Dennis

Halo 4B is amazing you will love it. It’s a lot more than just a smash burger and breakfast maker. We just last night used it to blacken some swordfish steaks and wife said the best she ever had. Enjoy 😉

@jeffshoaf @Tyrus thanks guys for all the great info. Your cooks look amazing. We are building and my wife strongly suggested we wait until our new home is completed. She’s right the rental we are temporally living in has enough stuff to cook on. KK, 4B Halo, Fontana Pizza Oven. Isn’t is amazing how the cooking bug bites and we can’t get enough. Keep sharing and keep smoking!

Hey @DennisLinkletterDennis L - again thanks for the intel - now back from beautiful Cleveland, I do have a couple of questions as we wrap up this topic. Actually, I haven't had any issues starting the KK or dialing in a temp. I will however, only start the charcoal in the middle (1 orange size) moving forward per you suggestion. I don't use the lower grate for cooking low and slow only for searing either with the splitter or without. Agree, not interested in ramping up the temp to 600f - that was just a test and I was lucky I didn't have to chase the temp down since the KK was not yet heat soaked. One area for clarity is when we cook with the splitter in a 2 zone set up, I believe many others including myself may be doing this incorrectly. Scenario, right handed so cold side of splitter on my right. I have put the foil on the middle grate on the cold side and upper grate for the protein but ALSO on the cold side. I believe you wrote somewhere the best set up to eliminate uneven indirect cooks is to always cook on the coal or hot side separated by foil deflector in a 2 zone set up. Is this correct? Lately, I have not used the splitter and just cook indirect center grate top and deflector center middle. Seems to give me a better crispy outside or bark on beef. lastly, as far as having fun... I LOVE cooking in the KK any chance I can get.

Thanks @jeffshoaf for the intel and pic’s! Do you use a cover to keep rain out? Looks like it’s under some structure. You mention it’s your favorite to cook with. Is your KK primarily reserved for the long and slow smokes?

@Tyrus First let me thank you for your insightful reply. Even more your very enjoyable way of writing ✍️. Yes, I too buy up and over any budget set for most of my purchases as well. Research leads to more knowledge and well, you know the results, we justify the buy it once and get what you want. Or what we think we want. The KK was easy as a 20 year BGE smoker, it was clear how the superior build and engineering was going to up the game. However, the new bug for open wood flame grilling has bit and there is a lot of confusion in the due diligence process. Do we want a brasserio or is it complicating the cook and does it have drawbacks with regard to higher heat on the back wall to dial in? Fire management of the embers, not going to want to shovel hot embers out over my deck to distribute. And of course how do we plan to use it? Steaks primarily, roti chicken, ribs all seem like the sweet spot for this style of cook. How did you use yours? Sunterra also seems like a good product and plan to review Hooray as well. It is under a covered lanai so SS is a possibility. Thanks again and have a great weekend.

@Tyrus Bringing up an old post to find out how you are enjoying the Santa Maria? Which model did you purchase? Would you have changed anything. I am very interested in adding one to my outdoor kitchen set up. Seems like a fun cook for steak and ribs? TIA Dennis

My turn to apologize for a delayed reply to your very thoughtful post. I am away on business travel and have a couple of questions and will post later this week. Thank you @Dennis L.

Thank you @Cheesehead_Griller perhaps by letting the KK ramp up to 600F accomplished the same as your technique with charcoal chimney? Next time I will light from the center only and see how it goes. My concern is the same as you stated on long slow cooks. Next test...

Thank you @remi to your point this is what made my experience odd to me as I did light in 3 spots across the whole basket. And after reading the commentary, that maybe unnecessary. Perhaps to Dennis L point it won't make any difference as long as it does not go out completely during a long overnight low and slow cook. The draft was open on the top enough to hit target temp and control easily. I'm not a newbie to this style of cooking and very comfortable with draft control. To that end I intentionally used both left and right lower vent adjustments for that reason, thinking maybe I am having a draft issue, cracking one side. On the last cook I lit the basket the same way and let the ramp go to 600F which happened very quickly then shut down to target settings. Luckily the KK was not heat soaked yet and allowed for a fairly quick drop to my target temp, no chasing involved. Now what's interesting, when I looked at the basket this time following the cook albeit only 4 hrs. the basket burned evenly across. BTW I was using the KK Smoker so it was very obvious the top was open appropriately allowing for the smoke to exhaust out the top vent. Hey these KK's are beasts and I am only trying to dial in their idiosyncrasies'. I know it will happen and with the input from those on this forum with over a decade of experience.

@Tyrus as stated in last communication, the lump coal is not the issue at all. Its the best rated lump and was just opened. The coal was started actually very easily and I had no problem ramping to target temp. Just not happy about the only part of the basket that was active in my relatively short 5 hr cook was on one side.

Thanks @DennisLinkletter For clarity, the fire never went out. Never had trouble starting the kk or holding temps, my point is that the coal burn was on one side of the firebox in-spite of my lighting the entire basket at the end of a 5 hour cook. Of course it’s understood that we will only burn the amount of coal required for the cook. However with a grill at this caliber we are looking for a precise temp and uniform heat distribution without having to move around our proteins to cook evenly. Hence, the query on the forum since the KK is a different beast and the forum is a place to learn from folks with over a dozen years with the KK, where others have experienced the same. Most of us have experience with Kamado style cookers prior to owning a KK, mine is over 20 years with the BGE, so most understand the basics in draft control. Dialing in best practices will come, just trying to shorten the learning curve. @David Chang good question however, it is fresh lump kept indoors and dry.

@David Chang good question however, it is fresh lump kept indoors and dry.

@David Chang good question however, it is fresh lump kept indoors and dry. I use Rockwood lump and believe it’s top rated by naked wiz. Thanks David

Outside of semantics - half my charcoal basket extinguished itself during the cook, after being lit. The firebox doesn’t care if it indirect or direct. Why? Did the fire go out? Never had this in my prior 20 years with the BGE. So maybe we need to understand better process’s. Is it a build up of ash where the air vents are? Would be great to see more set up’s and cooks @DennisLinkletter from our pro. I did clean out the ash and let the lite go way past my target and it seems my charcoal had a much more even burn. It was too hot to really check tonight - will take pics in the AM. Check out the bark and color on these beef short ribs! Thats all that matters!

Thank you @tony b It is odd, I will see if overshooting my target during warm up (600f) will make any difference. Luckily it came down pretty quickly, since it didnt have a chance to fully soak. I lite with a blow torch in 3 spots as well. Also splitting the bottom vents between the two registers thinking that could have something to do with it.