Evening all!
I've done about 4-5 cooks on the KK already and thought this might be a good time to make a brief post about my initial thoughts...keeping in mind, I've only been cooking on it for a week and so my observations may be off!
Temperature control and stability - I am still learning where the temperature settings are for my new KK, but I'm pretty close. In fact, I'm so confident, that when I want to heat soak my grill, I'm actually setting the vents to approximately where I think they should be (conservatively) and then I'm comfortable stepping away to go grocery shopping or to help a friend out, or to take my girls to Karate class. I have cooked on ceramics for years, but never had the confidence to just set it right lighting the fire and then step away. That the stability part...for the temp control, yesterday I cooked and I had settled at 300F, I wanted to cook at 350F so I gave the top damper another half turn and I was locked in at 350F! No fuss, no muss! I'm already able to increase the temp by very small increments (almost to the degree)....incredible to have that level of control over a fire burning grill. Moisture - I've already talked about this, but my food is so moist! My girls laugh, because yesterday we had sticky chicken thighs and Aashni cut into hers and got 'squirted'! So incredible moist. At first I thought it was just the chicken, but everything I've cooked on here so far is coming out more moist. The build of everything from the KK itself all the way to the grates and all things in-between, make cooking on such an enjoyable experience. The multi levels, different configurations, etc make cooking so versatile. If I can picture it in my mind, its not very difficult to figure out how to cook it perfectly on the grill. Heat retention - I did something I'm not supposed...I cooked chicken thighs yesterday and kept opening up the lid to baste and glaze the thighs...I know, if you are looking you aint cooking! But here is what I learnt....Even though I kept opening it up (at some point it became a game), the temp would return right back to my set temperature within minutes! The heat retention was incredible. I'm also loving the fact that the outside of the KK stays cool. To me, this means I can cook on it and then pretty much close it down and cover it up right away. In the winter, this has proven its worth already!! My previous routine was to cook and then wait approx 3-5 hours for grills to cool down enough for me to cover them. Not just inconvenient but also, literally keeping me up at night! The hinge makes opening and closing the lid so easy that even my wife (who is 5' and petite, and who previously avoided my grills) wants to start learning how to cook on it. She was amazed at how easily she can operate the KK.
OK, so thats all I have.
Needless to say, I'm loving cooking on the KK. The design and construction are incredibly well thought out and everything is over engineered. I'm glad I got to cook on a good ceramic grills before my KK purchase because I think there are so many small differences, along with some very big ones, that I appreciate.
Thanks for letting me ramble!
**I did edit this post and add a couple more points!
