tony b

Current stock - post oak, hickory, mesquite, maple, apple, cherry, peach, pecan, alder and grape vines. I usually stock red oak for Santa Maria tri-tips, but I'm currently out. Post Oak and Mesquite for beef. Alder for salmon. Various combo's of the others for pork and chicken. Usually one base wood (hickory, pecan, maple) with a fruit wood (peach, apple, cherry). Used to use grape vines more, but not so much these days. Very mild wood. I scored some pimento wood from Jamaica, along with the leaves, for doing jerk. Adds a lot of flavor. But, it has to be imported, quarantined by customs, so it takes months to get.

Good basic info on keeping your knives in good shape.

Sick, MacKenzie, just sick! Not only making the pasta, but grinding the grain to make the flour, too! DAH-HAMN!!! @5698k - Roger that, Robert! Not only great cooks, but serious plating skills and professional grade photography! There's a reason we call it "food porn!"

Or, when someone does something very unique that works out well, "That's so Linkletter!"

If you're doing a multi-hour low & slow, they tend to equilibrate out at about a 20F difference - nothing significant. But, directly to your question, you should base your cook on the temperature where the food is.

Or worse, centimeters - Yikes!

Thanks wicked kewl! Never seen that exact process before. I know water jets are used to cut many materials cleanly, especially styrofoam, foam rubber.

Nice use of the Purple Crack. I put some in the sour cream for my baked potato last night, but then added red palm oil to it instead of butter. In the tug of war, red palm oil wins over Purple Crack for coloring, but Crack wins on flavor hands down! What's that on your plated steak slices?

You're on the right track, as many have named theirs after famous dragons. Tell your son that he can call it Norbert if he wants to, especially after he inherits it when you're gone.

If I recall correctly, it was like "Sea Green." I think that there was a Blue version, too. I know that Dennis has discontinued several colors due to unavailability and/or slow sales, and that one might be one of them. He will do custom colors if he can get the tiles.

Great news, indeed! Would have been a crying shame if it had truly been lost.

Great looking cook, Aussie. Nice ribs!! Who makes the Carnivore Red? I've never seen it before. QNami is one of my favs from Lane's. It gets a lot of use in my kitchen, especially on veggies.

I'm not sure that there are any Pros? As MacKenzie attested, having in there just really slows down the heat-up process. I think some initially use it out of "an abundance of caution" because maybe they had bad experiences with cheap, thin pizza stones that will crack easily (I've done it!); but don't worry about the KK pizza stone. Dennis designed it with the proper materials and thickness to where that just isn't going to happen.

@billg71 - Where in SC did you grow up? I was raised in Greenville. I'm trying to wean myself off of factory farmed meats, but being retired means sometimes compromising to stay on budget. Hard to turn down $0.99/lb chicken thighs at the supermarket. And, you are correct, real pork isn't "the other white meat." Fortunately, I live in an agricultural state where I can get "the good stuff" from my local food COOP and Farmers Market at not too jacked up prices (ala Whole Paycheck).

Hear dat! Not my style either, especially when we have photo pro's like MacKenzie and Charles to compete with!

Ding, Ding, Ding - We Have a Winner!!! And, it only took 2 cooks to get you to this epiphany! While I love many local restaurants and want them to succeed, I find it very hard to go out to eat, given what I can do at home with this amazing piece of cooking gear!!! Such a dilemma. About the only thing that gets me out any more is sushi.

OMG - Robert still cooks - LOL! Sorry, it's been awhile since you posted a pic from a cook, son!

Great cook! Search the Forum for the instructions on how to make a smoker pot for your smoking wood chunks. It's what many of us use. You put it on top of the lit charcoal, after you're good that it's going well, then put all your grates/deflectors inside and you're good to go. No need to disassemble everything to add more smoking wood. It will produce nice clean smoke for quite some time.

I'm thinking so. But, what took the rest of us so long to not come up with it??

Go man - Cook like a fool! That's what we do here!

@Stile88 - you nailed it. I'm not that familiar with CNC cutting, so I didn't expect the temperatures to get that high, but obviously per Dennis, they do. You da man! I'm wondering if the compromise solution here is to make the base from basic carbon steel, CNC cut the design, then plate it with the stainless. Have no, I mean NO, idea what the cost would be, but it would get around the warping problem, while keeping the esthetic of the stainless steel. I made a gross assumption here that you can CNC cut carbon steel.

The holes aren't punched out, but CNC cut out. That didn't cause the problem. They warped in use. One thing for folks to consider, stainless steel is NOT a very good conductor of heat, compared to aluminum, copper, or even cast iron. That's the reason that it warps - uneven heating caused by hot spots that you'd expect in a charcoal fire. That's why the better stovetop cookware is a sandwich material of an outer shell of the stainless for corrosion resistance, with an inner layer of copper or aluminum to spread the heat out better, so the pan doesn't warp. That's the reason that I asked Dennis if they'd tried rods (or bars) of another material as stiffeners underneath the plates to help distribute the heat more uniformly. It would be easier for him to manufacture than to try the sandwich method.

Charles (ckreef) is the Pro here for all things pizza. So look for some of his pizza cook threads and dough recipes. There are others here that are wise, as well. I'm no expert, but can offer a couple of tips. First, most important, heat soak your grill for at least an hour once you reach your desired cooking temp. That stone takes a long time to heat up to match the dome thermometer temp. If you have an IR heat gun, use it to check the stone temp to ensure it's at the cooking temp you want. Also, when using the KK stone on the upper grate, there's no need for an intermediate heat deflector - it just slows down the heat-up process. It can handle the direct heating. Cooking temp depends on the style of crust and dough recipe - hence, the reason you're seeing the big range. Really hot temps (>550F are for Neopolitan style). Most regular style pizza cooks just fine at 450 - 500F. Deep dish styles do best at lower temps 350 - 375F. Cook times also vary with style and dough recipe - really thin crusts at high temps will be done in a matter of a couple of minutes, which is why it's essential to cook up near the dome to get the top done at the same time as the bottom. Regular styles take around 8 - 12 minutes. Deep dish go for 30 - 45 minutes. Parchment paper - my go to for getting the pie off the peel onto the stone. It barely affects the browning of the bottom crust; but if it bothers you, wait about a minute then, you can slide the peel between the crust and parchment and easily remove it once the crust starts to brown. I like it because it works, first of all; and second, you don't get any scorched flour or cornstarch flavor on your pizza.

Hope you gotta taste first!

Look for the threads where several of us here have experimented with various cleaning ideas to see what works well and what didn't work out. YMMV I'm a homebrewer and sold on using Powdered Brewers Wash (PBW) to clean the stainless steel parts, especially the rotisserie basket. The downside for non-brewers is that it is a bit pricey compared to other options, but it works fantastic and there's little to no scrubbing involved - just rinse and wipe with a damp sponge.