mguerra

Plateau To amplify on what firemonkey said: you need to understand the concept of the plateau. Briskets and pork roasts (butts) need to be cooked to between 180 and 200 degrees. And at low cooking temperatures from about 200 to maybe 250 or so. As the meat temperature rises, it will hit a plateau and stop rising for quite some time. During this time the fat and tough connective tissue are being broken down and the meat becomes tender. Don't try to short circuit this process. Keep your cooker temperature set and resist the temptation to raise it. Wait out the plateau and let it do its' thing. Eventually all the tough connective tissue will dissolve, tenderizing the meat, and the temp will start rising again. Don't open the cooker, just leave it. As long as you had put enough fuel in there, everything will be OK. The finish temperature of briskets is in no way comparable to steaks.

Super! Wow, that was a great and pro quality tutorial!':supz:'

The website Instructables is having a low and slow BBQ contest. They want plenty of photos to accompany the entries. This is an opportunity to show off Komodo Kamado's! Even if you don't care about the contest, it's a chance to promote our cookers. Check it out: http://www.instructables.com/contest/lowslowbbq/

a trick For scallops or shrimp I like to use a vegetable grilling basket. It' a square basket with sloping sides, like an upside down pyramid. If you've seen my post about the lava rock deflector, it's one of those baskets. One of my favorite tricks is to soak the shrimp or scallops in a pot of cold water with pretty concentrated crab and shrimp boil for about a half hour. Then cook them on a really smoky fire indirect just long enough to pick up the smoke flavor. If you cook them direct, they cook so fast they don't pick up that much smoke. The combination of the boil flavor and the smoky grill flavor is luscious!

shim the brackets Yes, they mount with a stainless steel bracket that has rubber bumpers to protect the tiles. I do believe I could shim the bumpers for a level fit.

side tables/ roti I think the side tables were about $500.00 for the pair. They will work with the rotisserie, however the right side table will not fold fully downward with the roti motor in place. Because of this, my Johhnyboy cover does not fit quite right. We need to get with him about modifying the cover slightly to compensate for this. Without the roti motor, the cover fits perfect. For some reason, my tables aren't level, but they work.See photos: http://gallery.me.com/mpguerra#100181

lost opportunity Didn't get a pic til they were almost gone, huh? Welcome to the KK club!

plugs I believe it is jdbower who has the silicone plugs for the blower port and the thermometer port. I always plug the thermometer port during a cook, the silicone plug will fit in there even with a bunch of thermometer wires coming through.

photos of snap ring Here are two photos. You can clearly see the snap ring is not in a groove, just firmly purchasing the tube by virtue of spring pressure. It's totally secure. I suppose we could ask the manufacturer to machine one more groove distal to the current outermost one. This would allow snap ring placement in a groove, on the "thicker" KK's. http://gallery.me.com/mpguerra#100173

inducer tube solution My bulkhead adapter inducer tube fit exactly like kravnh's. The wall of the KK is so thick, none of the snap ring grooves will be outside the KK when you put the threaded nut on the bulkhead inducer tube and push it through from the inside. The solution is simple. Put the threaded nut on the tube just enough to secure it. Remove the snap ring. Push the tube through the wall of the KK from the inside until the nut comes up against the inner wall of the KK. The tube will stick out, but none of the snap ring grooves will. Put the snap ring on the tube, flush up against the outside of the face plate. It won't be in a groove, but it doesn't matter. It grips the inducer tube fine with just its' spring pressure. Works fine. No need to machine a new groove, or try any other machinations. Just leave it like that. Don't try this without snap ring pliers.

Caliper results OK, the KK standard factory port is 1-3/8 inches. The Stoker fan nipple is 1-5/16 and slips right in. The 1/16" slack is taken up by little spring tabs. The Guru inducer tube is 1-3/8" in outside diameter, slips right into the KK standard factory port, although the port opening might need a touch from a file, mine did. The Guru inducer tube inside diameter is 1-3/16", and the Guru fan nipple is 1-3/16" in diameter and slips right into the inducer tube. So a Stoker fan, as supplied for the KK, will NOT fit into the Guru inducer tube. If Dennis is making the built in Guru inducer tube 1-3/16", the Stoker fan won't fit. You would need an adapter, a reducer. The 1-5/16 Stoker fan would plug into one end and the other end would have to be 1-3/16 to fit into the factory built in Guru inducer tube. Or Rock's could make a Stoker with a 1-3/16" nipple specifically for this application. At any rate, if you have a Stoker and a KK with the new, factory installed Guru inducer tube, you are SOL.

Straight from the man The other thing to do would be to ask Dennis what is the inside diameter of the regular factory port versus the I.D. of the new built in Guru inducer port.

Stoker mod Just spoke with John at Rock's, they are going to incorporate my fan door mod into the next production run! He's going to dimple the little fan door, or the roof so it has a little nub sticking down so it can't get stuck open.

little probester Mini Me with a gas mask, asbestos suit and a thermometer!! That's a hoot.

diameters After work today I will put a caliper on the Guru and Stoker fan input nipples and report back.

I was waiting for this problem to pop up. The factory installed Guru port is probably smaller in diameter than the old factory port. I say this because my Stoker fan plugs straight into the original KK factory port, but my Guru fan plugs into a smaller diameter reducer sleeve that slides into that port. As such, the Stoker adapter meant for the KK won't fit a Guru port. You would have to ask John at Rock's to make an adapter to fit. Rock's would now need to make two different KK adapters. They may or may not choose to do so. One to fit the original size KK port and one to fit the Guru specific size port. When ordering KK's, customers should ask for the old original port if they don't know whether they will get a Guru or a Stoker. They should ask for the Guru port if they know for a fact they will use a Guru.

Probes Yeah, I thought of that, I've got a Stoker and a CyberQ so plenty of probe options. I was just thinking of a way to do it without buying all the extra probes. Probably be easiest just to buy them.

temps There's quite a variation in the time it takes individual butts to get done. When you do multiple butts, how do you monitor doneness on all of them? I guess I would put a temp probe in the smallest one, pull it off the fire when done, then probe all the rest and put the probe in the one next most done, and so on. I have a total of three temp probes so could do three at a time no problem.

Nephros, and the insignificant battle. My friend Mike is a nephrologist, my name is Mike and I'm an ophthalmologist. So we have people call us Nephros and Oculos when we're together, instead of hollering out " Hey Mike!" So anyway Nephros is stuck on grilling on his gasser. He's got this Ducane he thinks is so fine. When he invites us over to eat, I just groan. He loves just turning it on and thinks charcoal is a giant pain in the ass. I have been extolling the virtues of the KK for some time now, but haven't had him over to eat yet. See, my wife won't let anyone come over here unless the place is operating room clean, which it never is because of coonhounds. Kinda of a convoluted story but hang on. So Friday I started a pork butt and pulled it off the KK on Saturday. I foiled it, wrapped it in a towel, put it in a cheap styro cooler and delivered it to Nephros for Independence Day. "Here", I said, "is some REAL food, try doing this on your Ducane". So they ate it last night and he sent a brief text: "Thanks for the fabulous meal, terrific." That's OK for a text, but when I speak with him, I expect unbridled enthusiasm! If this doesn't push him over the edge to KK cooking, he's unreachable. See, Nephros and I both think we are the smartest guy on the planet, we're a couple of know it all douchebags and nobody can stand us. Except us. When it comes to outdoor cooking, it's the proverbial irresistible force up against the immovable object. KK vs. Ducane. If I flip this guy, it will be the biggest coup ever, of something of absolutely no importance.

Dutch oven chuck johnnyboy was the one who mentioned he liked it. Perhaps he will elaborate?

returned I sent it back yesterday; I'll call them today to find out if they are going to reimburse me for shipping. This unit is 2 or 3 months old.

Bobby Flay For some reason I haven't much watched Bobby Flay's show. Does anyone know if he ever features ceramic cooking?

frozen butt, roller coaster cook I cooked a pork butt that was huge, and not fully thawed. In fact the bulk of it was frozen solid. My thought was it would cook unevenly and not be too good. The first two hours the temp got up around 270 because my Stoker failed and I didn't notice it. So then I removed the Stoker and set the temp with the vents to about 200. I kept the temp at 200, thinking the outer thawed part would cook slowly while the inner part thawed out. Then I went to bed and didn't worry about it. The fire went out, unbeknownst to me. I woke up at 5:30 finding the no fire situation, the grill temp was 121 and the meat temp was 129. I restarted the fire and kept around 230 for the remainder of the cook, til the meat temp hit 185. Total time was about 16 hours. It was the best pork butt/ pulled pork ever!! Even when the fire went out, the thermal mass of the KK held the heat. Obviously a frozen pork butt and a wildly out of control fire in a KK is one of the most forgiving cooking escapades you can have. I served this up at a family party yesterday and they all just went nuts for it. There's a guy over at a site called Bamaque who says that low and slow pulled pork is hands down the best use for a ceramic cooker. And that if you ONLY did L&S pork butts, they alone are sufficient justification to have a ceramic cooker. I concur wholeheartedly.

Cowboy The Naked Whiz tested Cowboy Lump and got fire temps up to 1030 degrees! The second highest he ever recorded. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag6.htm

steaks Jdbower really nailed it with his summary above. Here's one little mod for steaks, if you want some good smoke flavor on them. Grill them at about 350 degrees with a load of smoke wood to your desired done temp. Use a meat thermometer. This is much cooler than typical grilling temps but you will love the result! They cook a little slower and have time to pick up the smoke. But they don't cook so long they dry out. It's a kind of low and slow for steaks, but takes about 20 minutes versus 18- 24 hours for a butt or brisket. Keep the lid shut and only open it once to turn the steaks. I turn the steaks once; when their temp is raised 50% of the difference between starting temp and done temp. For example if they start at 70 degrees and my done temp will be 140, I flip them at 105. Ya'll try this trick and you won't be disappointed.