wilburpan

Overall, I like the changes to the forum. However, there is one issue that I’d like to change. I’ve noticed that I now get emails every time someone replies to a post that I follow. I really don’t need these emails, so I figured I’d just change my settings. I found the page where you can set notification preferences, and saw this. Can the administrators change this so I can toggle the option whether to receive emails when someone comments on something I follow? I don’t know why this should be locked. Thanks!

Very nice!

Right on! You’re going to have a great time with your new KK grill.

Nice! I’ve been looking for a good source for beef ribs around here.

I’ve never seen this behavior on this forum. However, some of the subforums have a lot of “Pinned†posts, which supersede the new posts. In other words, if a post gets a new reply, it goes to the top of the unpinned posts, while the pinned posts stay on top. Maybe that’s what’s making new posts seem like they aren’t getting to the top of the post list.

Hi churchi, Here’s how I get Smaug going for high heat direct grilling. I start with a full basket of charcoal, lit in five spots over a fairly wide area, with the lid open and the bottom vents fully open, with the grate off. After five minutes, I flip over the bigger chunks in the top layer of the charcoal a bit. At this point, those chunks are lit on the bottom side but not the top, so I flip them to get the entire piece of lump lit. Then I put the grate in, close the lid and open the top vent as high as it would go. I can hit 500-600ºF in 15 minutes or less using this method. I think that the moving the charcoal around after five minutes helps a lot, because it gets lit coals right at the top of the basket and distributes the fire more quickly than letting it burn on its own. (That’s also why I leave the grate off at first so I don’t have to maneuver a hot grate later to stir up the charcoal.) I’ve noticed in the past that if I’m going for a high temperature, and there’s large pieces of charcoal on the top that are burning only on the bottom side, the unlit portion of the charcoal is preventing heat from coming through. Flipping over those pieces did a lot to speed up the process. I’ve noticed that when my thermometer hits 500ºF, the top surface of the charcoal will mainly be on fire, but the larger chunks will have a dark spot in the middle that isn’t actually burning. Here’s a picture from the Serious Eats website that shows what I mean. This looks like a good charcoal fire, but it’s really not at full blast yet. You see those large pieces of charcoal in the middle that still look black? That’s charcoal that’s not burning. I think this acts as an insulator, blocking the fire underneath it, and preventing the temperature from rising higher. Turning those pieces over helps the temperature come up faster. The other thing that helps is to modify my workflow. With my gas grill, I used to prep the food, then turn on the gas, then wait for the warmup, and then cook. Since getting Smaug, I’ve learned to light Smaug, prep food, do the five minute charcoal flipping/vent setting thing, go back to prepping food, and cook when Smaug was ready. In fact, overall this may be more efficient than what I used to do. I’ve often said that having a kamado grill is like having a charcoal grill that’s as efficient as a gas grill. This is why. My old gas grill would have to heat for about 10 minutes or so before the grates were hot enough to cook steaks, burgers, or seafood, and it never got as hot as Smaug can get. I know that BBQ is all about patience, and enjoying the process. But as long as folks keep talking about keeping a gas or pellet grill around for quick cooks, I’m going to keep making the point that starting a charcoal fire for high temp direct grilling can be very quick with a kamado grill. Using this method, I’ve consistently been able to hit these temps in 15 minutes, tops. Compared to my old gas grill, I’m losing a whopping 5 minutes of time, but the benefit is that the cook turns out way better. And in reality, 5 minutes won’t break anyone’s schedule. If it does, you should just make ramen for dinner instead. Heck, I’ll lose 5 minutes wandering around my kitchen trying to remember what I was looking for.

Charles, do you think that the different size of our grills might have an impact on what we're seeing with cooking steaks on the main grill? For steaks, I generally have a full basket of charcoal, and it's completely on fire when I start cooking. Even if you do the same, my guess is that the smaller basket in a KK 16.5" and a KK 19" means there are less BTUs put out by the fire compared to a KK 23". Bottom line, whatever works for you works.

I think I gravitated to the main grate because of my wife. As I mentioned, she likes her steak medium well, and if I was to cook her steak on the searing grate, the outside would be scorched by the time the middle of the steak got to medium well. DAMHIKT. If I cook a steak to medium rare on the searing grate, I get pretty much the same result as I do on the main grate, except that the outside brown layer is a little thinner. If I was cooking a steak just for me, that’s what I would do, but considering the results I get on the main grate, it’s not like there’s a huge benefit.

Go figure. Serious Eats is also one of my favorite food sites, and I didn’t know they had a recipe for suckling pig.

There seems to be a persistent sentiment out there that the meat doesn’t know what grill it’s cooked on. I’ve never figured out why that might be true, when so many other factors seem to affect the cook. However, outside of a few direct comparisons I didn’t have much empirical evidence to support my thinking. But based on your experience, as well as Bosco, Mr. and Mrs. Reef, and Rak’s, and probably others that I’m missing, I think that idea can be laid to rest.

Here’s one way to look at the cost. A Komodo Kamado is more expensive than the KJ/BGE/Primo grills for sure, but it’s still in line with and even less expensive than many high end stainless steel gas grills, and I would argue that it is more durable and more flexible than a high end stainless steel gas grill. The way I look at it, my KK grill will easily last me 20 years at a minimum, which works out to less than 70¢ per day. Even if I just cook four burgers for my family for dinner, the grill will still be the least expensive part of that meal.On top of that, if you love cooking on your grill (and I know you will), you will wind up saving money on going out to eat. Everyone’s situation is different, but for us, our restaurant bill has dropped enough that we’ll break even on Smaug after about 2-3 years. That may seem incredible, given the upfront cost of a KK grill, but it really works out to one less meal at a restaurant for a family of four a week. It’s not fancy restaurants, either. I'm talking Chili's, or something along those lines.

Nice score!

Yes. Get the 6†reducer as well.

We love our local specialty butcher. They carry prime quality steaks, and are super old-school. You go in and say, “I’d like a ribeye,†and then they ask you how thick. I usually ask for a 1-1/2†steak, and then they take this big hunk of meat and bandsaw off the steak. Last week they had a sale on steaks, about 30% off. So we picked up some boneless ribeyes. I only have a money shot, because it’s still too dark at dinner time here to take good pictures of Smaug in action. (Sorry Dennis! Once Daylight Savings Time kicks in, there will be more pictures.) Tomahawk66 had asked if I could post my method for cooking steaks. I start off with a steak rub that’s equal parts coarse ground black pepper, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, and oregano. For variety, I’ll use ancho or chipotle chile powder instead of cayenne. Sprinkle the rub all over the steak, including the sides. Ideally, I’ll do this an hour before cooking to give the salt a chance to penetrate the meat, but I’ve also sprinkled the rub on and tossed the steak on the grill right away. I’ll start a fire in Smaug with all the vents wide open, and wait until the dome thermometer hits 500-600ºF. I’ve taken to cooking steaks on the main grate. What I do is put the steaks on the main grill, and close the lid. I wait a minute, then flip the steaks. I wait another minute, and flip the steaks again. I keep doing this until I get the level of doneness I want. I go for medium rare, but my wife likes medium well. (That’s her only flaw: she likes her steaks overdone. ) Using a quick read probe thermometer is best for testing doneness, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that 6 minutes of grilling is about right. Take the steaks off, let them sit for a few minutes before eating. That’s pretty much it! If you want to know why I don’t do the “Let the steak sit and only flip once†method, check out this article on Serious Eats. What I can say is that in terms of minimizing brown meat at the outside and having end-to-end medium rare meat on the inside, it’s hard to differentiate my results from when I’ve done a reverse sear, or from one of my friends who cooks his steaks using a sous vide machine. (He does say that I’m better at using a grill than he is, although he’s a fantastic cook. When we go over to his house to eat, he usually asks if I wouldn’t mind taking charge of the grill. Like I need convincing. )

I’ll start a new thread. Edit: Here’s the steak cooking post: http://komodokamadoforum.com/topic/6368-ribeye-steak-cook-for-tomahawk66/

I agree that double clicking can do this. The forum software is set up so that the first click activates the reply box, and brings up the formatting bar. If your first click is at the top of the box, the formatting bar will be right under your cursor. So if you double click at the top of the reply box, it’s pretty easy to activate bold/italic/underline/etc.

As has been mentioned, I think your bottom vent was too far open. Since you’re coming from a KJ grill, one of the things to get used to with a KK grill is that it’s so much more efficient compared to the ceramic grills that you need vent settings that will seem ridiculously small to hit the same target temperature. I’ve found that I typically will set my bottom vent settings smaller than what the KK handbook says. For 350ºF, I’d go for 1/4†open or so, and about 1 turn of the top vent, give or take. I’ll then twiddle the top vent to hit 350ºF. In general, I set the bottom vent pretty small, because if something happens on the top side, like opening the lid, or gusts of wind coming by, the bottom vent will limit the amount of air that goes through. Based on your vent settings, I think that the bottom vent was open enough that it allowed a lot of air to come through after you opened the lid, causing your temperature spike. I mentioned this recently, but it bears repeating. Once you figure out what vent settings work for you, you will get very repeatable results. CC doesn’t seem to be posting much lately, but if he was around, he would say to spend an afternoon with your grill, and start a fire as if you were doing a low and slow, trying to stabilize at the lowest temperature you can (200ºF for example). Then write down your settings. Open the vents a little, and see where the thermometer goes. After 15-30 minutes, write down the new temp and your vent settings. Keep going, trying to hit 25ºF intervals. After you finish doing this, you’ll have a good reference for future cooks.

How far open were your top and bottom vents?

Welcome to the KK family! You’re going to have a great summer of cooking ahead of you.

Congratulations! You’re going to love cooking on your new grill. The two good things about your tile choice is that SWMBO picked them, and also because pebble tiles lead to better cooks.

Great looking ribs! Dennis, here's my go-to BBQ sauce recipe. 1 1â„2 cups ketchup 4 tbsp. butter 1â„4 cup cider vinegar 1â„4 cup brown sugar 1â„4 cup worcestershire sauce Juice of 1â„2 lemon 1 1â„2 tsp. dry mustard 1â„2 tsp. cayenne pepper Combine all of the above in a saucepan, and cook over medium heat until thickened slightly. Sometimes I'll substitute ancho or chipotle powder for the cayenne.

So glad you have your grill home where it belongs! Have fun with cooking on it. I’ll be interested to see how you think it compares to your KJ.

That looks great! We’ve made Thai curry dishes before using a very similar method, but in a wok, and stir frying the meat. I never thought to grill the meat portion before. I’ll have to try that sometime.

Terrific burgers!

Welcome! You won’t be going wrong with a KK grill. I know that Bosco and Rak have noticed that their cooks are coming out moister than when they were using ceramic kamados. As for me, a KK was the first kamado grill I ever had, and I was able to get outstanding results on my low and slows even though I had never done low and slow cooking before. And as far as grilling/searing goes, KK’s are so efficient that going from lighting the charcoal to steak searing temps takes less time than with other charcoal grills or kamados. It’s not as fast as a gas grill for searing, but compared to my old gas grill, I’m only 5 minutes slower at most. And again, the results are outstanding. Here’s a boneless ribeye steak I made last night.