tony b

Agree. Make sure that your fire is up and going before you load it down with all the extra mass. I do the same with my grates. I wait for the dome temperature to get on scale on the thermometer before I even put in the grates, because it's such a major PITA to unload all of it if your fire doesn't catch well. Plus, I always open the top vent way more than what I need for my steady state cooking temperature, just to make sure the fires well established - typically about 2 full turns.

Get the drawers where you plan to store the grates lined with stainless steel. Dennis will also cover the top of the cabinet with stainless steel, as another option, but seeing as it will be exposed to the sun in its new home on the patio, be forewarned that it will get very hot in the sun!!

@Braai-Q - big fan of Lane's BBQ rubs. So much so, that I backed them in their Kickstarter project a few years back.

@Mcjudsten - did I see that you'd stuck the Meater into a spud at the back of the grate on that rib cook?? Interesting idea. While it is a nice holder to gauge air temps, not sure how the internal temperature measurement would correlate to what's going on with the ribs though, if you were using it to gauge doneness?? Most of us use the "bend test" to tell when ribs are done. Pick up the rack with a pair of tongs, about 1/3 of the way from the end. Gently bounce the rack in the tongs. If the meat cracks in the middle, then they are done.

Not a preference, per se, just that sometimes I don't want that much meat (brisket), so a chuck roast is a better size is all.

Happy Birthday, Aussie!! Nice looking road kill chook!

I went into geek engineer mode for a second and started to write a dissertation on choked air flow, but I didn't want to bore folks. Readers Digest condensed version - if you can still control the dome temperature with the top vent, then the pizza stone is not restricting the airflow enough to matter. If you want to test it out yourself, here's an easy experiment that shows it's the thermal mass of the stone that is changing the heat-up time and not the restricted airflow. Cover the same amount of grate area as the stone with a sheet of aluminum foil. See how long it takes to get to some dome temperature, say 400F. Run the same test (same vent settings) with the pizza stone in place of the aluminum foil and measure how long it takes to get to 400F. Anybody want to make any bets as to which one takes longer??

https://komodokamado.com/collections/cabinets

Mostly the extra thermal mass. There's still plenty of room for airflow.

HATE snakes, of all kinds, doesn't matter if they bite or not! Nice side benefit of living here in Iowa - snakes are very rare - too cold in the winter.

Of course I hear about the romaine recall AFTER I've eaten the salad! Well, so far, so good - no tummy issues. Will definitely be tossing out the rest of it though.

We actually had a nice day today, so celebrated by grilling some lamb chops. Plated with roasted potatoes and carrots. Charred the romaine for the salad, too.

If you use anything like the Kurly Kate, or similar (brass bristle brushes, etc.), PLEASE be extremely careful to wipe the grates afterwards with a cloth, like MacKenzie said, as there have been folks end up in the Emergency Room after unknowingly eating a stray piece of metal that ends up in your food and causing major problems in your gut. I play it safe with a Grill Floss; others just use an open ended box wrench to scrap their grates with.

My only thought is that a bird that big might be too big for the upper grate. You could do a test by trying the still wrapped bird (even frozen) on the upper grate and close to the lid to see if you have clearance.

I seriously need to do that, too! Both the food fridge and the beer fridge - I'm afraid of what "ancient relics" I'm going to uncover in both of them!

No deflector stone. Put the pizza stone on the upper grate where the radiant heat from the dome will cook the top of the pizza at about the same rate as the crust getting done on the stone. The stone will also heat up faster without the deflector. If you're having a sticking problem, consider using parchment paper - will help slide the pizzas off your peel, prevent sticking on the stone and won't interfere with crust development. If you're worried about the crust, you can always remove the parchment paper after about 3 minutes (once you see it starting to dry out.)

Yes

A true Renaissance woman!

First, I've never done a rotisserie turkey on my KK. That said, here's my normal setup for doing chickens - basket splitter, fire in the back, as you suggested. Drip pan on the non-fire side (when I do potatoes or other veggies). Dome is 375F. Good luck!

That looks like meat candy for sure!! AWESOME!!

Says the post has been removed - food porn, perhaps??

Loving it!

Was it this one?

Me, too!

Two steps away from a Turduckhen.