wilburpan

In the time that I've been using my rotisserie, I have found that how well centered the meat is is more important than the absolute weight. A 10 lb. roast that is balanced well in the basket will be easier to spin than a 5 lb. roast that is off center.

The flip side of the waiting part is this: Me: Ask me how long it took for my KK grill to get to me. Friend: How long did it take for your KK grill to get to you? Me: I DON’T CARE. IT’S THAT AWESOME.

I’ve had poutine in Canada. It is amazing. Some people think that poutine is too heavy and rich. Those people are wrong. CC, if you’re ever at a Houlihan’s, try their Disco Fries. It’s not exactly poutine, but it’s a reasonable approximation.

Actually, is there a possibility we could go from an up/down vote on posts to a straight “Like†button? Kamado Guru has this setup, and I like it (no pun intended). Besides, it’s friendly enough here that I don’t think a down vote mark is really needed.

No problem with that. If I remember correctly, somewhere in the book Aaron Franklin writes something to the effect that if you want to get straight to cooking, skip the first 3/4ths of the book to the recipe section, and go back to read the first part at your convenience. The whole book is well worth reading, as I’ve mentioned before.

This is a danger of having a KK grill. You find that you can make food as good as, if not better, than a restaurant. After a while, you start running out of restaurants to go to.

Drago-style oysters are on my list of things to try. I think the only issue I’ll have is that I like oysters so much, they may make a detour straight into my mouth before I get them on the grill.

Just to clarify, if I wanted to make a St. Louis cut, I would make a cut along the green line in this picture, right? A little BBQ trivia: I grew up in Chicago, and many of the BBQ places there sold rib tips. This would be BBQ ribs made from the part below the green line in the picture above, assuming that I’m right about where to make the cut for St. Louis ribs.

I was thinking I should try this, but maybe I can talk ckreef into just sending me a jar instead.

Last night we had a seafood dinner, as the title says. I tried something new, and that was to use Smaug to cook some clams. Salmon, seasoned with Old Bay, grilled asparagus, and some Cherrystone clams caught in Sandy Hook, NJ, less than 30 miles from my house. I fired up Smaug to full blast and put everything on the grill. One thing I’ve learned from my time using Smaug is that even though kamado grills are well known for their insulation and even cooking, there are still hot and cold spots on the grate. The vent of KK grills is at the rear of the lid, not the center like most other brands, and so the back of the grill tends to be hotter than the front. That’s why I arranged the salmon fillets so that the thin belly portion is to the outside, and the thicker pieces to the back of the grill. I also placed the clams towards the front because I didn’t want them to get overcooked. Plated. The salmon and asparagus turned out great, which was no surprise. What I was impressed with was how delicious the clams were. I cooked them just until their shells popped open, then left them for 2 more minutes on the grill. Even though I spilled some of the clam liquid in getting them out, I was surprised as to how much of the liquid remained in the clam. Much more than what I’m used to getting in a restaurant. I ate them straight: no cocktail sauce, lemon, or anything else. So now I can add clams on the shell to my growing list of things not to order when I go out to eat because I can cook them better at home.

Congratulations on getting a KK grill! Regardless of the size, you’re going to love having one. As 5698k said, if the ramp used to get the grill off the base of the shipping crate can’t get the grill up your step, just get a big sheet of plywood and lay it down so that one end is supported by the step and the other is on the ground. Wedge a 2x4 underneath the plywood for some additional support.

I’ve always been partial to baby back ribs, but I thought I would give spare ribs a try. This cook is the first time I’ve had spare ribs in over a decade. (I told you I was partial to baby back ribs. ) The rub is a mixture of the two rubs I compared head to head last weekend that I had left over, plus a little extra salt and pepper. The bits at the top are pieces that I trimmed from the rack. I sprinkled them with rub as well and put them all into Smaug, who was cruising along at 225ºF. The great thing about cooking the trimmed bits from the rack is that they cook relatively quickly, and you get to have a little snack while waiting for the ribs to finish up. So here’s the final result, after about five hours. The ribs cooked until they passed the bend test. At that point, a knife slid through the meat like butter. I didn’t wrap, spritz, or apply sauce to the ribs during the cook. Plated. The ribs turned out great, but overall we came to the conclusion that we like baby back ribs more than spare ribs. Even though there was more meat overall, the kids weren’t big fans of dealing with the cartilage. Apparently, they would rather gnaw on solid bones. Then again, my younger son self-identified as a carnivore once he learned what that word meant, and he was only in kindergarten at the time. Still, we’ll probably make spare ribs on occasion in the future for a change of pace. They were quite good.

I have the KK 23â€. The KK 21†wasn’t available when I bought mine last year. But I think I would still pick the KK 23†if I had to do it all over again. Cooking for just my family of four can be done with either grill fairly easily. Cooking small amounts of food looks silly, but the KK is so efficient that I don't mind lighting a full basket of charcoal for a quick cook. If I was super anal about that, I would use my basket splitter. We will cook for friends several times when the weather is good. But the times we’ve had parties, it was a lot of cooking over direct heat (burgers, hot dogs, etc.), and I used up all of the area of my main grill grate pretty easily. If our parties were more along the lines of “make 6 butts for pulled pork all at once for a crowdâ€, I might consider the KK 21â€. Of course, you know your cooking and entertaining habits better than anyone. Even with the high-cap lid, the KK 23†gives you more cooking room, and there have been enough times that I was really happy that Smaug was as big as he is that I can’t imagine wanting to go smaller. You could make the argument that the KK 21†gives you a better price-per-square-inch value, but the KK 21†is still going to be smaller. The price difference between the two is $560-580, depending on the type of tile, and for a lifetime purchase, that price difference is inconsequential. As I like to sometimes point out, if $580 is going to make or break a grill buying decision, then you can’t afford the meat that’s going to be cooked on your grill.

That looks great! I’m going to have to try grilling fruit soon.

Here’s a leg of lamb that I cooked for Easter. If you’re intimidated, don’t be. This was the very first leg of lamb I had ever done, and it turned out great. I love lamb, but my wife doesn’t, so we don’t cook it very often. As in once every several years.

Looks amazing! Impressive cook, but then I knew it was going to turn out great. Archer, not arrow, you know. Looking forward to your prime brisket cook.

That has got to be the understatement of the month.

There should be a difference, since the vent is placed towards the back of the grill, which creates a natural flow of air across the cooking area. In general, this is a desirable thing. I forgot which book this is from, but the same principle holds in kettle grills.

Always love a burger cook. I noticed you used the basket splitter. Did you do that to do direct/indirect cooking? And with the 21†basket shaped the way that it is, can you split the basket in the other direction? The 23†basket is round, so I can split it front to back or side to side.

I’ve been loving making rotisserie chicken on Smaug. Yours looks delicious. I haven’t been trussing my chickens in order to get the wings and legs to hang away from the body, in an attempt to get more yummy crisp skin. That’s worked pretty well. The wings and legs don’t seem to be overcooked, although I’ve been cooking smaller chickens than the eight-pounder you did.

Pebbles looks terrific! Of course, I’m a bit partial to brown pebble tile for KK grills.

You all are making me blush. Should I mention that I took that photo with my iPhone?

I staggered the arrangement just to make sure there wasn’t going to be any differences in how the ribs turned out because of where they sat in the grill. If there was any transfer of flavor from one rack to the other, we couldn’t taste it. On top of that, on the right side of the grill the Texas rub ribs were above the NC ribs, and if much of the rub had come off the Texas rack onto the NC rack, we should have been able to see it because of the lighter color of the NC ribs. We didn’t notice any color change.

That is a really great presentation. If it only tastes half as good as it looks, it’s going to be super delicious, and I bet it tastes better than it looks.

That’s a great space you’ve created for your home! It looks beautiful. As far as the Spray Deck question goes, the best thing would be to contact the manufacturer. Tell them that you have a really heavy grill and want to know how the Spray Deck will hold up to the weight and occasional sparks. You may be surprised — it could be that after a 2 week cure or so, there’s no problem at all. In any case, they would have the most experience with how their product holds up over time and under various stresses.