BARDSLJR

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)