JeffB

I have a Maverick ET-73 and would definitely recommend it. With a KK, you can dial in the cooker temperature pretty easily, but for any low and slow you need something to monitor the temperature of the meat and it can't involve lifting the lid and poking. Pretty much any temp monitor can do that but with the ET-73 I can do it from within the comfort of my house. Most of the reviews talk about probe longevity issues but I haven't had any problems. Just take care of them and don't run high temps and you should be good.

Re: Same configuration My cedar planks say to soak them for 20 minutes to 4 hours. So, in addition to T Rex's suggestion I might suggest you soak them for a period of time shorter than the hour you are currently doing. That should get you smoke faster.

Re: I should have said "Plank Charring" I am afraid you are going to me serving your guests carry out if you plank fish on the sear grill. The sear grill is way too close to the fire and I would imagine your plank would go up in flames in short order. The lower grill might work fine but I can't say for sure since I have never tried to plank anything. Your comment about not pre-heating so much seems like a reasonable thing to try. Since your guest came over yesterday, what did you do and how did it go?

One thing that might be getting in my way of getting sear marks on the main grill is that I like to oil my grill grates just before I put food on. This helps clean the grates (biggest reason) but also prevents food from sticking, although for a steak, sticking is not likely. I wonder how much I cool the grate surface down by oiling them? I will have to pull out my infrared thermometer and test that out next time. Anyone know what the minimum temperature the grill surface needs to be in order to get sear marks? I imagine it varies with food type but it would be nice to know the general ballpark in which things happen... off to google...

Re: How to grill on a KK - a tutorial I had some South American charcoal that popped like crazy when lighting. When I was lighting it one time a piece flew up into the air and landed just beyond my gauntlet leather gloves, It instantly burned a cavity in the skin of my forearm about a centimeter in diameter. I was using a handheld torch just like you have in the picture. I immediately went out and bought a Bernzomatic JT850 (found it at my local Lowe's). It has a nice long reach to it and I can now stand well away when lighting. Thanks for the tutorial. I will have to try lighting just a little charcoal and then piling a little more on once lit. I normally pile the charcoal all the way to the top (the more the better right ) but I may be holding back the airflow. Will let you know how it goes.

I have to sympathize with the issue inacoma is trying to solve. The KK is a low-n-slow machine out of the box but grilling has presented me with some issues. I would love to use the main grill because it has the most capacity and the most even heat, but I have never been able to get a sear mark on that grill. So I typically use the lower grill for things like steaks and chicken breasts. However, even with a raging fire I have problems getting sear marks on food on the outer edges of the lower grill. To me it makes sense because the firebox pushes the fire a couple inches in from the sides. So, you ultimately have to move food around and juggle which one has been over high heat and which hasn't which is a pain. Ideally, I would have two grills, one set up for sear and the other low heat but that is just wishful thinking on my part. Are there techniques that people use to get sears marks on the main grill? When doing grilling with the lower grill I normally load up the basket with charcoal up to nearly the lip of the firebox. Then I light the coals in 6-8 different places using a propane weed burner and pull out the damper doors an inch or so. I usually give the fire 15-30 minutes to really get going and heat up the grill surface. I guess I could do the same thing with the main grill and just give the fire longer to heat things up but I would rather not waste fuel if I don't have to. My favorite part of the KK is the fact that you can shut it down and still have tons of fuel left for the next cook.

I had (and still have until I can sell it) a gas grill with a dedicated natural gas hookup prior to buying a KK. I had gone with a gas grill a number of years ago over charcoal options (didn't know about ceramics at the time) because of the convenience factor. What I ended up discovering is that gas grills are not as convenient as I thought. What you trade for ease of use up front you pay for in all sorts of ways in the long term. The taste is an obvious one (charcoal cooked food just tastes better) but the one I never thought of at the time was cleanup. With charcoal, you just sweep/suck out the ash and you are done. With gas, you have grease drip cups (which on my gasser was so small that it always overflowed and made a mess) coupled with the "flavorizer" bars and grill internals that get covered in grease that is just a royal pain to clean. I will trade sweeping up a little ash now and again over scrubbing nasty grease-covered metal parts with a whole hosts of chemicals any day. And at the end of the day, the startup of a charcoal grill is just as easy. Dump charcoal into the basket and blast it with a weed burner torch for a minute or so. Come back in 15 minutes and you have a fire ready to go. And the fire will probably be hotter than the gasser too. The only really convenient thing about my gasser was never having to worry about having enough fuel on hand. Of course, I paid dearly for the privilege of having a dedicated gas hookup and ultimately it was probably never worth it. As usual, YMMV.

Pulled Pork Fajitas I tend not to eat pulled pork sandwiches. Instead, when I cook a butt I use the pork in fajitas (fools me into thinking it is mildly healthy for me ). Any leftovers are thrown into vacuum seal bags that get tossed in the freezer and pulled out when I want more fajitas. The pork stays good for a long time so I never cook a single butt. Cooking two is very little extra work compared to one.

Grease Monster Come To Life? mguerra, after seeing a photo of your "used" lava rock deflector a while back (which unfortunately I can't find via search) I wouldn't be surprised if all the junk on your top damper was the remnants of a failed escape attempt of some new species of grease monster. Perhaps that amorphous mound of charred grease and goo achieved sentience, climbed up the walls of the cooker and failed to make it all the way through the gasket, its poor melted remains left to gum up the works. You murderer!

I am unclear why you would ever want to glue the plug in place. It is designed to come out so you can run the probe (or probes) through the hole. I guess you have poked a hole through your plug to run the probe through but it is a lot simpler just to pull the plug out, run the probe(s), and then loosely insert the plug again to close up the hole (doesn't need to be airtight). I have a curved probe and it is actually impossible to get the probe to the inside of the cooker without removing the plug completely.

Nothing planned here except for lots of snow shoveling

Ah, maybe I am mixing my terms and confusing things. The pump on my unit continues to run during the sealing process (at a slightly reduced rate). I can see how this would be good, but it has always bugged me. If the pump weren't so loud then I wouldn't mind but given the noise I usually just want the thing to shutup and finish. I also have an "Instant Seal" button that can be thought of as a manual seal but the only way to use it is to first activate the pump and then press the button to start the seal. I would rather have a seal option that doesn't require the pump to activate at all. Too bad they don't list noise levels on the feature list for each unit. I assume they could but are too embarrassed to do so

Given what they charge for even "normal" steaks I hope you were pleased... 10 times more pleased at the very least given their prices relative to Costco/Wegmans/etc. I have never been able to get over the sticker shock for places like that to even try. It is kinda strange though, they list Harry Caray's Steakhouse as one of their customers but the cost of a steak I had there (cooked with side dishes) was less than the cost of one from the Allen Brothers website. I guess that is the power of volume buying and/or high shipping costs (assuming shipping is included in their prices). Oh well, good luck with whatever you decide Loquitur.

I have a Foodsaver (Vac 1200) and it seems to work fine. My only issues are that it is insanely loud and also can't seal without activating the pump. Do higher end Foodsaver units have be same issues?

Based on possible complications coupled with the fact that the charcoal was actually taking up too much room in my garden shed, I decided to buy a dedicated deck box to store my charcoal. The box can hold 130 gallons and perfectly fits my charcoal stash plus various bags of smoking wood/pellets I have. Of course, now I have a limit on the amount of charcoal I can horde... but then again that might be a good thing

I recently stocked up on some Royal Oak Lump (thanks to Loquitor's tip) but have now run out of room for storing it in my garage. As a result, I decided to move it all into my garden shed. The shed is a plastic shed and has been perfectly dry in the year I have had it so I am not worried about that. However, I store pesticides/herbicides and lawn equipment (with full gas tanks) out there and am wondering if I might run into problems. The place doesn't reek but you can definitely smell chemicals when you open up the door. I plan on getting a deodorizer for the space but was wondering if anyone had experience with a similar situation. Activated charcoal is used to pick up odors but does lump charcoal still in the bag do the same? Short of physical exposure (i.e., spilling) am I likely to run into problems?

Loquitur++ Thanks for the tip Loquitur. I have been unable to find anything but Cowboy locally (or 100% hardwood briquettes) and have really wanted to try Royal Oak. My local ship to store affiliate is a little further than Cook_Shack's but still better than nothing. Is the Royal Oak you received the real deal Made in the USA stuff?

The important thing to understand is that not everything that can make you sick (or kill you) can be killed by heat. The waste products of bacteria and byproducts of molds (mycotoxins) are not effected by the temperatures you would cook food to. Plenty of people around the world wouldn't bat an eyelash about leaving meat out over night and they aren't dropping like flies. However, if you can avoid it by just leaving it in the fridge, I don't see why you would take the chance.

It was the host's fault The host really set you up on that one. She even took the time to make it more pornographic by manipulating the roast opening for better stuffing. Too funny.

This is a BBQ forum... isn't someone supposed to wonder how it tastes?

Good timing on your part. For anyone else interested in a Mac (or any other Apple product really), be sure to check out the Mac Buyer's Guide before purchasing so you don't get caught buying just before new products are released. Apple has a habit of giving you more for the same price or less that previous products.

If your filter is so gunked up that you do want to replace it, I would not buy one from Shop Vac. Check out Cleanstream instead. They have a much better build quality and the filters are coated so that dust does not stick. But, if you are using a good high quality bag then it doesn't make that much of a difference.