wilburpan

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.

Wilbur that stuff looks like a great product.  I will be ordering this for all my teak pieces.  I hope that the cover will help limit the weathering a bit.

 

Also, what would you recommend to keep treating it as a preventative as opposed to a refinish??? 

 

I figure, twice a year using something to help keep it sealed and clean.  Dennis recommended something before which I sourced to Home Depot but I can't find where that post is

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***

Ahhhhhhhhh. After all of the waiting it is sitting right in front of me. "Hmmmmmm. There sure seems to be a lot of brown on the tiles. In fact, I don't see any blue at all. Oh no! You have to be kidding me!!"

Time for a closer look between the slats in the crate. I look. I acknowledge. I am defeated. This is the wrong grill.

Dennis got the correct one out of the warehouse and on the way quickly, but I got to stare at an unwrapped KK for the better part of two weeks waiting for mine to arrive.

It could be worse......just sayin.

 

Yup. That’s definitely worse.

Some how I can't see dipping my fries in mayo, I think I'll stick with the Canadian way;)

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?

Wilbur,

to place my comments in better context, I would say that option 1, letting the KK come up to temp slowly, fully loaded takes more time and is more prone to eventually get away from me if I don't monitor it closely after it reaches 130-150 dome temp.  I think that my damper control is probably the root cause of this issue because I tended to leave the top open about 1/2 a turn and the bottom about 1/4" at the top margins

I think you are right on in your analysis. For me, 1/4†open at the bottom vent would be too much for setting up a low and slow cook.

What i've come to prefer is using my new DigiQ + fan for Low N Slow cooks.  This allows me to light a small central piece of charcoal (about 45 seconds with a Mapp Gas torch), set a target temperature at 200, Clip a probe to my cooking grate, open the Top damper about 1/8 turn and walk away.  The lower dampers remain closed and the fan provides the air to bring everything to a stable 200F.  Once that is established, I increase target to 220 and place my brisket into the KK to cook.  This process takes about 60-70 minutes during 70F ambient temps.  I also think that this method minimizes charcoal burn to attain and maintain target temp.  It is very easy to increase or decrease temp by 20 to 30 degrees in a reasonable period of time (20ish mins) because it is easier to recruit more charcoal than it is to retire it.

 

I may just be enamored  with the fact that I can monitor the cook from my phone anytime I want and have some help maintaining the temp using this gadget.  It is not necessary, but I do like having a dedicated controller to keep my A.D.D. in check when I'm cooking Low N Slow, otherwise I find myself wishing I'd check in on the cook more frequently....

Gadgets are fun!

I do think it’s interesting that your DigiQ hits a target temp of 200ºF in a little over an hour, and that your top vent is at 1/8 turn. That’s exactly where my top vent is at for low and slow cooks, and it’s about the same time it takes me to hit 200ºF using analog controls.

I've used the following techniques with varying degrees of success:

• Light a full basket of coco charcoal, install my deflector and wait for the KK to come up to temp.  This seems to take a long time and also forces the KK to burn hotter longer to reach my target temp.  I believe that so much heat is trapped by the deflector that by the time the dome temp gets where I want it, there is too much fire in the bottom of the cooker to properly maintain the cooking temp desired (200F?). I find myself fighting the temp for the balance of the cook.

When you say, “This seems to take a long time,†is that 30 minutes? An hour?

• Light a full basket of coco charcoal and leave all the deflector/drip pans, grills out of the cooker.  Allow the cooker to come up to dome temp and stabilize for some period of time.  Then open the KK lid and build the environment for the Low N Slow cook.  This tends to give me a smaller burn in the bottom of the cooker and allows me to better regulate the cook temps for a longer period of time without overshooting.  It takes a little while after the environment is installed in the cooker to return to temp, but not nearly as long as building a small fire and waiting for the temp to come up in an ambient temp KK.

 

I’m guessing that you think that your second method takes less time altogether that your first method. Is that right?

For me, what has helped more than anything else with stabilizing Smaug for low and slow cooks is to be patient. Based on experience, I know that when I have a final temp in the 200-225ºF range, the top vent is open about 1/8 of a turn, and the bottom vent is cracked open about 1/16â€. So when I am letting Smaug ramp up to that temperature, I’ll light the fire in one spot, and I have the top and bottom vents open a little bit more than those final settings: the top vent somewhere between 1/4-1/2 turns, and the bottom vent at 1/8†open.

Once I know that the fire is established, I’ll put in the heat deflector and grate. This is usually at the 15 minute mark. As the temperature approaches my final goal, I’ll set the top vent at 1/8 turn and close down the bottom vent to 1/16†open. This is usually at the 45 minute mark. I’ll let the grill continue to heat soak and settle in at the final temperature, and then put the meat in. Total time is about 1 hour or so.

That’s why I was asking what you meant by “This seems to take a long time.†The nature of maintaining a low temperature and the mass of a KK grill means that it takes longer to stabilize at a low temperature than setting up a KK grill for searing steaks. Last night I made some salmon, and I went from lighting to 600ºF in less than 15 minutes. But I know that if I make some ribs this weekend, it’s going to take an hour for Smaug to settle in at 225ºF. Once I learned that, it was much easier to get my low and slow setups going.

I think the best hotdog ever are Vienna Beef hotdogs. The Vienna Beef company dominates the Chicago hotdog scene, and you can get their hotdogs in stores, but I don’t think they distribute very far outside the Chicago area. There certainly aren’t any Vienna Beef hotdogs in any of the grocery stores here in New Jersey.

(I grew up in the Chicago area, so I may be a bit biased. But Vienna Beef hotdogs are really good. Nathan’s is close, but not as good.)

Right on! I hope you come back and share what you’re cooking on your new KK 21â€.

That’s an interesting product. In their FAQ section, they address the issue of how they expect the Meater to hold up to high temperatures.

For me, the two main downsides would be that the probe is almost 1/4†thick, which is a bigger hole than I would want in the food I’m making, and how much flexibility you have in placing the probe. All the action shots show the probe buried in the meat up to the black end part which is the ambient temperature sensor, and they mention that the main part of the probe is protected by the meat. The probe looks long enough that I don’t think I could bury it in an average sized chicken. 

Thanks for the tips, Dennis. I’ll try using the drip pan more often. And I don’t do the burn off with every cook, even though I see that from the way I wrote my post it seems like I do.

As for the scraping, the paint scraper that I use has a fairly thin and flexible piece of steel on it. It’s more like a cheap spatula. I use it to get most of the gunk off, but I don’t get down to the bare surface of the deflector.

I live in CT, so it's going to be a long ride across the country.

When Smaug left the warehouse, it was a 6 day drive from LA to NJ. It will come sooner than you think.

Nothing wrong with a hotdog cook! Congrats on breaking in your new KK!

I’m probably an outlier, but for my low and slows I’ll use the heat deflector stone, placed right on the bars of the charcoal basket, and I don’t use a drip pan. All kinds of gunk does accumulate on the stone, but I think that adds to the flavor, and I do clean the deflector afterwards. After the end of the cook, I’ll take out the deflector, open all the vents to get the fire ripping hot and clean off the grates. Then I’ll put the deflector top side down on the main grate, and burn the stuff that collected on it. Then I’ll take the deflector off, let it cool, and use a paint scraper to scrape off the now-burned gunk.

The reason I’ve been skipping the drip pan is that when I used to use the drip pan, the stuff that collected in it burned, and it was a pain to clean.

The meat goes on the main grate. If I need extra room, I’ll bring the top grate into play. If I ever did a cook that also required the bottom grate, I’ll need a new house, because that’s enough food for more people than my yard can handle.

How much food do you plan to make that would require the lower grate for a low and slow?