Syzygies

As a K7 to KK switcher, I'd be happy to field a phone call. The differences are too many to type. Everything is thought out better, works better.

Yeah, the side-by-side photo makes this point pretty clearly. There's room straight up over all points on the main grill, which is set a few inches down from where the cooker opens. Laurie really likes that the new cooker is bigger, yet doesn't sit so high off the ground. It looks more grounded, less imposing, fits in better with the yard.

Thanks. Actually, using a guru is always different than not using a Guru. Your advice is a good translation to the KK of how to proceed without a Guru. With a Guru, one wants the minimum opening that creates enough fan-assisted draft, without creating the possibility of a draft that could run away with the Guru fan off. Because the damper fits so well, it would appear to me that even a 1/8th turn from closed shut is plenty. But I was curious what other Guru owners had settled upon.

Another transition question: For a 225 F low & slow controlled by a Guru, what fraction of a turn from closed do people set their damper? The KK is night-and-day tighter than my old K, and better insulated, so I do have a new learning curve (and 24 lbs of pork shoulder, butt is waiting to go on tomorrow!). Friends would red-line my VW GTI in first because they'd never had a gas pedal so responsive; I'm in the same boat here, learning again.

Yep, we ordered one.

The cooker is dead, long live the cooker This is a comical picture to stare at for a long time. On the left is the Komodo Kamado ceramic cooker that we just uncrated, on its inaugural test run. On the right is an idle cement cooker from a different maker, a bit worse from wear. Ask yourself which shape is historical accident, and which shape was carefully thought through. Considering that we need more room for the food than the charcoal, how would you have a cooker curve? Which looks bigger for use, without towering over the yard, or looking like it could topple in an earthquake? I must confess that at one time I thought the KK shape was odd, and the K7 shape "normal". The side-by-side pictures make everything clear for me. I can't tell whether I'm grinning or laughing. I only moved the K7 close for this comparison shot. Laurie wants it out of sight! I'm wondering if we should call the new cooker "Fellini". It's clearly not a seven, it's an 8 1/2. But Laurie reminds me, we're not naming the cooker.

As I've said elsewhere, your source exaggerated the K7 diameter by about an inch. Above is a trace of the grills for the K7 and the KK, on the top of my KK shipping crate. I've shaded the differences. On the lower plank, the KK bulges out; the shaded area is the extra area on the KK grill. On the upper plank, the KK cuts in, ending in a flat back; the shaded area is the extra area on the K7 grill. These nearly cancel out, but the KK in fact offers more, and more usable, surface area. I prefer the KK shape, which looks like someone actually gave it some thought.

Laurie and I wanted to make this as easy as possible, so we worked as if we were 98 pound weaklings handling a cooker that weighed a good part of a ton. As everyone has said, handling a KK is far easier than that. Still, the steps I took to be extra careful were satisfying to execute. For rolling the KK off its pallet, I screwed a 2x4 onto the side of the base, then screwed a scrap of ramp plywood onto the 2x4. I threw scrap 2x4 and 4x4 under the ramp for support, and the KK slid off easily. Our dome was crated separately. We moved it onto a cushioned table, then slid it onto place using another makeshift ramp.

So is one of these covers ample protection for a Komodo out in the rain all winter? I note that the material breathes. I used to use a plastic tarp with the old cooker, but I'm guessing that this will actually be far better protection. I'm old enough to remember tent camping under canvas. Breathes, waterproof, but the canvas leaked anywhere you pressed with your finger.

It would help if someone posted a link in this thread to details and ordering information. (I recall seeing an earlier thread that did, but it isn't coming up easily under search; this would save others time.) Also, the material used is sufficient protection for winter or rainy season? It sounds like the material used in our "Sky Chair", which is the less waterproof of two choices.

I have the same device, which I haven't used in ages. I found it in the Walnut Creek, CA Barbeques Galore. More interestingly, I also saw a curious thing there called a Green Egg, which brought me down a long and winding road (KoFF! KoFF! ) leading here, to our beautiful Komodo which I'm flying home to see tomorrow.

Fooled again, here I thought from the title you were stuffing chicken with some leafy green.

That's great. We've found that this method markedly improves indifferent tomatoes, presumably by concentrating flavors. Starting with our garden tomatoes, anyone we hand a packet off to in mid-winter raves about them. With farmers market tomatoes, sometimes the result can be a bit acidic, but easy to correct for when you use them: Just don't use so much!

Re: seriously long lag screws Err, because it takes this to get them off?

demo lunatic It was bugging me that they looked like geese. Slow night, I guess. I once dated someone whose mom shot geese, didn't know how to cook them very well, so passed them on to me. I'd pass them to friends, who'd generally refuse the second time, as cooking a wild goose made them look bad. Finally I offered one to Giuliano Bugialli, who gave me precise directions how to prepare it before bringing it to the next class. He lined it inside and out with rosemary, prosciutto, salt and pepper, then swaddled it in an enormous flour-salt dough casing (in the day one might have used clay) to bake blind till done. It was spectacular. Years later he gives me a bear-hug at a large demonstration class at Macy's, and draws this story out of me as a remembrance for the benefit of the organizer, who didn't think his fan base would bother making fresh pasta. Perhaps not the first time I've been used as a "demo lunatic".

Bingo! One can make pizza in one of those kid's plastic ovens from the 1960's that use a 40 watt light bulb. But real outdoor pizza ovens are serious beasts. The KK is just big enough to make great pizza, and Dennis is the only manufacturer I'd trust to make a Kamado of this scale. There are a number of inexpensive Kamado manufacturers that make smaller cookers, but they all look far less flexible to me. A microwave isn't an oven, and "Low & Slow" and "grilling" together are a small part of the big picture: Cook anything you want, outside, better than you could inside.

So I'm staring at the pictures, thinking "Are the ducks really that dumb?" Then I realize I'm looking at decoys.

Komodo rib rack This is what our rib rack looks like, that arrived last week. Perhaps the previous picture is an earlier version?

Is this yours? http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2989 I've got to say, this shows off the not-exactly-round shape of the Komodo main grill wonderfully. It looks like it was designed to cook ribs, anything else is a bonus.

The dragon Err, to be precise, we give person's names to objects with voices. It would appear that our new cooker is referred to as the dragon (not a proper name, and not specifically our cooker).

Re: #598 finally home!

Yeah, it completely baffles me that a cordless phone with a $14 bump for one more handset gets reception corners of our yard, and this entire category is complete junk. Trusting the guru to do its job, and springing for a thermapen (now on $74 special!) to accurately check the temps manually in various places now and then, we no longer need to know anything a Maverick could tell us. The category is junk, move on? I was hoping you guys had discovered they'd cleaned up their act; our weather station probes do work.

Ahh, but David, they make pizza peels that could pick up a whole beef shoulder clod without blinking. Anyhow, restaurant supply stores are fun to browse.

Yeah, primeats busted me, I was playing. Laurie asked me to look at this thread and think about it before we did anything. "Mia moglie ha sempre ragione!" so I did. Jeff, good point on the wheelbase. On a level ramp (a.k.a. bridge), a Komodo is never a "center load". However, at the critical angle where a Komodo is about to tip over if unattended, all of its weight is on two wheels, and a center load is what we have. Any idea what this angle is? I also wouldn't worry about 1/10" deflections. But 3/4" sitting still? Since the Komodo isn't sitting still when we roll it along a ramp, this is too close for comfort. Anyhow "overbuilding" a calculation like this is called "bounding", and its a respected activity. One prefers tight bounds, but then there are always issues one doesn't anticipate, better to have those one can anticipate under control.

rise / length = me / cooker