egmiii

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Fish and veggies are the obvious beneficiaries of the new grates. Burners and hot dogs will be easier to flip on the meat grate, but I wouldn't buy it just for that. It becomes necessary once you've removed the main grate the put one of these in.

I bought an Edge Pro Professional a few years ago. I use it about once or twice a year. The honing steel or ceramic rod are used almost daily to reshape the blade.

Give the recipe a try! I found the dried figs and gelatin at Target and the shallots at Trader Joes. Everything else I had in stock. 

Same here. Your videos are what got me hooked on the brand years ago.

I was thinking of ordering some charcoal for shipment late November, early December. Anyone want to jump in? You can pay cash upon pickup at my house, or we can meet within a reasonable distance. I'm thinking of doing a pickup at the terminal to keep shipping costs equal to commercial loading dock rates.

Good to know. Thanks for the feedback.

I plan to use my KK as a warming drawer during our annual Christmas Eve Day party. Lots of capacity, and like you said, it frees up the oven for other things.

I assume you have cooked this pot pie in the oven many times before receiving the KK. It looks way too good to be a first cook! Can you elaborate on how the different cooking methods impact the dish? Many of your posts are a dish that I would ordinarily bake/roast in an oven and I'm quite interested to hear your opinion on how the KK experience differs.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/11/pork-tenderloin-bourbon-soaked-figs-weeknight-dinner.html

Let me start off by saying this wasn't cooked on my KK (yet). I always attempt the original version before putting my own spin on it. The sauce was out of this world and certainly could be used on a traditional smoked pork loin.

Burning off the booze...

The seared tenderloins go back in to finish cooking while the sauce reduces...

Reduction is finished, pork loin at 135F...

A small plate for my 5 year old daugher. No time for sides at 9:30pm...

Congrats! It's one thing to see the grills on the website or in peoples homes, but having a picture of yourself next to the grill really shows how substantial they really are. A friend of mine who owns an XL BGE stopped by the other day to check out my 21" KK. He was stunned at the size and commented "That is one imposing grill!". He said that based on the website photos, he thought it was going to be more "dainty and slender".

Done. Good suggestion...

Man that looks good. Thankfully I saw the video after I had already eaten, otherwise it would have been a short day at the office.

Thanks for the kudos everyone. I'm surprised it came out so good on the first try, but I really shouldn't be. The KK has delivered amazing results on my previous cooks. Each dish was the best I've ever cooked. I've read Franklins book twice, watched all of his videos, and read the forums for years. And finally, I have to single out and thank mguerra for his brisket tips post a few weeks back. It gave me the confidence to try this so soon. I didn't have to get up at 4am and eat alone at midnight. I woke up late, had coffee, started the fire, trimmed/seasoned, and was serving by 7pm. Much easier than any pork butt I've ever done.

Basically everything I would have said about airflow has already been said, so I'll just add my name to the list of people who admire and appreciate the deep thought put into the KK firebox and vent design. It's just as easy to control the temperature 12 hours into a cook as it is 12 minutes into a cook.

What I will add is how I use the dual vents. I set the right hand dial to the medium circle upon startup and adjust the left hand dial and the top hat until I reach target temp. I like a smokey flavor, so the top hat is kept open under a 1/4 turn. I then adjust the right hand dial up or down a step or two throughout the cook. Wind, completion of the heat soak, the infamous stall, can all impact your target temps and the right hand dial provides a simple way to consistently manage the heat.

Excellent post. Personally, I prioritize a consistent, high quality meal with minimal effort. The KK design delivers for all the reasons outlined above. I'm an amateur BBQ enthusiast and the KK makes me appear like a seasoned pro. It's that simple.

My guess is that they all take about the same time to heat soak. It's just that  a bigger one is going to burn a lot more fuel getting there. I have a 21", but have only done low and slow cooks so far. I throw the food on after 45 minutes (once the blue smoke starts flowing) and let it come up to final temperature slowly. No sense in wasting fuel and time waiting. It takes another 4 hours before the dome and grate are within 10 degrees. They start off around 35 degrees apart. Hopefully that gives you an idea how long a true heat soak takes.

It's nice to see the 19" in action so quickly. With the roti none the less. I still haven't had a chance to do the burn in yet. I only have a limited amount of free time and I've spent it doing three low and slow cooks. I have a 12lb brisket on deck for next weekend. Hopefully I'll get around to trying out the roti in the next couple of weeks and some gas cooks during the week.

From what I've read, most people use either wax blocks or a torch. I've tried both, and they work well, but the heat gun is just so easy/fast/cheap in my opinion. Others might not have an outlet 5 feet away, which could explain the alternative methods. 

Congrats. I have a feeling the 19" will eventually travel between homes, or the 32" will come sooner. It's going to be hard leaving it at the summer cottage for the long winter in Syracuse.

Hey egmiii, I use Royal Oak all the time...short cooks and longer ones. I've never run out of charcoal during a cook and I have the 21" too. It's better to put the charcoal in a plastic tub so you can see what sizes they gave you. Put some larger pieces on the bottom of your charcoal basket and smaller on top. If you have crumbs (fines), put them on the extreme edges of your pile of coal. I usually light it right in the middle of the pile with a starter cube for low and slow...torch for hotter cooks.

  All in all, your ribs and pork butt look great to me. I'll bet the butt was still good even though you had to finish it in the oven.

Despite the oven finish, it was still fantastic. From my understanding, it doesn't matter how you provide the heat in the last few hours. All of the smoke that's going to be absorbed is done below ~160.

I stacked the charcoal with larger on the bottom and smaller on top. Took forever. I had boxes setup all week to separate the charcoal, but never got around to it. Next time I'll make that a priority as it will help me get thing going a lot earlier in the day. I use a heat gun to light the coals. Takes less than 2 minutes.

Here is a shot of the charcoal for the rib cook. Still all nice and clean!

I decided to use a disposable aluminum catering pan to catch the drippings for my first cook. Cutting it in half kept it completely over the pan. I can fit the entire rack uncut if I use the grill shaped drip pan. I'm waiting on the new lower rack before I use it. Keeping it off the refractory heat deflector should reduce burning.

Thanks! I appreciate the details.

My wife and kids used to only eat the tips, leaving 60% of the stalks on their plates. Would drive me nuts. I tried every diameter, fresh vs old, boiling longer, grilling longer, but nothing improved the stringy inedible lower half, until I discovered peeling. Now they eat from the bottom up. Can't deny those results!

Good to know that it's faster burning. I've read reviews on NakedWhiz, but it's been a while so I don't remember the particulars. I actually have a few boxes of CocoChar and the new Coffee wood lump that I'll be using shortly. I wanted to do my first cooks with a familiar product to see how the cooker influences the final product. The biggest difference I've noticed is the amount of smoke I can drive into the meat. You can really close up the top vent and lock in the smoke, along with the moisture early on, yet the fire holds steady at 225-235. Cool stuff.

Where do you buy Fogo? It seems to only be available online.