tony b

As I noted in my "oops" moment, you've over-ranged your thermometer and it will need to be recalibrated. Mine was off almost 50F. I'm guessing that yours is similarly affected. Glad that singed hair was the only "injury." These flashovers can be very bad.

A good trick for reading your thermometer at a distance - turn the dial so that your target temp is at the 12 o'clock position. Now all you have to do is check the relative position of the dial to 12 o'clock.

I've only had my KK that hot once - by mistake, right after I got it. Only damage, fortunately, was that I over-ranged the dome thermometer and had to recalibrate it. My personal advice - stay below 600F in the dome.

Fell in love with that tablecloth. Perfect decor for your dinner.

Awesome!

Serious meat!

That is probably the most outside version of shrimp and grits that I've ever seen. Nice pizzas.

While I love the visual of it, I'm not convinced the sock puppet corn idea will work, especially if the critters are raccoons. They'll just break off the ears and pull the socks off.

Hurray for good local corn!

Awesome, another 2 KK household. @tekobo you are much more adventurous than you give yourself credit for! You rock, gurl!

Welcome to the Obsession! You are in for a big surprise when you compare the KK to the BGE in construction quality and more importantly, in the improvement in the food that you will be able to produce in the KK. As others have noted, there's a one-time burn-in when you want to cook something over 450F. If you're just doing low & slow stuff, the burn-in can wait. Everyone frets the burn-in, but's really not as bad as folks fear. Just plan to cook something during the process (the venting all takes place on the exterior of the grill and not inside where the food is). It just takes a fair amount of time, so have plenty of adult beverages handy!

Let Dennis have the final say, since I don't know how thick the insulation is on the bottom of the firebox? But, I don't think that it's anything to be concerned about, as you will always be heating up/cooling down fairly slowly, so no thermal shock to worry about. I have granite countertops in my indoor kitchen and have had no problems setting hot pots/pans directly on it out of a 450F oven. I don't know what the long-term effects will be after many thermal cycles like yours will see? Does granite spall? But, Inquiring Minds Like Ours, Would Like To Know - how did you manage to have a KK for 3 months without cooking on it?? Insane amount of patience!

Wasn't too hard to do - LOL!

I'm curious to see how their "suggestion" works out, as I am a bit skeptical that it will attach cleanly to the vent door. If someone gets it to work, please post pictures.

I did some for breakfast yesterday with a combo of olive oil and bacon fat - perfection!

I have both the Sumi (which is very close to Dennis' cocochar extruded) and the Aramaru. Next on my list to try is the White Binchotan. According to the website, it's actually made in Vietnam, but the price point is in the same ballpark as the Sumi and Aramaru. https://www.korin.com/TK-636-28-03

Only suggestion, same as ckreef's, open the top and bottom vents all the way. Temperature = airflow. If you want seriously hot, gotta have a lot of air flowing through. Also, light your coals in 2 or 3 spots for a seriously high temp cook.

I bet she loves your pool though!

Here's where I get reasonably priced binchotan for my yakitori, if you're interested. https://www.korin.com/grillware/binchotan-charcoals-and-accessories

While likely cost-prohibitive, I'm envisioning 22# bags, 2 per 44# box - best of both worlds!

Gonna be a fun experiment. Love all 3 spice blends.

Look in my pantry/fridge/freezer right now - country ham, stone-ground grits, Dukes, Whistle Stop, Jimmy Dean, Sweet Tea - don't get much more Southern than that! If I'm seriously desparate, I'll "stoop" to Sir Kensingtons mayo. Still too sweet for me, but at least it's not Hellmans!

Let's just hope that they don't burn up all the forests down there to clear land to grow soybeans to sell to China!!

Whoa, Dude! I was born in South Carolina - just because I live in Iowa doesn't make me a Yankee - bite your tongue!