wilburpan

Thanks for the input, everyone! I guess I’ll keep on using the main grate for this type of cook. I forgot to mention that for this sort of fish cook, I try to get Smaug as hot as possible as quickly as possible, usually within 15 minutes, and the thermometer is usually in the 500-600ºF range when I put the fish on. Under these conditions, no heat soaking is going on at all.

The way I see it, if you didn’t get sprayed, it’s a win.

In my workshop, a broom and dust pan takes care of wood shavings and sawdust quicker than vacuuming. But I still use a vacuum for getting the last bits of fine dust. I’d do the same with Smaug if I had a shop vac dedicated to cleaning him out: use a brush and dust pan for most of the ash, and use the vacuum for the final cleanup. Either way, that’s a great deal on the shop vac, Bosco!

Hopefully the question is self-explanatory. Most times when I’ve been using Smaug to grill fish (salmon and trout are what I’ve cooked the most with Smaug), I’ve cooked it over high direct heat on the main grate. I don’t use grilling baskets or other gadgets. I put the fish down on the grate itself. Is there anyone here that would use the searing grate for this type of cook instead? For the purposes of this discussion, I’m not including tuna, because when I’m grilling fish like salmon or trout, I’m looking to cook it (relatively) through, not searing the outside with a rare interior.

Hi Dennis, FWIW, I wouldn’t worry too much about sandpaper vs. ScotchBrite. I know what you’re saying about sanding and the natural grain texture of the teak. The depth of the gray color change is so shallow compared to the depth of the grain that this won’t be an issue for the most part. Besides, teak is so hard that it would take a lot of effort to sand away the grain texture by hand. I suppose you could do it, but you’d have to be REALLY committed to the idea.

Congratulations! You're going to love having the rotisserie.

Come on in, Jon. The water’s fine.

Maybe, but then again, I would expect that any of the oils from the fat in brisket/ribs/pork butt/steak/chicken that spatter during the cooking process could impregnate the interior pores of the grill as well, and we don’t worry so much about that. I’ve always thought that the issue with lighter fluid, or whatever’s in self-lighting charcoal briquettes, imparting a nasty taste to future cooks wasn’t so much the lighter fluid impregnating the interior of the grill, but the fact that lighter fluid tastes nasty. If lighter fluid tasted like rendered pork fat, we’d be using it by the pint.

Congratulations on your KK grill! I’m partial to earth tone pebble tile, having an Olive Gold pebble KK 23†myself. The initial burn in process is pretty forgiving. Even if you don’t get it all on the first try, it all works out.

Grill marks or not, those are some tasty looking steaks! Here’s a wacky idea. Set your KK grill for 350ºF indirect. Put a pot of oil inside. Use it as a deep fryer. The grill encloses all the oil splatter, which gets burned off at the next high heat cook.

Thanks, Bosco! I think I’ll still be lazy about covering the shelves because it’s one less thing I’ll have to do, and because I do want to see how the TeakGuard holds up over time.

I finally got around to renewing the finish on the teak shelves that I got for Smaug. I put up a post here: http://www.kamadoguru.com/topic/24356-restoring-kk-grill-teak-shelves-using-the-teakguard-system/

After letting the finish dry overnight, I was prepared to apply a few more coats, but I’m pretty happy with the result, so I didn't. I’m declaring victory at this point. Here’s a couple of pictures of the refinished shelf next to the other one that I hadn’t touched yet. Just in case this is important to anyone, the TeakGuard doesn’t result in exactly the same color as the original as it came straight from Dennis. The photo below is the underside of the shelf, which I didn’t clean and refinish. You can see the original color of the teak on the inside of the stainless steel bracket, which is different from the TeakGuard, which you can see at the edge of the shelf. The TeakGuard is less orange and more tan in color. I should also mention that matching a previous finish is one of THE HARDEST tasks in woodworking, and unless you have access to the original finishing product, it’s nearly impossible to restore a piece of wood to its original appearance. Overall, I’m really pleased with this product. It’s easy to apply, and I like the way the finish looks when the process is complete. Altogether, if I wasn’t stopping to take photos, I could have done both shelves in 2 hours, not counting waiting time to let the shelves dry after the cleaning/scrubbing step and the drying time between applying coats of TeakGuard. When I refresh the finish next year, it should take maybe 15 minutes to put a new coat on. None of the chemicals are harsh, and I didn’t feel compelled to put on a respirator or gloves for this project. The finish gives me more of a feeling of the wood, as opposed to a thick plasticky finish like you would see on a bar countertop. The information sheet that came with TeakGuard supports this, as it states that TeakGuard has no varnish in it that would build up on the wood surface. Instead, the finish penetrates the wood. The only thing left is to see how the TeakGuard really holds up over time. I guess I’ll have to post back again in a year with the results. In the meantime, I would say that anyone who is looking to get the teak parts of their KK grill looking new again should consider using the TeakGuard/Super Teak Cleaner kit. They really give you everything you need for this process. If I had to do it all over again, I’d have no problem buying this kit again.

Covering the teak certainly would help limit the weathering. What you see on my shelves is pretty much a worst case scenario — no covers, never taking the shelves off of Smaug to put them with the other accessories. The instructions that come with TeakGuard say to reapply the finish once a year. That doesn’t mean to go through all the steps that I did above. That really just means to brush the TeakGuard on once a year, which should be a 15 minute job at most. Going forward, I probably will do it in the spring and fall. There are other products out there, but I liked this one because it seems to have the best chance of really protecting the wood. You can find Watco “Teak Oil†at Home Depot, but the problem with that stuff is that it’s not actually teak oil. I can get into all the technical details if you want, but the short answer is that Watco Teak Oil isn’t really an oil finish, but a wipe-on varnish. (The way that finishes are regulated, the name on the bottle doesn’t have to describe what’s actually in the finish.) Since it’s a varnish, reapplying another coat of finish over it a year later might be problematic. I would probably have to sand off the old finish and reapply a new coat. TeakGuard is a water-based acrylic, and so reapplication of another coat later on should be less problematic. Also, since the black streaks that appeared over the course of a year are mold feeding off the oil in the teak wood, the acrylic won’t be a food source for the mold. This should prevent the mold from reappearing.

Confession time. I haven’t really been too careful with the teak shelves that I got for Smaug in terms of maintaining their appearance. It’s been about a year since Smaug arrived, and I haven’t done anything special to protect the shelves from the elements. I basically leave the shelves mounted on Smaug all the time, and he usually sits in an area on my back patio that’s exposed to the weather. As a result, the shelves have weathered to a gray color. I should note that this doesn’t affect the teak at all from a structural standpoint. Teak is naturally rot resistant, which makes it such a great wood for shelves like these that will be exposed to the elements. The changing of the color to a silver-gray is the natural result of weathering, and is strictly an appearance issue. I’ve spoken to Dennis before about restoring the appearance of the shelves, and he wasn’t able to recommend a specific product since wasn’t sure if the stuff he uses to finish the shelves in Indonesia is available to consumers in the U.S. I did some googling, and ran across TeakGuard and Super Teak Cleaner. This stuff is intended for boats as well as outdoor teak furniture. I figured that teak on a boat is in a much harsher environment than my back patio, so I decided to give it a try. I bought the TeakGuard Teak Maintenance Kit, which was about $45 including shipping. It came with the Super Teak Cleaner and the TeakGuard, along with a Norton medium sanding sponge, some bronze wool, foam brushes, and two scrubbing brushes. The first step was to sand the shelf. I used the Norton sanding block, which was close to 100 grit sandpaper. You can see how the sanded surface differs from the weathered surface, showing that the silver-gray color that teak takes on over time is really just a discoloration of the very top layer of the wood. I only sanded for about 5 minutes before taking this picture. I do woodworking for a hobby, so after I was done with the sanding sponge, I felt compelled to sand up to 180 grit. You don’t have to do this. Here’s the final result. At this point you can see wood that is more like the natural color of teak, along with areas in the grain that still are colored black. The black area is mold that feeds off of the natural oils that are in teak. To clean this up, I used the Super Teak Cleaner. You spray this on the wood to wet the surface, and let it sit for about 60 seconds. Then you take the scrub brushes, and scrub the wood. I could see the black stuff coming off pretty easily. The instructions say to wet the surface with more water if it is drying out, and after you’re done, to hose the wood down well. I did this part on my back patio. Here’s the result. The shelf looks like the natural teak color because it is still wet from the water. After it dried, the color fades. Once the wood is dry from the cleaning process, it’s time to apply the TeakGuard. This is pretty straightforward. You pour a little of the TeakGuard on the wood, and spread it out with the foam brushes. You want to get enough on so that the surface is covered, and enough so that it will stay wet for at least 15 minutes, but not so much that the surface turns a milky color as it dries. I’m making this sound a lot more difficult than it really is. You can see how the TeakGuard changes the color of the teak compared to the cleaned teak. Since the water that’s part of the TeakGuard gets absorbed into the wood, the surface becomes slightly fuzzy because the grain of the wood swells in response to the water. After the first coat was dry, I took the bronze wool and scrubbed the surface lightly to remove the raised grain and fuzziness. It’s important to use bronze wool instead of steel wool because fragments of steel wool will discolor the finish as it rusts. Bronze wool won’t have this issue. After the raised grain was knocked back down, I applied a second and a third coat. Now I have to let the finish dry overnight.

Oh, that is SO NICE.

I have to say, it’s so nice to have a kamado rotisserie that’s not vaporware.

I’ve been grinding my own beef to make burgers over the past year. I use the meat grinder attachment that mounts on a KitchenAid mixer. What surprised me the most was how fast and easy it was to do that, even taking clean up time into account. For four burgers to feed us for dinner, I’ll buy about 1-1/2 pounds of chuck steak, eyeballing the steaks to find ones around 15% fat, and slice the steak up into strips about 1†wide. I’ll set up the meat grinder attachment, turn on the mixer, and feed the strips through until they are ground. Then I’ll divide the pile of ground beef into four parts, make four burgers, and grill.

I would say that if you don’t use a piece of equipment, it’s not practical at all. You’re going to love the reclaimed space.

Just one suggestion: in my experience, it’s easier to start up a KK grill when it is placed in a vertical position. ***ducks***

Yup. That’s definitely worse.

Weirdly, the first time I was at a place where they provided mayo with fries was in Canada. Toronto, to be exact.

The wait may seem like torture, but’s all worth it in the end.

I love poutine. Wish I could have had some of yours.

Very nice! How long did it take for the temperature to drop from 425ºF to 350ºF?