CeramicChef

Good Saturday Morning, KKers! Yesterday I did a turkey for a little get together here at Chez Chef. This was my first time using the CyberQ WiFi controller. I brined the turkey overnight and cooked it to an internal of about 155F. I injected a mixture of butter, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and a tad bit of maple syrup. Here's the guest of honor for the dinner party, Tom. Tom, meet the Gurus! Here are the contents of Tom's giblet pack and various other pieces/parts. From left to right we have the heart (i'm always amazed at how small the heart in any animal is relative to the body!), neck, (now from top to bottom), the plastic thing that keep the legs trussed up, trimmed fat & Pope's nose, and the single most useless invention of the late 20th century, the pop-up thermometer, continuing left to right we have the liver and finally the gizzard. All gone. I HATE giblet gravy and I HATE giblet dressing. Here's Tom joining the Polar Bear Club by taking a swim in some brine I made up especially for him ... salt, sugar, peppercorns, crushed cranberries, citrus peel, thyme, and rosemary. Tom all dried off after his overnight swim and about to be injected with the butter injection mentioned above. Two views of Tom all greased up, trussed up, and ready for his cook. Here's a pic of Tom with his new best plate friends ... roasted rosemary potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts that will be soon swimming in a nice mustard sauce. Here's the money shot! "Pete the Pink Pig" will ALWAYS have a place of honor at my table. Not shown is the Apple Cider based Cole Slaw that people rave about. I'll post that recipe in the recipe section. Finally, a shot of the surviving nit of desert ... a Blackberry Wine Cake. All in all a nice cook and a nice send off for Tom. Not one single tidbit left over for sammies during today's football action. Y'all have a great weekend!

I'm a neat freak. I clean my ashes out of The Beast (a KK BB 32") about every week. I cook on The Beast 5-6 days a week, so between the regular lump that I burn on everything but my Low-n-slow cooks, I get a fair amount of ash. I, like most, used to use an ash tool and finish with my shop vac with drywall filter. I was at my local hardware store when I saw the following ... That little which broom/dust pan combo gets about 95% of the ash out quite easily. Then I just dump the ash in a galvanized bucket and let it accumulate. My neighbors want to ashes, so about once a month I tell 'em to send the kids over to get the ashes. I do a monthly run around on The Beast, making certain that all is ship shape. That's when I use the shop vac to really do a deep clean.

Holy smoke! That's one nice kitchen he's got there. Men and boys and the price of toys. But as we've said ... "You worked for it, you earned it, you deserve it, so damn well enjoy it!". Ted, that is one seriously nice outdoor kitchen! Nice, very nice indeed!

Wilco!

Amen! Guys, I've been up to my ears lately. I'll get this thread updated with the pics, 10 at a time, this coming week.

Wilbur, for your maiden steak voyage, I'd say you knocked this one out of the park! Heck, I'd sit down at your table and eat anything you cook! Very nicely done, my Friend, very nice indeed! Kudos!

Now those are some dadgummed good looking ribs! Nice cook, MadMedik! Thanks for posting those pics.

I have not had exactly this experience with the ECC. I have used the ECC on several occasions. What I have seen is that there does seem to be a little degradation of the ECC (not all of the ECC in the basket) to a powder. All the pieces I handled seemed to have some very small degree of sintering .... But nothing turned completely to powder when handled. I use two baskets ... one for ECC and the other for regular lump. I'm not very delicate when transferring baskets and I've never noticed large amounts of unburned ECC powder in the bottom of my KK BB 32 when changing baskets. I've done a lot of low-n-slow cooks and a fair number of high temp sears using ECC without any problems. Disclaimer: I haven't used the basket splitter on any cook with ECC.

Robert - congrats! A beautiful outdoor kitchen made all the more beautiful by the dual KKs! Here's to great cooks and even better memories with family and friends!

I'm terrible at cooking Chinese cuisine; simply terrible. I guess I forget that there is a lot of sugar in it and I burn stuff easily. I'm looking forward to learning from mguerra and Wilbur. Should be interesting!

tony - I've got probably somewhere in the neighbor of 40 pics documenting the unwrapping of The Beast back in early September. I guess I'll just take it slow and easy.

Wilbur - great idea for leftovers! Buddy, talk about Outside The Box thinking!

Hey Dennis - What is the limit with respect to the number of pics that can be posted at once? I keep getting an error saying I'm trying to post too many. Thanks in advance!

Howdy KKers! It's been almost 2 months since I took delivery on The Beast, a KK BB 32. While I initially posted what follows in another Forum, I thought I'd post it here in hopes that this will help potential KKers make their KK Purchase decision. I just finished taking delivery on the Komodo Kamado Big Bad 32" we've been waiting for! Also got 40 boxes of coconut charcoal. First, let me say that Dennis Linkletter is a joy to work with. Second, This thing is MASSIVE! I can't begin to tell you what this thing looks like crated. The top of the crate is just shy of 5' and its width is 44". With all the accessories, it stands over my head, and I'm 6'1". Third, this thing is so well packed/crated. Now a scratch on the crate at all. This came from Indonesia and it looks as if it were assembled right here in OKC. Very, VERY impressive. Ok, I"m on a mission. Here is a beginner photo to whet your appetites. More to follow! Attached Thumbnails

Damn! Am I THAT obvious! LOL!! Yeah I guess so. Darn the luck!

amir - every once in a great while even a blind pig like me finds a acorn! I've always figured that if you've got The Beast fired up and on flight idle you may as well take it around the pattern on more time. Y'all have a great day!

tony - i just got a mixer of that new Guinness Blonde in my refrigerator cooling down now. I finally found some ... it seems to be a BIG hit for Guinness based on what I hear for the owner of the liquor store where I do all my shopping. Also picked up some Harp and a mixer of regular Guinness. That's all my private stash ... only my very close friends know about it. Everyone think's I'm all over Miller. Save the best for family and very close friends! And yeah, I know Guinness is a diet beer! Here's looking up your old address!

tony - certainly looks good from the cheap seats here in Oklahoma City! What time is dinner? If I leave now, I think I can get there for leftovers and dessert and the cleanup. You have an extra chair?

LOL!! tony, if you saw my waist line that I'm trimming, you'd understand the Miller Lite! Don't fear, I'm not completely given to the dark side, or the Lite side, if you will. I've always got a few bottles of Guinness at the beck and call! Thanks for looking out for my health! LOL!!

nolan8v, thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it. IT's easy to put out great looking cooks when you have the finest and most versatile cooker in the world!

Hey Dennis - when can we order one of these drip pans? Is the pan for the KK BB 32" double walled? Thanks in advance! Hope all is well with you and yours!

Dennis, I cook everything in The Beast! Your designs are so dadgummed good that the KK lends itself to every style of cooking. Slow cookers (i.e. crock pots) are all the rage (again) here in the States. Well guess what? I've got the worlds most versatile slow cooker sitting on my back patio! Dennis, I've gotten excited again about cooking out in my backyard because of all that The Beast allows to be done on it. The Beast rocks! Thanks!

WIlbur - you must have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express recently because YOU NAILED IT! Very nicely done. Very nice indeed!

Well Good Sunday Morning KKers! As promised, a follow up on yesterday's cook with respect to charcoal usage. Here is a pic of the charcoal basket before the cook ... And here is the same charcoal basket after the 17 hour cook of the 10# pork butt at about 245F and a 3 hour burn at 400F for the beans ... As you can see, only about 1/3 of the CoCoNut Charcoal was consumed in the cook ... Here is a photo of the ash left behind in the firebox ... Here is a pic of the amount that was swept up in the dust pan ... I have to say that I am quite surprised that I could get a 17 hour low-n-slow and a 3 hour burn at 400F and have so very little charcoal consumed and such a small amount of ash produced. In my experience this is about a third less ash than I would anticipate from a 17 hour cook at 225F never mind the 3 hour burn at 400F. This is a lot better than I had anticipated. People who have used the CoCoNut have said it produces less ash and lasts longer, but I'm a skeptic. No longer. This stuff more than lives up to its billing. I'm glad I bought 800#s (40 Boxes). I'll be doing all my low-n-slow cooks over the CoCoNut charcoal. It has little if any detectable odor compared to my regular lump, and burns more efficiently. Linkletter and others suggest using the CoCoNut for low-n-slow because above about 350-400F the heat burns off any volatiles left in regular lump. Besides, regular lump is cheaper! SO, there it is KKers. The first public cook on the Komodo Kamado Big Bad. I'm one happy camper! In fact, this Beast more than lives up to the hype!

Well Sportsfans ... It was indeed a very dark and stormy night. The Big Bad came through with shining colors. We had an 11:00 AM pull for a 1:00 pm feast. Pics follow ... Here is the Big Bad when I put on the beans on to join the pork that was cooked overnight ... Beans consisted of chopped cilantro, diced tomatoes, chopped hatch chilies, garlic, onion, bacon and bacon fat, and ham hock. CIlantro floats very well! Here's the pork butt pulled at 11:00 CST. 17 hours in the 250F heat of the Big Bad. It's about to be wrapped, toweled, and coolered. Here's the butt safely ensconced in the cooler and about to be tucked in for a 2 hour rest. Here's Kitty Cat guarding the resting pork butt ... Here's the final result of a couple of days of hard dadgummed work ... All in all a very successful cook! Everyone took some leftovers home with them ... all except my strictly vegan brother, but what the hell does he know, right?! When all is said and done, I'd have to give the KK Big Bad an A on this cook. Never had one lick of trouble. Temp was rock solid at 235F - 245F all cook long. I'd get up in the middle of the night expecting trouble from laying in the charcoal as I did. That was wasted effort ... the Big Bad was as solid as solid gets. I'll take a 10F deviation and walk away happy and doing the Spunky Monkey Dance every step of the way! When it came time to crank up the temp to cook the beans, just a quarter turn of the Top Hat Vent and opening the bottom airflow manifold to the next largest hole, about 3/16ths of an inch, sent the Big Bad to 400F in about 10 minutes. The Big Bad never ceases to amaze me. I don't use a BBQ Guru or any other puffer. There is no need for such on this Beast. The wind was all over the place last evening, rain coming down hard all night, and not one temp transient worth mentioning ... 10F is nothing at all! My brothers were over and couldn't get enough of the Big Bad. They just stood back and looked it over. I told 'em go ahead and open 'er up and take a gander in the inside. They were very hesitant to do so ... If you're looking you ain't cooking ... but we had the top open for about 3 minutes, buttoned the Big Bad up, and they watched the temp clilmv right back up to 400F in under 3 minutes. Both were amazed at the thermal stability. Thermal mass is a great thing for cooking! So, it was a very successful first public cook. The Komodo Kamado Big Bad rightly deserves all it's positive press. This thing is easier to control than any cooker I've ever had. Hands down. The KK BB simply want to cook and it wants to cook the way you tell it to cook. I'm convinced that anyone can successfully cook on this Beast from day one. There is simply real no learning curve. It's almost intuitive how to cook on this Beast. The airflow manifold makes cooking low-n-slow on this Beast a no brainer. Even I can't screw up this deal! Anything that CC-proof is something that anyone can do! Oh, my alma mater, THE University of Oklahoma beat texass! It wasn't pretty, but the Boys in Crimson and Cream put it to the poor texass shorthorns wearing burnt orange. That made the pulled pork taste that much better! BOOMER SOONER!