GeorgeFromOz

G'day all, Cooking 3 whole briskets on my 32" Big Bad for a 6pm Saturday 19 September service — biggest single cook I've lined up on it (only ever done one at a time before). Starting basically bare-bones: stock main grate, no thermometer, no charcoal or wood on hand yet. Hoping to get the kit sorted well before I light anything, rather than find gaps on the day with a fixed serve time to hit. A few things I could use a steer on: Cooker behaviour, 3 briskets vs 1 — does that much extra thermal mass make it steadier once it settles, or slower to recover from any dip? Does it take noticeably longer to come up to temp with that much cold meat going in? Anything that surprised you going from one brisket to a full load? Fitting three in — main grate alone, or would you use the half/warming grate to keep them from touching? Is a drip pan + foil enough for indirect with this much meat above it, or worth a ceramic heat deflector for a load this size? Thermometer — I've got none at all right now. Assuming I want dome temp plus a probe per brisket, so I can catch one lagging early against the deadline rather than find out too late. What's working well for people — built-in Tel-Tru plus something like a Meater Plus for the meat side, or other gear you'd recommend? Charcoal and wood — still reaching for Dennis's cocochar for a cook this size, and roughly how much for 3 briskets over a long cook? Chunks or chips, and what wood, for beef specifically? Fan controller, worth it here? — I've seen the threads warning these can fight themselves or burn charcoal faster than needed on a KK, with no real upside on a single-brisket cook. Does a hard deadline and 3 briskets change that, or still skip it? Appreciate any input — happy to be told I'm overthinking a bit of this. Cheers, George

Thanks @Basher I look into a smartfire. thanks @Troble that’s probably right. The biggest change I have made that has made it easier is not fill the basket as much. For some bazaar reason I felt to need to fill it to the brim. More fuel more, heat right? I also have some really uneven charcoal, if I hit a larger chunk the temp spikes. Generally I cook pork butt and chuck. I tend not to cook brisket as I am still scarred from having to throw them out. Need to back on the horse I suppose.

Hi brains trust, I have had my KK for about 6 months now and I am finally starting to feel comfortable in her presence. In fact, I think I might be catching some feelings. Anyway, the next challenge is doing an overnight cook. I have tried it once but had to throw out the meat as the temp climbed too much and apparently I am a heavy sleeper. I was wondering if any of you guys have experience with an automatic temp controller/blower. Do have any experiences you can share or recommendations? Thanks.

Hi brains trust, I have had my KK for about 6 months now and I am finally starting to feel comfortable in her presence. In fact, I think I might be catching some feelings. Anyway, the next challenge is doing an overnight cook. I have tried it once but had to throw out the meat as the temp climbed too much and apparently I am a heavy sleeper. I was wondering if any of you guys have experience with an automatic temp controller/blower. Do have any experiences you can share or recommendations? Thanks.

Thanks for that @yubakram Please let me know how you get on with the fan. I am very interested to see how that would work as I am keen to start doing overnight cooks.

Thanks for the insight guys. Has anyone tried one any of the Fireboard models? https://www.fireboard.com/two

Got it, thanks heaps.

Thanks all for your help and insightful commentary. Have had the KK and Pizza oven installed for a couple of weeks and used both a handful of times each. Reading this thread, I am surprised to hear that some of guys think the Pizza oven is more of an weekender and the KK is the "everyday workhorse". My experience has been the opposite, and it makes me think that I am doing something terribly wrong. I found that it is taking around 3 hours for me to clean, light and pre-heat the kk. Perhaps I am being too fastidious with my cleaning... I suppose I want to keep it looking new. Pre-heating would take an hour minimum. The pre-heating process has been a tricky learning curve because I am finding really hard to know when to slow down the fire so the ceramic doesn't over heat and get too hot. On the last cook, the gauge got to 300f and I could not get it back down to 250f, the fire ended up going out cause I choked it too much. Anyway, you're only as good as your last cook. So, this weekend I bought myself half a butchers shop so I'll keep you posted. I'll try and get some pics soon. It isn't quite finished and the weather isn't great here at the moment. Although, that's by Sydney's standards, shouldn't complain. P.S. Definitely not suggesting there is anything wrong with my KK, just that I am a complete grasshopper.

Thanks for the advice chaps. Update: Pizza oven delivered awaiting installation. KK on a ship from indo. 32' big bad. If nothing else, I have some variety and isn't that the spice of life?

Does anyone think that an adaptor could be 3D printed? I am in the same situation.

Update on this. I ended up with both a 120 inch Wood Fired Oven and a 32' KK. I just couldn't bare to compromise. Thanks for your advice.

Wow... that is quite a collection. Yes, I am referring to a wood fired oven. Something like this?

Hi KK Enthusiasts, Planning my dream BBQ area and stumbled across a photo of KK on Pinterest. Now I can’t do anything else. Problem is, the current design has a pizza oven and a gas bbq but no smoker or charcoal grill. Since seeing this, I am thinking ditch the gas and get a 23 or 32 KK. My question is, do I still want / need the pizza oven? Any advice? Thanks George