johnnymnemonic

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!

I had the top vent open only like 1/8 of a turn, maybe 1/6th. Smoke was coming out the rectangle plates (all 3 of them) but only when the thermoworks billows fan was running. IMO, The fan was creating more positive pressure than normally is possible. The leaks were small but noticeable. It has to be small becuase my fire successfully snuffs when I close everything down. I don't think it's a big deal. But if I change my mind and want to geek out, I'll try some permatex, especially on places I never plan to open up. Thanks, @Poochie!

For years with my BGE I have been cooking pork butts to send up to my brothers-in-law who live in NYC where they say the BBQ choices are few and far between and when found are expensive, etc. Plus of course they live in situations where they can't cook their own. With my large BGE I could do 2 pork butts at once and I would do 2 or 3 cooks before christmas each year in order to send them off with a mess of good BBQ vaccum sealed and frozen to keep for weeks/months. This would take quite some time because of having to do those 2 or 3 cooks. One reason why I switched to the KK 42SBB is because it can fit so much food on the main grate. I cooked 5 pork butts at once for the christmas haul. Much more efficient to do it all at once and the product was amazing. Jansal Valley coffee and chili pepper rub Coffeechar (that came with my KK) Coffee smoking wood mini-splits (that came with my KK) First attempt with my new Thermoworks Billows (thanks to @BigO for the suggestions on how to set that up optimally with the $2.99 addition of the damper). I have never used ANY controller before but this thing really rocked. Kept my 42SBB within 2 degrees of 225 for 16 hours. I trusted the KK and the billows. From when I put the pork butts in to when the meat probe registered 195, I didn't open the KK. The results were fantastic. The pork just melted. I couldn't believe it. My first words included some elated profanity. I had to use gloved hands to lift these off the grates. They were just deconstructing. The fifth picture in this post is what they looked like after taking them off. I didn't try to break them up like that - that's what happened to them when lifting them off the grates. Truly the KK is amazing, and the 42SBB was the ideal size for me. 5-6 pork butts on the main grates is perfect for these big cooks I do to send pork up north for my family (and doing one awesome cook instead of several saves me time) - one big bagging and vac-sealing operation, and done. I am looking forward to bringing some fresh pork for a church BBQ sometime. I'm also looking forward to doing tacos al pastor for a big neighborhood party and have 4 or 5 vertical spits going. With the 42 you can do anything. I couldn't be more impressed with this grill. It performs so well. I've done probably 100-120 pork butts in my big green egg over the past 12-14 years. I have gotten a result this good maybe 1% of the time. And this was my first time with pork butt on the KK. Actually that's not true it's my 2nd time. It's my first cook doing "only" pork butt the entire time and leaving the lid closed the entire cook. That's not to say my BGE results were bad. I love what I used to do. But what happened to day was INCREDIBLE. And I feel I could easily replicate it tomorrow. AMAZING. If you are thinking about buying a KK, have already ordered one, etc - you're in for a treat. If you are looking at different sizes and you think the 42 is too big - it's not. It might be a little large for your wallet, but I'm not finding it too big for what I like to do. For grilling I appreciate the extra room. For smoking, sure it could be big if you want one pork butt or one brisket. But there's still no better tool for the job. One question I have is that with the Thermoworks billows, I heeded the suggestion of opening the top vent of the KK very conservatively. What I noticed is smoke coming out the edges of all of the rectangular openings -- the bottom vent plate, the port for the gas starter. Not sure what the other side is for. But anyway I did notice some air leakage there - it's not a big deal at all. In fact I thought to myself that the positive pressure would make some really amazing results - smoke ring, deep smoke flavor, etc. And I wasn't wrong. This cook went perfectly, but I was just wondering - if I wanted to be a perfectionist and seal the edges of all the rectangular metal plates on the bottom of my grill, would I use flue tape or is there some other more elegant method to seal around these rectangle steel plate openings? What do other people do (if anything?) - or - just leave well enough alone?

Glad to hear you are in one piece but one thing that gives me peace of mind about the KK is that an F5 tornado could knock down my house but the 1600 pound behemoth 42SBB would likely survive and I could feed people right after disaster strikes. Anyway- if the tornado managed to carry away the KK, Rand Paul would be pissed about the pork spinnin'.

Yep, all's well that ends well. I should have thought of a damp microfiber cloth. I used mine dry. More pro tips! Anyway the 42SBB is up and running well and I love it. Thank you for the follow-up!

Yep it is not too big, just luxuriously big, like a stretch limousine for your food. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On the 42SBB KK, both the top grate and the bottom grate come in 3 pieces. See in the pic where there is a grate situated sideways in the middle of my lower rack? That's the larger, top level center grate turned sideways. The first person I saw do this on the forum was @Mcjudsten, so I just call it the "Mcjudsten config". It's nice to have the grate going the opposite direction. When you have this much room in the grill width-wise, having the food able to slide from side to side (and if you're using a spatula to be able to scoop from side to side instead of front to back) is nice.

Tried grilling tonight with my 42 set up in the “Mcjudsten” config. Top rack turned sideways on bottom level. Man does that work well. Did a “ready to cook” stuffed skirt steak from publix. For some reason that looked good. some pork chops, some Brussels sprouts, and some whole baby bell peppers. It was fun ! The KK 42 is the best grill on earth. I am hooked. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was inspired by the briskets@Lannoos did a while back where he had to cater for a large crowd. I have two small gatherings this coming weekend with very little time next weekend for cooking. I pulled out this old recipe that I love. My mom gave me a book 22 years ago by Bobby Flay. “Boy meets Grill”. In it is this great tenderloin recipe. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/black-pepper-and-molasses-glazed-filet-mignon-recipe-1960605 . The glaze is a pain but it is so wonderfully good. And instead of flay’s sear first method I did reverse sear. I have these done tenderloins in the fridge now, whole. I plan to slice them into steaks first thing in the morning and vac seal, then warm them up in the sous vide next weekend. I have extra glaze to drizzle on the dish. Will update when I serve them. The smaller pan in the kk42 is some of the trimmings. I decided not to waste anything and just make some smoky beef nuggets I can use for a lunch or a snack later. When you have a 42 why not use up the space? I also threw some of the less usable trimmings into the crock pot and rendered the fat. I had my hands full during the sear phase so I did not get a picture. I took the tenderloin off the upper grate, removed the middle upper. I put the left side of the lower grate on and seared on the lower grate right over the fire. The KK lower grate is perfectly positioned height wise. I think this is going to be really good. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@PoochieI also have tried "blazing coco". It disintegrates as well after it has burned once. Leaves behind a ton of crap if it doesn't fully burn. Not recommended.

love that song.

Yeah @PoochieThis weekend actually was the first time that I looked at where my egg and my old gasser is and thought "I sure could use that space back". The more I use the KK the better/faster I get at working with it. Grilling is a pretty easy setup. I can envision feeling like it's no more trouble than the egg is after a while. Right now the KK seems like more of a "production" every time I use it. One thing I figured out is - the bottom area under the firebox is pretty big. Probably don't even need to look under there to get ash out until after 3-4 cooks. Could maybe go longer. One thing I have come to appreciate about the 42 is that it's huge, but it really is very usable for a small grilling task. We'll see if I get another cheesy serving plate. I just instinctively grabbed that one b/c it hangs out with all my stuff. Re: the BGE - I may keep it just b/c I may want two kamados from time to time. I can't spring for a 2nd KK right now but if I did, it would be the 21.

This doesn't hold a candle to any steaks, etc. However I did want to post since it was my first strictly grilling exercise on the KK. The 42 is large, but when you're doing a simple grilling exercise like this and have the basket splitter set up with charcoal in the middle, it doesn't seem "too big". Anyway - I did some pork sausages. They turned out really well. What is so awesome about it is that the refractory material all around the firebox and lower grate surface get heat soaked and radiate heat in addition to the direct heat from the fire. I should have taken a picture of a cut sausage. There was a pink ring around the outside. I never got this on my egg. Super simple cook - nothing fancy at all, but to me it was great. If nothing else I got to look at my beautiful grill for a few minutes just sitting on my back steps. This morning it's back to reality!!

Smoked some chuck roast and made chili with it. I know that looks like a lot of veg, but with 4+ lb of chuck it was still a pretty meaty affair. Turned out nice.

U know they are messing with you right. All noobs get the tile v pebble heckle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I came from 14 years on a BGE before getting the kk. I have not dialed in my cooking on the kk to the degree that everything I have done so far surpasses food I made on the egg… but my very first cook on my KK with no prior knowledge I cooked some of the best ribs I have ever cooked. The pork butt and Al pastor I did last weekend was some of the best food as well. The bark on the butt was to die for. Effortless. No need to wrap your butts on the KK. The KK is the pinnacle. You can make great food on all those other grills. But believe me when I tell you the KK superiority is evident on the very first cook. FWIW I am not getting rid of my egg. It is where my love of kamado cooking started and is a good tool. It is hard to make a fair rating. I would say the BGE is a Corvette Stingray and the KK is a Bugatti. Both have speed and generate exhilaration but one is pure handcrafted and specially engineered machinery at the very top of its craft. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bigger is better. I actually ordered a 32 but then took a cancellation from an earlier shipment in a 42. I would definitely be fine with a 32 but I absolutely love all the room in the 42. There is no logical reason to go bigger but you are not going to regret anything. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@Cheesehead_GrillerCheck out the "rum and cook" guy on youtube. I think his 32BB KK looks stunning in blue tile.

@Cheesehead_GrillerHere's one for you to salivate over until yours gets there. Look at that thing!

I got matte back pebble and for a couple of minutes thought I should have gotten tiles. I think we all go through this. The blue tile will be stunning. You will love it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ooooo nice. What color ? tiles or Pebbles? Congrats on the order. It may take a while to get to you but once you have it - It is incredible. Really every step of the process is incredible. The day that crate shows up at your house you will see and it will be amazing! I'm very excited for you.