wilburpan

Hi Ken! Great to see you over here. Looking forward to all your posts, as always.

I know I could figure this out by trial and error, but I thought I could prevent some poorly cooked meals by asking first. As the title says, if you’re direct grilling, what foods would you grill on the main grate, and what would you use the lower/searing grate for? So far, I have portobello mushrooms, hot dogs and fish on the main grate, seared tuna (duh) on the lower grate. I’m guessing that steak works better on the lower grate. Burgers I’m undecided as of yet. I’ve tried burgers on the main grate, and they were less done than I would have liked, but I think I may have just taken them off too soon. Thanks!

Thanks for the reminder. I’m all over the burping the lid thing.

Yesterday I cooked my second meal on my KK 23â€. It wasn’t anything fancy, just Chicago style hot dogs. The main thing that has impressed me so far in terms of using my KK 23†for direct grilling is how fast the grill comes up to temperature. I’ve been starting the fire using one of those propane weed burners. It only takes 15 seconds to get the top chunks going. With the bottom vent about 1/2 open and the top vent open 3 turns or so, the thermometer hit 500ºF in only 10 minutes or so. That’s about how long it took my old gas grill to heat up for direct grilling. Yesterday I cooked the initial batch of hot dogs, and shut down the vents. 20 minutes later, I needed to cook an additional one, and saw that the internal temperature was down to about 350ºF. I opened up the vents again, and was back to 500ºF in about 5 minutes. My conclusion: what I really have is a charcoal grill that’s as efficient as a gas grill. For me, that’s pretty impressive, and that’s without trying low-and-slow cooking (so far).

They loved it.

Just finished dinner after trying my new KK 23" for the first time. After consulting with the kids, who have been waiting all summer for me to cook on the grill, we decided on fish for the maiden voyage. Everything here was direct grilled at 400ºF or so. I sprinkled a mix of kosher salt, black pepper, and ancho chile powder on the fish. The portobello mushrooms got a coat of olive oil, kosher salt, and black pepper. Mahi mahi: Tuna steak, plated with broccoli rabe and sliced grilled portobello mushroom: Portobello mushrooms: Action shot: Everything was delicious, although the tuna was overdone for my liking. That was my fault. I didn’t have the grill hot enough for a nice sear. I should have cooked the mahi mahi and mushrooms first, and then brought up the temperature. Learning curve, you know. Still, not bad for using a kamado for the first time.

If only you knew someone that could supply them.

I definitely will keep you in mind, then. I’ll see how long these two boxes last me.

Now you tell me.

I have a couple of boxes of CoCo coming with the grill. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind for the future. Where are you located?

Congratulations! Mine was crossing Illinois as of yesterday. Looking forward to getting it soon.

Sounds like a neat idea. Do you have a picture of your smoking pot? How big was the dutch oven that you used to make it?

Thanks for all the ideas! Is there any reason why I couldn't store the deflector and baking stone vertically, assuming that I build something that will keep them in place?

While waiting from my KK 23†to make its way to my house, a thought occurred to me. If I’m grilling something relatively straightforward, like burgers for the kids, I need to figure out what to do with the other stuff that came with my grill that I’m not using at the time. That adds up to two grill grids, the heat deflector, the drip pan, and the baking stone. I am happy that the KK grills come with so much standard equipment, but as the title says, how do you all store the parts that come with your KK grill? I also know that when the grill is not in use, I can store a lot of that stuff in the grill itself, but knowing myself, unloading the grill every time I want to use it would get old fast. I’d rather have a dedicated storage system of some sort. I know there’s the hook that you can attach to the side of the KK grill to hang the grids that you aren’t using, but in my case I ordered the two side tables, so that’s probably not a realistic option. And in any case, that still leaves the heat deflector, drip pan, and baking stone. Any suggestions, especially pictures of what you all do would be greatly appreciated. I’m reasonably adept at woodworking, so building a storage rack of some sort is a possibility, but I could use design ideas.

There’s probably something to that. The folks that like to cook pizza in their kamado grills often put the pizza up high to help the crust get crisp.

I see the strap as well. I highlighted it in green in the photo. Hopefully you all agree.

I just keep in mind that grilling this fall will be so much fun, compared to not being able to grill all summer after my old grill died. Although I do think that this whole experience has been the very definition of “Good things come to those who wait.â€

I ordered the 23" baking stone when I ordered my grill. The best thing is to contact Dennis. I used the online chat thing on the KK website, and he called me back on my phone, and it was easy to hammer out the details of my order.

Getting closer! Dennis sent me a note that the container with my grill made it to the Port of Los Angeles and cleared inspection. That was the good news. The bad news is this happened: A fire broke out at the Port of Los Angeles. Luckily, it was contained without too much damage or any loss of life, but this will delay the grill getting to Dennis’s warehouse. Still, the way I look at it, I went 11 weeks from June until August after placing an order for another kamado grill without knowing where it was or when I might expect to receive it. And even when I ultimately cancelled that order, I still didn't have a delivery date of any kind. So comparatively speaking, I'm still way ahead, even with the port fire.

That looks terrific. What’s in the stuffing?

As I said, there are those who need to get a life.

Many rib places in the Chicago area boil ribs before smoking them. Some people say it's a result of the Eastern European immigrant population influencing BBQ practices that came up to Chicago from the African American migration from the Deep South. Some people think that boiling ribs is heresy. They need to get a life. If you can change the rubs and the sauces, why can't there be variations on cooking technique?

Nice! What did you use to shield the pork during the indirect part of the cook?

Glad it made it to you safe and sound! I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of the Terra Blue tile, but it looks great in your yard.

Right on! And given the look of the food you cooked in that picture, I’m going to be looking forward to more pictures from you.