Loquitur

To cook with a 1/4 basket of charcoal, put the vertical divider in the center of the basket and then lay a half grate in horizontally in one of the halves created by the vertical piece. Fill this side with charcoal. I like to pile it high so that I'm maintaining the same distance from the top of the burning coals to the grate as I would with a mounded full basket of charcoal. Then the solid metal piece goes on the empty half of the basket to force the air coming in from the vent through the half of the basket with the charcoal to promote air flow. Other configurations would be a deep half basket, 50% charcoal, which would be just the vertical splitter, one half filled with charcoal and the empty half with the solid metal piece. Or you could do a wide shallow basket, 50% charcoal, with the two half grates in side by side horizontally and fill both sides with charcoal. You wouldn't use the solid metal piece in this configuration. I don't know if you need the vertical splitter piece in with the wide shallow basket configuration since I've never done it but it would be easy to figure out if you need it while you are putting it together. The basket splitter works so great for small cooks - I just love it!! I can do my Pittsburgh style rib eyes with a crispy sear on the outside and rare center just as well on 1/4 gasket of charcoal as a full basket in the same amount of time. I also highly recommend that you buy an extra charcoal basket so you can have one dedicated to the splitter and the other dedicated to full basket cooks. It gets real messy trying to use one charcoal basket for both kinds of cooks. This is for a 23" KK which only has one solid half moon piece with the splitter kit. I orient the basket so that the coals are to the left rear of the KK at an angle which is very comfortable for me to come in with a spatula or tongs to turn the food cooking over very high heat without significant heat under my hands - so much so that I don't even need gloves. Susan

I mostly cook on the sear grill on the low handles close to the charcoal at about 425 dome or on the main grill or close to the dome on the sear grill on the tall handles at 350 to 475 dome.There is no way I have the patience to wait an hour or more for the KK to come up to temp and heat soak so I pull the door out all the way and spin the top wide open and light with a torch in 4 places for a full basket and 2 places with the splitter basket. For a fast cook, close to the coals, I close the door and most of the top when the Tru Tel gets to 400 or so. For a longer cook on the main grill or high in the dome, I start shutting down more gradually about 100 deg from my target temp. It takes much longer for the grill to go from 0 to 300 than 300 to off the scale high so you need to anticipate this and be right there with the KK once the Tel Tru begins to climb. It also helps if you do not get distressed at a temp 25 deg or so higher or lower than you originally anticipated. On the occasion that I do a low and slow cook, I shut down the vents and turn on the Stoker once the Tel Tru is at about 200 deg. It's harder to control a low and slow cook manually if you're trying to get the KK to temp quickly. The great thing about the KK is that it works for everybody - those who want to lounge around the patio waiting on the grill and those who want to get in and out as soon as practicable. You will get better at bringing the KK to temp the more you do it. Susan

That looks excellent for grilling fish. What size KK do you have and what size did you get?

Isn't it great Tony??? Just this morning is the first time in ages that I've been able to look down on my patio and not see ANY snow or ice. I have a rib eye and a T bone ready to go on the KK tonight for the first cook of the season.

I don't think they are popular here in the northeast. Pricechopper carries them by me on occasion and is about the only place I can find them. Do the back ribs cook in the same amount of time as the short ribs when they are cooked together on the KK?

Thanks for that link, Jeff. I read the manual and its seems very clear and easy. I will definitely try it once my KK is back in service. The poor thing is still buried in the snow on my patio despite a couple of 50 deg days.

One of my most favorite things about the KK is the ability to cook down at that level with the sear grill on the basket handles. But it takes a little experimentation to figure out the timing to end up with the state of doneness that you prefer. I overcooked a ton of steaks and burgers trying to use my Thermapen as a guide to doneness because I would lose time fiddling around with it and it wouldn't take into account the massive carryover cooking effect from cooking at such a high temperature. Now with some experience I know from looking at the meat that it will be 90 sec a side, 2 min a side, etc. And it comes out perfect, for my family, every time.

I use the Stoker wired and have never been able to get through an entire cook without the Stoker Log program crashing at some point. So I just use the Stoker's own program which is very simple and effective for me. I do miss a little bit not being able to see the fan coming on but wouldn't be graphing the cooks anyway so its not worth the hassle of a non tech person such as myself trying to figure it out. I still am very happy to have it.

I have the 5 cfm fan and don't recall having a choice when I purchased it. It works great as far as controlling the temps are concerned. But I don't have anything to compare it to so don't know if a larger fan might bring the grill up to temp faster.

Hector - that is a beautiful bird!! Those higher temps are great for poultry, whether you intended them or not.

Tony: Your cooks sound sooo exciting - I'm just about ready to make my own purchase!! Do you think we could start a Sous Vide topic to talk about this stuff and show the pictures with the understanding that there isn't a better place to sear your SV prepared food than a KK - even if we don't avail ourselves of our KK's for searing due to extraneous conditions? Our winter here in NY's Hudson Valley is also brutal and I'm a total wimp when it comes to snow and ice and darkness - which is the normal winter condition of my patio, even without the extreme conditions this year. I've only used my KK once since Thanksgiving on a rare day where it reached 40 deg to cook a couple of rib eye steaks.

Tony: How do you think it compared to doing a similar steak straight, hot and fast, on the KK?

Great shot of that style rotisserie basket in action. What do you think of it in terms of setup, general use and clean up? What was the skin like on the bird after that long of a highish temp cook?

Thanks, folks, my husband gave the clip a squeeze and pulled the Tru tell up and it came right out. Interestingly enough, I stuck it in a tea kettle of rapidly boiling water and it read 211. That is close enough for me. I also tested two thermapens and a thermoworks Chef Alarm and they also all came up as 211. I wanted to do this because I used my Stoker recently and noticed a dramatic difference between the grid temp and the Tru tel - much more than I am accustomed. But I need a little time to figure out how to test the Stoker probes since I won't have a computer connection in this kitchen.

I want to calibrate my Tru tel thermometer but I can't get it out of my KK. The problem is with the clip. I can rotate it in its current position but I can't move it up or down. I haven't taken it out since I've had my KK so its been in there a few years. There was a lot of crud on it that I pulled off and I also sprayed some WD 40 up there but I still can't pull it off. Is there some special way I am supposed to squeeze the clip or something so that it will come off?

Tony: I'm not seeing the pictures. Are they there?

Thanks for the update, Tony. Am really looking forward to you receiving it!!

Beautiful, Tony - love that sear!! Bet that more well done rim with the crispy, spicy edge was delicious!! Tell us about the technique with the chimney. How do you light the chimney, how much do you fill it up and how long does it take to get to searing temps? Do you set the chimney on the KK grate to do the sear? The biggest thing holding me back from the Anova is the searing. I like a heavy sear and those little kitchen torches don't look like they would do it for me. And I don't think I could adequately control a plumber's style torch with one hand. I have enough trouble as it is screwing the canister on my weedburner because my hand is too small. Can't wait to hear about your first Anova SV cook.

Mine doesn't have any goo in it but its jet black.

I haven't yet, Tony. I was kind of hoping you would have got it and then you could tell us all about it!!

I did a 2 bone rib roast for NY Day and it, by far, was the best one I've ever done. It was very crispy on the outside with a well done area around the fatty rim to almost the same degree of doneness in the center as the one recently posted by my hero of rib roasts, MK1 , just very slightly less rare. I wasn't going to post about this because I did it in my oven but I closely monitored the temps of this cook and was so enlightened by the results that I thought it was worthy of a post. Unfortunately, I don't tolerate the cold and darkness and ice nearly as well as my KK so it hibernates for the winter. I decided to try the "turn the oven off" method which is to multiply the weight of the roast by 5 and roast at 500 deg for that period of time and then turn the oven off for two hours without opening the door. I read lots and lots of posts online that said this was a failproof method of producing a perfect rare to medium rare roast of any size. My roast was 4.31 lbs so I roasted it at 500 deg for 22 minutes and then turned the oven off anticipating that the roast would be in the oven for 2 hours. I was monitoring the internal temps with my Thermoworks Chef Alarm thermometer (which I love) so I'm confident in the readings, which were as follows: 49 deg going into oven 56 deg after 22 min Oven is now turned off. Times below are the time elapsed into the 2 hour oven off period: 79 deg 30 min in 111 deg 1 hour in 121 deg 1 hour 15 min in - YIKES - I opened the door and took the roast out and put it on the counter lightly covered with foil 126 deg 1 hour 25 min in - took the foil off!! 128 deg 1 hour 30 min in 131 deg 1 hour 45 min in 129 deg 2 hours in I stopped monitoring after I saw the temp start to decline. Good thing I got the roast out of the oven after 1 hour 15 min into the 2 hour period or I'm sure it would have been overcooked for me. Next time I'm going to remove it after 1 hour with the oven off and I think it will be about perfect. I have never tested the oven temps in this kitchen so I don't know how accurate it is but I think it is fairly so since if I do a casserole or other baked dish, it is generally ready in the amount of time specified in the recipe. Way closer than the Viking in my other kitchen anyway. I don't do that many roasts in a year since I'm mostly only cooking for 2 so I don't get much practice and they are invariably not rare enough for me, which is a disappointment. Now I see that I need to be allowing for more like 20 or 25 deg carryover cooking increase in the temp rather than the 5 to 10 deg increase you generally read about, at least for my technique of cooking the rib roast at higher temps to obtain the uneven degree of doneness from crispy/well done to a rare center that my family prefers. I'm so pleased that I finally did a rib roast that I was really happy with!! If I do one outside the winter months, I will definitely try it on my KK, strictly monitored to adjust for the KK heat retention. My Chef Alarm temp probe is a high temp probe so the 500 deg is not a problem. I only wish it had remote capabilities!! Susan

One recommendation I would make is to use the port in the side of the KK near the lid which is for running your temperature wires to the food. This way you won't be pinching the wires when the lid is closed. Otherwise, it looks great. I'm happy to know you don't need a separate heat deflector to cook a turkey. Susan

Me too. I'm seriously considering buying the Anova immersion circulator for $200.00. Prices are really coming down.

Normstar: I think you needed the vents more open. One year with my turkey I had the top vent too closed and my Stoker was blowing like crazy to maintain 325 deg and I actually ran out of fuel during the cook.

It appears to be a badge of honor not to foil ribs in the amateur BBQ world but I just can't get them tender enough for my family's taste without a foil stage after the cooking is completed and they are resting for an hour or so in the foil. And that is not anything near "falling off the bone".