johnnymnemonic

I lied earlier - maybe I would fool around with the longways splitter and this sounds like a good way to play around with it. Thanks @Poochie

great tip. I will definitely give this a try.

One idea that popped into my head is something diagonal that you set on the ledge of the firebox on the front of the inside of the kk and has arms that make it lean against the back wall. It would have a little drip catcher at the bottom. Like a diagonal drip pan for lack of a better term. Basically a metal sheet that covers half the width or so over the firebox, with arms that lean against the back, and a triangular pocket at the bottom for drippings. Maybe that would not work because the drippings would be in a tray very close to the firebox. Maybe they would get too hot and burn up and cause the same bad scent issues. But anyway. Might be easy to try something like this with steel rods and foil. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I actually just had the basket splitter in. Fire on the right, chickens on the left. I could try using a full firebox (or fire on the chicken side) and use the heat deflectors. Also I only air dried my birds in the fridge for 5 or 6 hours. Could do that overnight next time. Also I did a consistent temp. 400 at dome. MEATER said about 325 at bird. I could go higher, or crank the fire after I hit a certain temp. Lots of variables to play with. Idk if I am personally interested in a longways basket splitter with the 42. Got enough stuff to store that I rarely use. If I hit success on this one day I will be sure to post it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First rodeo with the rotisserie on the 42. Only thing I want to improve next time is putting the birds over direct heat: skin not crispy. But still the best chicken we ever had. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NICE - thank you

planning to use my new roti I got for christmas on the 42 tonight. Got 2 chickens trussed, rubbed, and air drying in the fridge. Just need to figure out how to put this thing on my kk. QQ do I need to take my side tables off to put the roti on? I figure I need to do it on one side, but maybe only one time b/c I need to get the bracket for the roti motor on, but my guess is the side table bracket and the roti bracket can stay on there together indefinitely. anyway. I'll figure it out but any help/advice anyone has would be awesome

I like mine. It is not a super pain. Setting up the KK compared to other grills is a bit of a production. Everything is built so heavy. The basket splitter. Once you are at the level of commitment both time and money wise to cook on a KK, the extra time to mess with the cold smoker doesn’t seem like a lot. Anyway the cold smoker is fairly easy to set up. A couple of tips- the cold smoker comes with a wing nut. I keep that wing nut attached to my grill so that I am not fiddling with the screws when I want to use my cold smoker. Use a torch to light it. I was using my looftlighter but I got just a plain ol bernzomatic multi use propane torch for Christmas. That I just use with a bottle of camp fuel. The thin flame is perfect for lighting the cold smoker and does a way better job than the electric torch for this app. You want to light it on one side until flames are shooting out the other side. Then run the torch on the other side for good measure. Rather than putting my pellets in the microwave I just make sure I use pellets that are stored indoors. I think the biggest difference I have seen so far is that if I use the pellets that are stored in my box outside (even though the box is waterproof I think it is more moist out there). The pellets I got for Christmas are treager brand - probably not the best. But they were fresh and dry and I kept them indoors - and they work flawlessly vs the kingsford hickory pellets I have outside which are actually supposed to be OK pellets. I did not notice a huge amount of build up from the treager pellet even though they are cheap. Anyway if you have dry pellets and light it properly it burns for hours with no messing around after the fact. The mixed results I have had as far as I can tell were related to the dryness of the media and the way I light it. The last time I used it. 4 hours but probably could have gone 6 without touching it based on how much unburned pellets were left. I ran the cold smoker with wood chips once and chips are ok but the chips I have are hickory given to me by arborists from grinding up a tree in my front yard. Even though they have been sitting around for 3 years they are not kiln dried. This is great for flavor but they make a very sticky soot. I would try chips again but not those because I had to clean out the tube. Even after soaking in pbw it was difficult to get the sticky soot off. I don’t think it needs to be perfectly clean but it was the first time I used the thing. Just remember the screen side of the pipe faces down. That was my first mistake with it. Too much ash gets in and clogs the tube if the screen is facing upward. If you have any questions when you get yours ping me and I will help you. I have made all the mistakes at this point. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lots of matte black too recently. I am not the only new 42 in matte black. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do have the cold smoker and I am glad I got it. Useful tool. I have used it with both chips and pellets. It works well. I haven’t actually done any cold smoking. Because the cold smoker increases airflow and in the 42 the outlet for it is above the firebox, I have used it only on higher temp cooks to get extra smoke. On 225 cooks I put wood in the firebox with my charcoal. Have not tried a smoke pot yet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@Mark SurrattAs a recent purchaser, I will outline my story, my decision, and my results. As I use my 42 more and more, I get more perspective. I made my original order back last June. I ordered a 32BB in matte black pebble. As I waited and waited, 2 things happened. 1) I got impatient and wanted to see if I could get a cancellation on the boat ahead of me 2) I had FOMO on making sure I got the biggest grill. The biggest reason for ordering my KK is that I do big cooks of pulled pork. I was doing 2-3 cooks of 2 pork butts in each cook on my Big Green Egg for my brothers in law, which now I can do all at once. I can do 6 butts on the main grate (with room to spare and drip pans underneath) without making 2 layers with the upper grate, which is astounding and awesome. The pic I am providing is featuring 5 but I could easily do 6. I vac seal and freeze BBQ for my brothers-in-law for Christmas to take back home to new york. And I have some other family gatherings, etc where I bring frozen bags and warm them up in the sous vide and they taste almost like they are fresh off the smoker. And I am expanding the stuff I do this technique with. I ended up being successful in acquiring a cancellation in the boat ahead of me and received my KK in November. Here are some observations. A) the 42SBB is not too big. The basket splitter comes standard. You can grill with a small amount of charcoal. With half a basket or less you can run the grill for many hours. Full baskets are a lot of charcoal, but it doesn't burn near as much as you think it is going to. For grilling in particular, You have ample space for all sorts of versatility. The way that the upper and lower grates are split into 3 sections gives you several different ways to set the grill up, which is so handy and cool. B ) after living with the 42, I occasionally find myself wanting a smaller KK or wanting to use my BGE. I think it boils down to how you are going to use it. For me, I love my 42 because I do a lot of grilling and I absolutely adore the extra room that this grill gives me I do several very large smokes every year and it's great to do it all at once rather than in batches I could probably do these large cooks in a 32 very easily as well but I appreciate all the handy extra space. I don't have to fool with the upper grate unless I want to do - what - a dozen pork butts (which I may do one day and I will post pics!). If you are mostly doing one brisket or one pork shoulder and that type of thing and you are doing mostly smoking and not grilling, I would recommend sticking with the 32 or even looking at the 23 ultimate. The reason is that on this pork butt cook that you see in pictures below (yes, they are all perfect and awesome) but - the butts on the right side where there was more fire underneath were slightly hotter than the ones on the left. This is a HUGE nitpick because THIS IS A KK and the results are mind blowing no matter what, but - it is my impression that the temperature consistency is more and more uniform the smaller KK you have. If you are doing smaller amounts of food and you are aiming for absolute utter perfection, I think a smaller KK is the "best tool for the job". That said, do I have any hesitation about smoking small amounts of food in my 42? None whatsoever - and the results are - as I say - mindblowing - just like with any KK. Bottom line: If you grill a lot like I do and you want the absolute most versatile KK in the line, upgrade to the 42. It's so useful to have all the room and you won't regret it, except for the rare occasion where you wish you had a smaller one. At least, that's my take.

Agreed, Naked Whiz is dated. Also the quality of lump you can readily find keeps going up and up and there are an ever increasing number of brands, so the "range" has expanded. Royal Oak would definitely be on the mid to low end of the current market spectrum. For me, Royal Oak is the "lowest acceptable", mainly because it is the exact same product in the bag every time. You buy it, you know exactly what you are getting and it cooks and tastes the same way as the last 20 bags you bought. Consistency is a key attribute for me. To quote someone else above, I am definitely irritated from time to time at the qty of small pieces and dust in every 2nd or 3rd bag of royal oak. The key is - it's made of the exact same wood every time. No weird mixtures of things like in other cheap brands. Other cheap charcoal like Cowboy and Frontier are not just cheap and not very good, but horribly inconsistent. As a value shopper, I find Fogo black to be the new value brand if you want something solidly in the "good" range without paying a whole lot for it.

I respectfully disagree. You're confusing royal oak with cowboy. Cowboy has random pieces of different density of wood, sometimes you see lumber scraps (even with hinges and screws on it) - it has been a while since i have seen that but it has happened. Cowboy in some cases is not fully carbonized - basically just pieces of wood. Also with Cowboy, I always find at least one rock in every bag. I hate that every other bag of royal oak has too many small pieces in it, but it's *not* scrap lumber and IMO doesn't burn up super fast. "You get what you pay for" and it is cheap charcoal. I feel after using IDK 20 or 30 15 pound bags from home depot over the past 2-3 years that it is a consistent product made out of the same material in every bag. Fully carbonized, etc. Is it the best charcoal ? No - sometimes it is worth getting premium lump. But why pay more if the product is consistent and you can get repeated results with it over and over again? But anyway on the burn length: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag11.htm. Naked Whiz agrees with me. 4 stars. I buy what home depot has which is the American made royal oak in a red 15 pound bag. Some bags have a lot of larger pieces. Others do not. That's the only thing I dislike about it. Everything else about it to me is "just fine". I like more expensive lump charcoal, but I do not like to pay for it for every day cooks.

I like Royal Oak. "Big Green Egg" brand is just royal oak re-branded. And Royal Oak is a consistent product unlike other less expensive charcoals. The Naked Whiz has it rated pretty well. To me it does not have a very strong flavor like some other higher end lumps that impart a lot of "extra" flavor that some people do not like. I have home depot credit card, and when they send me the 10% off offer every couple of months I load up on royal oak. It's my go-to. With the 42" kk, if I'm worried about the charcoal lasting long enough I just fill up a whole firebox which will last a couple of days regardless of what kind of charcoal I buy. If I am up for going a little more expensive, my favorite since I can no longer get weekend warrior locally, is Fogo "the black bag". My butcher carries it and I think it's a good value. I do have to say though, when dennis starts to ship charcoal again by whatever means, I want some more coffeechar. That stuff is great. and I want to try the coco char.

Should be plenty of heat down there for that

Maybe the pasta wasn't totally A work, but BOTH the effort and the final product looks A++++. And so beautiful sitting on your Herend china. Thanks for sharing!

For my big 42 the billows kept my grill at 225 with the yellow damper contraption open only about how you have it in your 1st picture. So I think you can go pretty conservative with it. IOW - if you are having trouble with your temps overshooting, go very conservative - you may only need the billows damper open the tiniest sliver. YMMV on this next point since you have your smoker attachment (I think) below the firebox. In the 42 SBB the smoker port is above the firebox - so - I actually have not been able to keep temps as low as 225 with the smoker attachment going. It is crazy how a little air goes a long way on the KK. Even the big ol 42.

@BOC what do you put on your yard birds and do you air dry them in the fridge overnight? Those look super tasty.

She had light symptoms and we have all had it I think. Since we are all vaccinated, we had no issues. Only annoying that we can't visit anyone. Thanks for asking !

M My eldest daughter tested positive for coronavirus 2 days before Christmas so we were not able to be with extended family as normal. The grocery store happened to have fresh chickens in a pinch. So it was garlic and herb roast chicken for Christmas dinner. Asparagus grilled on the kk. Roasted organic fingerling potatoes in the oven. Worked out well. I didn’t do the best job of spatchcocking the birds. Not all of the breast was on top. Also I did not probe them in quite the right location. Upon checking them with the instant read thermometer they needed more time and threw off my timing for dinner. But it all looked and tasted great. Grill tidings of great joy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

me too @MacKenzie if you overcooked it it's still moist - you can tell by the pics. Nothing wrong with that. Beautiful smoke ring and lovely looking plate there with the veggies.

A whole shoulder = (the boston butt) + (the picnic shoulder still attached) correct? If so, I cook my shoulders and picnics the same way - just low and slow as normal @C6Bill. It'll be good. I find that the picnic has a little more sinew so a couple of parts of it don't just fall apart like the entirety of the boston butt (most of it does, but some of it is a little "different"). Basically what you'll have is (what you're used to with just the butt) + a few other hunks of meat. It'll all be delish. You could always cut the picnic off the shoulder and do two pieces if you want to probe them both.

If you're not using a controller, the time you might see it just a little bit is when you're closing the lid during a particularly smoky cook. The positive pressure created when the lid first hits the gasket can send a little smoke out the plates all around. Happens on my 42. I'm with you @tekobo - I'm probably not putting any permatex anywhere until I need some gasket repair, and if I ever do want to use those bottom openings for anything (who knows there may be some gadget we all start using one day on the burner ports) - i want to be able to easily remove the doors in the future. So no loctite on the bolts. I could always try something non-adhesive that is heat proof or something that will go on the outside and can be easily removed like flue tape if I really care.... but I don't. The cook went fine and the fire goes out when I close it down, so there's no concern at all. I was just making sure at least one other person had seen this and @tony bsays that it happens all the time with his guru and "no issue: for him, so - it's "all good" for me too.

wow. That is a gorgeous sight!

@tony bmy KK did not come with a gas insert - I have the vent door with threaded rods / wing nuts. I have some locTite and may try that trick. What I did based on my previous kamado experience was just to see if the billows would keep the temps good with my vent setting. There was no problem. Upon seeing that it could keep the temps within a 2.5 degree range, I quit worrying and decided I didn't care what it looked like. I didn't want to open that top vent too much. I will continue with that. I certainly had stellar results this time! Thanks for confirming what I suspected! Take care - I hope you and yours have a great holiday season, etc!