tekobo

Congratulations @buzilo!

And anatomically correct i.e. square cut. I have not followed your South Side Thin recipe in at least a year, if not more. Mouth watering. On the to do list.

Nooooo, don't drag me down this rabbit hole @Syzygies. I spent some time investigating nixtamalisation and found that getting a decent piece of kit to grind the corn properly is a fool's game unless you want to buy an industrial machine from Mexico. Please tell me that it is the Masienda flour that you buy and that you haven't found a way to nixtamalise and grind the corn yourself. If it is the former then I will calm down and think about getting the flour when I next make it to the US. If it is the latter I would like to know how you do it and then I will worry about how far down this rabbit hole I want to follow.

You got really good marks on that chicken for an IDK cook @MacKenzie. Best baked beans you have ever tasted? They must have been good. Can you wangle a copy of the recipe for us? That looks like a lovely Valentine's Day spread @Troble.

Chicken schawarma over Jollof rice. Delicious. We ate way too much. I put a casserole into the KK afterwards, to cook slowly for supper. Now not sure I can eat again before tomorrow. We were out of pineapple so I topped the schawarma with a half red onion and half of a quince. The latter made everything smell like Christmas.

A multi kamado home. My sort of place. Welcome @Will

You're right. I usually only light one spot, maybe for 20s, but I keep the leaf blower on for longer (maybe up to a minute) and return to do a follow up blow about ten minutes later. Never fails.

I think your logic is sound. There is really not that much difference between the 21 and 23 so, if you are going to size up I would definitely go for the 32. See how you go. If you do get the 32 you could use it alongside the 21, space allowing, to see if there are benefits in running both sometimes. I certainly find having more than one KK very useful when cooking outdoors in the summer. Cuts the number of trips back into the IDK and is just more fun all round.

Thanks all. It was a nice and easy cook and yes, the smoke pot, was a good fire shield @MacKenzie. I am in the middle of another chicken schawarma cook, @Troble. Going to mix and match cultures and have it with Nigerian Jollof rice.

The half grate comes as standard with the 32. Even more grates come as standard with the 42 if you were so inclined...

Yummy. Here is the 16 looking pretty. Rapicca gloves were good for taking the hot smoke pot out after the quail reached 64C IT. Took quails off, raised the temp, basted the quail and put back on to finish. Took about five minutes. Maybe I should have used the lower grate to get crisp quicker. Finger lickin' good.

@Tyrusasked, "what's cooking?" on another thread. Not a lot outdoors recently. Toooo cold. Today I am braving the cold and smoking these four quail. Normally I just cook them with salt and pepper but today I am trying out a recipe. This is the first stage with the Pitt Cue Co House Rub. Now then, which KK to use? @MacKenzie had said in the past that the challenge with a 16 is the short distance between the fire box and your food. So I considered the 23. No, I have that set up for pizza cooks and it has a full basket. This cook was better suited to a half basket. Try the 32? It is all set for two zone cooking. Really? A 32 to cook four little quail? Naaaa. So I have got the 16 going with my smoke pot between the birds and the fire. Will report back on how it all turns out.

You jest. Getting hold of the best truffles in season and at the right price involves going into the back of shops or standing at a particular place at a particular time, waiting for your "drop". I write down the price per gram each time and the further you get from the person who dug it up themselves, the higher the price got. Unsurprisingly. The best deal was this bag of free black truffles that a friend passed on to us when he and others had had a full day of truffle related cooks and could not finish the haul that they had somehow wangled from somewhere. Truffles. The real deal.

So, where are you with your debate on 32 v 23 @buzilo? Will you definitely move your 21 on or might you keep it?

Welcome @mstang1988! I would say all of those considerations are things worth buying. The one that some never seem to use is the double wall drip pan but I can see it coming in very handy for either catching juices or just stopping flare ups from fatty foods. I am straining to remember what I picked for my matte black 32 and the only thing I did not get was the side shelves/wings.

One of life's great pleasures is to eat in Italy when a particular ingredient is in season. When white truffles are in they are (relatively) cheap and are used generously on eggs, steak, pasta, anything and everything. Don't judge truffles by the overpriced stuff we get in our shops. Getting truffles direct from the man who went out with his dog to find and dig them up the day before feels like a drug deal and gives you the same high. Note: I am not advocating drug taking but I do advocate that you don't pass on truffles if you get to eat them close to source.

I didn't respond to @buzilo's question when I first saw it because it confused me but I didn't know why. On reflection, just before I went to bed, I thought that the answer must be "it depends". Happily, @Pequod agrees. I have my 32 in a permanent half basket config for two zone cooking. That half basket is probably equivalent to a 23 basket and, as Pequod said, you can generate more airflow through the 32 and so it lights very quickly. Therefore, for a hot and fast cook the 32 is quicker and for heat soaking to cook bread or pizza it is slower. No precise timings here because...it depends.

That looks great. I really enjoyed the video @jeffshoaf. Congratulations. My only reservation is about the mild steel. Shelter and a cover I think will be important. We had a mild steel barbecue for a few years and it was a PITA trying to keep it from rusting. We ended up painting it a couple of times. It was in a sheltered alcove but we didn't have a cover. It was a waste of the £600 we spent buying it in the end.

Congratulations! Looking forward to the photos.

Nooo. In this case, don't second guess yourself. If you really think the 16" pan is better for your needs then get it. I like the fact that you know what you want. We all do. Want. Everything. You may well get the larger pan down the line if you find you really need it.

I second everything everyone else has said about the pizza stone. I deliberately did not order one for my 32 and almost immediately regretted not doing so when I started to bake on my 32. The cost of getting one shipped out to the UK on its own would be prohibitive but, super luckily for me, @RokDok appears to have two and is going to let me have his spare one when we finally get to visit him and Mrs RD. And yes, we have discussed it and the spare baking stone does not appear to be a heat deflector but rather a production "second".

So @Forrest, I used to wonder if this forum was just one great big cult dedicated to a hippy guy called Dennis. I am now a believer and I can't help but say - experiment but don't mess with the fundamentals. Dennis knows his grills and his design. He will have sized the double drip pan so that it works well for the size KK that it is in. Air flow will happen efficiently around the sides of your pan and up and out through the chimney. Others will tell you how the air flows and where the eddies are. I will just say - believe.

P.S. I asked the same question about grout and Dennis told me that there is only one colour.

We are patient here on the tile side @Forrest. I started off pebble and then moved to tile after two years so I know what I am talking about. They will turn your head, the marrying kind, you'll see. In the meantime, enjoy your hot love affair with pebble.

Welcome @Forrest. All good decisions so far, apart from the one to go with olive gold pebble. Come over to the dark side. Tiles cook so much better!