Firemonkey

In one of my first cooks with the stoker I set it at 400 and it did fine. Just had to crack the top hat a bit more (like 1/4 turn) to allow the blower to push more freely. I was more worried about the probe wires on my new toy than the inability to control the fire. I had them wrapped in foil, but if I was playing that close to the boundary, I would probably get some high temp sheathing for the probe wires. I recall reading somewhere that john (stoker) said the probe and thermocouple were rated higher, but it's the silicone wires that are the weak point. If so, silicone is 500 typically, so maybe he is adding some margin at 450? Alternatively, stoker will accept a k type thermocouple if you want to that piece of mind.

Congratulations and welcome to the club. Nice looking snacks- look forward to seeing some more.

I am the firemonkey, and I am a ... Just because you have the protein portion of the meal in the fridge, doesn't mean you can't get your "fix" by grilling some sides to go with the leftovers, or baking some bread, or even just tossing a piece of mild fruit wood on some hot coals to provide some ambiance when your hanging out on the patio!

Yeah, I've done some digging, and as far a las I can tell, it's failing after a wifi hiccup. It's a Ctrl-alt-del kill when I come back and find it hung. Stoker log just needs better error isolation and recovery. But, you get what you pay for right? I'm also bummed the tweet function is completely dead right now. Are you using it wired or on wifi?

I'm evolving the other way... What's that? Devolving? I've always been a natural draft proponent, and as you have found, the KK is more than stable if you know how to drive it. I am having fun with the stoker, though. I've used it several times, and it's been interesting to see the differences in the some thermometer and te grate temp on the stoker. Things are definitely cooking differently at 250 on the stoker vs 250 on the tel-tru (which would be like 225 on the grate). I went with the 10 cfm blower, and it still takes a good while to come up to temp. I think it's because I only have a slight crack open in the top, which doesn't allow the blower to push any more than the opening can allow. I should try opening the top more but, man, that blower would RAGE the fire if allowed to! One thing I've found, stoker log crashes after several hours every time I use it. Kinda worthless. I've been using BBQ monitor on my phone or iPad instead. Even that only has a few mins of background time, so it's less than ideal, but nice to check in while out at the store or something.

I agree. More wood. 5-6 fist sized pieces mixed in throughout the basket so it continues getting some smoke as the fire burns through the basket.

Meatloaf is awesome on the KK. Be careful with how much additional smoke you add, as the ground meat picks up more smoke.

So I went and got a couple of containers to make a watertight enclosure for my stoker, and an inverted container to mount as a rain shroud over the blower. I was all set... Or so I thought... I went to plug the stoker into the "wet location - in use" outlet that I installed next to my grill for this very purpose, and had to stop and ask myself WTF? The transformer brick John supplies is sideways oriented?! There is absolutely no way this thing would be able to be plugged into an outdoor outlet. Is it just me, or is expecting to be able to plug your charcoal grill temperature controller into a standard covered outdoor outlet too much to expect?! Back to the store for a much bigger box, so now I can keep the power cord and brick inside the container and use an extension cord.

What's best is what works, and is convenient for you. Personally, I mound up whatever lump is left in the charcoal basket, and light it with a torch. Then add extruded on top of that. Works great. I think the addition of some lump, either in your chimney or in the basket like I described is the way to go. The lump lights easily, and burns plenty hot enough to ignite the rest if the extruded. I prefer not to break up the extruded any more than necessary, so I can save the leftover after the cook. I expect that breaking the extruded will cause you to lose more to crumble after it has been burned, but I can't say I've tested this theory.

I'll definitely call stoker Monday, but it's definitely not working right for me. I wanted to set it to a non-default port, like 5698 says he does. But the stoker won't listen on anything other than port 80. Even if I set it to something else, it still answers on 80 and not what I have it set to.

Well, my Stoker Wifi arrived today, and on the hardware side the thing is a quality device. Its built like a tank. However, it only took me about 30 minutes to determine that the software might be a POS. In doing the initial setup of the network and wifi, everything went smoothly until I tried to set the Stoker to something other than 80 as the HTTP port. The stoker has a menu item to set any port you want, but mine is not respecting that setting at all. I set the port to 8080 for example, and the Stoker still only responds to requests on the default port (80). Can anyone with a stoker wifi confirm this feature is broken? All you need to do is change your HTTP port on your stoker (83 for example) and then try to open the stoker page on that port (http://stoker address:83). If it works, the page will come up. If not, try it normally (leave off the :83 at the end) and see if it comes up.

I actually use the heat deflector when I do pizza, but higher up, not on the basket handles as normal. When doing pizza, I use the upper grate (inverted sear grate) to get the reflected radiant heat and get a good browning on top of the pie, and put the heat deflector on the lower grate, as some insulation to keep the underside form charring too quickly. I have found this a good compromise, as it allows more free airflow through and around the basket, and allows more free convection through the grill rather than straight up the sides, like it would be with the deflector on the basket, while still providing a little buffer.

Dstr8 gave you the big culprits above. While a dribble or leak of sauce is an obvious condition that will cause you problems, leaving the pie on the peel any longer than necessary will definitely lead to a sticky situation. The longer it stays on there, the higher the chance of it sticking. From my much younger days working in pizza restaurants, one additional trick to help get the pie moving off the peel - When you are ready to slide the pie off the peel and onto the stone, lift one edge of the crust, and blow a sharp puff of air under the crust. Sort of like blowing out a candle. This will do two things for you; the crust will float on that air bubble, and slide easier onto the stone, sort of like a hovercraft. I hate losing toppings because I had to jiggle too hard to get the pizza moving, and the air trick mostly eliminates this. The puff of air will also help you identify if you have any sticking issues before you even open the grill.

Good to hear, Jim. I ordered 10 foot cords on all the probes and 8' of the blower. I figured it was better to have extra than be too short. A little extra cable be managed with a few velco ties.

Thanks to all for the advice and input. I ordered today - went with the 10 cfm blower. I figured 6 years was long enough on the fence

Welcome back to the party!

Your presumptions above are correct. You might want to check out the fast brisket technique that many forum members have had success with. Just do a search for "fast brisket" and you will find lots of information, pictures, and success stories. I would post a link, but can't figure out how to copy the thread address in tapatalk. In a nutshell, you are smoking/roasting the brisket for a a couple hours at 325-350 until it's past the plateau, then wrapping in foil until it is fork or probe tender. Personally, I've never tried it this way, but the results people are reporting speak for themselves.

Maybe if I wait longer, they will encapsulate the electronics and make everything waterproof too

Tucker, you have a stoker or guru? I thought only the guru had the adjustable gate on the blower, while the stoker had a flap that just swung open and shut when the fan was on?

I've asked this before, long ago, but I am asking again since there is probably a bunch more collective stoker experience on the forum now. Which blower do you stoker owners have, are you happy with it, and which would you recommend (5 or 10 cfm)? 5 might be a gentler and more accurate temp control, but the stoker recommendation on their website is for the 10 cfm.

That is indeed an interesting torch attachment on kick starter... But what really has me scratching my head is wondering who this Fetzervalve guy is. There used to be a guy...oh, well, never mind You been lurking all this time or just stumbled through after finding an old bookmark or something??

Medic... What's your address again?

Made some pastrami - writ large. I love pastrami. My sons love pastrami. But I really prefer deli pastrami, which is made from leaner cuts (like round) rather than brisket. Some of you might remember that I got a commercial slicer a while back, and since then, this is probably the third time I've made one of these pastrami roasts. I use an inside round roast from the warehouse store. Super cheap, like $3.50/# and it makes beautiful pastrami, as well as pit beef (Baltimore style seasoned roast beef). It's sort of my go-to cut for slicing beef now. To make the pastrami, it's just a matter of seasoning and curing the meat for about a week. Rinse all the cure off, then rub with the spices for the finished crust, let sit overnight, and smoke until 165. Slice it thin, and its Reubens for dinner! The recipe I use I found on another forum. I'll post it if anyone wants it. This particular recipe uses a brine injection along with a rub of dry curing agents, which probably helps when doing a big roast like this. This one was about 12.5 pounds.

Wow, I go away for a bit and you guys redecorated the place Adding to what mk1 said about how efficient your KK is, especially with the extruded charcoal, there is/was a thread around here where Drunk_J ran his KK ran for about 3.5 days at smoking temps (225-250) on one basket of KKEC charcoal, before he got bored and turned up the temp to grill dinner. After all that, I think there was still some left in the basket. You will NOT run out of fuel, even if you preheat for hours. I tried searching for it, but the new search functions are not cooperating.

Re: Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details 250? In Vegas? Did you even need to use any charcoal?