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Reverse seared ribeyes at 450⁰ topped with chanterelles simmered in a garlic butter sauce. Steamed and grilled the corn and broccolini on the Napoleon grill at medium heat for about 15 minutes. Pulled the ribeye off the lower grate at 128⁰ internal temp and it's perfection. YUMMM!

Beef tenderloin on the KK . Plated with some mushrooms and smoked squash.

After 6 years of wanting a KK, I finally pulled the trigger. Sold the Yoder ys640 pellet grill and my Louisiana Grill kamado for this upgrade. Just did my first cook tonight: baby back ribs. Overshot 225⁰ and was chasing temps afterwards...gotta better learn the top vent positioning, but am excited to learn. Cheers!

Some more pics of the setup. After years of neglecting the Yoder smoker and not treating it the way I probably should have, I built this gazebo just for the Komodo kamado. My space is tight here (8'x8'), so between these three workhorses, I should have all my needs covered. Additionally, I modified the Napoleon propane grill as well, so I removed one burner and replaced it with an infrared burner that gets over 1000⁰F in 30 seconds. Between that and the Ooni pizza oven, I will never have the need to cook with hot temperatures in this Komodo kamado, and that will preserve the longevity of this beautiful masterpiece.

This weeks local crop share had an abundance of fresh fall related items that went well in my KK slow cooker. Adding all the ingredients into a deep tray along side a marinated tender chuck roast all wrapped in foil and time prepared a hearty tasty meal.

In case you don't have a thermometer:

grilled boneless chicken legs. sometimes getting the second smallest kk is not ideal for cooking for 8 people

Great night for pizza on the KK. I did two pies from Joe Beddia’s Pizza Camp book, roasted mushroom with mushroom cream, and a mortadella, ricotta cream, and roasted pepper pizza. The last one I made for myself with pizza sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, banana pepper rings, anchovies, and mozzarella. All three were delicious! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We had a public holiday here today/ and had old friends over for lunch. 7kg brisket, cooked for 11.5hrs, 4hr rest. Meat church holy cow. Plenty of sides- smashed roast potatoes, no-kneed bread, coleslaw, espresso BBQ sauce, horseradish cream, spicy smoked salsa. Very happy guests, and very happy me!

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It’s that time of year… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had 2 pounds of lean ground pork that needed to be used. Decided on a meatloaf but thought it might be too greasy. Chanced it, added the kitchen sink and here it is. Not at all greasy, tasted lovely, would do this again. The carrots were just in from the garden, so roasted those and added a baked potatoe and added some broccoli sprouts to the plate.

just recent random non-kk stuff

Cooked a rack of spare ribs on the 23 and a couple of relleno's on the 16 for lunch today. The spares were indirect with a few chunks of peach on the coals. I used poblano peppers 1 stuffed with a Roma tomato, onion, Italian seasoning and sharp white cheddar. The other for my wife was a mix of white cheddar and gouda. Cook on KK'ers Steve

I haven't posted any cooks in a long while, just wanted to say Hello to all the KK'ers out there. I generally check in daily to admire the all the great food and various gadgets, tools and other equipment that I may not be able to go without, the duck hanger is very cool. Someone aptly referred to this forum as the KK shopping network. Good call. Cooked a couple of leg quarters yesterday with red potatoes and a couple of Jalapenos and a loaf of take n bake bread. Kook on KK'ers Steve

It was a large pot, about 4 gallons. I give an amount away, but fortunately, gumbo freezes beautifully, it’s actually better after frozen. It’s a tradition in this part of the world, one I’m proud to be a part of. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

@Justin MulweeI used the half grate last week for my reverse sear ribeye cook. Check it out! I found that it's a great (no pun intended) size and I wouldn't want it to be smaller. I cooked the ribeyes on the half grate til about 100⁰ and then I threw them on the lower grate to sear and pulled them off at 128⁰. Perfection!

As Fall is encroaching upon us, I cooked some Italian Sausages I picked up from a local sausage maker yesterday and paired them with acorn squash with parmesan flan on the KK tonight. Perfecto!

It was 2kg of roadside chicken here tonight, done with boneless thighs. Haven’t done that one in a while and the kids love it. Served up with some simple coleslaw, a yoghurt/cucumber/garlic thing, and bread and wraps. Winner winner chicken dinner.

No, use the splitter such that you’re using a half ish basket. I suppose it doesn’t matter that much because you’re only going to use whatever it takes for a given cook, whether half basket full or full basket. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to The Obsession! Best way to learn temp control. Fill up the basket with coals, Light a small spot, Open the top vent 1/4 turn and bottom vent just barely open (pinkie). Sit back with a cooler of your favorite adult beverage and watch the temp. Once stabalized, make a note of it, bump the top vent another 1/4 turn and have another beverage. Again, once stabalized, take notes, bump the top vent again and maybe open the bottom a bit more. Keep doing this until the dome reaches maybe 450F, as almost all your cooks will be below that temperature (except the burn-in and doing pizzas). The vent position/temperature correlation is very repeatable, assuming you have enough charcoal in the basket. Secondly, DON"T CHASE THE TEMPERATURE! If the KK is heat soaked, you're not going to be able to lower the temperature easily if you overshoot your target. Also, it's BBQ, not rocket science. Plus/Minus 50F off your target is nothing. Just roll with it. You won't notice any difference in the results, only the cooking time might be slightly affected. Good Luck, Post Pictures of that all-important virgin cook!

As my "partner in crime" battling the spammers, I'll give you a PASS on the No Pic, Didn't Happen rule.

I forgot to take pics while cooking as these are done so hot and fast but for my first time having this i have to say it was really good !!!!

I was inspired by @remito make some roadside chicken for dinner last night.

Just remember, any time you ask for tips you'll get a lot of them and you'll need to figure out which ones work for you. That's why BBQ forums are full of references to Try-Tips. I'll see myself out...

I'm a gadget guy so I like using my FireBoard and Pulse, but the ThermoWorks RFX came out just after I committed and I may have chosen them if I had to buy new today. Still, with a decent UI both for local access, web, and phone the FireBoard is pretty nice compared to my previous Stoker (now out of business) where I had to build my own web UI.

https://komodokamadoforum.com/topic/2505-roadside-chicken/

I just ate and that brisket is making me hungry again! Excellent job!

Remi, you nailed that dinner. 😁 👍👍

I have a brisket thawing in the fridge right now, your's looks great !!!!

No, I just make an appropriate fire, no splitter. I do own two charcoal baskets, which facilitates saving extruded coconut fuel in place, swapping in other charcoal for e.g. a pizza or bread cook. I store the other basket on a "box store" terra cotta plant saucer.

I bet you nailed it. Used fogo yellow bag. Nice large pieces. Was not distributed very well on my part. Fire burns front to back, did not account for that. Thanks,

I have a thermocouple probe stuck in my dome instead of the Tel-Tru. It is plugged into a Fireboard. A couple of cooks ago the displayed temps started spiking. It turned out that the connections in the yellow plug were loose. Tightened the screws and all is good.

I'm episodic in my pasta. For a while I was only making Sicilian busiate by hand, or rolled pasta with my Marcato Otello (a definite upgrade on their Atlas, several of which I've broken over the years. Laurie and I are just back from a food tour of Sicily with Rosetta Costantino, author of My Calabria. She and her husband were debating importing a powered pasta maker, and PastaBiz is having their annual die sale. So I returned yet again to see what I could figure out, making a Bigolaro easier to use. When I worked (math professor), one administrative skill I demonstrated was looking at a list of requirements that couldn't possibly all be satisfied at once, and killing off a requirement. The puzzle with a hand pasta extruder is this: They don't generate as much pressure as a powered machine. The Model B torchio that various of us own also accepts dies meant for the Lillo powered machine, but these Lillo dies allow less "flow" than the dies designed for a hand extruder. So one wants a dough wet enough to extrude by hand, but dry enough to not stick together and make a mess. This window is small, perhaps negative width. Meanwhile, people love how extruded pasta dough is just flour and water. Um, there's our candidate requirement for deletion. The obvious conclusion is that one needs to reformulate pasta dough to pass through a hand Bigolaro and Lillo dies. It's better to knead dough, but then it's too stiff? Um, add water. It's better to rest dough in the fridge for hours or overnight, but then cold dough is too stiff? Um, add water. If one is at all worried about "A1C" numbers for pre-diabetes, adding sourdough starter and resting dough overnight changes its carb profile for the better. You will worry about A1C if you live long enough, if something else doesn't kill you first, so it would be kind of stupid not to consider this. But you're off the hook! Just as sourdough bread dough that ages in the fridge for day(s) tastes spectacular, so does pasta dough handled this way. So extend your life and your quality of life by being a hedonist! I'm doubling pressure using a custom handle, and I'm adding a small amount of psyllium hush to my dough, which stabilizes water that would otherwise make the dough sticky. I'm adding sourdough starter, and resting the dough overnight, good for both health and flavor. And I've never experienced such an easy time using a Bigolaro. I stare at the shapes I can now perfectly produce, "I did that?"

I have a 23 Ralph like Toney has so it might be different considering the acreage difference. Sometime I'm in a hurry so I open the vents up quite a bit and get the coals rockin, then I shut the vents to my general running temp of 250 and let it heat soak and settle in. I'm thinking it's around 200, works for me if I don't get distracted. After a few times you'll just know where the runway is and you'll be cruising. Nice backyard outpost, enjoy your new toy.

I enjoy overthinking! (Plus I can't help doing it.)

Nice! I haven't noticed a problem with the ash at temperature, the fan doesn't usually kick on at high speed while maintaining a low-and-slow. But I did get a face full of ash when testing it. FWIW, here's mine - I needed to cut slots for the Fireboard mounting rails.

Thanks @Tyrus I appreciate that. I thought of cool names to name it, but nothing stuck. I remember reading a forum article here years ago about how a guy named his KK "Puff" for the dragon, and that's always stuck with me. However, all of the dragon names seem like too much and unrelatable so instead, I've decided to refer to it as "The Forge." I think that's pretty badass/medieval sounding as well, and very fitting for me as I have 3 different flamethrowers and tend to cook with 900°+ high temperatures on my other grills. Now I just gotta get a sign that says "The Forge" to place above it. Thank you very much for the inspiration! Love it!! One question. If I want to speed up the process to get to 225°, and I leave all of the vents open, at what temperature should I start closing the vents off to be safe? 140°? Last time I overshot it, I was around 160°-180° or so (I wasn't paying too much attention) before I closed it off to 1/4 turn + 3rd hole open at the bottom and I landed at 250°. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who does this expedited airflow process to get to starting temps, and I know that these KKs heat soak like no other. Thanks in advance.

I’ve been looking for a good meat thermometer because cooking meat perfectly has always felt a little challenging for me. I want to make sure every meal is cooked properly and safe to eat. I’ve checked out several options online, and while many have glowing reviews. I’m still not completely sure which one would be the easiest and most reliable to use. Alpha Grillers Meat Thermometer Digital https://www.amazon.com Alpha Grillers Meat Thermometer Digital/dp/B00S93EQUK AMMZO Digital Meat Thermometer Digital https://www.amazon.com/dp AMMZO Digital Meat Thermometer Digital/B00S93EQUK?&linkCode=ll1 Has anyone here bought a meat thermometer for home use? Which one do you recommend? Can this prove to be effective, or are there better ones to compare it with? Thanks in advance.

The best way to cook beef Zoee lies in the preparation, sometime a day before it finds the grill, a well known fact. The heat part, you have the best cooker out there, how could you fail,.... impossible.

Haha, that’s hilarious! 😄 Even without a thermometer, that “cheat sheet” seems like a fun way to estimate cooking times. I might have to try it next time — although I’ll probably still double-check with my thermometer just to be safe!

For particularly tender cuts like filet mignon, you can also try to sous vide the steak to warm/cook it, then do a high temp sear just to add a crust for texture. I've also done tougher cuts in a balsamic marinade (balsamic vinegar, water, garlic, and whatever spices I'm in the mood for), the vinegar starts to break down the meat and makes it more tender while adding some fun flavors. And flavorful cuts like a ribeye can handle a light rub.

IMG_0679.mov

Cooked to perfection !!!!

Karma's a...."female dog." He's going whole hog (pun intended) into his BBQ business and tasked me with getting some of the tech stuff up and running. If anyone's in or near San Diego you should look him up: https://kennys-pitt.com/

Yeah, that’s beautiful… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Perfect!

Just got my hands on a box of pimento wood, it hasn’t arrived yet, so I’m not sure if it’ll be sticks or chunks. I’ve seen several videos where the chicken is cooked over pimento sticks or branches placed on a bed of leaves. Is that how you guys usually do it, or do you toss the wood straight into the fire?

Not sure how much longer the local corn is going to be available, so trying to get it as often as possible. Grilled pork tenderloin and cherry peppers. AL pouch is spuds and onions. Ate indoors, as it's turned cool here. Thankfully it's warmer this coming week.

Long time 23" Ultimate owner. I've experimented with many approaches to "radiant heat". I wouldn't double the basket splitter. I'm a big fan of the 23" ULTIMATE DOUBLE BOTTOM DRIP PAN. It makes a great heat deflector, and an easy to clean drip pan when lined with foil. (Some people use the drippings for gravy, where the double bottom helps prevent scorching.) I use it as a heat deflector for pizza. Using any ceramic cooker as a pizza oven, one needs to confront the "heat from the bottom" effect. Wood-fired dome pizza ovens don't work this way. The best deflector helps here. Long ago, I'd get several years at a time out of a giant unglazed plant saucer (no lead risk) lined with foil. Again, leave several inches around the outside. The real art to radiant heat is to time the fire's arc. Cook on the return from "low earth orbit" when the fire is waning but the dome remembers.