Firemonkey

When i inject butts, I rub them, wrap them tightly in saran wrap, then inject them through the wrap, hoping it might help hold more liquid in there. Then the next day, I unwrap and sprinkle with more rub when they go on the KK. Lots of injection still leaks out, so make sure it is in a deep enough container in the fridge. Your plan sounds good...but why not just put it on early AM the day you plan to serve it? Nothing like letting your quests get a smell of the smoke when they arrive! BTW, I made a nice injection for my Easter ham: Pineapple juice, honey, a handful of sage leaves, whole cloves, and a twig or two of rosemary simmered for about 30 mins before cooling to room temp and injecting. Then made a glaze using roughly the same stuff, except also some crushed pineapple, ground allspice, and brown sugar in the mix. Simmered it down for about an hour and glazed the ham the last hour of cooking. It was mighty tasty

I dont have a guru, but from others comments in past discussions, the apple "log" likely contributed to your temp swings too. Those big chunks of wood flare up quickly when they the fan fires up. But as you have tasted, shoulders are forgiving, and your temps were not very far out of line anyway. BTW, no need to clean the basket out before your long cook, just pour more on top and go for it. That basket is plenty big to cook for days.

Put the deflector on the basket handles. I am assuming you are cooking it at roasting temps? I sometimes do whole birds on the upper grate (if they fit) and place the drip pan under them on the main grate. More even browning and heat circulation that way, and still get to catch the drippings. Either in the pan, or above the pan, the deflector is the way to go.

Yeah, what Dennis just said. You can get to 700 with almost any lump, you just need some airflow. Did you pull the door slide open an inch or so? The dial was likely not enough airflow to get your target temp. Also, the deflector on the basket handles was further restricting you. Placing the deflector on the main grill, and your pizza stone on the upper (sear grill on long handles above the main grill) will still shield you from direct heat as well as provide MUCH better airflow to the fire. If you were using a thin, store bought stone, you might try putting the deflector on the upper grill, then a couple of big nuts (the kind that go on a bolt) or similar items as a spacer (1" will do) and putting the pizza stone on top of that. I used to use that setup before i got a KK stone, and it worked great. The 1" of airspace between the deflector and cooking stone kept the bottom and top cooking evenly.

There is for sure lots of room up there. I did my Easter ham on the upper rack...it was about 10# and I had it sitting in a baking dish too. The last double decker of ribs and butts I did was reversed from this...I had the ribs underneath and the butts above. Mostly because I was doing full racks of baby backs and needed the extra room for the length to fit.

Re: Puff of Air in your EYE Thats okay...we have a resident eye doc around here somewhere But how did the pizza turn out? Hopefully you didn't have to try the "opaque" dining experience!

Careful with the smoke on the vegetables...they dont handle smoke nearly as well as meats. I grill almost all my vegetables, and the ones I cant grill directly I will make a foil pouch for the grill. It has been my experience that even one chunk of smoke wood will overpower most vegetables. The flavor imparted by the burning lump is just about right. Thats just my opinion, though, YMMV. The vegetables work out well because I can introduce the smoke to the meat early in the cook, and by the time the vegetables get on the grill, its just lump and maybe some drippings that are flavoring the vegetables.

As far as I know, Cozy is still making them. I searched both his (U2PLT)and his son's (tkline01) posts and saw no mention of him not continuing. His website, (cozycrafted.com) is still active, and Cozy has posted in the last 30 days as well. Try sending him a PM?

So did you get one, Sumrtym? I have been looking at that unit for a year or so, simply because of the trailer hitch mount. Being able to carry a grill on your hitch, for tailgating, or trips to the beach or park is golden. Ive done some more investigation as of late, too, and found a few interesting tidbits. First, the pictured model, the Bubba Keg Grill is discontinued, and can be found in the $300-350 price range. That is absolutely worth it, even if it only lives as long as its stated warranty - 5 years. And yes, there were some issues with the design, as outlined above. One thing that i did not see mentioned above was that the top damper, being vertical AND cup shaped, allowed rain to collect and drip down into the chamber. Thats a pretty big "oops". The new Big Steel Keg units have supposedly addressed many of the issues, with a redesign of the shape of the cutouts in the top dial, to facilitate finer airflow control. Its also supposed to be heavier steel, and thus the warranty is now 10 years. But alas, the hitch is a separate purchase, with a cover included instead. My reservations to buying one is that I wanted to modify my Weber to carry on my hitch, mostly because i already have it and it just sits in the corner of the patio year after year. Storing a grill which will get occasional use at best doesnt seem like a good plan either. The original $700 range price is also sort of high for just a travel grill. But my biggest beef is with how the hitch attaches. The grill is held on the cart by the same mount you use for the hitch. You slide the grill off the rack, and onto the hitch. They say not to cook with it on the hitch, so that means you have to carry your cart with your, put the grill on the cart when you get there, then wait for it to cool enough so that you can handle it and put it back on the hitch. That isnt gonna happen for me. I will be cooking on the hitch. Even f that means getting an extension for the receiver to hold it out away from the bumper more. An even better solution might be a hitch caddy, so you have a flat cargo surface to carry a cooler, and use as a prep area too. Sort of like THIS THREAD shows. BTW, this is a good discussion, but has steered away from he original topic of Dennis bigger grill, so I will be moving it to a dedicated thread later today. I will leave it here for for now so people participating dont think the discussion was deleted.

Well, the gas option is a matter of personal preference, almost like asking if Ford or Chevy is better. Personally I use charcoal exclusively, even though I have the gas option. Can you use gas with a KK? Sure you can. And it will probably do anything you want with gas, too. But the real beauty of ceramic grills shines in a low airflow environment, for nice long, flavorful cooks. I don't want to try and steer you towards charcoal, but a steak cooked over a charcoal fire cant be beat. My advice, based on your description of what you are building, and how you have described your usage, is to get a ceramic grill for your baking and roasting needs. And keep your natural gas grill for those times when you just want to press a button and start cooking. You might not need as big of a gas surface if you have a KK though. One other consideration is how you plan to cook. If you are hosting a dinner, and you are cooking the whole meal outside, you might need two different cooking platforms. While a KK can hold an immense amount of food, not all of the cooking surfaces are convenient to access at the same time. Another reason why some people have multiple KKs side by side. Yes, with some experience you learn to manage the various surfaces and characteristics of a KK,and cook various items at different temps all at the same time. But if you have the room, and the budget, the convenience of a conventional cooktop and side burners is likely worth it. Switching from gas to charcoal on a KK can be an inconvenience, IMHO. The gas burner sits low, under the charcoal basket. If you leave it in there while you cook with charcoal, it will get buried in ash quickly. If you cook with charcoal several times, then you will have to move the ash out of the way to put the burner in. Is that a big deal, not really, but its not as easy as just turning it on and pressing the ignition either. I live in Florida, and do not use my oven ever. Well, maybe once or twice this winter since we had record low freezing temps, certainly no more than a couple times a year does it get used. I cook with charcoal exclusively, whether its burgers, pizza, bread, or an overnight pork butt. Once you get used to charcoal, it is no problem to just pour in a half a bag of fuel, light it, cook on it, and shut it down when you are done. Ceramics are not like what you probably remember; soaking briquettes with fluid, lighting them and waiting, cooking and then cleaning up ash when you are done. With the KK, I fill the basket all the way up, and can cook on it a couple of times before having to reload it. I only have to empty ash after every 100 pounds or more of charcoal, too. For me, part of the relaxation of cooking is lighting the grill, and smelling the charcoal on the air, and watching the smoke puff out of the top. Thats something you cant get on a regular grill.

There has been a lot of chatter about the baskets slipping, but I thought it was the rod between the motor and grill getting disengaged. Yours looks like the inside is too short. Are you sure the inside rod was causing your slip, and not the rob between the outside of the bushing and the motor? viewtopic.php?t=1670&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Aside from peach and oak, i have to buy my wood. I buy it in bulk when my travel happens to bring me close enough to someone who packages cooking wood, and bring it home with me. I get 2 free checked bags on the airplane, up to 50 pounds each, so that is 100 pounds of wood I can save shipping on. The only thing I have ever bought that did not have the bark on it was a bag of apple chips once when I was cooking on a friends grill(it was all I could find) . All of the stuff I buy for myself is in chunks. The bulk boxes are cut to small fist sized chunks, while the retail packaged stuff is about half that size. Again, all of it has the bark on it. I have tried removing the bark to see if I can tell a difference, and I could not. I am guessing the bark effect it is a volume thing, like when I am using 5 chunks of wood, but maybe only 1 or two is an outside cut with a layer of bark attached. So thats what? 1/10 or less of the volume of the wood? I have seen that the commercial wood is cut into chunks before it is cured, and allowed to dry. It doesnt take long at all to dry out after it has been cut to small chunks, either. I picked up a load from Chigger Creek once that was freshly cut. When I got there, they had the chunks spread out on a large table, with 6 inch tall sides, and a chicken wire bottom, and were using a big fan to circulate air and dry it. The lady that packaged my order said to give it a week or so when I got home to let it finish drying. So the drying is not a science, and is going to depend alot on your circumstances. I've seen more than a few people swear by smoking with freshly cut wood. I have used a bundle of recently trimmed peach twigs, tightly wrapped in a foil pounch when roasting a chicken once, and i have to admit, I did get a nice translucent blue smoke from it, and the chicken tasted awesome. When i get peach wood from the neighbors tree, it is always the live branches up to 3 inches or so in diameter that he has pruned off. They are damp inside when I get them. I keep anything bigger around than my thumb, and cut them into chunks 3-4 inches long. I toss them all in a big tub, keep them in my garage, and they will cure in about 6-8 weeks here in FL. Those fairly small branches again have thin bark, so it stays on and I havent noticed any problem with it. That said, the bark comes off very easily when the wood is nice and dry. Its a major pain to try and remove it when the wood is fresh, so if bark is an issue, I would just flake it off when you went to use the wood, and not worry about it now.

I was thinking of resurrecting my Weber kettle, by mounting it to a 2" hitch so I could easily carry it to the beach and such this summer. I ran across these cast iron grates in my quest...What an awesome idea! http://www.cast-iron-grate.com/index.html

They look pretty damn good, how did they taste?

I havent done skinless thighs, but I would expect that removing the skin will also significantly reduce the grease. Were they not skinless, I would say use the heat deflector down on the basket handles, and just cook them indirect on the upp. Being skinless, I dont think the drip pan is as big of a concern, and you could probably go direct if you want. Sorry I cant be more help. I cook lots of chicken, but always with the skin, and you definitely want a drip pan in that case to prevent all that grease burning.

I thought that the animal ear tatoos were done with a press type device, where you load the type, ink it, then squeeze it on the ear flap? But those tattoos look handwritten, which begs the question; "Who gets to hold the angry cat with a tattoo gun in his ear?!"

When you are REALLY lazy, you just put it on the upper grill - whole, indirect. Put it on at about 400, and letting the temp climb to 450. It takes the same 50-60 mins to cook, just rotate once after 30 mins.

When the shrimp are picked from your back yard, its no biggie to try it a few times! Actually, they cook fast enough you could just do 3-4 on a skewer at a time, to dial in the temp/time, before you put a full load on. I like to use a HOT fire to get the carmelized bits on the outside.

I usually do mine on the upper grill, indirect, but there is no way you are going to fit 13# up there. If you were going to go indirect, you could do the main and upper grill, with the big KK drip pan on the lower grill. I dont usually use a drip pan, and just let the grease land on the deflector, then flip the deflector over on the next cook and one side is always clean. But 13# of thighs is going to make a bunch of burning grease smoke even if you do it indirect - might want to use a drip pan. Otherwise...go for it! Any grease you drip in the grill will burn right off on your next steak searing!

Re: First KK Ribeye Success! Yep. I know this feeling well. Oh yeah, know that one too! Until they have done some traveling themselves, its hard for people to understand the pure relaxation that comes from something as simple as going home, and grilling a nice steak for dinner. They think I am crazy when I say I would rather forego a $100 steak in a steakhouse to go home and make my own! When I do steaks, I like to bake some potatoes out on the grill, too. Just wipe them down with olive oil, give them a coating of course salt, and put them on a 400 degree fire. Flip them after 20 mins or so to make sure they arent charring. This will up your cook time to 1 hour, which gives me purpose for sitting out in the hammock or on the patio, listening to music, and drinking a couple of glasses of wine. Move the potatoes to the outside wall of the grill when they are almost done, open the bottom vent to stoke the coals up and commence steak grilling as usual. I generally dont move the steaks off the fire to dwell, but just close the grill down after the flip (only leave the top open half a turn to vent smoke) and leave them right where they were. Yeah, I have had mine for a few years now, and I still do that

Then you would be the next one to go and have your heart checked out!

No worries about hijacking a thread. Continuity of discussion trumps the thread . Besides, someone moved this dicussion to a thread of its own (and it wasnt me! )

Re: My thought for the day...... agreed. And I hate foiled butts too.

Oh yeah, those look like they will be tasty! I am from MD originally, so I am sort of loyal to blue crab. But If I had those guys in my back yard, that loyalty would for sure be tested. And I bet your salmon was local, and wild caught, too! Now I am jealous. You wanna trade for some Citrus - assuming any survived after after this globally-warmed-yet-coldest -on-record winter we have had in FL?