BARDSLJR

I am thinking of doing a suckling pig later this summer, and this would of course involve buying the rotisserie grill basket and using it in conjunction with my existing rotisserie motor. It's not immediately obvious to me how you set this up (though I haven't done much study yet): can some of you who have rotisserie setups take pictures and post them so that those of us who are new to this can see how it sets up and how it works? Thanks in advance for all your help.- Jim

This is a cooking "related" question. I am still getting the finer aspects of using my new 32" KK, and this question relates to how you set up your charcoal basket and your burn to both manage the temperature level and the length of the burn. I -so far- haven't been able to stabelize the temp at anything below 250*- 225 would be my preferred for ribs and shoulder. I am also wondering how you organize your burn for a long cook- say 12-16 hours. I use a propane wand about 3" long to start my charcoal. Do you....start with a small active area in the middle or on one end? Light a line across the length of the charcoal basket? Light up the whole thing and choke off the air supply? How many of you primarily keep the bottom vents in the same position and regulate air flow by by screwing/unscrewing the "top hat" up and down? Or the reverse? Your insights would be greatly appreciated.-Jim

I think if you are going to pay that much to start with, the uptick for the 32" is well worth it relative to the additional flexibility. I got the 32" and love it....three separate cooking levels, I think I could do six large briskets or 8 to 9 pork shoulders. Right now I have six baby back ribs on (and need to go check on them) but last time I did nine with no problem. Love, love, love, my KK. Thank you, Dennis and crew!

Interesting...I did almost the same thing today, babyback ribs in my new 32" KK. I wish I'd taken pictures....First of all, my routine in my old RJ Komodo was 2 hours at 225-250, spritz and wrap in foil for 1 hour, take out of foil and finish for 1 hour. Today, on the advice of one of the other KK Members, I omitted the foil part. I also started half of the ribs on the lower level and half on the main. In the future I will use the main and upper grill. The lower level works in a pinch, but the section that was directly over the heat source (even above the heat deflectors) was still cooking too hot, too fast. I have to get this dialed in....one or two racks were underdone at 4 hours, the 2 that started directly above the heat were getting overdone. The rest seemed to do relatively well- I am waiting for feedback from the neighbors who are my testers. The smoke taste was good, not overdone. I used a combination of pecan and apple. For a first cook, I could say this was close. I think it can be SO much better with some fine-tuning. At least this batch of sauce was a 14 on a scale of 10 (I will share the recipe with anyone who wishes). Next time, pictures and finer tuning.

My favorite roaster in Salt Lake City, Jack Mormon Coffee (their motto is "we're on a mission") uses a bank of five or six small roasters that look like oversized blenders. I think the maximum they can do is a kilo at a time. I would bet you could find them for sale with a little research. Jim, Denver

Okay, this was actually much, much simpler than it sounded as my wife relayed what she thought Dennis told her. In actuality, it is one simple motion: grasp either side of the table close to the body of the KK and pull straight up. The table lifts out of the bracket (it would have been a LOT easier to install if I had known they come apart: some instructions or a simple schematic in the shipping package might be a good idea) and stores inside the 32" KK. No big deal at all. Mystery solved. Jim

Metallic Bronze 32" Big Bad in Denver, Colorado (Stapleton). Drop me a note/PM if you want to see it. Jim

So we tried to get the cover on the 32" with the side tables the other day and it didn't fit; everything else in the manufacture has been damn near perfect, so I was surprised but sent Dennis and company a note. Dennis called back and gave my wife instructions (I wasn't home) -something about folding the side tables up and back. Daneta is smarter than the average bear (and I am sure smarter than I am) so I am sure we will get it figured out, but just for this neophyte's sake, does anyone have any pictures of how this thing works with folding the side tables back to accommodate the cover? I really, really love the build quality. This will be an excellent inheritance for my son-in-law or grandson at some point which I hope is far in the future. Jim in Denver

Has anyone had success using a "Meater" remote thermometer with a Komodo-Kamado? I was quite excited to try it out yesterday when I did my first cook, a couple of butts for pulled pork. I finally conlcuded, by process of elimination, that the "Meater" just dosn't have a strong enough signal to transmit to the app on my phone through the heavy ceramic of the KK. Any thoughts? Jim , Denver

Excuse me. "DUE" respect. I can't believe I wrote that. My mother, rest her soul, would rap my knuckles with a long wooden spoon for that.

Well, since you all asked for pictures... I got my new 32" metallic bronze delivered last Friday and spent most of the afternoon uncrating it, and with the help of two of my neighbors, got it up the improvised ramp onto my back patio without incidence. The weather in the meanwhile until Thursday has been the total S***s here in Denver, so Friday was my first chance to use it and I was doing pulled pork for a family dinner last night (and to repay one of the two helpful neighbors). I thought I would be clever and start the fire the night before, when I went to bed, and that I would get up in the morning and just pop the butts (pork) on the already warm smoker and have a go at it. Unfortunately, I am still learning the proper setting and control, and I squeezed the airflow just a leeeetle too far down, and sometime over the course of the night it went out and was cold when I got up at 7 to start my cook. So I lost an hour restarting and stablizing it. Ces't la vie. The pork butts got rubbed down the night before and had created a really nice dry marinade for the meat (1/2 Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust to equal parts brown sugar, sea salt and pepper). The butts went on around 8:15 and stayed around the 250*range all day. At 5:30 they were still only about 160* in the stall so I upped the temp to nearly 400* to finish by 7PM. A full 12 hours at 250* would have been better, but you do what you have to. Happily, the results were EXCELLENT. I mean, maybe the best I have done on either my former Kamado (Johnson) smoker or my Lang stick-burner. Really, I could not be more pleased, and my family, always the best critics I have, couldn't say enough goo things about the pulled pork. I am a happy boy. And here are pictures:

I had one of these, a #7 , blue, just like this one. With all do respect to the manufacturer....it doesn't compare in design or build quality to the Komodo-Kamado, which is why, in part, it is also a lot less expensive. Mine lasted 8 or 9 years in the Salt Lake weather (I should have gotten a cover) before it started spitting off tiles and the top hat piece developed a crack down the middle. I wish I had better things to say- in the early years it worked well and made excellent barbecue. But especially if you are missing parts, as noted earlier, I would walk away from this one. And frankly it can't EVER have been $3,000....no one is so dumb that they can't look up the new retail price.

I just got my 32" (metallic bronze) last Friday and got to use it yesterday for the first time to do a couple of pork butts for pulled pork. Ten hours later, I could not have been more satisfied with the purchase. It was a LOT of money, but even this first try produced really, really excellent barbecue. You are absolutely going to love your 32". Besides the ease of use, speed (of warmup) and stability, the 32" has an unbelievable amount of cooking space. I think one could easily fit six briskets or shoulders in one cook. Congratulations. Plan on spending several hours uncrating it and you might need some help to get in from crate into final position, wherever that is going to be. Jim, Denver

LOVE New Orleans in particular and Louisiana in general. We lived in Baton Rouge and New Orleans (my wife was state head of Public Health and they had their offices in the CBD, so we kept an apartment in NO for four years). We go back every few years for a week to eat (went for anniversary two years ago) and I always think that you have to diet for a week before and a week after a week in New Orleans. I go down to Lafayette every year for the Festivale Internationale (Jazzfest has gotten too big!). Elizabeth's in Bywater is a favorite place. (Also lived in Shreveport for 8 years, though there is some debate as to whether it is really Louisiana or East Texas.) However, the difference in humidity levels down there and Salt Lake/Denver might have something to do with whether foil-wrapping is less necessary for the ribs down there. Geaux Saints! ( We wuz robbed!)

Oops...that's "Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling"....HIGHLY recommended.

I must have gotten one of the ones made in Indonesia. I know after I bought mine, about a year later, they opened up manufacturing in Mexico, and mine had shipped from Davis (Ca.), and I had always just assumed it was made there. Yes, I know the beer-can chicken thing is an absolute myth. "Meathead- the Art and Science of Grilling and Barbecue" has been my bible for a while now. He does a great job of de-mystifying and de-mythologizing a lot of cooking superstitions. Am very interested to learn how this Kamado-Komodo works differently from my old one. It will be warm enough this weekend (for me, not for the smoker) to fire it up. I just have to decide what to cook.

I am not sure what POSK is....the "K" being "Kamado", I guess, but the rest...? The 2/1/1 method works perfectly for me doing babybacks. I try to get the dry rub on them the night before or at least enough hours before that it sinks into the meat. As an aside, when I first got the recipe off one of the internet barbecue forums, it was 2/2/1. I tried it twice and my ribs were coming out about the texture of toothpaste. I wrote back in to the folks I had gotten the method from: "What am I doing wrong?"....the reply came back: "Aw, man, that is the recipe for ST LOUIS style ribs....for babybacks , it's 2/1/1!" It's worked for me ever since, keeping the temp between 225 and 250, and keeping a pan of water in the smoker to keep the humidity up. BTW, the old Kamado smoker was not going to make the move to Denver from Salt Lake- after ten years out in the weather without a cover it had begun to spit off tiles and the top hat was cracked- so when I got to Denver I bought a 72" Lang hybrid reverse-flow stick burner. After 18 months I decided the amount of supervision required for the stick-burner (which otherwise worked great) was just too much and it was time to go back to a Kamado-style smoker.(Doing an eight or fourteen hour smoke for pulled pork or brisket was just a ridiculous investment of time and effort) I took a bath on selling the Lang (which, BTW, was really well made) and then when I considered all the other options, the only one that made sense, despite the expense, was the Kamado-Komodo. No regrets at all- the build quality is amazing and Dennis seems to have made several engineering improvements over the early generation models of other brands. Really can't wait to use it.

The little wire assembly came as part of the teak sidetable setup....so far, though, I haven't figured out what it's for or where it goes. BTW, I'd like to say: this is not my first Kamado smoker. It IS my first Kamado-Komodo: the other one I owned for 12 years in Salt Lake and was made by and purchased from one of the early generation of Kamado smoker manufacturers, a family-owned business that will go otherwise unnamed. I had their #7: big but not as big as my 32", and not nearly the cooking capacity of the 32". But what I would like to say is that the build quality of the Kamado-Komodo is head and shoulders above anything else I've seen: really, think of this as hospital-grade or military-grade manufacture. I am SUPER impressed. When I was unpacking, the darn grill grate must weigh 15-20 pounds each. WOW. And the customer service from Dennis and company could not be better. I can't wait to start using my 32" next weekend (it is snowing and going down to teens-twenties here in Denver for most of the week starting today (Saturday). Am weighing the virtues of pulled pork (shoulder) versus my go-to staple, babyback ribs. ( Does everyone else use the 2/1/1 formula for babybacks? Jim

The Ghost Chili is excellent, too. As a matter of fact, they are all pretty excellent.....

Well thank you very much- so here's a picture of my metallic bronze 32" as I was still finishing the setup. I hadn't added the teak side tables or the dome unit at this point. Speaking of the teak side tables, this little wire contraption came as part of the side table setup and I have no idea what it is...help? Jim

I've known these guys for years, since they were amateurs competing in barbecue cookoffs. Their obsession with quality and flavor and freshness led them into this business, and apparently, they are thriving. Their original "Dizzy Dust" is my go-to rub for babyback ribs and I add some brown sugar to it to use for pork shoulder. I haven't had anything they do yet that I did not like. Their 'Red Eye Express" (with coffee) is a big favorite. Jim (Denver)

Forgive me, I'm a newby and just got my 32" KK uncrated and unpacked yesterday. The unit comes with what appears to be a smaller, rounded set of heat deflectors...(see picture). So I kind of get where the larger squared off heat deflectors go over the fuel basket: how does one use these? Where do they go? Thanks, Jim (Denver)