johnnymnemonic

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

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