jdbower

I've gotten a slew of invites to sites with various "themes", many of them put together by individuals. Kind of scary since most people use the same login/password for a lot of sites that they'd sign up for smaller places like this. BTW: I've moved this to the MIsc section for better bookkeeping.

Another quirk of IR thermometers is that they can't see through glass. Still, they're fun toys to have around and it's a requirement that you use it to measure just about everything. I now know exactly how cold my wife's cat nose is and that my LCDs are a pretty constant 100F.

Very cool, thanks for sharing! My great grandmother used to make her own sausage in the basement at the farm. I say used to because when my dad and his brothers walked in on her and figured out what the casing was they wouldn't eat them anymore. Now I just convince myself that all the sausages today use an artificial casing and I'm very happy. Until my other grandmother cooks authentic Slovenian sausages and the illusion is ruined...

And if you don't post pictures of the damage the owner posts them for you! No product is ever perfect, but Dennis not only acknowledges his issues and fixes the warranty items but then goes back to the assembly line with an instrument of torture (or innovation, as the case may be) to ensure it never happens again. I'm constantly amazed at how far out of his way Dennis goes to right a wrong. Happy camper threads get boring after a while, sometimes to change things up it's nice to see the response to an occasional issue.

Re: Seychelles Sure about that? I'm guessing there may not be too many sources for local lump there. Maybe he'll buy a container of charcoal, too Welcome to the forum!

The grill should be close to the ambient (more or less, there's also issues about thermal conductivity but we'll ignore that for now ), when I said "surface" I meant more of a solid surface like the outside tiles. Measuring a grill (even a hefty 3/8" grill) is tough with these things. For the most part they average a few square inches of surface. If mine is 8" away it will measure a 8"x8" area (but it's a cheap one), their better one will measure a 1"x1" area at about 8".

IR thermometers are for measuring surface temps. If you want to see how hot your gasser gets and compare to how cool the KK is, an IR thermometer is great. There are cheap ones that average over a large area (I have one that has a field of view about 45 degrees out of what I'm pointing at), but the good ones spot check from a distance like a laser pointer. Edit: I've got the PE-1 here

Frequently a new grill will need a few lid adjustments as it settles in to get an optimal seal. Luckily this is a pretty easy process and shouldn't need to be done much after the initial break in period.

Personally I wouldn't use briquettes, they're mostly fillers and binders that may leave a residue all over the inside of the cooker (think of it as burning glue). They're also less able to be controlled as they're usually designed for rapid lighting and getting to grilling temps quickly. Some cheap lump like Cowboy would be much better, but something a bit better like Royal Oak is a great investment - especially if you intend to cook for your break-in. If you haven't already, check out The Naked Whiz' lump reviews. Pork butt seems to be one of the most common first cooks for a break in.

If you don't mind doing it yourself, I've ordered some portable storage buildings from a company like this one (I'm not positive, but I think this is the company I ordered at least one from). I could set them up myself with some patience and a stepladder, but the tough part was getting the canopy over the top - mine (which at least looks like this) has a heavy canvas that goes down the sides. Some of mine are edging up on three years old in NJ climate and look mostly new. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend an enclosed model for a cook shack

The best part about "ceramics" (although the KK is technically "refractory material" it's still classified as a high-end ceramic cooker) is that you'll no longer have a grill. You'll have a grill, a smoker, a high temperature brick oven, a tandoori, a regular oven and pretty much anything else you can think of. The high insulation and thermal mass of the KK is ideal for cooking in the winter time, instead of fighting to keep a high temperature in the freezing cold you can shut the lid and watch the temperatures climb. The other nice thing is that cooking in an enclosed space allows you to lock in more of the moisture which gives you much more tender and tasty results.

My guess is you've got three things going for you: 1. Most of the KK's here don't have huge cracks in them 2. Propane is a fairly simple molecule consisting of three carbons and a bunch of freeloading hydrogrens. Natural gas is a combination of gasses obtained as "waste" products from petroleum refineries but also they have a large component of methane which has one lonely carbon atom surrounded by some mean old hydrogens. This makes the natural gas lighter and able to dissipate faster than the propane alone. 3. Propane tanks generally have a higher pressure than natural gas lines. This means that a propane burner may produce more BTUs than an equivalent NG burner but it uses more fuel in the process (although typically there would be a different flow restrictor to help equalize this for big appliances like stoves and water heaters). A natural gas burner may simply send in less fuel per unit time so there isn't as much to build up. Just some guesses, but they kind of make sense before I've had my coffee.

A Big Green Egg Mini can be had for ~$250. It's probably rather uncomfortable as a primary cooker but could be useful for a campsite cook or some appetizers after the upgrade to a KK. My wife likes the chicken at most of the good Indian restaurants around us because it's tender and juicy, so I just explain the similarities between a KK and a Tandoori. Of course, the spouse is the one who needs to pick out the color scheme for the "yard art" aspect. "Accidentally" overcooking and drying out meals on a gasser or kettle cooker couldn't hurt, either

At least the fan was on, but dude, if it's coming out all your openings you really need to change where you get your meat from. Or at least cook it a little longer!

Re: First Cook on the KK - Brisket They are good, aren't they? I've yet to find one that I don't like!

Very nice! It looks a lot less...massive...than I thought it was going to be - this is a good thing for apartment owners.

Re: Check out my new toy.... Is comparing a beer to water really a good thing? That'll get you shot in Germany or, even better, Belgium!

One quick addition you may have gleaned from Sanny's post, but times aren't exactly a precise measure when it comes to low and slow cooking (high temp grilling is a bit easier). Things like the composition and type of meat, the shape of the cut, direct vs. indirect cooking, minor changes in the actual temperature, and a host of other factors could have an impact on the duration of the cook by hours. For this reason we never just set a timer and pull the meat out when it should be done, but rather it's better to cook using temperature probes as a guide. So instead of saying "It'll be done in 12 hours" we typically say "It'll be done when the internal temperature is xxx" (depending on how well you like it done).

That's my wife's runner-up color choice, she likes the black textured best but that "terra-cotta look tile" is a close second. Enjoy and have fun, you've started out right with some pictures!

Or it could turn the gas burner on high automatically, blue flames of death instead of the blue screen of death

There's the bottom-up school of thought which says you need to learn how the KK operates manually before you should look at automation. Then there's the top down approach which says you should go fully automated to get things running and then manually tweak what you need to. Photography is the same way, some insist on an old fully manual film camera to learn things while others say a digital point and shoot lets you get the important things like composition without worrying about the minutia. I like gadgets so I'm pro-Guru. Also look at the Stoker. In general the Guru is for Mac users and the Stoker is for Linux users (take THAT, DJ! ) - Guru has a very professional image with well-supported software and pretty much just works. The Stoker is a little more "hand-made" looking and may require a bit more tweaking to get it set up, but I think the Ethernet port adds a lot of power to the solution and it just seems more fun to play with. This, of course, comes from someone who has neither so take it with a grain of your favorite sodium-based compound.

I wonder if some thin, flat clips in the back to grab onto the rear lip would work to keep it against the rear wall? Just attach them to the rear bar of the grill and have them hug the rear wall of the cooker up to the lid. The big question is whether it would do bad things to the lid's fit or the seal. Perhaps a bit of gasket material would fix the seal, but if it would compress the existing gasket too much you may not want to remove the clips. If this is the case, you can make the clips a permanent fixture and allow the "baby grill" to be removed without removing the clips. Another option is to try cementing a retaining pin close to the rear wall, but I don't know how well high temp adhesives work. Of course the best option is to outfit a small child with a flame-proof suit to hold the grill in place manually during the cook, but there's a reason my sister doesn't let me babysit anymore...

It's all just that vast space between NY and California anyway, no wonder people get confused! Gas is far from a necessity, I actually like my chimney starter. If you decide on gas in the future, there are plenty of other options. From weed burners to one that uses superheated air.