Firemonkey

This is a nice versatile marinade that I like to use on shrimp and chicken, and usually serve over a salad. I did a batch of shrimp here, but could have also used some chicken breasts, strips, or even a whole bird. The marinade is more of a thin paste than a liquid, but that makes it nice because as the oil thins and melts away during cooking, it leaves the larger pieces of spice behind to stick. This is really simple, and a quick prep, too. The recipe below makes a fairly big batch. Half of this amount will be plenty for a pound of shrimp or a couple chicken breasts. 1/4 cup Olive Oil 1/4 cup Lime Juice 1 or 2 Green Onions 4-5 Cloves Garlic 2-3 Canned Chipotle Peppers (adjust to your taste - a little goes a long way!) Combine everything and grind it all up. The Magic Bullet is perfect for this. Pour over your meat and refrigerate until ready to cook. For shrimp, it only takes an hour or so, chicken takes 3-4 hours. I like to leave the marinade on the meat when I cook it, and let the ground up chile, onion and garlic char a little on the grill. (ignore the hotdogs...my kids dont like shrimp )

The basket lengths are the same (17.5"), Dennis supplies short rods along with the grill so you can mount the basket inside the grill, and mate to the motor on the outside. Good luck finding them though, they have been hard to come by for the last year or longer. You can try googling for a Viking brand basket, as it is the exact same item. http://www.ezqueinc.com/komodokamado.htm

The avatar limitations are 128 pixels wide, and 128 pixels high. Uploaded avatars have a file size limit of 10 KB. If you have your avater picture on another site, like photobucket or imageshack, it will automagically shrink it to fit the display. If you are trying to post photos, you must first host them on a different server, then you can paste the URL (address) into your picture, using the buttons above the entry box to wrap the address up in tags. When you are done it will look something like this: [img=http://your.picture.url]

Even on natural airflow, the <300 temps only take 1/2 turn on the top hat, its such a small opening that part of the damper is still resting on the gasket. Try using a drip pan under your butts, and that alone should be enough to resolve the issue once you get back to a clean gasket.

How about something like rubbing alcohol to be fully safe? Scrape, torch wire brush down to clean surface, then alcohol to remove any residue before putting down the gasket?

Try hitting it with a torch? You dont need it white, you just need it burned off so its dry and not sticky.

Absolutely use the daisy wheel. The only time I slide the door open is when I want a FAST jump in the heat. Like after cooking some steaks and potatoes and want to put a good crust on the meat. A full open daisy wheel will get you over 500* dome, and its just so easy to make fine adjustments with the dial. The door would be much more difficult to get a precise setting. And as others have said, you want to keep that door frame clean, so it seals tightly and facilitates a quick snuff of the fire when you are done. I am surprised that you can keep the grill down in the 250 neighborhood using the whole door. 250 for me is like the thickness of a coin (at the outside of the dial) on the daisy wheel and about 1/2 a turn on the dome top.

I have played with using lava rock in a grill wok instead of solid deflector. The idea was to have something in between direct and indirect. The grease is absolutely the problem, as both reported cases of this are doing primarily low and slow, and do not use a drip pan. I dont think the rock is as much a factor as the lack of high temp cooks to burn it out occasionally. DJ has 2 grills, keeps one set up for low and slow, the other for higher temps...guess which one has the buildup and glues itself shut? He says there is no issue on the one that gets higher temps, and he doesnt use any drip pan under his butts either.

I think thats the key, the higher temps to burn it off. You probably also use a drip pan too?

Well, at the very least burning a basket of fuel should make it a little easier to scrape it all away So if we have determined it is grease-based buildup, does that make it "bark"??

Why not just burn a basket of fuel and see if it cleans up? A basket should last you a few hours at 500*, and $5 in lump sounds a lot more favorable than scraping the surface clean and replacing the gasket. You will probably see all sorts of smoke flowing out of there, too. I would bet the last beer in my fridge that the grease burning is your root cause, not smoke wood. I have done a few butts without a drip pan, too. But when i do that, I usually let it get good and hot afterwards, before shutting down, to burn the crud out.

Man, I wouldn't want that crud all over the outside of my cooker either! I'm also a but skeptical of a v shaped damper surface. I can see that sawing it's way through a gasket in no time. I like the removable spoke idea, so you can use it if you want/need it, and remove it if not. A couple Qs for doc- just wondering, do you ever do a higher temp cook without the fan, where the draft is opened up a couple turns? Maybe a 500 degree pizza session on natural airflow would burn it all off for you? And I know you like cooking butts, after seeing that buildup, do you use a drip pan under your butts? The only other person I have heard mention that kind of crust is dj, and I know he likes to do his butts Semi-direct (lava rock diffuser) and no drip pan. Maybe it's the grease that is causing the problem?

Damn, I not sure if I should be jealous or what?! That is a serious buildup of goo, the likes of which I have never seen. I use lots of wood when I cook, and have nothing like that! Do you ever do higher temps? Maybe I never see the buildup because it burns off in subesquent cooks?

Blackened salmon

Another Chicken Just a roasted chicken...No rotisserie, just roasted on the top rack (indirect).

I have done some comparisons over the years, trying to find the "perfect" software. The key question is how you intend to use it most? Do you want to keep track of your own recipes, or the recipes you harvest from the web, or are you looking for a huge library of included recipes to start out with? Other features to consider are shopping list creation, the ability to make menu suggestions based on an ingredient you need to use, etc. Also, since I make my living as a software trainer, I recommend you consider the interface of the product. There are some good ones out there that just have such a rudimentary interface, I couldnt even consider them. Some others that kept a little too much of a watchful eye on my habits (data harvesting) Yet others, that the interface may overwhelm the average user, though I suspect anyone willing to file their recipes on a computer is a bit more savvy than average. There are several good ones out there. Some of the best give you a free 30 day trial, too. The one I am leaning most towards is BigOven. They have smartphone/iphone apps as well. http://bigoven.com/recipe-software.aspx The link above will offer you links to screenshots, reviews, and the 30 day demo software. Its $29.95 if you decide you like it and want to keep it. Whichever you choose - BACK UP YOUR DATA! Its not if you have a drive failure, but when! Even if you just occasionally copy to a DVD or thumb drive, do something so you dont lose years worth of collected recipes and the time you invested to enter them all!

Just to clarify, you are looking for recipe software?

Hey, glad you guys got a chance to see them. I mean, it's only been a year since I posted this thread! ...and with PC posting, too! I feel like I'm being visited by the ghost of BBQs past! Doc- the iron will work but it gives a different style of crust. It puts more of a really thin "fried" layer on the bottom of the crust. I've used a cast iron skillet to make deep dish pizza by letting the crust rise in the pan. The oil coating required for it to release and come out clean makes a light golden fried texture.

I use the stone without the liner, on the top rack, direct heat. I let the stone heat up with the grill, then about 5-10 mins between pies. I cook at about 500-550 degrees dome, depending on your crust thickness. Note that kk ships with two different stones, one a heat deflector and one a pizza stone. The deflector is smaller and covered with a white coating.

Dennis ships them with grills nowadays. Why nit just drop him an email and ask fir another? All of mine are quite snug without adhesive, maybe a different plug wouldn't need to be glued

That looks outstanding! So what do you think made I better than your others? Did you change your technique or rub? Or did the BBQ gods just smile upon you this time? Do you always do the cider spray?

I have done it both ways. The driver will bring it as far as he can on the pallet jack, then it's going to be up to you. The first time around, we just used a hand truck to move the whole thing, in the crate, around the house to the patio. It was through grass and some sand an we got it there with just me and the driver. He tilted the hand truck back and I helped pull the weight along and make sure it didn't tip from the front. No problem. Second time, driver had no hand truck, and was pretty old, so I had to uncrate in the driveway and carry it as in the picture. Worked fine, too. Be careful though. Moving it with boards can cause the edge of the board to push into the tile and pop a few off. I think that happened to mguerra, so if you use the boards, put some towels between them and the grill.

Yeah I know.... And truth be know, I will probably end up with a couple of covers, too. I guess it is sort of like a security system, you dont need it, might not even like the looks of the cameras after they are installed, but it gives you peace of mind.

You need to serve Lipitor milkshakes for desert I am jealous!