DennisLinkletter

Re: Pizza Stone - direct or indirect? Direct heat to the baking stone will heat it faster and keep it hot more efficiently.. As heat is airflow, it's important to use larger pieces of charcoal.. dumping the smalls from the bottom of the bag will restrict airflow and make it difficult or impossible to hit high temps.. golf ball and up chunks are best. If you have smalls pour them only around the very outside of the basket. This will still let large a volume of air travel thru the basket. Remember there is no airflow until you close the lid.

Re: Pizza Stone - direct or indirect? I use the pizza stone on the upper grill.. Easier to put them on and take off as well as taking advantage of the convection heat coming off the ceiling.. The thicker the crust the lower the cooking temp.. 1st pizza will tell you if you need more or less heat.. If the top burns before the crust is ready turn it down.. if crust burns before the top is finished turn it up.. I control high temps with the damper top completely..

Re: wood as fuel Your KK is not designed to burn wood with the lid open.. the wood gas/flame will super heat the lip and acrylic grout.. Not a good thing for either. When wood is heated the first organic materials that turn to gas are creosote, acid and tar.. If this gas is mixed with air it burns in a clean flame.. this won't occur if the lid is closed.. it will turn into very dense, sticky, very bitter smoke. This material will condense on the inside of your grill.. and give off nasty flavours every time it is heated and turns to vapor again.. Please trust me, you want to off gas any wood before you put it in your grill.. That goes for your smoking wood also.. The reason so many rubs and sauces are super sweet is to balance this bitterness from the primary grey smoke.. If it burns your eyes and makes you smell like an ashtray.. you don't want to eat it.

Re: Can I sear steak the day before for Beef Wellington? My 2 cents would be yes absolutely sear the day before.. You would still get all the flavor boosting from the Maillard reaction/effect..

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details These days I start with one cupful of charcoal in an empty charcoal basket and light it. I throw five or six golfball sized chunks of smoking wood on top of the burning charcoal, hit it with a hairdryer to heat the wood and get the wood flaming.. The first materials to burn off are creosote, acid and tar.. These burn your eyes, stick to your clothes making you smell like an ashtray and taste bitter.. My guess is this nasty bitter smoke is the reason most BBQ rubs and sauces are super sweet.. they are trying to balance out the bitterness from this grey primary smoke.. I keep enough airflow on the wood to let it create flames to more quickly burn off these nasties.. When the flames start to die down.. I stop the air flow, which changes the burn from flames back into smoke.. when it's thinned considerably and almost gone I grab a few burning pieces of charcoal and set them on the edge of my firebox and I pour the new charcoal on top of the now cleaned up smoking wood (it keeps smouldering) I toss the burning charcoal sitting on the edge of my fire box on top of the charcoal and set my chilled as possible meat on top.. I'm now in translucent, secondary vapor stage and this is what I want to condense on my meat.. I leave the meat cooking at low temps 225-245ºf until the meat hits about 150º at this point most of the vapor from the smoking wood is gone, the meat is too warm to get much more condensation. I now bring it up to 350ºf because I want to get thru the plateau, it's evaporation and to 190º as quickly as possible.. PS when doing chickens I bring them to room temp first and while I'm cleaning up my wood, burning off the grey smoke.. I put my room temp chicken in the freezer for ten minutes.. this of course chills only the outside of the bird and helps get more condensation on my birdie.. If I want to really impress guests, I do this with steaks and clean smoke my first step of a reverse sear..

Re: First cook on KK - RIBS - Need advice With everything except ribs I cook to temp and pay little attention to time other than to get a general idea of the finish time. With ribs I do a physical check for doneness.. Using tongs I grab the rack from the end with the end of the tongs at about 40% in.. Then I bounce the rack up and down to check how flexible they are.. when the meat just starts to tear they are ready. If you want them to fall off the bone wait until the meat breaks and the racks fold.. I like it when the meat will tear just enough that the slit slowly opens.. My wife likes them with more tooth, so I pull them when the surface first shows tiny tears but won't spread or deepen..

Merry/Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from myself, my family and all of us here at Komodo Kamado. We all feel blessed to have so much support from our customers and forum members... For this we thank you. 2013 will be a big year for us with the release of new products and a new much more user friendly website.

Re: Gen 2.6~New Prices posted.. Gen 2.2 prices until Dec 1st I have actually been building them this month.. I've already started taking orders just not publicly released the model. We need to build about 10 to be able to price them properly.. Yes all the accessories are upgraded and new ones like a half main grill and huge heat deflector that completely closes off the center of the grill. I'll drop you a note..

Re: KK~ How to install your roti motor video Heylo Jim, Merry happy to you and yours.. Argh and double argh.. Yes trying to match shafts with at least three different motors has been the cause of more frustration than you could ever imagine. I believe I have found a different solution than yours to send the motors to Indonesia to be matched up first.. I've sent all the shafts to Joe at one grill and he'll match them up before they go out. He said that the motor manufacturer is unable to always source the same sockets so they use what they can get. With traditional rotisseries it does not affect how they work.. It of course messes up our KK's system. Sawing thru 304 stainless is a biatch.. for this I apologise..

Re: Heresy? My 2 cents... If you would like to maintain more moisture in your Q, I recommend you brining, putting the meat in cold and cooling at a lower temp 225-250º until the meat hits about 145º and then cranking it up to 350º to speed up the time on the plateau (reduce evaporation) and get you to your target of 190º then immediately wrap in foil, wrap in a towel and throw it in a cooler for a few hours..

Re: Heresy? May I ask what the reasoning to put it in the pot was? For maximum transfer of the vapor from your charcoal and smoking wood to meat you want as much surface area as possible and to be as cold as possible.. Throwing it in a pot reduces this valuable condensation from happening.. That being said I want one of those posts for stew!

Re: Standing Rib Roast This can absolutely be done in a KK.. but your numbers will not be the same.. That being said I would never put a standing rib roast into anything without a probe.. but I'm a fly by wire guy.

Re: New here Thanks for the Kudos.. I never tire of hearing customer's excitement when they receive their grills.. As far as the taller part, trust me it sure beats bending over to reach your grill..

Re: Indirect with the Drip Pan The difference will be the pan heats up and your drippings will burn and create smoke.. which might not be the flavor profile you wanted to add.. That being said there is a post on the forum somewhere about wanting the burning fat from chicken flavor added.. I use only the drip pan when doing a reverse sear..

Re: New here

Re: New here Charcoal always burns at the maximum volume for the given airflow. I'm guessing you did not change your settings, so my hypothesis is that your airflow was reduced because of ash build up caused from not shaking out the ash before your cook or your charcoal had lots of smalls that clogged with ash created during the overnight cook.. My cooks are usually +- 5ºf from where I last saw them.

Re: New from Sedona Ahh Craig, Please don't take this personally.. I would rather have the watch analogy be Komodo Kamado the Patek Philippe of grills.. but then again nothing wrong with a Rolex except they can't keep time.. Welcome to the forum Jim, nice speaking with you the other day. I'm looking forward to you getting and cooking on your grill. Jim was one of only a handful of customers I actually video chatted with on Skype.. It's great to have a face on the other end of voices..

Re: Anyone up for a "share" in North Dallas? I'll sweeten the deal and reduce the charcoal for the next two weeks to $1.00 lb or $20 a box on palette orders.. Standard list price is $1.40 lb or $28 a box!

Re: Can't put it out! There are only four places that can supply enough air to keep the charcoal burning... The two lower doors, the Guru port and the damper top. The Guru plug and damper top are obvious if not closed. To check your doors, make sure there are no small pieces of charcoal keeping the door from sealing against the frame. You want to press on each corner to ensure there is no movement.. Once the airflow is cut off the coals stop burning pretty quickly but the grill stays hot for a long time.. How long of course depends on hot it was and how cold the ambient temp is..

Can't find the 19.5" Lil' Isla sizes 16.5" Table top • Main_________178 sq" (1,150 cm2) • Lower________156 sq" (1,008 cm2) • for a total____334 sq" (2,158 cm2) 23" Ultimate • Upper Sear___274 sq" (1,768 cm2) • Main_________375 sq" (2,420 cm2) • Lower________329 sq" (2,122 cm2) • for a total____978 sq" (6,308 cm2) 32" Bad Boy • Upper Sear___418 sq" (2,698 cm2) • Main_________576 sq" (3,716 cm2) • Half Main_____288 sq" (1,858 cm2) • Lower________544 sq" (3,514 cm2) • for a total__1,826 sq" (11,786 cm2) .

Re: Gen 2.6~New Prices posted.. Gen 2.2 prices until Dec 1st The 19.5" grill does not sell well enough to build them for ready stock inventory.. I pay for the floor under them by the month. I've decided to make the 19.5" into a table top grill like the traditional glazed pot Kamados... The stand alone/full size model will still be available as a special order. It's the perfect size to be nestled into a counter.. As always no idea of the pricing..

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details Sometimes you can just taste the meat off the page.. I think from the parsley that this was a tri tip but the chunk of fat makes me think otherwise.. Not sure but I know it was tasty.. not a bad smoke ring either.. :?

Re: Gen 2.6~New Prices posted.. Gen 2.2 prices until Dec 1st We're going to need to build the first 10 or so to know the cost. Here are the actual sizes of the grills... 23" • Upper Sear 274 sq" (1,768 cm2) • Main 375 sq" (2,420 cm2) • Lower 329 sq" (2,122 cm2) • for a total 978 sq" (6,308 cm2) 32" • Upper Sear 418 sq" (2,698 cm2) • Main 576 sq" (3,716 cm2) • Lower 544 sq" (3,514 cm2) • for a total 1,538 sq" (9,928cm2)

Just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Turkey day.. I'm truly thankful for all of your participation and this forum which has become such a great resource for both Kamado users but also those doing their due diligence on the road to purchasing one. We have a new site, new grills and new table line coming soon that I'm really excited about. So once again thank you for all.. BTW I'm giving a grace period with the grills in ready stock, offering them at the 2009 prices until Dec 1. If you have a friend or family who is oN the fence and considering a KK now's the time.. Please let them know..

Re: Gen 2.6~New Prices posted.. Gen 2.2 prices until Dec 1st This is a 23" in the Gen 2.6 build/package/upgrade. The grill's build number is like computer software.. when there are upgrades the number grows. That was the plan was to announce the price increase with the 32" grill but I just can't afford to wait for it. .. Since 2009 there has of course been inflation, the US $ has weakened considerably and as I came up with new designs and components they were shipped with/added to the existing package. We all know how time flies, suddenly it's Nov and doing the numbers was disappointing to say the least, especially considering how many grills we've sold this year. I should have immediately done an adjustment when the US dollar first fell. But that's water under the bridge now.. and so I'm doing what I needed to do last year now. I'm probably more price sensitive than I need to be but I'm really doing my best to delivery the product at a price point that makes it an amazing value for what you actually get. The 32" is in production now but we only have one set of molds for it and it takes a bit more than two days to cast one.