Firemonkey

Neither of these devices will "clean" the grates. They just knock the crust off. I dont brush or clean anything either, but I would prefer not to have the charred (or sometimes not) remains of the previous cook attaching themselves to the meal du jour - especially when I cooking at moderate to low temps.

After replacing the head on my grill gloss with the stainless one, i have had no issues with it. It has hung outside in the humid and rainy FL weather for over a year now, and it works great on my 3/8" grates. Someone mentioned using a grillfloss on their weber - I am not sure how well that will work out. The grillfloss comes with a reversible tip that has round notches for 1/4 and 3/8 grates. Weber grates are much thinner so it will not work as well in making contact with all surfaces at once. You may find yourself using more of a scrubbing motion on a weber grate. Also, arent the weber grates chrome plate?

My question is, how thrilled was your daughter when she got a KK for her 12th birthday?

Stonger brackets? Are the currently shipping units being shipped with a thicker / stronger bracket, or still the same ones that flex? Whats the status of the new shafts?

Welcome to the forum, ickkey! I gave the Viking a look at the local Expo home center. It seemed nice enough, but I needed something a little bigger. I went with the KK - on the service, performance, and size fronts and have no regrets.

Private label BBQ sauce, eh? So is that a recipe you want to share? Whats the story on the matte terracotta grill you had out in the front of the store? Is that the new soft grout? Is it fully coated inside and out with it, or was this just coincidentally the moment in time where the interior had darkened to match the outside? Those fresh dogs looked tasty. What all goes into them when you make them?

I did a few batches. I let half of then marinate overnight in a beer marinade and the other half plain. I preferred the plain - the marinade was a bit overpowering. I also used two different breading mixes - one with half corn meal and flour, the other all flour. I am usually not a fan of corn meal breading, but I gave them a shot anyway. As expected, I found the cornmeal too crunchy and dry. The all flour breading was great though I mixed up a spiced breading, using a mix I had made up of cayenne, paprika, salt, onion powder, etc. They were great even without sauce. The others needed sauce. Next time I will skip the marinade, and go with a few plain ones for the tenderfoot pallets, and the rest in the spiced breading.

Maybe in that sunroom - if it faces south and you keep it heated in the winter

Larrry, I haven't seen a misplaced post, so it must be lost in cyberland. I also prefer the some slight tooth to my ribs, so I don't foil. I did foil a rack once just to compare, and I have never had that consistency to the meat any other time off of my ceramics - which is a good thing. I think the braising is required to get that texture. Just going longer on the ceramic will just dry them more, and give you a thicker bark.

Cool...I have a big batch getting ready to try tomorrow, so I'll cover the pictures. Im marinating half in a spicy beer marinade, too. So I can try everything...marinated no breading, marinated with breading, plain breaded... should be fun keeping track of which are what on the grill

Shoot, in this foodie circle, I am impressed that you splurged for the patterned paper! Those are for special occasions!

Nah...its all about airflow. After you throw them in, set your vents in the neighborhood for your temps and let it come up to speed. I used to use the gas burner to light the underside of my basket before setting the vents and letting it come up to temp.

This may come as a shock, but I got a spankin' once in school. In like 8th or 9th grade, I was given the choice of getting suspended or some old fashioned corporal punishment. Of course, I was more interested in keeping the incident off my parents radar so I chose the latter. Now, this was in the 80's so parental consent was required before any kind of beatin' could commence. They gave me a consent form to take home (and sign on behalf of my parents ) The next day, when I went to school, I wore a looser pair of jeans, but I had a towel folded up in the seat of my pants, so they were still pretty snug. How the assistant principle didnt recognize this anatomic anomaly as she told me to bend over her desk still makes me chuckle even today! I think I went second out of the three of us that were involved, and as she swung this big plank of a paddle for all she was worth, it made more of a thud upon impact, rather than the sharp smack it made on the others. Sure, I could feel it a little, even through the towel, but it only barely stung for a second. Nothing like what the firecracker impacts the other two got. I went into the bathroom, pulled the towel out, and went about my day smiling inside that I had gotten away with one. Its a good thing i was the one who checked the mail a few days later, and absconded with the letter again informing my parents what had taken place...there wouldn't have been time to make adequate preparations for that one Some years later, as I became older and wiser, this experience just reminds me that paddling didnt have any deterrent effect at all on my strong will. If anything, I think it just gave the adults a vent for their frustration!

I have a family member that works at one of the big produce suppliers here in town. He gets me 40# bags for $12 - $13.

Sometime last summer, I planted the crown of a golden pineapple with my son. Well, some year or so later, we picked the fruit of this endeavor. I grilled half of it with some boneless pork loin chops and some corn. Next year, I will have several more pineapple, since I can plant this crown, and the offshoots from the original. At that rate of multiplication, in about 5 years I may get enough fruit to make it worth the effort

Since I get some of my lump wholesale, in food service bags (marketing speak for "unsorted") I sometimes find some big pieces in there. Here is an example: I have short piece of re-bar that I keep near the grill, so I can adjust the size of the pieces where necessary. A couple of whacks and now we are in business:

I use the stock deflector on the lump basket. It gets me the best control of flame, as I don't have the flame protected Fibrament. Yep...quite a difference in how the K and KK perform in that regard.

I would go with your deflector on the main grate, and the top rack with a bare stone. This will give you more even heat distribution inside the grill. With the deflector items down low, you will find that there is quite a temperature increase as you move closer to the outside edges of the grill. The heat is just rolling out from around your deflector and up to the vent at the top. Maybe thats why you have such a different reading? You probably want to be careful doing higher temp bakes with your HD down low, too. If you feel the outside of your grill, down near the fire while you are doing that, you will see how much hotter it is than the rest. The manufacturer of your grill has told me that this causes his units to crack. You definitely want some sort of deflector or your baking stone will get too hot and burn the bottom of your pizza. I have a smaller version of your grill (#5) and no upper bracket for it, so I put the deflector on the main grill, with just a few spacers between the baking stone and the deflector. I preheat the grill as well as the stone for about 20 minutes before putting a pizza on, and maybe 5-10 minutes between pies (adjust based on how dark the crust was on the one you remove - too dark, dont let it reheat at all. Too light, give it longer) Here are a couple examples of my baking setup for my POSK (I hope the acronym doesn't offend you, its just what we call them around here ) http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewt ... highlight= http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewt ... ight=pizza

I am curious, has anyone tried breading chicken wings to be cooked on the grill? A la Dizzy Pig's method: http://www.dizzypigbbq.com/recipesWings.html I usually do mine un-breaded (and usually still frozen) for a few hours at 275, until the skin is crispy. I am going to make a load of wings for football this Sunday, so I am looking for some ideas for something different. Either thawing them (I buy them in a bag IQF) and marinating for a while or maybe with breading. They come with "*up to 12% magic juice" in them, which is why i dont usually bother with a marinade

OK gang, the eagle has landed, and its ready to pick up. I think I caught everyone with a PM containing the terminal location, phone number and hours. If I missed anyone, let me know.

I did okay using them for longer cooks, and I also did fine reusing the unburned remnants after shutting the grill down. TNW will probably be along any time to clarify, but I think his primary ceramic is a BGE. I know he has a KK, too, but when I hear him talk about ash management, plugging the grate, etc, I dont pay much attention. Both my RJ-K and my KK have enough room in the bottom to hold the ash from several bags of charcoal.

I have used the rancher, and can make no complaints. I found it at my local Home Depot last year and grabbed a few bags on the cheap...like $4 each! I even went in a few weeks ago to see if they had it again - only cowboy this time. Most people will tell you that they prefer to use lump, and I do as well. But those briquettes were great to mix in with the lump when I didnt want the wood-fire flavor, or just for something different. Since you are new, you may not have seen this page yet: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm Everything you ever wanted to know about various brands of charcoal, as compiled by some guy with nothing better to do (that was an inside joke, as Naked Whiz does frequent these parts occasionally) Don't sweat temps thing, either. Aside from trying to sear a steak right down in the fire (where a pile of lump is ideal) or burning for 80 hours straight (where extruded is the way to go), you can cook just about anything with the briquettes just like you do with lump.

I took a look at the pictures... I dont think there was a cool spot under the vent, because the center of the cheese was browned. That wouldnt have happened if there was a cool spot there.

I would start by losing the paper tray, and maybe even the foil on the pizza pan the pizza actually goes on. The pizza stones are designed to be used with the food directly on them. I would bet that without the paper you will find better results at the same temps. Some will say to cook the pizza at a higher temps, but 450 works in your oven, so it will absolutely work on your K, too. You will find that if you go with a higher temp, a pizza as thick as the one you cooked will burn on the bottom before the top is done - depending on how long you heated the stone. I have cooked more than a few pizzas on my K and there is definitely a learning curve to find what your favorite setup is. You can do a search on this forum for Pizza and find a few threads with pictures of my setup, and explanation/discussion of techniques. One other thing to consider since you are using a K , is that maybe the upper rack is putting the pizza so far up in the top that the center vent is causing the center to be a little bit of a cool spot? Just a theory though, as I always did my pizza down on the main grill in my Kamado.

That meaty flap on the bottom is called the skirt, and its the chefs "incentive" for cooking the ribs. Since, when removed and cooked along with the ribs on the smoker, its done in half the time and therefore makes a nice treat for the chef. BTW, if you havent trimmed you own ribs before, there is a nice writeup and video on how to do so on the Virtual Weber Bullet. http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/spareribprep.html