brett

Reminds me of an old stop motion Kamado Smoked Chili video I made for a contest at work once. Brisket as the based sounds even better!

PM sent! Thanks!

Woah - love this community - what a great collection of responses. Excited to dig in deeper and do some research on the options!

Flame Boss! Can't beat the cool name That looks like a fairly direct replacement for the guru. At this point - I'm leaning towards trying something simpler like the Thermaworks Node. Hard to tell if some of the newer style probes like the Thermaworks Pro Probes would be small enough to pass through the little 1/2" or so probe-hole on side of the KK.

Still on my original KK (2006-era) - and my original BBQ Guru pit viper. Sadly my probes broke and BBQ Guru no longer makes probes for it as it's discontinued (4-pin round double-probe setup). It's probably time I upgraded my pit computer anyway... For my use-case, I always use the guru for low and slow, but to be be honest - every time I've used it over the years - I've wondered if it's really needed, as the KK is so stable once it's going. Perhaps a pit-manager is over complicated and all I really need is a high quality digital thermometer for pit and meat that I trust vs. the always approximate analog dome-gauge. The only case I can make to stick with a pit-manager is the set & forget starting, as the guru controls the fan which can bring me perfectly to the right heat soak vs. remembering how far to crack the vent. Poking around I see Fireboard and ThermoWorks devices mentioned more than BBQGuru. What would the group recommend in 2023 to replace my aged tech?

@DennisLinkletter - interesting about using larger chunks, thanks for the tip. I'm just dumping the bag in (lump) with mixed stuff... charcoal dust and all... I'll try chunks next cook. I am using my BBQ guru as a full-time fan during my cook - with the probes out of the KK so it thinks it's in ramp-up mode all the time. I assume the fan-speed injection is better than just opening the door?

I had similar results to yours at first, but fine tuned things a bit. Here’s my trick 1. Using a blend of AP and 00 flour helps brown crust at lower temps. 2 Load hopper with a lot of fuel to get heat up. I can only get about 600 in the dome. 3 once base is cooked, crack the lid a few inches and hit the sides of the pizza with a plumbers propane torch. It doesn’t take much and flame doesn’t really need to touch - it just rises the ambient temp in that spot enough to create the 900 degree crust effect. Rotate pizza as needed to hit all the edges. still a work in progress - but they are getting amazingly close. here’s a pesto pizza just came of the KK a few hours ago.

@5698k - here is a shot that shows the interior condition. pork and beans cooking away last weekend 5698k

"MK" = the inferior "Mexican Kamado". My friend bought one of them around the same time I bought my KK. After about 3 yrs, his tiles had fallen off and damper had rusted shut - end up giving it away. Looked something this poor one I found online:

I bought my KK back in May 2006 I believe, so it's bang around ten years old. It's been sitting in the same spot, out in the crappy miserable Seattle weather the whole time; taking a beating year after year. Rain, snow, hail, moss, even the occasional tree-hugger... She's cooked many Thanksgiving and Christmas Turkeys and Hams, countless smokes, sears and oodles of pizza. It just dawned on me that something must be seriously wrong. My tiles are still intact, the damper spins open and closes perfectly, the lid hinge is still meticulously balanced. In fact it looks like and functions like I bought it yesterday. I'm so confused. Shouldn't it have died a horrible MK death by now and look like a sad naked mole rat? Cheers to @DennisLinkletter for making one of best purchases I've ever made!

@Rob - so do you think this would have stabilized around 190 for a long-time and I should have rode it out to 205? @Syzygies - that's a fine idea bone-in next time it is... Would either of you suggest starting at a lower pit-temp?

6 lb Pork Butt (bone out) KK dialed in at 225 on the upper grate with deflector on lower grate. BBQ Guru controlling temperature. Put in at 10pm Fat side up By 7am the Guru was beeping at me that it hit 190 Confirmed 190/192 with thermapen So just 9hrs, which wasn't what I expected. From other threads (and faded memory from previous cooks) I was expected a long 16 hr run hovering by 180 in the morning and dialing the KK down to 200 for a while to breakdown more of the fats. It tastes great - and pulled apart easy - but there are also some globs of fat that hadn't melted down. I'm curious how to make this even better next-time. Some things I'm wondering about: Maybe a 6 lb butt is on the small-side and so just cooks faster? Should I be starting at a lower pit-temp, say 200? My pit probe sat on the grate a few inches from the butt. Should I be putting the pit probe up a little higher towards the center/top of the meat? What else am I missing?

@tony - i cheated and used Tom Douglas pre-made Chicken Rub https://store.tomdouglas.com/rubs-c2.aspxincludes Brown sugar, smoked paprika, kosher salt, ancho, black pepper, tumeric, coriander, garlic, cinnamon, star anise.

Two spatchcocked chickens on the KK last night (was dark out so photo looks weird)

@Gnomatic the foil pan was just a regular supermarket turkey pan. i flattened the sides to spread it out more - so it was just about 1" high by the time i was done but covered more surface area. good enough to catch lots of drippings for gravy yes - lots of left overs. and the most delicious smoky stock/broth the day after. yum