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@Tyrus You're welcome to borrow mine sometime, but it's over 800 lbs with the fire brick installed and is a pain to move unless it's on some sort of pavement! When I ordered it, I intended to cook with charcoal mostly and wood occasionally but that hasn't happened - I've used a chimney of charcoal to get a jump start on getting the wood started a few times but the vast majority of cooks have been totally with wood. The chicken in the pics with the stuffed peppers and skewered veggies was done over oak and was the best chicken I've ever had. Lots of excellent steaks and pork chops as well. I did hamburgers and hot dogs for a big family cookout a few years ago and had numerous attendees ask what hamburger I used and I was honest with them (frozen members mark burgers from Sam's Club, with Worcester sauce, salt, and pepper), but they thought I was holding out on them - the "secret" was grilling them over oak wood.

First I must compliment Jeff for the great pics and display for what his grill is capable of...good show and that's an understatement. On the flip side though I use mine for much smaller cooks or I'll have the Kamado helping me with another entree'. When I first started out looking I had in mind something smaller, versatile and capable of doing it all. I use wood, lump coal and briquettes depending on what I'm preparing, but generally I'm tossing in wood over the top in moderate amounts because my roof line is close & made of a polycarbonate overlap. I only use on most occasions one or two grate sections or a small fire centered below when using the roto, on some occasions I've used both...however nothing like Jeff is doing although if he'd let me borrow it for a weekend I know I'd love it too. So here are a couple of pics, they're self explanatory but show the roto and coal bed grate on mine, sorry I should have done so beforehand. So, they all acomplish the task, they get you to the finish line, just in different ways.

We (my husband) did a severe prune on our olive tree last weekend. I rescued the larger branches and we ran them through the wood chipper to make chips for low and slow in the KK. We kept a few pieces to dry and use in the wood fired oven. Has anyone else got experience of using olive wood for cooking or smoking? From what I can glean from the internet it should be good for lighter meats like chicken and pork.

I've used grape vine cuttings, and fig (a bit odd) but not olive wood. Here's what ChatGTP-4 said:

Light and delicate is what I hear. Could be a smoke pot experiment? It's the tree that keeps on giving, why not smoke it..in the KK that is or maybe those leaves hmmmm

Yippee. Vaccuum sealing and fermenting chillis do go together, radically reducing the risk of taste tainting yeasts. So, there is a West African restaurant in London called Ikoyi and they have this recipe for fermenting chillis: Lacto-fermented scotch bonnet chillies (makes 400g) 500g scotch bonnet chillies, halved and deseeded 10g fine salt Mix the chillies and salt in a large vacuum-seal bag and toss well to distribute the salt. Make sure the chillies are evenly spaced out in a single layer. Seal the bag on full and leave to ferment for seven days at 24-28°C (75-82°F). If the bag has expanded too far, “burp” out the air by making a small incision and then reseal. Once the chillies have reached a sour, fragrant and meaty flavour profile, store them in an airtight container in the fridge and use within two months. I have tried it out and got these: They are tasty fermented scotch bonnet chillis that you can eat, sparingly, with your food. Their book also has a recipe for a hot sauce which will use these fermented scotch bonnets as an ingredient but you first have to ferment some blended chillis (I used longer, less hot chillis for this) for a couple of weeks. Watch this space. I am hoping for a delicious fermented sauce at the end of all of this.

1-2 years ago I bought a box of olive wood for smoking. I have to say I liked it. It was pretty much what chat gpt said, light, fruity flavor that smells like summer can't beat the smell when sitting on the patio and smoking some ribs with olive wood!

I have a fitted cover that I keep on the grill when not in use; I try to get the ash out the day after a cook and then put the cover on unless I'm planning another cook within the next few days and there's no rain in the forecast. The cover goes all the way to the ground and there are separate covers for the wheels that raise and lower the grates; it keeps both the rain and the critters out. The grill is under my screened-in and roofed deck; there's plenty of clearance - I considered mounting some kind of metal fire/heat shield over the grill but it hasn't been needed (plus I was afraid birds would nest between the shield and the floor of the deck). As you can see, I've built some pretty big fires but the flames have come nowhere near the floor of the deck. The back of the grill extends out from the base in the back where the brassaro is and that part is out from under the deck so even if the wood in the brassaro becomes fully engulfed, the flames won't be directly under the deck. I've not had that happen since that wood burns from the bottom up and the high back and sides help to keep the wind from fanning the flames. To be honest, I've not done much cooking in my 23" KK in the last few years - with the charcoal basket so far down inside, it kills my back to bend over to clean the KK out and work with the charcoal. I've not been able to talk my cats into doing that for me... Cleaning out and building a fire in the Santa Maria/Argentinian grill is much easier on my back since it has the fold-down front panel. I've been doing my low and slow cooks in an insulated gravity feed smoker and I recently got a reverse-flow stick burner. I've worked out ways of moving and handling my wood splits without putting much strain on my back but I've not been able to work out a way of using the KK without having to reach down inside it.

Had some family over for dinner tonight. Cranked out a Bistecca Fiorentina for the adults (each steak around 900gram)… sausages and burgers for the kids. Made some home made chips, salad, some no-knead bread… amazing. Everyone happy.

The brassero is good for long/big cooks, especially if (like me) you're not good at estimating how much wood you'll need. I like my grill design over Santa Maria store grills since the high back and sides help block the wind while the fold-down front makes it easier to play with the fire and is handy for cleaning ash out. I'm not sure how much heat retention is helped by the fire brick since I've not cooked without them, but the grill definitely holds heat well. The tilted Argentinian-style grates are nice but do make grilling hot dogs more difficult! This is still my favorite way to cook.