mguerra

Being self employed isn't for everyone, I could not live any other way. You take a risk, you work hard and do whatever it takes to succeed. Every day you overcome an obstacle... or several. If it even crossed your mind that you could succeed at this, you can. That's not to say you will. I encourage you to do it. It sounds like you will need to cook every day and with at least two or three cookers. It may transpire that the amount of meat you will need will require a different kind of cooker, not KK. That would take some of the fun out of it! I eat some carnitas every Saturday and it is some of the best pulled pork I've ever had. I'm pretty sure they don't use a ceramic cooker. But if you can cook enough in your KK, get after it. The worst problems most of us encounter in business are thrown up by the government. Most government workers are pretty anti-capitalist and they will make your life miserable. The cooking will be the fun!

You better be careful with chicken. I've seen a patient permanently paralyzed from side effects of food poisoning from eating chicken not fully cooked. Ever heard of Guillain-Barre syndrome? It can be an after effect from food poisoning. You don't need to convert your chicken to shoe leather, just be sure it's done!

Wow, what a difference in cooking outcomes using a thermometer! I set the grill temp with the vents on my Meco Swinger grill, stick the food probe in the meat and... Voila, perfectly done meats. Plus with the wireless transmission from the Maverick, I don't have to stand there at the grill nor open it except once to turn the meat. If you are like me waiting to get a KK, at least use a good thermometer to maximize what you've got. There are any number of web sites that have temperature charts for the diferent meats and degrees of doneness. Mine came from the old Meco website, now superseded. Use a thermometer!

Although it may not be necessary on stainless, I routinely lubricate almost every metal moving part of everything I own with anti-seize compound. Unless there is some good reason not to. Also any place there is metal to metal contact of any parts that may need disassembly one day. Anti-seize is available at auto part stores, bearing supply houses, some hardware stores and other places, it will be with the greases and lubricants. It is , I believe, grease with graphite powder added. An example: the spare tire for my boat is secured on a threaded rod and held in place with a large wing nut. I keep that assembly well greased with anti-seize, so in the rare event I need the spare, the wing nut won't be rusted on. You can think of a million applications for this. I use it on all the lug nuts on all my vehicles. You are actually not supposed to, the torque values for lug nuts are specified dry, but I do it anyway for ease of disassembly. You may not need it on your Komodo damper threads, but when I get mine, I will be using it. I'll probably wipe it off with all the carbon and crud twice a year and re-smear it. People with POSK should have been using it from day one and they NEVER would have had rusted, frozen damper threads! If you ever tried to take something apart and found the pieces rusted together, that's where anti-seize should have been used.

Just out of curiosity I will ask David Knox at Lightstreams if he would make some that size!

http://lightstreamsglasstile.com/default.aspx We are using these tiles in our swimming pool, they are the most stunning tiles I have ever seen! Whether they are applicable to KK, I don't know. Check them out, the web photos almost do them justice, but in person they are too beautiful to believe. The price is astronomical, but they will knock your eyes out.

That was a great video! I almost forgot we used to actually talk about God openly in our public discourse. I watched Art Linkletter as a kid and enjoyed him immensely. You are so lucky and blessed to have him as your grandfather!

Actually, yes.

Just received my Maverick ET-73 today. Problem is, I don't have a KK! I'll be using it in my metal grill and metal smoker, dang. At least it will help me make the most of what I've got. Results to follow...

Here's one other nice method to fire up your lump. Put a few tablespoons of cheap cooking oil in a medium brown paper bag. (Keep ALL of your brown paper bags!) Wad it up and shove it in the bottom of a chimney starter, fire it up. The oil extends the burn of the paper bag, and it burns hot. Fire will be ready in 5-7 minutes. For large grocery bags, tear off the top half since a whole bag won't fit in the bottom of a chimney starter. For small lunch size bags, add a little of your torn off remnants, since a small bag isn't enough. No newsprint ink, no starter fluid (y'all don't use that anyway) and better than trashing your brown bags.

Now hang on just a minute! I did not lie about anything. It's just that I found out about KK after first looking at the Kamado brand. Since I was discouraged from spending $1000.00 on the K, it did not seem useful to even bring up the KK for discussion. At the appropriate time, I will ease KK into consideration. Sooner or later we will have one.

Oh no, I'm not getting a Kamado brand. I think I have read every post on every forum for every brand. It's funny, every brand has its "Messiah" who the owners have a special reverence for, they're on a first name basis with the guy, and they all think their ceramic cooker is the best. Or at least they think ceramic cooking in general is the best. I'm convinced. I know these Komodos are expensive, but they seem like the best to me. I have no problem spending the 3 G's. Convincing my better half might take some doing.

Originally I was going to name this thread "How to convert your wife" but thought better of it. Please post your techniques for convincing your spouse that the price of admission to Komodo is worth it. My wife still thinks I am considering the Kamado K7 for $1000.00! If she only knew I flipped to the $3000.00 Komodo, she would scream. Well, she's already screaming about the thought of a grand. My thought was to buy the cheapest Grill Dome, convert her, and then get a Komodo. It couldn't hurt to have a little Grill Dome around, could it? But that would be ANOTHER $600.00 out of pocket! So, how have you all convinced your spouse to go for the price? I'm guessing many people convinced them after the fact, with the food. Maybe some of your spouses had no clue how much you spent, that would have been perfect! Ideas?