of a production. Everything is built so heavy. The basket splitter. Once you are at the level of commitment both time and money wise to cook on a KK, the extra time to mess with the cold smoker doesn’t seem like a lot. Anyway the cold smoker is fairly easy to set up. A couple of tips- the cold smoker comes with a wing nut. I keep that wing nut attached to my grill so that I am not fiddling with the screws when I want to use my cold smoker. Use a torch to light it. I was using my looftlighter but I got just a plain ol bernzomatic multi use propane torch for Christmas. That I just use with a bottle of camp fuel. The thin flame is perfect for lighting the cold smoker and does a way better job than the electric torch for this app. You want to light it on one side until flames are shooting out the other side. Then run the torch on the other side for good measure. Rather than putting my pellets in the microwave I just make sure I use pellets that are stored indoors. I think the biggest difference I have seen so far is that if I use the pellets that are stored in my box outside (even though the box is waterproof I think it is more moist out there). The pellets I got for Christmas are treager brand - probably not the best. But they were fresh and dry and I kept them indoors - and they work flawlessly vs the kingsford hickory pellets I have outside which are actually supposed to be OK pellets. I did not notice a huge amount of build up from the treager pellet even though they are cheap. Anyway if you have dry pellets and light it properly it burns for hours with no messing around after the fact. The mixed results I have had as far as I can tell were related to the dryness of the media and the way I light it. The last time I used it. 4 hours but probably could have gone 6 without touching it based on how much unburned pellets were left. I ran the cold smoker with wood chips once and chips are ok but the chips I have are hickory given to me by arborists from grinding up a tree in my front yard. Even though they have been sitting around for 3 years they are not kiln dried. This is great for flavor but they make a very sticky soot. I would try chips again but not those because I had to clean out the tube. Even after soaking in pbw it was difficult to get the sticky soot off. I don’t think it needs to be perfectly clean but it was the first time I used the thing. Just remember the screen side of the pipe faces down. That was my first mistake with it. Too much ash gets in and clogs the tube if the screen is facing upward. If you have any questions when you get yours ping me and I will help you. I have made all the mistakes at this point. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It will come out great if he has tiles 😁

I'm getting ready to order a skewer similar to the one you have minus the cast iron. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CKV3VFD/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=A2D9RZ70RKSPDT&psc=1

Thank you for your input...I will keep it at the 32 for now. I have my Primo XL for different temp cooks when it need to do that. It is very tempting though. I was looking at the 23 and decided to go up to the 32. Do you have the cold smoker, I normally rely on adding wood, wasn't sure if it would make that much difference. I found a lump that is off the grid and really good to the point that I don't really need to add wood now. It is called Smith Mountain Lump out of Virginia. Your cooks really look good. With pork pricing the way it is now that would cost a few pennies!

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.

@tekobo, did you get/make a new trompo? Looks like cast iron.

@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 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.

I was drinking other things most of the evening.

Happy new year everyone - hope 2022 brings everyone much happiness and good health. We are a couple of months into our journey with the KK, and we are loving it. Particularly like the cattleman’s steak (rib eye on the bone), pizzas and ribs. Tonight was a cracking night in Sydney and we threw a few Morton bay bugs (I think they are called flat head lobster elsewhere) on the KK with a little garlic and ginger butter and grilled for 5 mins in shell side then a few mins on the meat side. Finished off with so chives, green chillies and lime - They were delicious!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a great breakfast, Tony and nasty weather, not so much the snow but the temp.:(

If I had my druthers, we wouldn't either.

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!

Sorry Dennis, I offered to foot the bill for the KKs and pay to fly them to their home town. Not a single person took me up on it, so the offer ends right now. Maybe next year!

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