CeramicChef

Thanks, Charles, for the compliment. I appreciate it greatly, especially after seeing what you post on a regular basis! And as for posting pics, well, I was not so completely helpless as I let on. I was, after all the first B-School prof to use a supercomputer in my work. I have been using computers since 1972! I just hate all the fallderall. That will be our little secret, okay!?

@dstr8 - that is the whole dadgummed idea, isnt it? Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it very much.

@MacKenzie- those ARE meager cooks compared to the eye candy you put up here. Thanks for the kind words!

Thank you, @Stile88. As I've always said, a KK makes me a better cook than I really am. If I manage to stay out of the way long enough, these KKs I have sitting on my patio can do amazing things.

Thanks! I just let Beauty!, my 19 TT do all the work. I'll pass along your sentiments!

Just a few more pics. Pork Chops Pastrami on Beauty! Cut pastrami ready to eat 3 racks of baby backs on hickory smoke Baby Backs plated COOKIES! PIZZA!! Spatchcocked Chicken and Yams Plated Chicken And that's about all for this time. Thanks for looking!

Howdy KKers - I've seen so many really wonderful cooks documented by Wilbur, MavKenzie, ckreef, and a whole host of others that I've got to post a few of my meager cooks. I've done all these since I returned from my various trips. I'm not much on verbiage, I'll just let the pics speak for themselves. it may take a few posts to get all this in, but ... Quiche Roasted yard Bird and corn FOGO One HUGE pan of lasagna Lasagna plated Smoked & Stuffed pork chops Stuffed Pork Chops plated Grilled salmon Plated Salmon More to follow soon.

MacKenzie - you had me at Pizza and sealed the deal at Thai Hot Peppers! Dadgum that looks awfully tasty. Yum! Yum! And Double Yum!

Wilbur - my Friend, you've got this deal dialed in and tied up! Wonderful color on those racks. You did those pigs quite proud with this cook! You and Smaug make quite the pair when it comes to backyard cooks. Kudos all over your New Jersey patio! Kudos, kudos, and more. You're a 4th quarter player for certain!

Absolutely classic! Very funny. Thanks for the laughs!

Street drugs don't even cost that much!

Dennis - designers and artists are infatuated with the 23" and 32", huh? I promise you I'm neither a designer nor and artist and I really do love the look of TheBeast and so does everyone who sees him. What I and they really love is the way he cooks! Some of these people have kamados and they've bought into the statement that it's the cook, not the equipment. I don't have the heart to tell them it's the equipment, TheBeast! So, I let them think I'm a genius!

To borrow a phrase, "… and now you know the rest of the story!". Thanks, Dennis!

Tony - Ka-BOOOOOM! That's nothing but money! In fact, it's the whole dadgummed bank! Beautiful cook. Any Barberian's on that before the cook? I've become kinda partial to that stuff. Just a really beautiful cook. Major kudos to ya, my Friend!

bosceaux! Wow, what a journey. It wasn't just Wilbur, or 5698k, or myself you thought totally daft! Welcome to the Dark and Daft side! Buddy, you've hit the nail squarely on the head. It's not that the KK is so significantly better at any single thing than the BGE, KJ, or Primo, it's that it's measurably better on any of a thousand dimensions. I've always said that the differences between every KK and any other kamado starts with airflow and ends with the best kamado-cooked food on the planet. The KKs make me a much better cook out of the box than I've ever been. Your post is a tour-de-force in the telling of the Journey to KK. I'd tell you to post it to the Guru, but I'm afraid it'd raise a sh*t storm of the first magnitude, especially amongst the Akorn crew. They think we're all off the charts crazy anyway and all your post would do is convince them of their preconceived notions. Great post, bosceaux. Kudos, kudos, kudos, kudos! (I threw in that 4th kudos to make up for the exchange rate! :lol:) Sorry about that, I just couldn't help myself.

Charles, congrats and kudos to the Nth Degree! Very well done my Friend.

EGGzachary!

Thanks for the update.

Hey! I thought everybody knew the Black Pebble 32" Big Bad produced the best food, right? Right!

@Boz - as Robert mentions above, grate or dome really doesn't matter much. On low-n-slow cooks, most of us heat soak our KKs for about 30-45 minutes before the cook goes on. That brings everything to about the same temp. Over the course of most low-n-slow cooks, temps equilibrate pretty quickly. That's one of the great advantages of all that thermal mass! Here's to a wonderful brisket cook this weekend! Enjoy.

Dennis - couple this easy financing with the Raichlen promotion and you're going to be back ordered for months! Oh, to have such problems, right?

@MacKenzie - is there no end to your expert culinary adventures? Absolutely beautiful!

@EGGARY - at the time I got TheBeast, my 32" KK, I was cooking on a a Primo and had been for about 5 years. One of the guys at my church had always admired that cooker, but Larry said until he is an empty nester, buying a Primo wasnt even an option. He and his wife have 5 children … 4 boys and a girl. His wife a former high school teacher, home schools their children. As you can imagine, money is tight. After TheBeast arrived, I spoke with Jill, the wife and found out Larry's birthday was the next week and there was a party to which I was invited. I cleaned up the Primo spic and span, loaded it into a loaded pickup, stuck a bow on top, threw a bag of lump inside, and delivered it him. He loves it and uses it nightly. That Primo went to a wonderful home.

@EGGARY - WOWZERS! What a tour-de-force email! Thanks for sharing this here. I think I'll cruise over Thermoworks and sign up for their email tips. Thanks again.

I have found that if a use a basic rub of equal portions of salt and coarse ground pepper, cook unwrapped at 225°F until its probes as tender as warm butter, and then pull, wrap in towels, and place in a cooler for about an hour, you'll be just fine. Some folks here wrap their brisket in uncoated butcher paper after it hits 165° or so. Not me. But that's an individual decision. Have a great cook!