tekobo

Yeah, me too @Bruce Pearson, I thought of titling the post, "ad for flat basket". I plan to use to for lots else. Red mullet is really delicious. I live near the sea and clear out our local fish market whenever they have some in.

Lots to respond to. Will do so tomorrow. In the meantime, am watching recording of the Titans-Steelers game. "Any given Sunday". I love it when the pundits, and I, get it wrong. Let's see if the Titans hold on!

I have not rigged up my rotisserie yet but have been dying to use the flat rotisserie basket that I bought from @Keith OctoForks. The basket depth is adjustable and so could imagine using it to hold and flip fiddly chipolata sausages and small, delicate fish like these red mullet. Here they are, ready to go and in the basket. At the end of the cooking period I lowered them down directly above the coals to get a bit of blistering on the skin. These peppers got a little bit closer earlier - they were actually cooked on the coals for ten minutes to get the skin black and ready to peal off. Delicious Sunday lunch! Did I say I was loving my KKs?

When you all were giving me advice about my KK purchase, a few of you said you mainly use your ODK and not your IDK and so needed more than one KK to deliver a total meal. I'd read your posts out to The Husband and we'd tut about the mad Americans. I now know you are not all Americans but you are certainly mad and I seem to have joined your number. Here I am, in an English winter, cooking most of my meals outdoors! On to the business at hand. When I was googling to find out about the relative collagen content of different types of meat a couple of weeks ago I came across this recipe for 48 hour cooked beef https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/48-hour-beef-ribs/11890/?utm_term=.28849b63b32b. I was willing to devote my oven to this experiment for two days but wondered if I ought to try it out in the KK. And then I remembered that this sort of cooking is what the water bath does best and so I googled further and found this sous vide recipe: http://www.instructables.com/id/Beef-Ribs-Cooked-En-Sous-Vide-135-F-for-48-Hours/. It was easy to do - file the short ribs in your water bath and forget for two days. I didn't have the opportunity to eat them straight away so I kept them in the fridge, still vac packed, for a few days. I thought it would be fun to cook a "typical" English roast dinner in the KK and so started with some veg in a Chinese clay pot and potatoes rolled in goose fat. Here they are part way through cooking. While they were cooking, I warmed up the vac pack with the ribs in warm water. Here they are in their "boil in the bag" format. I cranked up the KK to about 350 degrees C to brown the ribs quickly - approx 3 mins in total. They came out nice The cabbage with red onion was good too A very brown but very satisfying meal. The sauce was made with home made veal stock and the juices from the sous vide bag - very rich. And just perfect for watching the Philadelphia Eagles, against all the pundits' predictions, beat the Atlanta Falcons. Hurrah!

Really? That's not what I've heard. Only teasing. I don't actually drink beer. Just use it for cooking. Beef cooked with Guinness and mushrooms is another great recipe. I do like to drink what you guys call hard cider though. Oh yes, I also like champagne but I have to ration that!

Tee hee. it is actually a mash up of a US recipe for buffalo wings and a Vietnamese recipe for grilled wings. But don't use any of your weak beers! A good brown ale in the brine gives the chicken a really nice flavour and, if you weren't greedy, you could eat them plain. Hard to forgo the sticky sauce though. Nice one @MacKenzie

Yum. I think it is chicken for dinner tonight, again! I think I see the nice honey, chilli and oyster sauce glaze on the last picture. @MacKenzie did you put that on after you took the chicken off the KK? I add it on in the last couple of minutes of grilling - to get an extra, slightly burnt crunch. Yum, might have to bring chicken forward to lunch

I'll try it out. And this time I will hang around to watch for the smoke!

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!