tekobo

My target temp was 105C which Google tells me is 221F. I was above this for most of the time but not far off. Sounds like you need a little more to get and keep the smoke going. Options are to get chunks to avoid blockages, put in some sort of a mesh to avoid blockages and increase the heat. I haven't seen anything that says I can't stick a couple of pieces of char IN the smoke pot. That could solve my blockage and heat problem. Given I'd never cooked low and slow in a BBQ before I am pleased with this first go and look forward to more pot smoking.

Hmmm. I did wonder about the chips blocking the holes. And whether they got hot enough, given I didn't pre-heat the pot. I have a few sample sized bags of these small chips and so will need to find a way to make them work. Will try pre-heating next time but not sure how to avoid blockage. Tasted good though, just a little smoky and tender without being mushy.

Hi Robert. I've just been on cleaning duty and, happily, the top of the smoke pot cleaned up nicely. Do you use a drip pan, even when you are cooking a steak? Or just when smoking or doing other cooks that just need indirect heat? I did a thick fore rib steak with the top grate sitting on the fire basket and I found that cooked well but there was some smoke from the dripping fat. The Husband warned me that the holes would be bigger than originally planned. The larger drill bits were on offer at our local DIY store. I knocked the flour ring into the pan when I finished so there is only a pile of mush in our bin - not a pretty picture. About half the chips were black and the rest were dark brown. What would you expect to see?

This newbie tried out the smoke pot for the first time yesterday. I hadn't been planning to post anything because so much has been said on the subject to date but I feel compelled to do so. First, because it may be worth summarising all the stuff that you guys have learned and second, because the results were so good! Here goes. This is what I learned: 1. Buy a beat up, second hand pot from eBay. You don't feel anywhere near as bad when you drill through it. 2. If at first you find you can't drill through your cast iron pot, get someone with a drill press to do it for you. 3. Drill max three holes to focus the smoke output. 4. Choose how you seal the top. I used a dough ring. Won't win any baking competitions, but it works and knocks off easily at the end. 5. Put the pot in directly over your hot coals. If you can, pre-heat the pot. Things I still have to learn: a. Look out for the blue smoke - I went indoors and didn't see if this was produced. b. Find out if I should have used a drip pan above the smoke pot. c. Find out what size smoking lump to use. I used chips and some may have blocked the holes. Now for some pics. Here is the underside of the pot, with the initial hole The Husband tried to drill in the middle. He said that is as far as he got, with a new bit, after 3 minutes. He got our carpenter friend to use his drill press yesterday and it apparently took seconds to drill the other holes. Carpenter friend happy because he has been promised the left over hardwood from breaking down the KK delivery crates. He is delighted to have some undefined, foreign wood to play with. ( Note for non US folk: a Le Creuset #18 is the equivalent of a US 2qt pot) The small smoking chips that I used. The outcome after over 5 hours. It was a 1.8kg piece of pig. Shoulder I think, but I'd lost the label. A delight to smell and behold. And eat. The MEATER readings of the cook. The big dip in the middle was when I was fiddling with the two racks of ribs I included with the shoulder. Other than that, I still marvel at how easy it has been to set and control the temps. I noticed that someone, Ceramic Chef I think, uses the small vent holes in the second lower damper to manage/set the temp. I did the same, keeping the main lower damper shut, and found it very easy to reach and hold the temperature. (Temps in Centigrade) I took the ribs out after 4 hours and they made a lovely snack while we were waiting for the pulled pork. A fat 2018 awaits I think. And my poor dirty smoke pot. Should clean up OK but wonder if I should have used a drip pan.

The MEATER customer service seems to be good so far. They swapped out the defective unit within a couple of weeks. It arrived yesterday and I used it on a cook last night. Having had all the connection problems previously, it seemed like a miracle when the unit popped up on Bluetooth with no problems once I had charged it! I think I will set up a spare iPad with the app so that I don't have to leave my phone directly in range.

Guessing you think "tara" might be a better name for my girl KK. Context is all, folks here would think I was saying a cheerful goodbye to my KK. Not happening, they are here to stay!

Of course. And because I spend a fair bit of my time in the north of England, I will say "tara" back.

When I first started looking at KKs in 2012, I seem to remember seeing a comparison between KKs that told you how many chickens you could cook on each KK. I can't find that now and would have found that practical demonstration a help when it came to visualising the size of each grill. It would be great if someone else can remember/find the information. My gut says go bigger if you are only going to get one KK. The 32BB sounds very versatile, allowing you to go with half a basket when you want to scale down. On the other hand if you want to go for two, a whole world of choice and more difficult decisions await!

Yeah, the chilli can be made to blend in nicely. I laughed out loud when I read that you had tried to eat a habanero. There is a smell that goes with hot chillis that sort of warns you about their heat. I am guessing you know that smell now.

I grow chillis here and at the end of the season I turn them into sauces and bottle them. Really handy for marinades or eating with food. Alternative is to dry them and grind them into powder but I've never tried freezing them. If you have enough to make it worth making extra sauce I would do that and either freeze or refrigerate the sauce, depending on how soon you think you will use it.

So do I. Now that I think about it, I didn't actually get to eat any on the night. It all got munched up so fast! Yup. Green light and all that. They wrote yesterday to say that the replacement would soon be on its way. They didn't say what went wrong with the first one but there was no suggestion that the returned item was OK. I might just ask. I agree that the lack of wires is good but not working means it is no good to man or beast. Only because I was going to use the same pans later for the potatoes and I didn't want a load of dry, encrusted fat in the pans. Thanks for the info on the variability of the fire. Will be more observant in future. Using skewers is convenient but they limit your ability to move things around as you much as you might need to. Anyway, now on to other stuff. Today is burn in day for Meat. Wish me and him luck!

And now for the pix. I didn't have time to take very many but these will give you a flavour. I tried to keep the fire focussed for the low and slow cook in Milk (21"). The two lamb shoulders fitted in nicely side by side on the main grate. I started off with two water filled pans underneath the lamb on the lower grate but quickly decided that the potatoes should go in sooner rather than later. Boulanger potatoes prepped. I normally grate nutmeg into the mix so I tried Purple Crack instead for a clovely, peppery flavour. Filled the pans with water once they were safely on the lower grate. Seven or so hours later I had been testing the potato dish nearer to me and did not realise that the dish on the far side was getting much drier. Happily, some people loved the crunchier ones. I would probably put a drip pan in below this next time and cook the potatoes for five rather than six hours at 130C. This was the first batch of skewered drumsticks and thighs from Meat (23"). Again, learning point that the part of the grill furthest away from me appears to be a lot hotter. At the very least need to check if there is a variation. Partway through I slipped a foil covered drip pan in above the fire to reduce fat drips and burning. There were people who loved the "burned" bits and the second batch, twice this much, looked very impressive. No photo, just dived in! Lamb getting shredded And the sake panna cotta and gooseberry jellies that we finished off with!

Went through a list of things to try with their customer happiness people and when that didn't work they agreed to replace. Just waiting to hear when. In the meantime I have ordered a relatively cheap remote thermometer (just £15) from Amazon and will see how that works. My previous chicken cooks were fine, just not remarkable. I try to live by the "if you are looking, you're not cooking" motto but I may well have looked more often than I should. Will see how future cooks go.

I couldn't agree more Eddie. Excellent experience for me too so far. A BB32. Maybe I will get one of those when I grow up.

Happy New Year. Sorry to fans of pics. No pics in this post. This is a serious story and we all know serious writers don't use pics. The big cook yesterday was in the worst weather possible for us in England but nothing challenging by some of your standards. Driving rain and strong winds. I spent the evening in knee high boots and an all enveloping Swedish rain coat. Thermometer challenges heightened the tension. I don't yet have a power supply in my "ODK" and the rain meant I could not safely run an extension cable to use the CyberQ Cloud. One of the thermometers that came with the KKs wasn't working AND my new MEATER thermometer wouldn't pair with anything and I am now waiting for a replacement. So I used one of my standard meat thermometers in the roof of the 23" and bought an oven thermometer to check the temperature at the main grate level for the slow cook. So how did the evening go? Fantastically well. Get this. I had never cooked on a kamodo style BBQ before I received my beauties (names: 21" is Milk and 23" is Meat) on 21 December. On 31 December I was able to turn out a meal practically bang on time. I promised food from 9pm and the meat was rested and served, with sides at 9:10pm. I was able to showcase the versatility of these machines, with a beautiful potato dish, soft slow cooked lamb and juicy grilled chicken, all delivered at same time thanks to getting the two KKs as you advised instead of the single one that I had been considering. Most years I serve food once and late comers have to settle for cheese or a post midnight frittata. This year, having taken the first load of food off, I cranked up Milk to a similar temperature to Meat and grilled the remaining skewers of chicken on both. And this brings me to the discovery that you all rave about. In my ten days of experimenting with M&M I have tried chicken wings and whole chicken. I thought they were good but I wasn't blown away by a sudden improved "moistness" of the chicken I ate. Yesterday I marinaded the chicken thighs and drumsticks in an Ottolenghi recipe for harissa mixed with yogurt. And then grilled at high temperature (about 180C). And served. Some guests arrived after I had just laid out the second lot of chicken and I heard The Husband say to them, "you had better get in the kitchen now for the best chicken you have ever eaten". Everyone was complimentary about the food but my nephew's feedback was special. He came up to me and said, "of all the things you have ever cooked for me, that chicken was the best thing ever". That was cool coming from a 16 year old kid I have been feeding since he was a few months old. At this morning's breakfast I asked our house guests to help with lessons learned. We have at least one big party a year and noting what needs to improve helps to reduce stress the next time around. We had already assembled a list of things like having handy dustpan and brush for broken glasses and vases ready for the silly people who think it is a good idea to give you a gift of a bunch of flowers in the middle of what is the equivalent of a busy service at a restaurant. A late waking friend walked in and didn't focus on the negatives. She just said, "cook that chicken at every party". Thank you. Thank you to Dennis for creating such beautiful, efficient and easy to use machines. Thank you to you all on the forum for your generous advice and for the archive that represents your collective and diverse experiences. I am so pleased to have joined your number.

And so it begins. "Is it a BGE?". I overheard The Husband say they are the Bentleys of BGEs. I suspect he'll be saying that a few more times tonight! Here set up has gone well so far. On the 21", two shoulders of lamb on the main grate are sitting above two trays full of potatoes on the lower grate and going along nicely at 130C. Chicken on skewers for later grilling on the 23". I've dropped cod in cazuelas and chipolatas in basket in favour of the easy life and instead have salad and an enormous vegetarian curry to go alongside the grilled meat. Pics tomorrow probably, off for a nap now. Have a great new year's eve, wherever you all are.

Really helpful to know why the deflectors are not in favour. Also helpful that you pointed out that you put the drip pan on the lower grate @tony b. That has helped me a lot with my real estate problem. I can go back to the 21" for the low and slow because I can fit two le Creuset pans in side by side when they are on the lower grate (but not on the deflector, which is what I originally thought I would need to do). The connective tissue thing was interesting and I settled on the collagen count as a measure because it confirmed what I thought. I suspect there is more to the subject than that but sometimes one has to admit that you are just looking for reinforcement and I settled before I found any evidence to contradict my view! We are now discussing the difference between 2.86% and 2% - a big difference when you compare the numbers directly but when considered as a proportion of a 100, not so much Tonight's chicken cook went well and I tried out roasting marble potatoes under the chicken in a Le Creuset. They were delicious and the husband made an awesome sauce with stock and the nasty bits. I think I will stick the potatoes in for the full seven hours. They will be at a relatively low temperature for most of the time and I can pull them early if necessary. I don't have a broiler pan @Bruce Pearson and so will have to rely on Dennis' beautiful drip pan wrapped in foil if I end up moving the potatoes early. What fun. I empathised with @talisker63's consternation at the range of grates and stones available to him/her. I am getting to know them a bit more as I run around, reconfiguring the set ups to suit my latest plans. All set now. Roll on tomorrow!

Thanks @tony b. You got me thinking. Lots of questions. So, is Tony right about the connective tissue thing? How do you know what connective tissue different cuts of meat have? I did some googling and found a site which lists the collagen content for different meat "products". Assuming that is a good measure of connective tissue, then beef shin wins at 4.76g/100g. Brisket comes in at 2.88 and skinless chicken breast (why eat that??) at 0.62. A lamb leg by comparison is at 1.68 and lamb shoulder at 2.00. So, a lamb shoulder isn't that far off brisket using this measure. All that googling got me to some interesting slow cooking sites and reminded me of your challenge to try out some sous vide to finish in the KK. Lots to explore there and I'll take up that challenge in due course. What I failed to say in my original post is that part of the reason for the choice of lamb shoulder is because The Husband doesn't want to have to stand there carving on the night so the mission I have been given is to get the lamb to a state where it can be shredded with forks. My usual method to achieve that is the relatively low temperature long cook that I proposed. Still thinking about what to do on Sunday though. One of the sides that I have planned is boulangere potatoes. I was looking through a list of potato recipes and the magic of potatoes cooking under your roast, with fat dripping down onto them, was too good for me to resist. I can fit two le Creuset roasting pans in side by side, on the deflector in the 23" and that seemed like a good way to go. Why have you all abandoned your deflectors? Because they are heavy and the drip pan will do? For the potato gig, the deflector provides a good flat surface for the pans so I may use it or see if the lower grate is just as good. A bit worried about crunching up the potatoes too fast if the pans are directly above the heat on the grate so that's where your advice re the drip pan lower down would come in. Which brings me to timing. On a 7 hour cook, the potatoes will have been in way too long. Leg of lamb would be more compatible for timing. So, I either swap to leg or stick with shoulder but put the potatoes in later, potentially missing out on some of the early fat from the lamb. Decisions, decisions. But fun ones to have to make. Am loving the versatility of my new toys.

Hello, I am researching in advance of my big cook on Sunday night. I cooked a leg of lamb last night - most of the time indirect above the cold half of the firebox and moved over to the fire side to brown. It came out very well but there was a lot of smoke from the lamb fat dripping on to the coals. For New Year's Eve I have decided to go with lamb shoulder. Possibly two. The advice from @Tucker above looks good to me but I realise it was from 2012. Has anything changed in the world of KK cooking since then that I should know about? If I go for two shoulders they won't fit on one layer. Maybe stack on main and upper grate? My usual oven mode is 110-130C for seven hours and I would look to do similar here. No smoking planned, smoke pot not yet ready to commission. All advice gratefully received.

Good luck with a fix today!

Ha ha. Yes, I would notice. And yes, you would be very welcome. I imagine successful parties have lots in common with establishing a cult. We are always happy to draw new people in and the "regulars" feel more appreciated when others are drawn into the circle. What fun we will have. So far I am settled on sausages, chicken thighs and drumsticks on the 23 and either lamb shoulder or leg on the 21. Shoulder makes more sense because it will be more forgiving if I get the temps/timing wrong. Also wondering about a cod in a cazuela for those who don't eat meat. I should be set on a menu by Saturday and I promise to share some pics. Happy Holidays.

All good. I can confirm that my baking stones fit just fine in both KKs with no need for any metal work. AND I have got them the right way round this time Seeing some slow roasted lamb in my near term future, need to get the 21 looking a little less pristine!

A little bit of curiosity wasn't going to kill this cat but bashing my KK about might!

Or I could just use it as Dennis designed it - on the 23!

Ah, pretty obvious now I look at it. I was just "dressing" the KK for its photo shoot, should have paid more attention.