wilburpan

That’s a really interesting technique. How low of a target temperature do you think you could achieve with this method? 300ºF? 250ºF?

It’s probably regional variations on terms. Most of the Middle Eastern restaurants around here are owned and run by Turkish people. In addition, the term “gyro†meant something different in Chicago, where I grew up, compared to what a gyro is here in New Jersey.

Well, one difference is that you had to clean the rotisserie. That looks fantastic!

Let me get this straight. You are getting a KK 32â€. And you get to live in Singapore, with all the great food available there. So jealous. Congratulations! You’re going to love your new grill.

That looks delicious, MacKenzie! Wish I could have stopped by for a sample. Around here, gyros are a bit different. Instead of ground meat, there are many many thinly sliced pieces of lamb and beef put on a skewer, and the whole thing is directly cooked. You slice off the outside as it gets cooked, working your way towards the middle. Ground lamb formed into a roundish lump is called adana, and are usually smaller than the donair MacKenzie made, about the size of a cocktail wiener. They are then threaded on a skewer, and grilled, so if I wanted this I would order an adana kebab.

Congrats on getting your KK grill home!

That looks great! Stupid question: were the chicken meat and other ingredients cooked before adding to the pan? Or does the baking process cook the chicken and vegetables at the same time?

Frankfurt Express? That doesn’t seem to be a very efficient way of getting your grills to Vancouver.

A while ago I made some pulled pork. The cook itself was pretty straightforward. I made my usual rub mix. Shaken, not stirred. Put it all over the pork. And into Smaug. Final product, after a 11 hour cook at 225ºF. Nice smoke ring. Plated, with roasted cauliflower and cornbread pudding. It was at this point that I realized I had made a fatal error. This was a 10-1/2 lb. pork butt. There are just four of us. And we had neglected to invite anyone over to help us eat it. So over the course of the week, we proceeded try a variety of dishes made with the pork. Quesadillas. Pulled pork sandwiches. Pulled pork burritos. We may never have to go to Chipotle again. And finally, pulled pork fried rice. I’m impressed that you can still see the smoke ring on these pieces. These weren’t just single meals, either. For example, there was enough pulled pork fried rice for dinner one night, and lunch the next day. It was all very yummy, but it’s going to be a little while before I make pulled pork again.

Nothing to be ashamed about with that frame, CK. It’s tough to get miters as tight as you did. And you want a frame to look nice, but not detract from the thing you’re framing. Great job!

I would hope that you can figure out my name from my username. I’m glad that I use my real name as a handle for forums. One time I was at a woodworking meeting, and a guy came up to me and introduced himself by saying, “I’m John*. I’m SawdustRulez* on the forums!†and all I could think was, “Dude, you’re in your 60’s.†*Not real name or username.

Oh, man! That’s amazing for your first time cooking a brisket!

That shrimp boil looks amazing. The only way that could be better is if you had some crawfish to throw in there as well.

I am so impressed. What temperature did you smoke the bacon at?

That is really a lovely space you have there.

Great looking ribs! That gives me something to shoot for next time I make some ribs.

Geez, Ken, you’re embarrassing me. Here’s my blog that’s primarily about Japanese woodworking tools: http://giantcypress.net . And here’s a picture of probably the best thing I’ve built so far. It’s a variation on an 18th century Bible box, which was a common household item in the 1700’s for people who lived in the Pennsylvania area. It’s made out of walnut, with an applied walnut burl veneer on the front.

Before you get going on this project, I have one word of advice: prototype. Get some cheap 2x2’s and nail them together to figure out your design, layout, and dimensions. Do it two or three or four times if you have to. That saves you a lot of time and grief in the long run.

Ha ha! You have no idea how many boards died over the years while I was trying to learn that lesson.

Well, storage unit may be overstating things a bit. It’s basically an open shelving unit. But it’s nice to have a place for the various accessories for Smaug. The first step in this project was the most important: making a list of what I needed to store and diagramming how I was going to do it. I went through three different designs before I finally settled on the final one. In addition, I wanted the storage unit to fit in a particular corner on my back porch, so there were dimensional concerns as well. I started the actual build with some 2x8’s and some 1x4 pine boards. I cut the 2x8’s in half long ways, and milled them down to make the frames for the bases of the two shelves. By the way, if you’re ever looking to make a project out of 2x4’s, and if you have the time and the means to do so, I would suggest buying 2x8’s and cutting them in half lengthwise instead. The wood you’ll find in a 2x8 is much better than in a 2x4. I could have butted and screwed the boards together, but I decided to use half lap joints at the corners, for added strength. After assembling the frame, I screwed pieces of 1x4 to the top to make one of the two shelves. I repeated this process to make a second shelf. Next, I went back to the 2x material, and cut out pieces for the four corners. I installed them onto the bottom shelf. And then placed the top shelf on the notches cut into the support pieces. Between the half lap joints and the screws, this will be extremely strong. I attached a 1x4 pine board across the back of the unit, and used more 1x pine boards to make the vertical dividers. The notch in the short piece attaches to the board across the back of the unit, and I sized the pieces so that the longer piece makes a 60º angle with the bottom shelf. I glued the two pieces together, hooked the notch underneath the back board, and screwed it into place. Another screw locked the front of the divider in place. I also screwed some scrap pieces of 1x pine in line with the dividers, so whatever I store there won’t slide out from underneath. And here it is all loaded up. The only thing that isn’t in this unit is the main grate, which is sitting inside Smaug right now. On the bottom shelf from left to right are the searing grate, the baking stone, the drip pan, the heat deflector stone, an empty slot for the main grate, , the upper grate, and parts for the basket splitter. I think it turned out pretty well. This is surprisingly strong while still being lightweight. Given how much room there is under the top shelf, I think I could have made it a little shorter. Luckily, the design of this storage unit will make it easy to take off the top shelf and cut down the vertical supports if I want to.

Nice cook and technique! Thanks for sharing it.

One other thing to note in the design of the KK firebox is that because of how it’s set up, any air coming into the lower vent only has one way to go: through the charcoal fire. In other kamados, the air could go through the charcoal, but it could also go around the firebox, which means that it’s not heated to the same degree (no pun intended ). That’s going to lead to a lower temperature inside the grill, and another reason why you see increased efficiency and the ability to hold a temperature with very little airflow through a KK grill.

If that’s the case, you’ll have to show us the grills you got from your frat brothers after they were done with the cattle prodding.

Try this, just for fun. Go to the search box at the top of this forum, and do a search for “fireboxâ€. You’ll get nine pages of results, going back to 2006. That’s nine years without a single mention of a firebox crack in a KK grill that I can find.

That’s exactly what I would do. For high heat cooks, I have the bottom dial fully open, which is the same amount of area as the left dial on the dual dial vent fully open. And I can consistently get the dome thermometer up to 600ºF in 15 minutes or less from lighting the fire. I think you’re going to be surprised as to how little air flow is needed to maintain a low and slow cook in a KK grill. I haven’t used a conventional kamado, but judging from John Setzler’s KJ videos, the vent settings on his low and slow cooks are letting significantly more air through a KJ grill than what I have going on with Smaug at the same temperature. More air going through the grill means more moisture being lost out the top vent, which is where I think KK grills have a big performance advantage over the conventional kamado brands. After all, the reason to use a kamado instead of a gas grill is the moisture issue, according to these guys. So it stands to reason that the more efficient you can make your kamado in retaining the moisture and heat, the better your results will be.