Firemonkey

Re: Pinwheeled Pork Loin Roast I made some hotdogs and brats that I dug out from the back of the freezer - does that count

Re: KK question Jealous? That grill is still going strong! I gave it away and it still hasnt lost its time or fallen apart!

Re: Best Smoking Methods With KK? That picture was taken when the grill was much newer than it is now:

Re: Best Smoking Methods With KK? Mix the wood chunks throughout your lump basket when you fill it with charcoal. That way, as the fire burns through the charcoal, it also comes across a new wood chunk.

Re: KK question I considered deleting it this am...which I can do, but left it figuring someone who could ban the ip (which i cant do)would come along.

Re: Just in time for the summer... Did we ever see prices on those cabinets, or a series of finished product pics showing the inside?

Re: KK question Yeah, I had to move those scallops in a bit more, not because they werent cooking fine (they were cooked fine), but to quickly brown them a little. You have to consider how we were cooking that morning. We wanted a hot, fast cook to do some quick grilling, so the grill itself did not get heat soaked. This means we had a bunch of heat directly above the fire, but not a lot radiating off the side walls yet. So I think the answer to your question is both yes and no. There can be a difference, under some circumstances, and to me this is a good thing. It is nice to have some variance, to shuffle things in or out of the hot zone - when someone wants their steak cooked to a higher temp, for example, you might spend longer at the moderate temps to not burn the crust. But that variance gets smaller as you move to more of a roasting or low/slow situation, since the walls of the grill and the fire all try to equalize to the same temps given enough time. My regular steak routine, has me cooking baked potatoes for about 45 minutes before opening up the fire to sear the steaks. This means the interior walls of the grill are pretty close to the 400 degrees I have been using for the spuds. When I open up the airflow to sear, I have to put the potatoes all the way up against the back corners, away from the fire to keep them from scorching. And in this case, the flame temp when searing would have been a few hundred degrees higher too since it would have been an hour old fire at that point - that video was filmed fairly quickly on a Saturday morning. I am usually more leisurely when I am making meals, and do sides as well - another reason a little variance can be a feature. My best advice, go visit a KK in your area. I am happy to show mine anytime, and with a day or two notcie I will even cook or let you try cooking on it. Most forum regulars are happy to do the same. I visited a local owner before I opened my wallet - In fact, if you search my posts and look back when I first joined, I was the worlds biggest skeptic! I was waiting for Dennis to ban me because I had a different model of ceramic grill before this one, and lets just say it was not a happy experience. I did some serious due diligence before buying.

Re: Chicken Fat - Split from First Rotis Cook topic. Well, it was the best chicken ever. I am still on the fence with the full open top, though. It has produced DAMN good chicken both times, but it still requires the bottom airflow to be tended in order to maintain a temp, but the full exhaust from the top is definitely providing a cleaner flavor. This was a couple of whole bone-in breasts, and a boneless/skinless, along with some "loaded" crashed potatoes. Of course, I didn't realize I was out of bacon until I went to put it on them -doh! They turned out tasting great in the grill, but I couldnt get the tops browned - either because of the walls on the pan, or I needed higher dome temps. They were still damn tasty, just not golden brown on top.

Re: Chicken Fat - Split from First Rotis Cook topic. I am trying it again today. Since we know that there is a decent degree of flame/heat control with the top open, I am going to try it with more of a pit BBQ flavor. I didnt have time to stop and get a whole fresh chicken to quarter, so I thawed a few whole breast halves, and a boneless skinless for my ever_health_conscious wife. I have them marinating in something close to the roadside chicken recipe that LarryR posted, and will do the frequent mop and flip over high direct heat. The frequent mopping, with everything dripping in the fire should be about perfect. I expect that this might be some of the best chicken ever.

Re: First anniversary of my 50th Birthday! Happy anniversary Dennis! But really, is it the 1st anniversary of your 50th? Personally, I think I am on the 15th year of my 26th. Or maybe this year I will celebrate the 12th anniversary of my 30th - I am feeling a bit older lately. I like this idea...if we just claim our mental age, people will quit telling us to grow up or act our age

Re: Smoking tips Use any kind of charcoal you prefer as your primary fuel. For most of us, that is lump charcoal, but briquettes are acceptable as well. You can use wood for smoke and flavoring, but it wont work as a primary fuel.

Re: Smoking tips There is your bitterness, as well as your temp control issue. Try loading the basket with lump charcoal with only a little wood mixed in. KKs are way too airtight to be burning raw wood. When you see people with offset smokers loading in the raw wood, you have to remember that it is burning the wood much hotter, and then all that smoke goes right past the food and up the stack. Your KK smolders the wood in a low air environment, and then the smoke lingers around on the food for a long time before escaping. That is also why your temp is hard to control, the raw wood requires enough airflow to sustain a burn, and so does lump charcoal. But since your wood is raw, that burn means flames, which are not conducive to low temps. Switch to lump charcoal and you will be amazed at how much better things are. You might also consider loading a basket of lump, and letting it burn at 475 for a couple hours. You probably have some creosote buildup in your grill, that will eventually flake off. Better to let this happen when its not full of food

Re: are cloth awnings over a KK ok? Depends... Is your insurance agent going to be coming over for a cookout? More seriously, i think you are fine. Like Syzyzgies said, your KK is not going to radiate a lot of scorching heat. Even if you use a ton of smoke, its not going to rise straight up to the awning. Even in the slightest of breeze, the smoke is going to be blown away before it reaches your cover - assuming your cover is up high enough, and doesnt contain deep side walls.

Re: Chicken Fat - Split from First Rotis Cook topic. It was really good. I tossed a handful of peach twigs in with it, and let is smoke away. The smoke was definitely less concentrated. Probably a good thing too, since as soon as I had put the chicken on the grill, my wife started with her "dont make it too smokey" complainin'. I thought it came out awesome, with a little pink smoke ring on it. She thought it was smoky, but the kids didn't - read that however you want. I didnt mop or do anything to this one, because I wanted to see if it had any grease taste. Normally I marinate the bird in oil and cider vinegar before I cook it, but this was straight up McCormick Monteal chicken seasoning. I plan to try this method a few more times soon.

Re: Chicken Fat - Split from First Rotis Cook topic. well, I tried it. I loaded about half a basket of RO lump, got it well lit and stirred it up a few times, then filled the basket and stirred it up some more. After about 30-45 minutes it was clear that I wasnt going to be cooking with the lower dial all the way closed, just not enough air, and too much heat loss from the top to quickly heat soak the grill. It wanted to choke back to the 200* neighborhood with it closed. This wasnt too much of a surprise. So I opened up the dial all the way, and got it up to the 350 range, and added my food. As everything finished heat soaking, it did creep up to around 400, which is right where I wanted it, so I started dialing back the lower airflow. After an hour or so of cooking, the dial was down to about 1/4 open, and still rock-steady at 395*. After I took off the chicken, I needed some higher heat to quickly grill some zucchini planks, so ope slid the lower door open, and got the typical "hells inferno" of fire. I had this going for a couple of minutes, but it was just too damn hot, so I had to choke it back. Now, here is what is interesting. When I went inside to eat, I thought I had closed the grill, but had only closed the lower dial. So an hour or so after I closed the grill, I am driving around and mowing my lawn, and keep smelling dinner cooking. (BTW, the smells coming out of the grill during this cook were enough to make me want to do it again!) So I stopped the mower by the grill, and as I got off I realized the top was still full open. But now, after having the grill hot for a couple of hours, and the raging fire for a few minutes, before killing the bottom dial, it was still solid at 400*. So this trial has my curiosity piqued. I will be trying it again, and I think that you do have a reasonable degree of control from the lower dial with the top fully open. It is clear that you can control within a range, based on the level of existing heat/fire present. What will be interesting is to see is for how long each range is stable - because I had it holding both 200 and 400 with no lower airflow, just based on the residual heat and amount of lump ignited. Its absolutely viable for grilling - i put my chicken on the upper grill and let it drip in the fire. NO sooty chicken grease taste at all. I would be curious to let something like a stoker try to control the fire from below. Since the stoker has a flap to close the tube when the fan is off. And since you now have one... Flipped the chicken after about 40 minutes, and let it go another 15-20

Re: Chicken Fat - Split from First Rotis Cook topic. YEAH! That was the discussion! Since you confirmed that fetz was involved, it wasnt too difficult to find: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2551&p=24688&hilit=air#p24688 But they were shutting down the grill with only the top, I am going to try my chicken tonight on the top rack, direct, using only the top vent once everything gets properly burning.

Re: Chicken Fat - Split from First Rotis Cook topic. I like the direct grilled chicken taste, but the burning chicken grease is way too sooty in the closed grill for me. I have done whole chickens on the top rack, indirect, and let everything drip down on the stone a couple of times. I must not have liked it because I still use a small (like 5X7") drip pan centered under the chicken. This catches most of the grease, but lets the right amount fall around it to get some flavor too. Letting it all drip it was either too messy on the stone, or it didn't taste good - I have no idea which - I just know I dont do it anymore. I am actually cooking a chicken tonight. I might give it a try. I planned on spatch-cocking and doing it direct on the upper grate anyway.

Re: First Rotisserie Cook: Very nice I recall someone doing some temp/airflow testing like that a while back. I think they confirmed what you suggest. Now, finding the discussion again might take longer than just going outside and trying it!

Re: First Rotisserie Cook: Very nice The full post of that quote is HERE.

Re: New review on About.com The link above does not work.

Re: Online Source for Lump Charcoal I am always on the lookout for a deal on some quality charcoal, so your post made me take a look at the Do it Best website, which also led me to check amazon on a whim. I was surprised to find coconut shell lump in a 9# bag, for $17.65. That sounds high, but when you consider that it has free shipping with Amazon prime, its actually a good price. 27 reviews posted for this brand, and all the reviewers are missing the real benefit of the Coco coal. All their reviews are based on grilling, not extended low and slow cooks, so while they rate it favorably, they are missing the big benefit. I found it rather funny to read all the reviews where they are knocking it down a star because it lacked the traditional hardwood smoke. The clean burn was a detractor for many. MIght be worth a shot if anyone is out of, or has never tried the coconut charcoal. I still have some of Dennis' first batch on hand, I have been miserly in using it. http://www.amazon.com/Coshell-9-Pound-C ... 458&sr=8-4

Re: Best Cut of meat for "Pulled Beef"?? But isn't there an easy way to set up a temporary account? Just mention your Komodo in your first post. That reminds me of another forum I think we both used to frequent.

Re: Pebble tile or Square tile? We might be the last people in North America that dont have a facebook account

Re: Beef Ribs: Slow Cook not always necessary You might not get as much steam as you want if you put the stone under steam pan. I sometimes do an indirect cook with no drip pan, and the top side of the deflector still has a bunch of grease on it when I am done*- especially at the temps you are using. Maybe try the pan on the lower grate, centered above the fire and under the food, with no deflector on the basket handles? This would probably get you more steam. You said you used the smaller pan that came with the KK - was that the liner of the heat deflector? If so, unless Dennis is making smaller deflectors, it should be a comfortable fit on the handles? * Flipping the HD over each use will always burn one side clean, and keep it from being a greasy, nasty mess. Instead its a crusty, charred, mess

Re: Pebble tile or Square tile? I concur...number 1 if it is down to those three.