MadMedik

Re: Baby Back Ribs Low and Slow or Turbo Both will work. If you have the time, low and slow on the KK are quite good. I am currently 1 hour into low and slow at 250 with 3 slabs of St Louis style ribs. From what i have read and just a little experience with ribs on KK, I am planning to cook these at least 4 hours, closer to 5 most likely. Like you, the ADD does kick in and one thinks you got take them off...don't over cook them. However, the last 5 hour cook like this they were moist, tender, and delicious. I will fight the ADD and go for 5 hours... good luck

Re: Naming of a KK ? Don't rush to name your KK. It will come to you and just feel right. Should the name come up around friends, dont be ashamed about it. It represents a passion for cooking and perfection that we all are looking to achieve in the backyard. My KK's name, Kahlan, is a fictional character who represented Truth, Beauty, Perfection, and a woman all men would desire to know. How could I not name her Kahlan....I suppose I could have named her Patty, but she is already my wife !

Hello, In the publicity section of our Forum, there is an "About.com" rating of top 10 Grills. Of course, Komodo Kamado was rated #3. No surprise. However, see the grill rated #4....The EVO Grill: (see link provided below) http://bbq.about.com/od/grills/tp/aatp062907a.htm While absolutely nothing like a Kamado style cooker or smoker or BBQ, I am intrigued with the EVO Grill. I have watched many YouTube videos about it. Called some dealers about them. It seems pretty cool. I have not found any "reviews by users" on the internet. My question to Forum...have any of you ever bought, used, or seen one of these Grills in action? Any Friends you know that may have one? I am considering purchasing one. It is pricey to say the least, however on this forum...price is not always an inhibitor when looking for perfection and quality products. We know Komodo Kamado has the perfections, quality, and 'price'. Oh yeah, it in no way replaces the KK. It is an addition to my cooking arsenal. I would NEVER get rid of KK Do i need this? NO Do I need the KK? No...well, probably YES? Thanks for checking it out. MadMedik

Re: On the Fence...Need Advice! Buy it and when you have buyers remorse I will buy from you for $2000, no questions asked. It is pretty safe to say this as you won't have remorse. Look me up if you do

Re: Wood Chips/Chunks For a long slow cook I will put three or four chunks in and throughout the basket so not all burn at same time. This has worked well for me. For a quick hot cook I will drop 2 chunks on top of hot coals as food goes on..the amount depends on your tastes.

Re: Chris Lilly's 4-Stage Ribs Those look great. I will check the recipe out. Try Chris's rub for pulled pork as well....oh my God. The wife goes crazy for them. First thing out of most peoples mouth is "oh my God"!

Re: New KK just arrived in Boca Raton, FL Congrats and welcome!

Re: Rollin....Rollin....Rollin CA to oHIo! Pork Shots/Shooters link I mentioned: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showt ... erid=22657 They were good. I did not put enough brown sugar on mine. Next time I will load up with sugar !

Re: Rollin....Rollin....Rollin CA to oHIo! Congrats! I waited a week before buying...you waited a year! Somewhere in between sound about right probably. You will love it! It is amazing. Last night I did high temp searing of hamburgers, let it cool down for about 30 minutes, then low and slow at 250 for 2 more hours cooking a sausage/bacon/cream cheese "pork shooter" I read about on another forum. One load of lump, over 3 hours of burn time, and still had more lump to burn. It is so versatile and easy to use!!

Re: Am I Crazy ? I only have a KK , never had a green egg. I think I am crazy...you must be really crazy!!! LoL Can't speak to the green eggs but I love the KK. Sounds like you already took the bait, just a matter of time before Dennis reels you in. I have no regrets.

Re: Rocket It is a beautiful KK. Dont second guess decision to keep it. Wow! Congrats and thanks to Slu

Re: Father's day special: Smoked Prime Rib Hephaestus and Others, For the Prime Rib cook, what were your temps and how long did you cook...hours / pound. I am considering doing a Prime Rib Roast....very large....for Christmas and family. Would love suggestions on how long and what temp to cook. Thanks MadMedik

Re: Food capacity Here is my latest pork butt cook 8 Butts, average of 6.2 pounds.... 4 on bottom (hard to see) and 4 on top rack. Started at 10pm, took off around 7:30a.m. next day. I would not want to put a 9th on...it would have been really tight which ever grill it went on. I would have been concerned about even airflow and distribution. Maybe it would not have mattered???? n66963

Re: KK as a smoker? I just did some 'smoked salmon', huge fillets from Costco. Filled up both the main grill and the upper grill (4 huge fillets). I cooked low and slow...for me that is about 180 to 190 degrees, for about 3 hours or so...my goal being 145 degree internal temp or a bit higher if like it drier. Used deflector stone, 2 or 3 pieces of Alder Wood, home made marinade....very tasty. Cut up in 22 pieces, vacuum seal packages, freeze for another day. The first time the fillets had skin on 1 side, so i just put Pam on grill, put skin side down and it did not stick at all. Cooked on the main grill. The last time, my fillets had NO skin, so i did put just enough foil down to match width of fillets. I also put Pam on foil. Used both grills. These did not stick either. My father did 1 huge fillet on his KK, forgot the foil, and his came off grill quite nicely...no sticking I have given to several people to try. Everyone love it. KK is a great smoker

Re: Cooking salmon I just did some 'smoked salmon', huge fillets from Costco. Filled up both the main grill and the upper grill (4 huge fillets). I cooked low and slow...for me that is about 180 to 190 degrees, for about 3 hours or so...my goal being 145 degree internal temp or a bit higher if like it drier. Used deflector stone, 2 or 3 pieces of Alder Wood, home made marinade....very tasty. Cut up in 22 pieces, vacuum seal packages, freeze for another day. The first time the fillets had skin on 1 side, so i just put Pam on grill, put skin side down and it did not stick at all. Cooked on the main grill. The last time, my fillets had NO skin, so i did put just enough foil down to match width of fillets. I also put Pam on foil. Used both grills. These did not stick either. My father did 1 huge fillet on his KK, forgot the foil, and his came off grill quite nicely...no sticking As for cooking it for a fish dinner to eat as main course, i have not yet done Salmon this way. I only like salmon when smoked...

Okay, you may have read the rather long post about my 8 pork butt cook. Long and short of that story is that while lighting my fire at 9pm, getting it to 250 degrees and starting my cook at 10pm my coals were completely burned out by 0800 the next morning.... I know, this is nearly sacreligious to say such a thing...the KK can burn for days at 250. I don't dispute that, but here are the before and after pictures: Before: ( i guess i should quit turning my camera...sorry for sideways pic) After cook: The coals were full up to the top ring of the fire basket. The problem as i see it was that my Royal Oak charcoal bags had very few large pieces, a small amount of medium, and tons of smalls. I would say i had about 15% large (or less), 30% mediums, and 55% smalls... LOTS of smalls. If you read my post on the cook, I used the Stoker system...had difficult time re-establishing desired Temp after putting meat on, then the fluctuation of TEMPS throughout the night was terrible....+/- 10 degrees over several hours...then the Blower blew for nearly the last 2 hours without stopping....and the heat of the KK was declining. When done with the cook, and look down inside the coal basket, I had 1 little piece of charcoal in the basket. Good thing the meat was done. I know Dennis says this should not be possible. I can tell you the temps did not get too high and burn too fast. I did not have the lid cracked open (not closed fully). the blower blew alot during this cook. Perhaps this causes the fuel to burn faster? Lots of small pieces....i think they generally burn faster than large pieces of coals?? I don't know. Any thoughts on my empty basket of coals with less than 12 hours of trying to maintain 250??? Thanks

Well, my brother had asked me to cook pulled pork for his Mens Group Retreats Saturday Night Dinner (approximately 45 men). How could I say no? I had cooked 8 and 7 butts/shoulders before so this should be a piece of cake. Previously I had not taken pictures...this time i did. Here are the 8 pieces of pork prior to getting doused with Chris Lillys World Championship pork rub, and of course the apple juice injection: I seasoned on Thursday night, cooked them on Friday night. My last big cook i had forgotten to take the meat out of the refrigerator early so they went on cold, right out of refrigerator. This time I took out 2 hours before cooking. First cook, the total cook time was right at 13 hours. I planned for this cook to be the same, however it only went 9 1/2 hours and i easily could have removed at 9 hours...and these pieces were actually bigger pieces of meat then the first cook. The difference in cook time....NOT SURE, however I highly suspect that the meat being nearly room temperature (not right out of refrigerator) was the difference. Since the meat was warmer to start, it did not take as long to cook?? I did not think of this prior to the cook. Would you guys agree? Oh, cook temp was 250 this time....previous cook started at 230, then i began increasing temps because it seemed to be going slow...and ended up at 260 for last hour or two. I used Indirect Stone also Here is the meat on the grill racks: 8 butts here The meat just fit. I dont really think I would want to try 9 or more...8 seems to be perfect...4 at middle rack, 4 at upper rack. I had several things occur that were interesting and I would like some feedback if you have a mind to... First, I used the Stoker System to control the heat. I had the fire going for about 1 hour before adding the meat. It was very stable, solid at 250 degrees. I put the meat on, which took several minutes, with the lid open and of course more air, more heat. However, once I closed the lid, the temp bottomed out just below 200...and slowly, slowly got back up to 250....it took about 1 hour for the temp to reach 250. The Stoker blower was on nearly constant for this 1 hour. Based on my limited experience, the KK generally recovers to its desired temp after opening/closing fairly quickly. I would have thought within 10 minutes or so this would have occurred here. But, with So Much meat on 2 racks, I just figure it took a lot long. Not as much room inside, air flow not as efficient, and it just took longer.... Does that make sense to you all? Oh, the Pit (heat) Sensor was on main grill, not touching any meat and had an inch or so clearance on either side... Another oddity with this cook is the Stoker Graph and the temperature that was maintained, or NOT maintained during the night. Previous cooks, while using the Stoker, my Temps varied by about +/- 2 or 3 degrees from the desired Temp all night. The graphing of the Temps was nearly a straight line and vary consistent. For this cook, I thought my KK was going in to V-Fib....Very Coarse waves graphing the Temps. The temps varied +/- 10 degrees throughout the night. Not really desirable or good. In fact, my low limit alarm setting was at 240 degrees...meaning if the Temp goes below 240, set off alarm on computer and wake my sleeping butt up...well it did. I reset lower limit to 235, figured this was a fluke and i would allow 5 more degrees decrease before going outside in the middle of the night. The Stoker recovered and got my temps close to 250 again.... I did notice in the middle of the night that the Meat Thermometers were raising faster than anticipated, 1 in particular. by 0600 one probe read 195....meat done...but the others were still low 180s....so i figured that probe was just inserted poorly and i kept cooking, not removing the 1 butt at 195. I realized later, like around 0700, that the Stoker Graph Chart was indicating my Blower had been on continuously since 0500...for 2 HOURS it had been blowing, yet my Temp was slowly decreasing...not staying the same and not getting hotter. This is NOT suppose to happen...remember, you have fuel, and when you had more air, the fire gets hotter....mine was decreasing in Temps...could I be running out of fuel??? So about 0730 I could not stand it any longer....the 2 other meat probes were reading 192 and actually starting to go down with the decreasing temps of the fire. I have pulled the meat from KK before at 185...so i figured at 190ish it would have to do... i pulled one off the KK, the bone came out extremely easy, so i decided it was all done. Pulled them all off, double wrapped in foil, put in Preheated IceChest, topped with a a blanket...completely done with cook by 0800. I was not suppose to be done until 11:00am or 12:00pm. I finished 3 to 3 1/2 hours earlier than anticipated. The good part of it was the meat got to rest in the foil until 17:00 hours...much longer than i wanted of course, and the meat was GREAT. Moist, tender, and tasty. 43 men had a filling dinner and were able to snack on it several more times during the night. So you may ask....did i run out of fuel and was that the cause of my Temps decreasing, even while the blower was blowing continuously for 2 hours? See next post about THAT ! Thanks for reading. Feedback welcome !

Re: Side Accessory Plate Grill Hangers Dennis, these are conceptionally great. However, what if you have side tables already mounted on the grill. Can you still have the hanging device and the side tables. I find the need to use something like this when prepping my KK for a cook...such as loading new coals or cleaning up a bit. However, to hang on these for an extended period of time would not be ideal. I like the look of my KK without grills hanging from it. One of my biggest challenges has been what to do with the darn grills between cooks or when all are not needed. Once they are used a bit, they are dirty, greasy, and always put stains on the wall when i lean against them or on the ground/cement when i lay them down. My wife doesn't like either. I have searched the internet for such grill holders and have yet to find anything. The closest i have found are Wreath Hanger Stands that one would put out at your front door during the holidays and hang a wreath. While good for wreaths, i don't think they would withstand heavy grills, certain not 2 , or even 3 at one time. Optimally, a detached grill hanger would be best. Perhaps even something on wheels, and throw in a few extra smaller hooks to hang basting tools, grill floss, salt and pepper shakers, and the like....and you would have a great thing. I saw a bbq device that could attach via a clamp to a table or KK side table, that had places to put tools, even a paper towel rack... If the upper portion were for accessories, the lower portion could hold up to 3 racks and it were on wheels...then you got a winner... just a thought....

Re: Happy Camper in South Dakota Well said. Welcome!!

Re: New KK on the way to Manassas VA So what's the first cook? Congrats by the way!!

Re: Would you have cooked this Chicken? There were no innards remaining. I did not put it under the sink and wash, but I Did rub on it to see if it would come off. It would not. It was very much in the meat.

Re: Using a Dutch Oven (cast iron) on the KK?Anyone use the Just for clarification, according to internet, this is what the Potjie Pots look like....

Re: Norwegian Meatballs in Dutch Oven Sounds fantastic... will print for future cook...

Re: Roti install question Help Awesome...thanks for saving the day.

I am just dying to use a dutch oven, cast iron cookware, on the KK. I don't even have such a pot/oven. Does anyone regularly, or somewhat regularly use one on the KK? I am considering the enamel coated pots...not the traditional cast iron only. Seems they are easier to maintain and clean. Does enamel NOT work on the KK well, or does it matter really?? Any recipes, or suggestions? Do they work well on the KK? I am thinking of stews, beef or pork roasts, chili, etc... on the KK. Just saw a nice "pulled pork" recipe on the internet using such a pot in the house oven. Sounded great. About a 6 hour cook or so. Thinking this could be converted to the KK... thanks