johnnymnemonic

If nothing else, dude knows how to sell a knife.

Wow. Thanks @tekobo- makes me want to take another fishing trip down to Appalachicola.

Noted!!!

@PoochieI went to Austin couple 3 years back before the pandi and a local took me to Terry Black's. Said you don't have to wait in line forever and it's just as good or better than Franklin's. At Franklin's - there's a line around the building starting early in the morning and they sell out during lunch time a lot of days. Only worth it if you have all morning. I was there on business - did not have all morning. Anyway Terry Black's was awesome. If Franklin's truly is the best for some reason, it would have to be completely mind blowing to beat what I had at Terry Black's. Truly inspiring BBQ. I got beef ribs and brisket. It is one of the reasons why I got my KK - because I wanted to try to match or beat the beef I had at this place. The beef ribs to me were the most amazing. Brisket was great too. I've done some good brisket, but I have not run across (or bothered to special order from my butcher) some big beef ribs. Got to try that sometime. https://www.terryblacksbbq.com/austin

Glad I got my 42, and love it, but the 32 probably is the "perfect" size. That grill is stunning. Not just rare that you found a used one but that's a particularly beautiful one IMO.

I gave my guy $60. But it is because he was worried about scraping my driveway with the truck. Then when we got the truck up the driveway we had to lift powerlines, etc onto the top of the truck. He waited while I got a stick of wood to manipulate the power and signal lines with to get them up in the right position (and he helped me do it). Then he backed up slowly - exactly to where the truck was level without screwing anything up. then (he only had a manual pallet jack b/c the electric one was out of commission) and with great effort got the pallet onto the lift gate, down, onto the driveway, and put it exactly where I wanted it. Then - he sat there and waited while I unwrapped everything and looked at it - acted like he had nowhere better to be than to just be watching me inspect things. After I was satisfied (a good 10 minutes), he then stated to me that I didn't have to tip him. I had the male mother teresa of truck drivers. The guy was a saint with a perfect touch. sixty bucks seemed like nothing after spending over 10k on the 42 big badass.

I set up my kk 42 SBB with a full firebox. Wood chunks in the bottom, charcoal on top. Foil over the bottom grate (except edges). 2 drip pans underneath. So I had both foil and pans as deflector. I started out by lighting the left side of the firebox with the thermoworks billows on the right side. The grill was a perfect 225 both at grate and dome. Brisket is pictured here both raw and just before wrapping in butcher paper. I had a lot going on yesterday so I didn’t take pictures of the briskets wrapped, being unwrapped, or after slicing but, basically, this was a perfect cook. The brisket was great. Briskets went on at 4am. Wrapped at 1245pm. Raised kk temp to 255 after wrapping. Briskets came off at about 445pm. Dinner at 630. Pretty much perfect timing. The picture of the empty grill and bottom grate is to show that the charcoal burned just like I hoped it would, perfectly from left to right. I grilled some veggies on the right side before dinner. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

congrats! it's gorgeous!

I like mine. Great recommendation. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The destination of the meal at the table is definitely where a lot of the memories happen but the journey of the cook- I so love to geek out on that here on this forum. Thanks for sharing your learning with us. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed, especially with a brisket. The 240 temp you had when you woke up was going to be just fine - let it ride. One thing I do find interesting on the KK is that you have ppl like stephen raichlen saying "temperature control to a single degree". I find my big ol SBB 42 temp fluctuates. Not as bad as my BGE, but - I have found that "a kamado is a kamado". there's no such thing as perfect temp control without a fan/board controller contraption. The thing is though, you don't need it for something as forgiving as pork butt or brisket. Especially on a brisket you can safely go higher. Numerous references here to Franklin who does his briskets at 250-275 depending on the stage of the cook. I've always gone higher on briskets. The time that I did 225 I was not happy with the results but it may be partially because I relied on the internal temp of the meat alone and not the feel. If a brisket isn't pliable yet, don't take it off.

Or no wrapping. I do find that Franklin's description of foil wrapping makes it "pot roasty" sometimes, but not every time. If you have good bark on it, then it's not terribly pot roasty a lot of the time. I like foil because it is a true crutch. You have a better chance of passing a perfect pull test. You run a slight risk of over-steaming it and it just falling apart, which for my taste can be awesome. I'm not a competition bbq'er just one that likes tasty food. I actually have never tried butcher paper, just foil or nothing. looking forward to my next brisket wrapped in butcher paper. I also need to try pork butts in butcher paper. Since getting my KK I have not been wrapping my pork butts at all. I got my first batch of pork last weekend that was maybe a little less fatty/moist than I want it. but the bark (amazing and perfect)! I want to try butcher paper after the pork butt gets a nice bark on it and then seeing if that does the trick.

correct.

I usually cook my briskets at 275. I did a couple of chuck roasts a few days ago at 275 with my billows. I had my KK top vent open between 1/4 and 1/2 turn. I had all bottom vents closed other than the billows being in the guru port. I had the little yellow billows damper open about halfway. I had the basket splitter set up so that charcoal was only on the right side and the food on the left. I have a 42 not a 32. But this cook was very consistent for me. I light my fire with a looftlighter. I light about a baseball sized amount of charcoal. At the point that I light the fire, I already have the smokeX2 and the billows running. after lighting the baseball sized amount of charcoal, I close the lid and let the grill warm up to temp prior to putting the food on. in this case I didn't wait all the way until the grate thermometer was reading 275 - it was close though and the thick white smoke had subsided letting me know we were getting nice blue smoke. (about 30 mins or so). The Billows kept it pegged within 5 degrees of 275 for the 3 or 4 hours these took to cook. One of my first cooks with my KK was brisket and if I were doing a brisket I might set up the grill the same as I did then. I might put foil across most of the lower grate and use the full firebox just to be sure that I had enough fuel so that no reloading was necessary. I think putting a few pieces of wood on the bottom of your firebox and then putting coal on top is a good approach. I have done this with the cook in the pictures in this post and with the pork cook above and I got plenty of smoke flavor and it was not acrid tasting in the food. About the fire meandering around in the firebox - don't overthink it. In a previous cook I noted that since the oxygen from the billows is going to be coming mostly on the right side of the grill, you still probably want to shade your brisket over to the left hand side of the KK when you're using the billows b/c the fire is going to tend to be closer to where the air is coming in. I'd light a baseball sized amount of charcoal on the right center of your firebox and go ahead and have your billows going. Put the food over to the left center of the KK 32 once the temp reaches close to your target. Just use foil on the lower grate and a drip pan underneath your food as your deflectors. Happy cooking.

Pork butts with mustard binder and DAS BBQ rub from a home town joint. Pork loin roasts with DAS BBQ high octane sauce with espresso infusion as binder with Jansal Valley coffee chili rub. Both came out good. I slightly overlooked the loins. Flavor was awesome. This batch of pork BBQ from the shoulder butts had great bark but I think I prefer wrapping and going a little lower temp to pull than 203F. A little too much fat rendered out of this batch and wasn’t quite as moist as I usually want. Flavor and bark were incredible though. Chewy. Bacon-y. Smelled like Heaven. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I learned this with my green egg a long time ago. If you burn it off, then the ceramics / refractory cement / whatever you've got becomes like a sponge for moisture. With my egg in the humidity I would notice on high temp cooks that water was boiling out of my ceramics and one time there was a gas explosion out from under the paint that took a chunk of paint off. From that point forward I quit burning the egg at high temps to burn stuff off and let that patina build up. I no longer had any issue with excess moisture in the ceramics. I also keep it covered. Anyway I have commuted all of this to the KK - I will burn at high tems to cook a pizza but I will not leave it going for hours b/c if you do have moisture buildup it has to go somewhere. Sure we have extra grout to fix venting, etc but don't force it to happen!

Dang that's a really low bar.

Answered my own question by zooming in on the photos. Nice work using the basket splitter metal cover pieces with a baking pan turned upside down as the backstop. Otb. Mcjudsten config #2 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Smoked 2 chuck roasts. Did them all the way to 210 degrees before opening the kk. While finishing them in foil I began grilling. First some peppers. Potatoes wrapped in foil, brushed with olive oil, kosher salt in pouch. Grilled the burgers and 2 portobello caps. When potatoes were pliable in pouch, removed from pouch and direct grilled. Brushing with olive oil and turning often till skin was crisp. Sprinkled potatoes with kosher salt. My wife started plating before I could show all finished products together for the grilled items. Chuck roast is meat candy. Turned out awesome. It is cooling in bags now and I will vac seal it later tonight. Burgers shrooms peppers and potatoes all stellar. Cool thing about this much room in your 42 is you can warm up the dish you are bringing the food in on. I had plenty of room to just Chuck it in the grill for a couple minutes. Boy do I love my 42. Beverage: founders porter in a frosty mug. Awesome choice for the weather we are having. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What did you use to create this setup in your 42? Very interested. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you ever questioned the moisture retention of a KK I have proof. Condensation dripping out the bottom of my KK about 2 hrs into my cook of a couple of chuck roasts at 275 using the billows. Will post addl pics in the misc everyday cooks section later. Anyway see that puddle? Water dripping out of the kk. I have drip pans solidly under the food so I know it isn’t fat. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm still very glad I got the 42. When you grill on a 42 with all that room to spare it is so nice. The versatility of the 42 is amazing with the grates split into 3 sections, basket splitter comes standard, etc. I'm just going to have to get a smaller KK one day. In the mean time I'll still keep the egg around. I'm doing two cooks this weekend. Another batch of rotisserie chicken and some burgers. Probably going to cook them one after the other tomorrow. roti first then pop in the lower grate and grill.

@Durangutansorry for the late reply. expounding on the uneven temps from left to right unsure. If you look at the attached photo, this is the cook I am talking about. Notice that I'm probing the grate kind of on the left center, and I'm probing a pork butt that is on the left. This picture is right before I took them off. The pork butt I was probing on the left was at 203. The ones on the right were more like 208-210. I was worried that they were too overdone but they were awesome. They were falling apart so much when I was taking them off that I had to use gloves just to get them off the grill. Although I am unsure, I will guess the differential was 10-15 degrees. In other words where the probe sat left of center was 225 and the actual temp on the right side was 235-240. That is just a guess. And this would probably tend to shift throughout the cook as the fire moves around in the box. But anyway - If I do this same cook again, I might probe both sides of the grill next time just for science. Was a heat deflector in use? For this cook, I used a whole firebox of charcoal. I covered the lower grate with aluminum foil (except the edges). And then underneath you can see those drip pans. Most KK users do not use the deflectors and just use foil on the lower grate and/or just the drip pans to provide the heat deflection. If I were doing only 2 pork butts I probably would have skipped the foil and just centered each one over a drip pan and called it a day. My impression from using a BGE is that just because you have a ceramic deflector doesn't mean that the heat is even, so I don't know if using the stone deflectors would have made any difference. I could try it one day and may do so. Centering the fire (and my fire setup for this cook) You bring up a good point about centering the fire. I suppose I could have used the basket splitter and just put charcoal in the center. I was (only mildly) concerned about running out of fuel, but doing a full firebox means you can basically go forever. The firebox is kind of an oval shape. Imagine splitting that oval in half. I lit about a grapefruit sized amount of charcoal in the center of each half of the firebox. I was using my thermoworks billows with the rest of the bottom vents shut. The port for the billows is on the right side. Therefore, the right side of the firebox was getting more oxygen. More fire burned on the right side for (I think) the entire duration of the cook based on what the charcoal looked like afterwards. A lot of ash on the right side and not many remnants. Does the mass of the 42 add significantly to the time it takes to heat soak and is that what makes me want a smaller grill? I have no frame of reference on a smaller KK. I basically do exactly what I used to do with my BGE which is pay attention to the quality of the smoke. When the white colored smoke is gone and the grate thermometer is reading approximately where you want, the food can go, especially if you're using a fan controller. And with the KK I don't open the grill at all with pork butts until it's done. If you're grilling and not smoking you don't have to wait for this thing to heat soak if you don't want to. You can just cook on direct heat on the lower grate. TL; DR - I knew what I was getting into when I bought it and I'm totally un-bothered by the time it takes to heat soak. If I had to guess, this thing takes about 60 mins to fully heat soak. For low and slow, I put my food on when the smoke looks right and the grate thermometer is reading right, not necessarily when the grill is fully heat soaked. My wish to use a smaller grill is mainly rooted in that using one of the bigger KKs is a "production". The grates are heavy. If you want to change the configuration of the firebox you have to take all the grates out lift out the firebox fool with the basket splitter maybe empty the old charcoal out before you do that adjust put basket back in the grill put charcoal back in, etc. Configure the grates the way you want them - then.... light the fire. Aside from this I'm also using the cold smoker attachment or some probes or something else - so - there's usually even more setup involved. This seems to be the case (more or less) with either the 32 or the 42, which were the two grills I was considering. Now that I am living with my KK, I still find myself occasionally firing up the BGE because it is simply "less of a production". Also I have cooked with it for a dozen years so I have a lot of things "dialed in". No probes, etc - just go go go. I have 0 regrets about my purchase - but if I can splurge on something again in the next couple three years, I'm getting a 21 or 23 KK for times when I want a little bit simpler KK experience. Once you cook on one of these grills and taste the difference in the food that comes off of it, you really never want to go back. I hope this answers your questions, and again, sorry for the late reply.

Reminds me of one my granddad used to tell about some dude who was caught speeding doing 100 in a 55. Judge in court asks him: didn’t you see the posted speed limit on the signs? Guy says: hell no, at that speed there’s no way I was taking my eyes off the road long enough to read a sign. Judge fines him $100 dollars for contempt of court. My granddad also said the police officer mantra was: “62 will get you through. 63 will get you ME” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a 42 kk and on my last cook of 5 pork butts at 225 on the main grate with my thermoworks billows, the thermometer at the grate was 225 obviously and dome was about 275. This may be the opposite of what you were expecting. On my egg I feel like the dome is lower than the grate temp. On the kk this is certainly going to be true for the lower grate right over the fire but for me cooking indirect on the main grate, the dome always registers higher than the grate. Like c6Bill I do not often do multi-level cooks. I will keep you posted. One day I will do 10 or 12 pork butts and use 2 levels low and slow. I did rotisserie chicken this weekend. The MEATER being so close to the meat showed a huge differential in ambient vs the dome at first, meater registering in the 200s, but toward the end it was dome at about 375, MEATER ambient at about 325 - 345. I had two of them going and one was closer to fire than the other. At these medium-high temps a thermometer on the grate usually gets even closer than that. If dome is 375 sometimes main grate is more like 350 for me after some time. What I have found with the kk is that the longer you keep the lid closed the more the temps converge over time. Heat soak your kk well before starting to cook. I came from a large BGE. Kk far superior in many ways- no regrets. I used my egg yesterday in the rain though. The old friend still does it’s job. It is not that I won’t cook with the kk in the rain, it is that it was going to continue to rain some today and my kk is not underneath a shelter. If it will be done raining before my cook is done so that the heat from the fire keeps the kk dry, I will use it in the rain. Also I just got my kk 3 months ago. Still probably over protective. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk