Mcjudsten

Yes - There was a steady rain yesterday, so we stuck a potato in the back to get a remote ambient temp in the house.  Nothing to do with the meat, just minimizing  my time in the rain.

Family in town for the weekend - great reason to load up the KK.  Ribs cooked 3-2-1 method - always a crowd pleaser.

I tried the deflectors one time (coming from a primo was used to using them and they helped with stability), and then started playing with other options on the KK.   For most of what we do aluminum foil, food service pans, or lids end up being the most flexible / useful for deflectors.   I will include pictures of the setup from this weekend (~36lbs for a block party).  I have been really pleased with the stability of the kk even without the deflectors or water pans, etc.  The kk chugged along overnight (no pit controller) as our local temp dropped from 60f to 35f - a good thing since I was asleep!

Ribs and rib-lets smoking.  Will drop in the lower rack to grill a couple pork chops when these are done.  

From left to right

Deflector plates - deflector plates - pizza stones.  (most - including Dennis - will tell you not to bother with the deflectors.  I put one set in the bottom of my 42 below the firebox to catch coals, and don't use the other set)

The oval wire propped against the wall is to hold a set of deflector places - attaches to the 2 side pieces next to it, those slot into holes on the front and back of the firebox.  There is a you tube video showing that setup somewhere.

The wooden handles can be bolted to the top if you ever need to take the top off in moving it.   

Hope this helps

Best wishes for a fast recovery.  Hope the Dr’s there can figure out what is going on.  Safe travels.

Chickens spinning.  2 ~5lb birds, brined overnight, Italian herb and garlic butter.   Used the Fogo super with pecan and apple.  Started direct, but added a steam table pan as a deflector 30 min into the cook to balance things out.  

I have had the 42 for about 2 months, so new to it and working through options - mostly cooking for a family of four, and double that 3-4 times a month.  What I have worked out for everyday cooks is to split off both ends of the firebox and cook on the lower center grate for most med/hot cooks.  (Salmon, tuna, steak, pork tenderloin, etc.).  Using some ceramic plates for now, Dennis is shipping me another steel divider for the other side.  This works VERY well since often times we do the entire dinner on the grill and use the top side racks for veggies, etc. Attached a couple photos as examples.  

Pizza party - two Publix dough balls and two from home - all with simple toppings for the kids and friends.  Cooked at 550-600 for 7 minutes.  We start them on parchment and then pull the parchment and rotate the pizza at the 3 min mark and then finish.  Very simple, but always a crowd pleaser (in my world the crowd is a bunch of 4-8 year olds most days).  The first home made dough on the KK stone, a decent start, will adjust the hydration on the next run or turn up the heat a bit.  

Cheers

The above is good advice.  Every cook is different either due to grill or conditions, but 1/8 -1/6 turn on the top nets me 240-275 ish.   I sometimes use aluminum foil pans below the lower grate as deflectors if I need the lower grate for food or a drip pan.  Good Luck!

Hi Paul -

Here are 3 birds spinning on the 42 for reference.  Smaller birds, but could fit the 5lbs no problem.  We used some disposable steam table pans for deflectors rather than splitting the firebox and ran about 375-400 with a pecan chips for smoke.  Ran about 75+/- minutes to get to target temp.  Did the same on another cook with 2 birds and ran with no deflectors with a meater probe in  (on that started lower with a ramp up in temp with basting the birds) - included that for an additional data point.

Hope this helps

cheers

On 7/30/2019 at 7:40 AM, ckreef said:

Those pizzas look a little lost on that stone. With all that space why didn't you cook them all at the same time or maybe staggered them by a couple of minutes. 

 

That’s actually what we did (staggered) - these were just the first and the last.  Things get hectic with multiple pizzas being shuffled around - so no full stone pictures.   Maybe next time . . .  And with bigger pizzas for sure!

Went for the basics on the first pizza night on the 42.  Most of the time we do smaller pizzas so the kids can “decorate” them, they ended up looking very small  . . .   Publix bakery crust to keep it simple the first time out @ 500-550f  for 7 minutes.  

Overall it was a solid first run.  The fire ended up drifting left so one stone was 50 degrees hotter than the other, so ended up cooking everything on the right side stone.   May end up using a deflector just to keep things balanced since it is a split stone set up.    

Cheers

Thanks for the welcome - 

Both BGE and Primo are in Atlanta, a 10 min drive to either for me . . . not the most obvious choice to switch to KK.  Having Dennis call with answers less than a day after emailing questions has helped.  

The ramp was scary, but did the job pretty much as expected 😜  The alternatives were a 40 ton crane parked in the drive to lift it over the house or building a ramp 2.5x as long in the backyard to get it to deck height.  There are some things I might do differently (video, take the lid off!) but hope to never do that again!  

Here are the first low and slow cook pictures.  Put the shoulder on last night at 11 and added the ribs this morning at 630.  So far so good . . . .

Cheers!

Hello All - 

I am looking forward to learning some of the tips and tricks of using a KK from this group.  I have been cooking on a primo xl for the past 10 years, and after rebuilding the hinge (again) decided it was time to evaluate long term options.  

After research, debate and a couple of conversations with Dennis (thank you), we decided on the 42.  It was delivered last week and we built the ramp to pull it up to the house, got it located, etc.  Now working through burn in/venting and some of the basic short cooks to “get to know it”.  Looking forward to trying the first long cook over the holiday weekend.

Here are a few of the delivery/moving day/ first cook pictures:

Cheers