leejp

Depends on the Steak... My preferred cut is an NY strip (don't know what it's called on the other side of the pond).... It's the bigger half of a porterhouse. For the NY strip and other "flatter" cuts the methods described previously will work great. I flip the steak with a spatula or tongs. Some folks use the big two pronged fork but too much moisture leaks out of the hole). For filet's (the smaller side of the porterhouse), I get cuts that are shaped more like a cube and I find searing on all 6 sides for about a minute before lowering the temperature works best. I insert a instant read thermometer while the steak is cooking at the lowered temperature and pull it off the grill ~125*F and let it sit for ~15 minutes before serving/cuting with the temperature probe inserted. The steak will continue to "cook" for a little bit after it's off the grill... generally close to 130*F or so. This I find gets me a perfect medium rare steak. The USDA says that medium rare is 145*F... They're wrong! At 145*F the Steak is WELL DONE if not burnt IMHO. Always start with a full load of lump and a clean firebox. to get the cooker up to searing temperatures (600*F for me).

Re: Hello Prepare to get real lazy... that's the big change. If you've cooked on open/metal pits, temperature and coal management is just absolutely insanely easy!

Looking better... 2 comments... Still would prefer to have the grates run North-South vs East-West. I do understand this would be more difficult to manufacture. Instead of the legs that simply sit on top of the botom grill. Could you maybe do something with the side handles, extend them and somehow make them interlocking ith the upper grill. So all of the main grill surface is available. I would guess it's less parts too.

OTB but... I own an OTB and love the grill shape and looks but in some ways I like the vase/urn/egg like shape of the classic better (depends on my mood). Here's my preferred shape though...

Oh the shame... OK Porkchop... I spot some Cowboy lump in your gallery... At least there's no signs of Kingsford or lighter fluid anywhere Gotta admit I've been forced in a pinch to pick up a bag or two myself at the local groceries. Thus far my KKs only seen Humphrey, Wicked Good and Royal Oak. I do have a box of Kamado extruded lump around from the dark ages.

Congrats Porkchop!!! Wait till you see the amount of leftover coals after your cook. You'll absolutely be AMAZED at how frugal this thing is.

No Creosote here... I ballpark the top damper and fine adjust with the bottom on my KK (much easier than my Sac K#7). In either cooker I've never had a creosote problem. I only burn good quality hardwod lump (Humphrey, Wicked Good, Royal Oak).

350*F would burn a lot faster... Check out my first cook before and after pics... A full load of Wicked Good Weekend Warrior Lump... left over after a 16hour cook at 220*~230*F. Main thread here... http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=302 This was a warm summer day cook... I think I could easily do 30HRs. Start with good lump and use the minion method.

More beer still... Get some Coleman's Dry English Mustard powder and mix with some dark beer to taste. It'll clear your sinus in a hurry and goes great with Brats. You should be able to get it at most well stocked grocery stores. Not my recipe... this is the mustard served with the chedar cheese, cracker and onion plate at McSorley's Old Ale House in NYC (which happens to be the oldest bar in the US and looks like it's never been cleaned). They mix it with their porter.

Not better/worse... just different. The european priorities are just different compared to life i n the US. I don't think anyone is in the position to judge what's more important. I didn't realize that you had such health care premiums. I thought most of Europe was socialized. The cost of a University education is $10,000~$35,000/year here in the states. There are scholarships, aid, loans availble. Most professional jobs start you off at 2 weeks vacation (we have less national holidays in the US as well), one gets extra days with with years of service. But your meat prices!!! Yow!!!

But you guys have socialized health care, low or no cost universities, more vacation...

Brats and Beer... Here's how I like my Brats and hot dogs... Fill an small + deep aluminium foil pan and dump a can (or more) of beer in it and put it on the grill. Throw some saurkraut in the pan as well. Split the brats lengthwise and throw them in the pan once the beer starts to boil. Once the brat soaks up the beer and the beer is boiling again, take the brat out of the pan and grill on each side.. Some good Arthur Avenue Rolls and spicy mustard with the brat and kraut. Heaven! This works really well for picnics and cookouts where people are grabbing food over extended periods of time. The dogs and brats can boil in the beer a long time without getting overdone. Just lightly grilling when ready to eat. Replenish the beer once in a while.

No soaking, Beginning of cook only... I've experimented with many different ways to make smoke before settling on my present technique: no soaking begining of cook only liberal amount of smoke wood wrap wood in foil but leave a small opening put wod on coals with openeing on top This suits my lazy approach to que. Once the dome comes down it ain't opening until there's meat going in or out. I find that wrapping in foil keeps the smoke going a bit longer than just throwing the wood on the coals. The smoke dies off someplace between 100*~150* but I get the smoke ring/flavor I want with this approach.

http://www.google.com/search?hs=mEj&hl= ... tnG=Search

This is the "standard" cobalt blue. The white balance was spot on for this shhot so the colors came out amazingly accurate/representative. No "christening"/naming for Jack... Just years of hard labor 90*+ temps here inthe Hudson valley this week (quite warm for here) and no snow in sight!

It's a bacon chedar cheeseburger served on a glazed donut bun (slice down the middle, flip and toast). I'm going to do up a couple this weekend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Burger http://supersizedmeals.com/food/article ... 1191111238 I'm not brave enough to try the hamdog yet.

Can you post some pictures... Can you post some photos of the stairs, deck... along with dimensions? I can't find it now but Dennis had a post a while back w.r.t. the dome being easy to remove for moving. So take everything out of the base (grill, firebox...) and remove the top and your weight is significantly redoced. With the top removed, if ytou can lay the base unit down on a dolly/hand truck, I suspect 3 big guys can roll it up even a steep set of stairs.

Bigger Window... Having done several of these collectively between us... I think we can safely agree that this is a much more forgiving cut than Brisket and maybe ever Pork Shoulder. There's just a bigger window of opportunity for success. I've had hungry guests waiting for Brisket. That is a cut of meat that just wont' listen to a chef's desperation. Thus far... the chuck roll behaves much better. If my next cook (recall I'll be doing 2x5#ers, cut from a 21#er) is as sucessful, I'll be doing a LOT of chuck roll.

Mine looked pretty much like yours. It fell apart and pulled beautifully on the outside and got progressively firmer towards the middle (still pulled though). I suspect that a longer/slower cook would have allowed for better temperature distribution throughout and a "flatter temperature gradient". With the remaining 1/2 (recall that I bought a 21# roll and had the butcher cut it in two and just cooked one). I think I'll definately cut it in 1/2 still before cooking. That'll be 2 ~5# which is about the size of a smallest pork butt I've done. I'm going to try both at 7~8hrs. I think the advantages will be a quicker cook, more bark yielded, more smoke/rub flavor. I can't think of any disadvantages. So far as I can tell the chuck roll is a very consistent/homogeneous cut.

Success! The 10# went 10hrs to get to 190* with the cooker cooker at ~250*. It pulled well and was very moist but there was still a lot of fat/connecting tissue when I pulled. I suspect a lower, longer cook would've yielded a better. I really like it. The bark is more robust and flavorful and I swear the meat was more tender than pork butt or brisket. I gotta thank porkchop for turning me onto this. My wife is really not a big fan of bark and prefers the inner meat instead (oh, the humanity!!!). She didn't think it was better/worse than pork butt. Perhaps a little more "flavor neutral". I think this is an ideal dish for a large gathering. It's a very forgiving cut of meat so timing for guests is less problematic and there is always someone in a large gathering who won't can't eat swine. It can literally feed an army. I think my "chickening out" may have inadvertently been a good move. It "splits" extremely well. The fat/connecting tissue is marbleized throughout and I'll bet I can take a 20 pounder and cut it into 1/3s and do very predictable 9hr cook. If you like the bark/more smoky flavor, than splitting the large cut will certainly yield more of it. Why fuss over a cooker overnight if one doesn't have to? No pics for this cook though... I was too lazy to wash my hands multiple times (don't want to handle my photo equipment with greasy hands). Since my wife is not a big fan of the bark... when I pulled, I stacked these bits apart from the "heart" meat and food-saved them into a different bag. I think I'll make burnt ends with these for lunch one of these days.

Last time I made my own rub was about a year ago... I made a large batch of a Steven Raichlen recipe from his BBQ USA book (which by the way is awful) and have now used it all up. So I need some more and I'm now not sure if making one's own rub is right for me. For one... I have found it not at all economical/convenient compared to buying prepackaged. We have a well stocked kitchen but almost all rub recipes call for multiple ingredients in smaller sizes/lots. When I made my last batch, I purchased everything to the "least common multiple" of the smallest ingredient and still ended up with a years supply of the rub and a lifetime supply of some of the spices used. I can understand that for folks who are much more serious than I am and want to experiment, make your own is the ticket. But after a year of the same rub I think I'll go back to buying prepackaged.

Re: Its beautiful 2 reasons... I don't like pulling the temperature probe out of the meat until it's off the cooker and has been sitting 15~20min. It's probably a nit but I don't like to lose any moisture/juices through the hole left behind. No way to keep the probe in the meat and take it off the grill if the probe is fed through the polder hole. My personal preference would have been a channel in the dome/base with a gap in the gaskets replaced by a silicone material rather than the polder hole. [/*:m:ajmv5s6q] I was too lazy to bend the curve on my temperature probe to get it through the hole[/*:m:ajmv5s6q] The cooker temperature sensor is fed through the hole. The one for the meat is not.

We're going to drive Dennis crazy with all these suggestions... Dennis... if you have a smaller cooker in the works, may I suggest a rectengular/square shape? As the grill gets smaller I think that a rectengular shape will allow for a bigger "useable grill" area.