Firemonkey

Sear marks look good from here Im not sure how that myth took hold, but sear marks are EASY to get on the 3/8" KK grate. So you compromise on the platter...the green one for the raw meats and the pretty one for the finished products!

Not all lump is the same. They all have minor flavor differences due to the wood used in their making, as well as the occasional piece or two that is not fully carbonized. Fish is usually cooked at a higher temp for a short period of time. While you are correct that the smoke will more easily overpower it, the fish will not usually spend enough time over the fire for this to happen. You are seeing different flavors than you did on your Weber because the KK is a MUCH more sealed environment. You dont have as much air flowing through the cooker, and thus whatever smoke you do use is more concentrated. Start by letting your grill and fire stabilize at your intended cooking temp before you add the meat. That should cut down on any smoke from the lump and you can go from there. I use Royal Oak lump, $5/10lb bag at WalMart) and also have used the extruded charcoal JDBower mentions. I almost always add fruit wood to both. The extruded is much less smoky, but also not as easily available. You will want to find something you can grab locally that you like.

Too much smoke on ribs, with just lump sounds unheard of. Yes, lump imparts some smoky flavor as it burns, and this can be lessened (especially on higher temp cooks) by letting the fire have a few minutes to get up to temp and ignite all the fuel before adding meat. On your ribs, they likely spend 4-6 hours on the grate, and the lump was burning slowly the whole time? Many people, myself included, add several fist sized chunks of fruit wood into the lump basket in order to HAVE some smoke flavor, otherwise they seem lacking. A little leakage from the back is nothing to worry too much about unless you have difficulty keeping your temperatures down where you want them. Then again, if you had enough smoke flowing to see it coming from the back you had to have more than just lump in there?? Of course, if your son is used to ribs being boiled, braised or oven baked, it just may have been something he wasnt expecting?

This gathering was a birthday party, too. One of my High School buddies was turning 40, so people brought wines from 1970. His kegerator was packing a fresh fill of one of the Old Dominion brews (Dominion Ale, I believe). Overall a fine weekend! And I think my liver is finally starting to recover BTW, I usually go with Gatorade in the AM after a particularly lively evening. Works great!

I'm kicking back and offering a toast to T Rex while the experts work all this out. . Cheers! There is plenty of truth to this method, though. I was visiting friends for thf weekend and this is what we cooked on: As you can see, this was nowhere near as easy as using a KK, so we had to compensate with even more beer and wine (we emptied the kegerator too). It was a fun weekend and great to visit old friends. The 5 racks of ribs came out pretty good considering our handicap, and at that point, we weren't being too critical anyway!

What rub did you use?

No apologies necessary, I don't eat it either!

I can attest to the lengthy dev time on the kk stone... I had been hearing about it for almost a year before I got one! Hey, T Rex, it sounds like you have the heat deflector, rather than the pizza stone. The stone is larger and has a very smooth surface. The square stone will also work just fine in your kk. I have used broken pieces from a thin cheapo stone to do some dinner rolls and such along with roasted chicken- a whole stone wouldn't fit.

I dont have a fibra-ment, but the size is fine at 15.5. I have a couple of regular store bought stones and the KK provided pizza stone and both are 15" with plenty of spare room around them.

Re: I neglected to mention

Sounds like you just need to seat the lid a little tighter in the back. Its very easy to adjust: Have a helper hold the KK lid open for you, then loosen the bolt that goes into the spring completely. Carefully close the lid. Loosen the big nuts that hold the hinge to the lid, so the lid can slip down and seat fully. Give it a little wiggle to make sure its seated tight, then tighten the nuts back. Lift the lid again and reset the spring tension so that it has just enough force to hold the lid open. Grab a beer and enjoy your next cook.

I'm nearing the end of a several week long stint with only Saturday and Sunday home, so most of my cooks lately have been something i could whip up quickly, with little or no planning. Thus, tonight was buffalo chicken fajita wraps. Took some boneless, skinless breasts, oiled them, and sprinkled them with some hidden valley ranch dressing mix (the powdered stuff you use to make dressing). Grilled them, along with some red peppers and onion. Cut up the chicken, tossed it in buffalo sauce, and put it in a wrap with little lettuce, black beans, avocado, the grilled peppers/onions. But I have been craving a longer cook. I am considering doing a couple pounds of pork loin or a whole chicken tomorrow.

I'm with you, Conodo. And hell, if any of that other stuff stopped working out you could even LIVE on the boat, float, and drink beer perpetually! Its like my bicycle, it came from the factory (just like all of the ohters in this brand for the last couple of decades) with a small discrete emblem under the clear coat that says "Man's Best Friend". Interpret that as you would like I think KK needs a similar emblem

Give us some info about which build you have, and we can help you out. You have the beveled rim, flat rim, etc? Also, where is the smoke leaking - front, back sides, all around?? You might need to just adjust your front latch, or maybe loosen the bolts in the back and reseat your lid. In some cases, with an older build, you might need to put some silicone under your gasket.

Let there be a teachable moment here... The 17 year old gasser was worth rebuilding... the WSM is worth keeping, and might even see backup duty. But not the Richard Johnson Kamado, that one had to go because it wouldnt have seen anymore use (and probably would have fallen apart) It doesnt get much clearer than that

So does that mean the POSK gets to stay too?

Now that is an instructable I would like to see!

They have been coming back because they keep smelling all the good smoke coming from your yard. They are waiting for you to toss them a snack!

Re: Rudy's Hilton. I like to keep my points in one or two brands

DEFINITELY NOT necessary. Enjoy your cooker Nope. you are definitely making work for yourself. My KK currently has the ash from at least 100 pounds of charcoal in the bottom of it. I only clean it out when it is full - that is, when it impedes airflow too much. Every now and then I lift the basket out, and push the ashes out around the edges, since it makes a pile in the middle. When there is no more room to move the pile out under the charcoal ring, and the bottom is filled as well, then I just put the shop vac in there and suck it all out. But really, that is like 3 times a year and I use it A LOT!

I used t use a maverick probe on the grate, and FWIR it was usually only 20-25 degree difference between the dome and grate. Unless you had the probe outside of the deflector, then you would see big swings. Anymore, When i just want to monitor the grill temp from inside, I just remove the Tel-Tru and put the probe in right in the dome. Nice looking turkey!

There was a flurry of interest around KK naan a couple of years ago...There is a recipe in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=1174&highlight=naan

Re: You are a star on your first cook