cschaaf

I've never seen cheese curds sold in a store. About 2 years ago, I found a pre-packaged poutine (frozen fries, a package of gravy, and a package of cheese curds), I believe it was in Trader Joes. I've looked a few times since and haven't seen it again. The fries weren't good and the gravy was worse... but the cheese curds were pretty good.

Great idea, Charles! Wait... I mean... I saw nothing.....

It reads about 12-degrees low on the boil test. Here are some new pictures of the KK in the sun. These are straight out of the camera - except I reduced them in GIMP. I'm terrible with photo editing, so I didn't even try. One of these days, I'll learn it. Slightly different angle changes the color. I probably moved 6 inches to the right for this one. And back in their 'normal' state

Make sure you have the sub-forum set to sort by Recently Updated and it should do that. The sort buttons are right above the top post in a dark grey bar.

Not yet, but I will. It was 5 bucks, so I'm thinking I won't rely heavily on it either way. ETA - the stem doesn't even make it to the indie of the grill. I think it should still work okay.

Nothing but the best for my KK

Thanks all! I know I'll figure out the temps. The end product came out good, it just wasn't the best way to get there. It was a pretty hectic night. I got home late, the pork wasn't fully thawed, my wife was in bed sick - I'm surprised I got anything cooked

I reference a few different SV temperature charts. Please add any that you have. ChefSteps All meats Egg Calculator Sous Vide Supreme Purdy Serious Eats Beef Chicken breasts Chicken Thighs Sausages Pork Ribs Hamburgers Turkey Douglas Baldwin (lots of scrolling with this one) There are plenty more out there. One issue is that there's very little agreement between the sources. I use them as a reference - pick 2 or 3, compare their settings, and shoot for an average to start. From there, I may tweak the temperature a bit for the next cook. I need to start keeping my own notes so that I can track what we like best.

2nd cook - pork tenderloin with pineapple habanero sauce. I was all over the place with this one. The thin tenderloin was way over, but still was pretty good (that's the one plated below). The larger one came out good. My cooking temps were a disaster. I was in too big of a hurry. It'll be nice to spend a day and learn rather than trying to figure it out in the dark with everyone waiting to eat. Here it is plated with some leftover broccoli rice casserole

Yes. I've asked Dennis to send me a dome thermo. My cover is on order, so maybe he can package it with that.

Got it, thanks! I'll plan something else for the post burn in cook. I have the KJ pizza stone which is pretty good, but to be safe, I'll just wait till my baking stone gets here. It's likely the family would have veto'd the pizzas anyway They don't let me cook them as often as I'd like to. lol

I'm hoping to do my burn in this weekend and thought it would be a good opportunity to cook some pizzas. What is your setup for pizza cooks? I have a baking stone on the way, but I don't think it will be here in time. I was thinking about putting the deflector on top of the top grate (with the top grate on top of the main grate). Would it work like that? Or, do I need to top that deflector with some spacers and use my pizza stone on top of those? Setup A (top to bottom): Pizza Deflector Top Grate Main Grate or Setup B (top to bottom): Pizza Pizza Stone Spacers Deflector Top Grate Main Grate Thanks!

@ Tony b - I saw that one too. Home Depot has it for about half the price. Looks like you have to do a Ship to Store: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Journeyman-5-mm-Hex-Ball-End-6-in-T-Handle-JTH6M5BE/203195210

Cool, thank you! The link got messed up a bit, I had to trim the end of it. http://www.teltru.com/p-271-big-green-egg-primo-komodo-grill-dome-or-other-kamado-style-replacement-thermometer-lt225r-5-inch-stem-150750-degrees-f.aspx Only one problem - that thermometer isn't the size of a dinner plate

Thanks all! Bosco, than you for the detailed steps. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice at this point. The dome thermometer went MIA on this KK, so the only way I can know my temps is with my HeaterMeter and grate probe. in fairness, I probably would have used it anyway to monitor my food temp. But, it does raise a good point. I probably wouldn't have noticed those temperature swings if I wasn't using a monitor. I might have seen the needle move on the dome thermo, but it wouldn't have made the same impression, I don't think. As it was, I sat inside and stared at my computer watching the temperature every second. I'll have to continue to use the HeaterMeter until I get a dome thermometer. I might see if I can find a cheap one at Home Depot/Lowes for now. The stem on the KJ thermo is too thick. I didn't think about it until right now, but the burn in process would be difficult without any way to monitor the temp! I do use a thermocouple for my grate probe, so that should probably work for the burn in and not get too hot. I'll have to dig up the specs on the one I bought.

ckreef's link works fine for me on my PC, iPhone, and iPad (using Chrome on all of them). Not sure why it's not working for you. What browser are you using? Are you using Tapatalk on the iPad (I'm not, but I think ckreef does)?

I kinda see what you mean - are you double-clicking when you click in the Reply box? When I single click the Reply box, the box opens up and the formatting bar appears. My mouse ends up right over the formatting bar, but nothing is selected unless I click again. When the mouse if hovered, the button looks like it is selected, but it isn't. If you just mouse away, the button highlight (the darker grey) goes away.

Thanks, Robert! I may have had too much lit. I lit the two areas and left the dome open. I planned on 10 minutes, like with my other kamado, but closed it around 7 minutes as it was taking off. I checked the bottom doors a few times just to be sure. They were as closed as they could be. I do have a small air leak as my dome thermometer wasn't installed. That could play a small role. Looking at my graph, I got to 350 in just under 30 minutes, which I'm very happy with. I just wondered about controlling the temp after a dome open. This thing responds very quickly to small inputs, so the large input of an open dome really changed things. The top seemed to be 'sticky' in a few spots. I'd spin to close and hit a spot where I thought it was closed. I'd push a bit harder and it wold turn freely again. I don't remember hitting those when it was cool. I'll check it tomorrow. Yeah, timing is pretty tough. I get home around 6 and my wife goes to bed at 10, so there isn't a lot of time that we can afford to lose. I had the basket all loaded with the starters in place. All I had to do was light them. Then I go change out of my work clothes, load in the grate probe and top grate, and close the lid. I made my fist vent adjustments when it hit 300. And I was very happy with how it leveled off. It held at 355 for a few minutes, then started to very slowly climb - which I was fine with. It was also pretty windy tonight (tornado warnings tonight through mid day tomorrow) so that may have played a role - but I don't think a big one. Overall, it was a great fist cook. I'll learn more if I can get in another cook or two this week, then hopefully burn in this weekend. I appreciate ALL of the advice and I will keep it all in mind as I continue to learn.

Nice find!

I struggled with the top vent as much as, or more than, I thought I would. It's not as intuitive as a vent that you can see. That's not to say that it's not better in the long run, it's just harder for me to 'see' what is happening. I'm typically numbers and math challenged. If a recipe calls for 4 cups of flour, I count them out, "one..... two.... thre... wait, is THIS three or is the last one three... or the next one???" That's pretty much what I did with the top vent. It got a bit tougher to turn as it heated up, then I wasn't quite sure where 'closed' was. This might help me - is there a way to set the top vent so that in the 'closed' position, the ears are in a specific place? Like get them to point left/right or towards/away? Right now, in my closed position, they are at angles. It's harder for me to remember where they started.

Yes, the temp dropped quickly, but as soon as I shut the lid, the temps took off. More air flowed in stoking the coals.

I'm not even sure lol. I tried following the picture in the KK manual for 350 - so the top was supposed to be 2 turns and the bottom about 3/4 open. I ended up having to back off of those. I'd guess for most of the time, I was about 1 turn on the top and maybe half open on the bottom? I really don't know. lol My "1 turn" could have just as easily been 8 turns

Hey everyone I did my first KK cook tonight. Overall, it went very well. I do have one question: Do you close your bottom vent when you open the lid to check the food, baste, or whatever? My temps soared when I opened the lid. It didn't affect this cook at all, just wondered for future cooks. I soaked the planks for 2 days. That wasn't my plan, I just didn't get home in time last night to use them. Worked out fine. They didn't char much, so next time I might toast them for a few minutes on each side before placing the fish. That, or put them on the lower grate. My wife made the glaze, not sure what all went into it - apricot preserves, some whole grain mustard, a few pieces of diced up jalapenos, not sure what else. Sweet and spicy. Very good. My controller info is posted below - sorry, an over temp error popped up at the end when I was taking the fish out and I didn't clear it in time, so the screen is a bit washed out. Ignore the light blue areas, that's the fan speed, but I didn't have the fan connected for this cook. I don't have my dome thermo yet, so I used my HeaterMeter to monitor the grate temp (indicated by the orange line). The dip at 18:35 was just me opening the lid to peek at the coals. Probably shouldn't have done it, but I was curious. I was shooting for 350 and ended up around 360 and very slowly climbing when I put the fish on around 19:15. I made very few adjustments to get there. It took me a bit to get the fish on as I had to also snake the food probe through the grommet and get it placed. It's a bent probe and I didn't straighten it quite enough. It goes in, but you have to get the angle right. I'll fix that before the next cook. You can see my temp spiked to over 400 degrees after that - because I had the lid open too long. That's where I a m wondering if you would have temporarily shut the bottom vent. The remaining dips are when I opened the lid to glaze the salmon. I should have started that a bit earlier to really get the glaze to set better, but it still worked out. On the planks: (No plated shot) ETA: They came out perfect. The most juicy salmon I've ever had. First cook impressions: Startup was really fast. I lit using 1 Rutland starter cut in half. In about 6 minutes, I had 2 areas of lump well lit with flames a few inches high. I'll need some practice with that top vent. I probably twisted that thing 30 times trying to remember which way was open and which was closed... and how far open was I??? The probe port also has a learning curve. And speaking of curve, straightening my food probe more will help. I really need my side tables. Can't wait till they get here Amazed at how (relatively) cool the outside of the grill stayed. It was the hottest around the "waistline", but I could still hold my hand there for 5 - 8 seconds without any discomfort. Heat soaking will take a long time - longer than I will have available most nights. I think that's alright though, I'll mostly be using it to grill during the week with the more elaborate cooks on the weekend. The coals shut down very fast.

Awesome! Looks great!

some random poster that my wife is not very happy with right now