wilburpan

Nice writeup! Thanks!

Great post, CC! I especially like this part:

I've always said that the KK experience is very tacit in nature. Everything about the KK is uncompromised. And you get used to that in a big hurry. You get used to uncompromised excellence at every turn. And as the saying goes, "You don't know what you have 'til it's gone!" I certainly didn't realize how deep your design thinking went until I had to use something else to cook.
 

Congrats on getting her home! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

And you're going to love having the rotisserie.

Congratulations, Jon! You're going to be really happy with your new KK grill.

Right on!

Looks great! How much fuel do you end up burning on a short burst cook like this?

 

For these sorts of cooks, I start by filling the basket with Royal Oak, and light it over as much of the surface as I can with my weed burner. I let the fire get established with the lid open and the bottom vents fully open for about five minutes. Then I stir up the top layer of coals to distribute the lit parts evenly, put the grates in, and shut the lid. It takes 5-10 minutes after that for the dome thermometer to hit 500-600ºF. Then I’ll cook the food.

After the end of the cook, I’ll take the food off, and let the fire go for about 10 minutes to help clean the grate, and then I’ll scrub the grate off and shut down the vents. The next time I go to cook, I’ll have a basket that’s about 2/3 full.

This may be different with other brands of charcoal, especially if it’s denser than Royal Oak.

Looks great! You’re making me rethink my plan to make some pulled pork this weekend.

Nice!

Very nice job!

I noticed you cut your rack of ribs in two. Can you lay a full rack flat on your KK 21�

It sounds great! Jerk chicken is on my list of things to try.

Please note that I said it sounds great, not that it looks great.

Thanks! I’m going to try that peeling the bottom of the asparagus trick. I’ve always just snapped off the bottom inch or so. I just hope that my pee doesn’t smell more.

CC did post a reply to me on the Kamado Guru website yesterday. It seems like he’s traveling a lot, but he seemed like his usual self.

Only a money shot, since we’re at the time of year where it’s too dark to take a cooking shot at dinner time. Asparagus had olive oil, salt and pepper prior to grilling. The steelhead trout had my mix of cayenne, black pepper, salt and oregano sprinkled on it, with a little olive oil on the skin side to help the rub stick better.



The two things I want to comment on are:
 
1. This was a direct high heat cook, sticking with using the main grate based on the feedback I got earlier this month. I got Smaug up to a dome temperature of 600ºF in 13 minutes. That may not be as fast as a gas grill, but my old gas grill would need a good 10 minutes of preheating the grates before I would do a cook like this on it.
 
2. I picked up this piece of steelhead trout thinking that I wanted trout, and didn’t really wonder why it looked like salmon until I was eating it and found it tasted just like salmon. A little googling, and I learned that steelhead trout really is a type of Pacific salmon. You learn something new everyday.
 
Still it was a really nice piece of fish. It’s not as oily as Atlantic salmon, which is what we usually get when we want salmon.

Syzygies, how has your Baking Steel held up over time? Any issues with warping?

Welcome! I’m partial to olive gold pebble KK 23†grills.  You’re going to love having one.

I’m 5’6â€. When cleaning out Smaug, I’ll take out the lower vent and the inside ash deflector. I have a little plastic shovel much like tinyfish’s that I put through the lower vent opening, and reach in through the top with an old wide paint brush. I’ll brush the ash into the shovel, pull out the shovel, and dump the ashes into a bucket. Repeat until done. This takes a couple of minutes, tops.

If I get dirty at all, it’s from leaning over the edge of the grill. But I make sure I wear old clothes for this, and I really don’t get hardly any ash on me. I think I get more stuff on me from smoke generated during cooking when the wind blows in my direction.

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.