Durangutan

I don’t recall where I saw it but there was a remark somewhere that the grills are now shipping in two crates. Again, I don’t recall whether the reason was to better facilitate shipping, storage at the import end, cost, a combination of these or something else entirely. Probably no coincidence, however, that this video recently appeared on YouTube.

Without hi-jacking Mr. Surrat’s thread any further, of course, I’d be happy to share if there is any interest in cooks on a live fire smoker. I offer fair warning, however, that I am a devout and unswerving disciple of the KISS method and, as such, everything I do is unremarkable in the extreme.

Thank you for the detailed response and it wasn’t late at all. It would have taken me that long just to type all of that! Very useful. I have never cooked on a kamado cooker of any kind and, to my knowledge, there is no kamado of any make as large as the KK 42 so the insight is doubly valued. Chief among my concerns about a large and heavily insulated cooker like this was the added time it takes to stabilize cooking temperatures which you have assuaged. I have a few live fire pits which, due to my familiarity with their characteristics and some impatience, I always commit the sin of starting cooks on long before the pit has stabilized so long as the cooking surface has reached a food safe temperature, the smoke has clarified and an unexpected trend hasn’t developed. Because it’s much easier to do a small cook on a larger cooker than the reverse, my own advice would be to get the largest cooker the budget will allow and I think it’s worth following. Thanks again for both the information and some reinforcement!

I wonder if you could expatiate on the uneven temperatures a bit? How much variation was there from left to right? Was a heat deflector of some kind in use, especially over the fire? If practical or possible, would centering the fire make any difference or merely move the hot zone to the center? Finally, would you estimate that the added mass of the 42” adds significantly to the time it takes to heat soak and stabilize at cooking temperatures and, if so, does that have any influence in your occasional wish to use a smaller grill? That’s a lot but thanks for anything you can offer. BTW, I’m partial to pebbles!

I built a pavilion a number of years ago also, in part, to shelter the cookers. Screened in, it is also a terrific outdoor refuge from the mosquitoes!

Hello BBQ and Kamado enthusiasts! It’s a new useless guy checking in. I’ve never cooked on a Kamado but I took an interest their versatility some time ago. I didn’t have to research much before I decided that I wouldn’t bother with one until I could get a Komodo. My curiosity recently piqued again so I’ve been lurking a bit and thought it polite to say “Hello” so the ice is broken should I get to a point where I can ask an intelligent question or two. Many thanks for the wealth of information I’ve so far gleaned here!