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JeffB

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Everything posted by JeffB

  1. Re: Say Goodbye to this Red forum I think the "setting" that is wrong is the one on your local machine that causes you to use IE On a serious note IE has a number of "compatibility" options you can experiment with to see if they make a difference with how the page renders for you. Don't ask me how to access them though as I don't use IE.
  2. Re: Say Goodbye to this Red forum "View Unread Posts" is at the top of all pages but is it possible to have it at the bottom as well? It is easier to get back to your unread posts if there is a link at the bottom of the page rather than scrolling back to the top (after having read the posts on a page). The other thing that is missing is a "mark all posts as read" link on the unread posts page. WIthout it you have to go into each post to "clear" it from your view even if you aren't interested. Maybe I am just missing it though.
  3. Re: High Temperature Proceedure
  4. Re: High Temperature Proceedure
  5. Agreed on the airflow problem. I use a process recommended by someone on this forum. You can probably search for "sear marks" and find the thread. Basically, you only put a little charcoal into the basket at first (only 1/4 full at absolute most). Pull your front and back doors out an inch or so and open your top damper at least 6 turns. Light the charcoal in four or five places with a weed burner, close the lid and in ten minutes or less you will have a raging inferno (be careful, if you get distracted and come back after too long it will be up in the 1000+ range). Once you come back pile on some more charcoal, close the lid, and in five minutes you are ready to sear the heck out of anything you want.
  6. Re: How long do you cook ribs?
  7. Congratulations on your first KK brisket cook. Everything looks great. Hopefully it tasted as good as it looks.
  8. Re: Hey Dennis, have you ever figured out..... You would also save a fortune by not having to ship the cookers over here. But, even then, I can't imagine the numbers would come close to working. 160 hours per cooker? Wow.
  9. Strange thing is it actually didn't really hurt. It instantly burned a crater and cauterized itself at the same time. The spot was numb but there really wasn't any pain. No real scar either so I consider the whole thing a nice warning. Yeah, there are a number of variables in the cost calculation, time being one of them. However, I suspect that the overall difference in "time to grill" would be negligible in the end. I suspect that flame size is probably more important than temperature, at least at the temperature differentials we are talking about for MAPP versus propane. But the only way to know for sure would be to experiment (which would probably be pretty fun). On the actual dollar side of things the difference between propane and MAPP is a couple bucks for a small bottle in my area. The cost difference is much more dramatic if you refill your own small propane bottles (as someone linked to in another thread). You might be able to do that with MAPP as well but I can't say I have seen large containers of MAPP. A welding supply shop/gas supplier probably stocks that but I imagine the costs would be pretty high. The ubiquity of propane definitely has some advantages, but as you said, a lot of torches can take both so why not have fun experimenting.
  10. I first used a TS4000 for lighting my fire since I already had it. Then I ran into some popping charcoal and managed to be lucky enough to have a lit piece pop up into the air and land just beyond my gauntlet gloves burning a dime sized crater in my arm. I went out the next day and bought a JT850. The long reach makes it much safer to use. It is also more relaxing since you can rest the torch tube on the lip of the cooker while you wait for it to light. The higher the temperature the more likely charcoal is to pop. That is why I use propane instead of MAPP. Besides, propane is a heck of a lot cheaper.
  11. I am sorry to hear about your delivery woes Andrew. Hopefully it will all get resolved soon. Waiting can be painful, even more so with all the difficulty you have been having. Agree with Doc. A second smaller KK (even smaller than a Lil Isla) would be nice. Having two grills going makes a reverse sear more than just a big pain in the butt.
  12. Pretty sure it stands for "Outside The Box", as in the shape of the OTB required outside the box thinking given that most other kamado designs are round. It is a term specific to the KK and not a generic ceramic term either way.
  13. Re: Lump sorter? I can't say I have heard of anyone building such a thing but it is a big world so who knows. The Naked Whiz separates things into three categories so you might want to go that way. Either way, assuming your mesh is the right size, you have enough room between the different tiers and you have the ability to shake the whole thing I don't see why it wouldn't work. As for me, I will just stick to dumping the lump into the cooker from the bag. Haven't had any problems yet and building/using a sorter seems like more work than it would be worth. My two cents.
  14. I always shoot for 195 when I do pork butts. No real reason to go any higher in my mind. I have also pulled at 185 when I was running low on time and everything was fine. Pork butts are very forgiving. For temp control, be sure to limit the amount of fiddling you do and be patient. The KK is like a freighter -- it takes a lot to move her so any adjustment takes time to show results. I personally find it easier to tweak temperature using the top damper only. Once you get the bottom damper dialed in (according to the guidelines in the manual) you can fine tune with just the top damper. You would be surprised how big of a difference even an 1/8 of a turn makes.
  15. I have never tried Real Montana Lump although it certainly sounds like it is worth a try. It is a little expensive as an everyday charcoal especially when you factor in shipping which tends to be high for charcoal. The nice thing about the doitbest.com deal is shipping is free if you ship it to a local affiliate store. And they have Royal Oak which is generally considered the standard by which other charcoals are measured. NW has a review on Royal Oak so check it out. I also use a 100% hardwood briquette sold at Trader Joe's (search for it to find some previous discussions here) which is good although it tends to be a little ashy. Either way, it doesn't hurt to try them all and see what you like. Good luck.
  16. Haha. Waiting can be painful but I can't say I have ever resorted to writing songs about it Looking forward to smelling the smoke drifting my way.
  17. Welcome to the forum It is nice to hear of another KK gracing the nation's capital. I think we are up to three now.
  18. Works great but be careful I decided to try this on some strips steaks I recently bought. Based on my experience I can definitely say this technique works, but you need to be very careful. My normal grilling procedure is almost exactly what cruizmisl describes with the only exception being how much charcoal is initially used and the fact I don't pile on more -- I just load the basket all the way to the top at the beginning. With my normal procedure I get decent temps but nothing that really puts great sear marks on meat without resorting to the lower/sear grills (not as convenient as the main grill). So, following cruzmisl's advice I nearly emptied the charcoal basket (from a previous cook) leaving only a small layer of charcoal. After my normal lighting procedure I then closed her up and went to go get the steaks ready. I wish I would have kept better track of time so I could give exact numbers, but I came back sometime between 5 and 10 minutes. The dome thermometer read 800F!. Oops. I opened her up and piled a little more charcoal on top and then went to grab the steaks. I figured the temperature would go down some (at least for a little bit) after introducing new charcoal so I didn't close down the dampers just yet. When I came back only a few minutes later with the steaks the dome temperature was 1000F! Double oops. I quickly closed down the dampers to get things under control. I like to oil the grates to clean them before putting food on. This time the grill grates were so hot that the oil immediately burst into flames when I wiped them down. My end results looked like this: It is a good thing Dennis builds a cooker that can handle these temps but next time I will be sure to monitor things a little more carefully. Either way, I now realize that it is all about the airflow stupid.
  19. Great looking site. I am confused by food porn picture 146 though... they don't looked cooked enough to qualify as food yet
  20. Agree with Doc on bending the probe. I did that and have had no problems. I could probably stand to bend mine a little more since it still takes a little work to get it in but it hasn't bothered me enough to care. The dome temp versus grill temp difference usually ends up being 25 degrees or so for me. You have to be careful where you put the grill probe. Too close to the edge and it will be reading the hot air coming around the deflector. Too close to the meat and you will be reading too low due to the meat being cold. Since you had the bird in a pan I can't imagine that latter was a problem for you though unless the pot itself was cold. Great looking bird.
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