tony b

@ckreef - 'cause you folks down there don't have to make up "snow days" when school is either cancelled or late start. Sorry, MacKenzie, it was a gorgeous weekend here - upper 70s/low 80s. Cooling off a bit today - low 70s. Planted my veggie garden yesterday (tomatoes, peppers and herbs).

Good read. Kinda backed up my own experience over the last few years. Still some caution - I recently bought a couple of NY Strips from the local COOP when they were on sale ($16/lb). Locally raised, 100% grass-fed, no growth hormones/antibiotics. Nice looking piece of meat in the package. Cooked them sous vide @ 125F for 2 hours, then finished on the lower grate on the KK. Finished steaks looked perfect. Had a really nice beef flavor. Now for the big BUT, they were very chewy, not very tender at all, especially given that they were cooked sous vide, so they weren't overcooked. Won't be buying them again, even at that sale price. Will stick to CostCo Prime for the same price. It might be lowest tier Prime, but it's better than these steaks were by a long shot. Even the local supermarket's "Angus Reserve" is better. Or my local butcher, who's beef is generally high Choice. Problem with his stuff is that it's pre-wrapped in white butcher paper and frozen, so you don't really get to see it until you get it home. Plus, unless I order specially, he has his steaks cut to 1" thickness. I prefer 1 1/2". So, as the old Latin saying goes, "Let the buyer beware!"

Not unless heavily armed and armored!

Yeah, that was me on the soapbox (pun intended) about the PBW! Here's a pic of the roti basket. The left side had been soaked in the PBW for several hours. The right side had not. So, you can see the difference. All I do after the soak is wipe everything down with a wet sponge. No elbow grease required! I bet PBW and your ultrasonic cleaner would be a dynamite combo! You might not even have to sponge it off! But, you'd still have to rinse it down, as PBW is NOT a no-rinse cleaner, like some out there.

Like they said, "No working probes, who cares about the Block!" It's the crux of the biscuit (= ') !!

I hear yah, Robert, but only if I could keep a steady supply going. I just can't swing a half pallet order by myself. And, it's pretty lonely out here in Iowa when it comes to pallet sharing!

@Gnomatic - they just put out an update on the Kickstarter website about the Blocks. They are still in production testing. Good news for me, I got an email with the shipping notice for my single probe. Should have it by next weekend, per FedEx. Yeah, it's been a long wait (2 years!) Will provide feedback once I get to use it in a real cook!

Never used them, so don't have an opinion either way. @Keith OctoForks - that's a special spatula for getting under the grates to lift food. But, I guess you could scrap with it to clean?? I'd just soak them in Powdered Brewers Wash (PBW), like I do with my roti basket (and soon, my OctoForks!)

Also, you're going to be surprised by how little smoke is generated once the grill gets up and going. It's extremely efficient. The biggest variable in smoke production is the quality of the charcoal you're using. Cheap stuff, like Cowboy, is not fully carbonized, so it generates a lot of smoke. Good quality lump charcoal burns with less smoke once it's lit. If you don't overload the grill with chunks of smoking wood, you'll be OK. Plus, we all like the smell of nice fruity smoking woods - like apple, peach or cherry. It just screams BBQ.

I have several "go-to's" for chicken pieces - Jerk, Cornell chicken (or Alabama White Sauce), and Uncle Dougie's Wing Marinade. If you want simple, Plowboys Yardbird is my 1st choice rub for chicken. Nothing wrong with MacKenzie's Frank's Hot Sauce idea either. That's my marinade, along with buttermilk, for frying chicken. I typically cook chicken pieces direct, at 350F, on the upper grate to avoid flareups, especially with the Cornell chicken, as it has a fair amount of oil in it. Start skin side up until almost done, then crank the KK up to 425F or so, then flip to skin side down to crisp it up.

EVERYTHING! I'm partial to pairing it with ribs or pulled pork. Typically with a good homemade coleslaw (vinegar based dressing to avoid having too much mayo going on!) For brisket, it's drunken beans and coleslaw (this time with mayo dressing.) Since we're sharing, here's my go-to slaw recipe (it's from the old POSK Forum, many years ago, and I still make it all the time!) I use Napa or Savoy cabbage. I like the texture and sweetness it gives to the slaw. Rinse off a head of Napa or Savoy cabbage, removing the outer leaves and discarding. Wrap it tightly and slice into about 1/4 inch thick ribbons. For the dressing: 3/4 cup mayonnaise (Duke's is the best!) 2T Balsamic Vinegar 1T Rice wine vinegar 1/2 tsp Colemans dry mustard 1T Sesame seed oil 1/2 tsp white pepper 1T white sugar 2-3 cloves of garlic smashed and chopped Whisk it all together in a large bowl. Add chopped cabbage by the hand full while stirring to incorporate it all together. I also add a spice mixture called Zatar. It is popular in the middle east. The main ingredients of Zatar are thyme, roasted sesame and sumac. Zatar adds a different flavor to the slaw that no one can figure out. It goes really well with the pulled pork though.

I'm as lazy as they come, Charles, but this just seemed to make sense to me and I'd been thinking about doing it for some time now. Especially after going through several bags of RO and seeing all the dust & fines building up in the bottom of my charcoal bin and ultimately in the bottom of the KK. Once you build it, it literally takes a couple of minutes to sift a whole bag and you don't end up with all that stuff in the bottom of your grill, which you eventually have to clean out and dump anyway. So, as I look at it, it's the old "Pay me now, or pay me later, but in the end, you're gonna pay!" Much rather deal upfront than later, which involves dragging out the shop vac from the garage and hauling it up to the deck to clean out the KK. Hoping this will lead to less vacuuming out of the KK, since it takes a while to build up enough ash if you use good charcoal. YMMV

Done! Order's in.

Good, I'm in! Off to order the basket and some OctoForks. Can't wait to get the kabobs, too, when they come out.

I usually go direct, but with the basket splitter set with the charcoal in the back half of the grill, so the meat rotates toward and away from the heat. Temps depend on the food. Typically chicken at 350F - 375F. I've done one rack of ribs in the roti basket, direct, at 275F. Did a bacon-wrapped stuffed pork roast, indirect on the full charcoal basket, @ 325F (needed the drip pan because of the bacon).

Thanks, Keith. Saw the 2 new ones - the big basket is too close to Dennis', which I already have (so don't need 2) and the tumble basket (I made one last year out of 1/4" wire mesh fabric to roast Hatch chile peppers), so I'm good there, too. Quick question - will Dennis' 5/16" hex shaft work with the SS Flat Basket? That's the one that seems like I'd use more.

Current plans - smash burgers tonight (gotta break in my new cast iron griddle!), rotisserie chicken tomorrow (trying to find a way to integrate some Purple Crack into my marinade/injection to see if I can get purple meat!), Sunday is open right now (gotta pour beer with the homebrew club that afternoon, so may end up eating out), Monday - DNK, like Charles, I can't think that far ahead - LOL!!

Yeah, that's the same article I found. Let me know how you like that salad, MacKenzie.

@billg71 - Nope, I had the same issue with the Fogo. Kept a screwdriver and a rubber mallet in my charcoal bin to break up those huge pieces. For folks that haven't seen it, I'm talking pieces the size of cantaloupes or a head of iceberg lettuce, not baseball sized, which is the standard that I use for "large." @Jon B. - I was in the local Ace Hardware store today and guess what? They had a box of the Black Diamond ($20). So check your local Ace store. I will likely go back and get it when I get through my last box of your kind gift. I just opened it, and I think the size of the pieces was similar to box #1. In fact, today I built a wooden box frame out of 1 x 1's with 1" wire mesh fabric stapled to it to screen my charcoal. I just empty the bag on top of it, give it a little shake and all the dust and tiny pieces drop through into a Rubbermaid bin. The usable pieces stay on the top and get put into my charcoal bin; the dust and smalls in the other Rubbermaid tub get dumped.

Gets my vote.

Very Nice! Love bacon-wrapped scallops, but can't remember the last time that I had them??

Did a search and found the Naked Whiz's review. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag113.htm I've only used the one box so far, but it had good size distribution and I liked the way it started and cooked. So, I'm looking to Jon and Shuley to provide feedback on box-to-box consistency of the size distribution. Amazon sells it for a reasonable price (free shipping with Prime), but I'd still hate to order it and get a box where 20% wasn't usable! A Large box (16.4 lbs) is $28. Unfortunately, it's out of stock right now. The small & medium boxes don't have as good a price point per pound.

Congratulations and Welcome to the KK Family! Can't wait for you to post pictures of it when it arrives (hint, hint!) What size KK did you get? I'm assuming that you didn't get a table top version, based upon your question. Because of the weight of these grills, they should be on a patio, deck, etc. (i.e., a good solid surface) and not on the grass or gravel, or even pavers.

Like Jon said, I do like the CharBroil. Will have to see if I can find the Black Diamond around here, as the local Lowes didn't carry the CharBroil. My current go-to is Rockwood. LOVE IT! Can get it locally, too - Bonus! Tried Fogo per CC's recommendation. Didn't turn out to be a big fan. Believe it or not, because the pieces were TOO BIG. I had to get out a screwdriver and mallet and chisel them down. Hard to light, even with a MAPP torch. Had fires go out on me after starting cooks. YMMV I will use RO in a pinch. Like Smokydave said, always finding pieces of kiln rock in them. Stuff is cheap and readily available year round here. But, lots of unusable smalls and fines and it burns up really fast. I've had a tendency to hoard my CoCo Char as well. I only break out a few sticks for extra long cooks - whole butts & packer cut briskets; or, for hot smoking salmon because the smoke is so clean.

@Shuley - good luck ordering them. Per Aussie, they go quickly right after harvest. Good luck in your search!